June Nature Journal Pages

Explore my June nature journal pages from my little village in East Yorkshire...

I like to keep a regular nature journal to help me notice nature in my everyday life so that I feel happier and more relaxed.

I hope that sharing my nature journal pages can help to inspire you to keep your own nature journal to help you feel more connected with nature too...

I want you to know that it doesn't have to be a big job and take a lot of time and your drawings (if you decide to include them) don't have to be perfect - it's all about you and your personal experiences with nature and what you feel like recording!

This is what I felt like recording in my nature journal...

Click 'Play' above to flick through my June nature journal with me...

Read all about it below!

June Nature Journal Pages

Foxglove

I started my June nature journal pages with a pink foxglove from my garden. I was really interested to see how the new flowers start pointing upwards and gradually point downwards as they open and get older.

This is a foxglove we planted last year so I was pleased to see it had come back this year. I hope that it's the start of a foxglove clump in this spot ... maybe next year!

Black-tailed godwit

This is a really exciting bird that we didn't actually see, but is one that we picked up on Merlin Bird App on our evening dog walk. A beautiful Black-tailed Godwit - it's quite unusual, a bird that belongs to wetlands, grasslands and inter-tidal areas! I know that Merlin isn't always 100% accurate, but a local nature reserve a few miles away has also spotted this bird recently, so I feel pretty confident it was there!

Harebell

I had to look up this pretty pale blue flower that's growing in our gravel drive - it's a harebell (English harebell), with big bell-shaped flowers in this gorgeous pale purpley-blue.

Chives

I have these sweet little chives growing by my back door where I planted them last year. There's a funny story around them... I actually found them early one morning, as a plant with roots, at the entrance to the field. I've no idea how they ended up there - I can only assume a dog or a bird dropped them! As it was going to be hot, I had to just take the chive plant home and plant it. And I'm very happy that it's grown and come back this year too!

St. John's Wort/Hypericum

Here's another plant with a story in my garden - this one is self-seeded but it's grown really huge now and is continuing its invasion, self-seeding across other parts of my garden now. I call this St John's Wort, Hypericum, but I don't know if it's actually the official herb that's traditionally used for depression and pain relief (Hypericum perforatum).

I love the bright yellow flowers that look like little sunshines, with the bright red sepals and stems and green leaves. The bees are loving it at the moment, so it's had a reprieve from being hacked back!

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Another exciting bird from the Merlin Bird App - I didn't see it, unfortunately, although I have, rarely, seen them in the past. This is a Greater Spotted Woodpecker - a striking and beautiful bird that you're most likely to hear drumming on trees in the distance.

Whenever I think of woodpeckers, I always think of their amazing tongue which wraps around their brain to protect it from harm when they drum the trees!

Barn Owl

A wonderful 'meeting' with a Barn Owl - close up! This beautiful barn owl flew right towards us, not having spotted us, then just a few feet away pulled up to whisk itself away! Amazing to see!

Corn Bunting

Thanks to Merlin Bird App, we discovered we have lovely little Corn Buntings in the fields behind our house - they sound very pretty and are quite uncommon so we feel lucky to have them and have even been able to spot them!

Field maple

These little seeds have been catching my eye for a while so I decided to put them in my nature journal - the red-tinged little 'helicopters' of the Field Maple are very similar to those of the sycamore but smaller and are more spread-out at an angle. The leaves are much smaller and rounder, too.

Spotty feather - I think it's from a Guinea Fowl

I spotted this gorgeous spotty feather on the street not far from my house and was very excited as it looked so exotic! It took me a while to look it up, but with the help of iNaturalist and Featherbase (as well as Google) I discovered it's likely from a Guinea Fowl. We have seen Guinea Fowl in the village but a long time ago (many years) but there must be some somewhere close!

Nuthatch

You can tell I've been very busy with Merlin Bird App - we heard a Nuthatch! I love this unusual little bird with its pretty colours and its habit of walking down the tree trunk (the only British bird to do so)! Again, this is a bird we've seen in the village in the past, although we weren't lucky enough to see it this time, just to hear it! Keeping our eyes peeled to maybe spot it in the future!

Dog roses

These gorgeous dog roses are one of my favourite flowers to see while we're out walking with our dog - they nestle in the hedgerows and look so pretty - white ones and gorgeous pink ones. These are wild roses, the 'briar rose' and are really a small, simple rose - the wildlife seems to love them!

