The first spring day that I can hike without my coat motivates me to grab my large backpack and prepare for a long trek.

Personal commitments prevent me from getting out in the back country until next month, but it’s never too soon to get ready for the great outdoors.

I’ll need a supply of Larabars and a I’ll check out Sierra Trading Post.. Most important, taking the following steps has ensured that my extended stay in nature is the fun side of adventure.

This is another nature activity that I adapted for indoor use. When I lived in a New York City apartment, I practiced tracking my four cats and whatever urban wildlife strayed through my space.

I moved out of NYC when I began to recognize individual roaches. Once you recognize tiny tracks like that, cat tracks and people tracks are so much easier to spot.

I’ve just added Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters) and Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed to my eclectic booklist.

I struggle to suppress the urge to backpack somewhere for a few days. I have a few details to arrange before I can gift myself.

But the next time I immerse myself in the natural world, my whole view of how and why things happen will have undergone a radical shift.

I cannot tear myself away from the window to hike this morning. I’m currently in a suburban area, literally behind a huge shopping mall. But thanks to clever landscaping, here is what I see this morning:

Cardinal – male and female, house finch, juncos, five blue jays, two red-winged blackbirds, several cowbirds. Something spooks them and they scatter. A seagull hovers momentarily and moves on.

Moments later, tufted itmouse, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch and three squirrels join the now-returning breakfast crowd. The maple tree is budding; the spruce, pine and rhododendron provide cover and a lookout.

Two mourning doves and several white-throated sparrows join the party.

I’ve been known to set off for a short hike, and find something interesting and meander all day.

I feel confident wandering because I plan ahead. I do not leave home without my pocket survival kit.

I frequently review my plant identification procedures, and I practice using my non-dominant hand. It only takes a split-second to get hurt, but it can take weeks to heal.

I carry the following items in the pockets of my cargo pants, but a fanny pack will work just as well. I check the contents weekly and replace whatever I use as soon as I get home.

Sunday was red-winged blackbird day
Monday was the Vernal Equinox
Tuesday was when NYPD pursued coyote in Central Park
Wednesday was Sierra Club film presentation
Thursday was wood frog day
Friday I added to my booklist, student booklist, and recipe booklist

I know I’m on the right trail at all levels when I get a magical woods moment.

Today I heard the call of wood frogs. It took me a minute to connect the odd quacking with the shallow, partially melted pond, which had been buried under snow the last time I walked here.

What I really like about the enature site and the Patuxent bird site is the sound files and video files for many species.

I attended my second SPARC meeting last night for a Sierra Club screening of BEING CARIBOU. Two filmmakers literally walked with the caribou as they migrated from the Yukon Territories to Alaska.

When you don’t live close to nature, it’s easy to forget how hard animals have to work for shelter, water, food and a place to live. In the case of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even the people who want to drill for oil there acknowledge that:

• To get started drillers need $10 subsidy for every $1 earned
• If drilling started today, there would be no oil for 10 YEARS
• The result would produce a 6 MONTH supply of oil
• It would reduce gasoline prices 1 PENNY
• We could conserve that much oil by practicing better fuel economy

Judging from the number of individuals and species of birds sharing the black oil sunflower seed outside my window – Spring has sprung! It’s still windy. The little sparrow with link in her beak lost part of her load on the way to her nest.

I have come to rely on one website for bird identification: