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Tag: fieldsketch

I know she is still close

I’ll sleep there because the day before, a silhouette slipped in at the foot of this short cliff. A shadow between the trunks and black rocks of this forest, long after sunset. Third night in my sleeping bag, between the pines and blueberries, covered with a camouflage net. It’s mid-March. In this valley sheltered from

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These calm colors

I saw it with the naked eye standing out on a ridge. A few trees hide me, a light wind in my favor that carries my scent far away. I advance slowly, cautiously thanks to this Mountain Hare that I came across half an hour before. It was in this forest of birches with an

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See you in a year

It almost makes me think it’s a habit, but what are the chances? They are rare in this region, so much so that it is forbidden to hunt them. Most of the inhabitants have never seen them, even after decades of hiking in these mountains. It is the largest of our land mammals and the

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At the doorstep

“Identification is only the front door to naturalism and I have the feeling of having remained at the doorstep. All my life, I’ve made lists. I identified, bird after bird, by the hundreds, by the thousands, learning along the way some facts about their biology. But what do I really know about the life of

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Short circuit

To all appearances, these are just a few messy, abstract lines. The pencil rushed across the paper, scratching at the speed of the eye, leaving the conscience lagging behind. The image passed from the eye to the hand. The brain was short-circuited. I think we can talk about mindfulness and present moment when thoughts disappear

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Structured by the field

Earlier this year, I took a daytrip along some coastal lakes known for their avifauna. The sea on one side, and intensive agriculture on the other. The weather was only adding to this austerity, with a low cloud ceiling and a powerful freezing and unceasing south wind. Few things to observe on this lake turned

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Chrono – logical

Time has this strange habit of passing as it pleases, varying according to circumstances. It’s 9:00 pm. In this small village lying at the end of a fjord, I shut the car door and start the climb. It’s already late. I hope to get there before the clouds… Midnight: I’m in my sleeping bag, lying

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Naturalist Synesthesia

For a moment, my zodiac’s passengers no longer exist. I’m immediately cutting off the boat engine, I don’t want to hear a single noise. Before me, my colleagues continue their slalom in this maze of islands and icebergs in this far corner of the East coast of Greenland. Eyes fixed on this inlet opening up

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Goélands dans la tempête - Norvège - 2021

Blind to the familiar

Sometimes the familiar is exceptional and we contemplate, fascinated, what we thought we knew. We then stop seeing and start looking, imagining, understanding. Everything in this morning of April 6th is outstanding. I stand on the doorstep, drunk by the tiredness of a storm that didn’t let me sleep, hustled by the wind, blinded by

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