Crossbill

Another exciting 'find' which we heard on Merlin Bird app but did not manage to see (yet). I would love to see a crossbill as it's this gorgeous red colour and has that amazing cross-over bill that helps it to feed from pine cones - so I hope that Merlin took an accurate recording and I'll get to actually see it one day!

Comma butterfly

I was very happy to spot this Comma butterfly, easy to identify with its fancy and frilly wing shape, just flitting through the grasses in the verge on our morning dog walk. This butterfly had become increasingly rare by the mid 1800s, but has seen an incredible expansion in more recent years, moving northwards in the UK due to increasing temperatures.

Swift

And I was even happier when Merlin Bird app picked up a swift on our morning walk! I thought I'd seen one the day before, as I'd been a bit worried that I hadn't spotted any yet this year - and suddenly, there they are, confirmed by spotting a little group screaming about the sky a few days later. On late summer days, the skies here are filled with their screaming and it wouldn't be the same without them! Swifts are in decline though and swift numbers have fallen by over 60% since 1995 so anything we can do to help them is important (Swift Conservation - opens in a new tab).

Swifts live their whole lives on the wing and only ever land to nest, but suitable nesting sites are becoming scarcer as swifts like to nest in the crevices of old buildings - initiatives like swift nesting bricks can help (see link just above for details).

Ringlet butterfly

I spotted this gorgeous little butterfly early one morning amongst the tall grasses. It was so dark and velvety with a white edge to its wings and it just looked so lovely. I wasn't sure what it was, so I tried to identify it and came up with this 'Ringlet Butterfly' - when I looked at its food plants of thistle, bramble, fleabane, and ragwort, they fitted perfectly with what was around it! And I loved its description (by UK Butterflies) of a "surprisingly beautiful insect"! I agree!

Wood Sandpiper

I was very surprised to 'hear' a Wood Sandpiper on Merlin Bird app one morning - a Sandpiper for freshwater areas of flooded grasslands, swamps or marshland on the edge of woodlands. I didn't even know there was such a bird as a Wood Sandpiper and didn't realise there are actually so many different kinds of Sandpiper. Thrilled for Merlin to pick up this migratory bird - and another one I will have to look out for ans hope that I see one day!

'Nostalgie' rose

This is a beautiful rose which we have in our front garden - Rosa Nostalgie - with perfect pink trimmed buds opening into gorgeous blooms which have creamy white centres and deep pink-red outer petals, darkening over several days to all pink, red flowers - smells delectable, too! It's a real pleasure to see each new flower so I had to add it into my nature journal!

I really hope that you've enjoyed looking through my June nature journal pages with me. Did you know that June marks my first full year of nature journaling? I've written a post about it here!

In June, I've adored finding birds (via the Merlin Bird App - and feathers!), butterflies and flowers and seeing how plants are beginning to ripen as we get closer to Autumn (already! I know!).

It's been a hot month and in Yorkshire, we're officially in drought after months without much rain at all, so I don't know how that is affecting the wildlife...?

As we move into July, I'm expecting to see more flowers but also a few more seedheads, and more fruits starting to ripen - I'm also looking forward to seeing how what I journal this July will be different (or similar) to last July. I hope you'll join me for next months pages, too...

If my June nature journal page has sparked your interest (I hope it has) you can find out what nature journaling is all about here...

I also have a FREE guide to getting started - find out how to get it, here...

And a short PDF course with 20 different nature journaling exercises to help you discover different ways of nature journaling to help you find ideas for how you might want to do nature journaling your way - you can get that here...

Online Nature Journaling Course

If you'd like to explore nature journaling more, please consider joining me for my 'Imperfect Nature Journaling' online course - I've called it this to remind us to nature journal for the process of connecting with nature to feel good and not to put pressure on ourselves to create pretty pages which can quickly ruin the fun and the benefits...

It's a series of 20 lessons which are great exercises that you can do in your own nature journal to help you try out different ideas and techniques.

This will help you get the most out of your nature journaling sessions and understand what style of nature journaling is the best for you personally.

If this sounds like something you might like, you can find out more about the course here...

You can also see all my other nature journal months plus some of my recommendations for books for nature lovers and other nature journaling posts, all on this page...