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Intention to Attention · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist, Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every week I share my observations and adventures with the human
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound, and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode highlights the great photographs of a friend of mine
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: and how his work fosters his love for the natural world.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: To learn more
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: about my work,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: including my next book,
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: A Human and Natural History of Washington's Cascades,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll also find a link to my Substack newsletters and my previous five and
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: a half years of newsletters, as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 85 of the Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Intention to Attention, July 23rd, 2026.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: My good friend Andy Nettle has what I call the intention to attention.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: By this I mean that he goes outside seeking to be a good observer.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: He does this not only by reading up on the natural history of his chosen home place,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sequim, Washington, but also by carrying a camera with him.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Taking the camera with me has rekindled my sense of wonder.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I know that this is an overused phrase,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: but it perfectly describes the practice of observing the natural world.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've known Andy for more than 35 years.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: We worked together as park rangers at Arches National Park in the early 1990s.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: He was always a good naturalist and good observer.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: He was also one of those classic park rangers who was great at sharing his knowledge
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: with visitors and fellow staff members.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: For several years,
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had the good fortune of teaching natural history with him to new rangers
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: and was impressed by what he knew and what he had seen.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But then he opened a bookstore.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It allowed him to indulge his passion for antiquarian books and in building
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: a community of people equally excited about the written word.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Managing this store, though, took him away from his true love, being outdoors.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Not that he was fully aware of this until he sold the store a few years ago.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't realized what I'd lost being in the
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: world of books, he told me recently.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: When I began to take pictures of birds again, though, I reawakened an entire world.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: We were talking about his work the other day when my wife and I visited Andy and his wife.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I had long been impressed with the bird photographs that he has been posting
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: on Facebook and was curious about his process.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I knew that he was a good birder, but he said that photography had taken him to a new level.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: He realized that if he wanted to get good photographs, he had to be intentional.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I had to learn about their behavior.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I had to know where the birds would be and to plan ahead.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: I had to go out and watch and be patient.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: In other words,
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Andy had to have the intention to paying attention to the natural world.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: He illustrated this by describing a recent counter he had had with Northern Harriers.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Long known as Marsh Hawks,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Harriers are birds of the flats,
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: floating gracefully over fields and meadows while scanning for critters such as mice
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: and voles.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Near Andy's house is such an area where he has seen Harriers before.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: One time he had watched an adult male and female courting.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: The male had caught a mouse and,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: as part of his courtship, had presented it to the female on the wing.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: She then glided in for the love offering, which she nabbed in her talons.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Andy told me he had witnessed the parade transfer previously,
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: which typically involved watching the birds for one or two hours.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Getting these photographs required patience,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: watching, listening for the birds' calls, and a bit of luck.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Over the next several months, Andy continued to go back to the meadow to watch harriers.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: The week before we arrived, he had seen four
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: young birds.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: They had none of the classic adult harrier behavior.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Instead,
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: they were perching and crying to each other and occasionally taking off
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: and wheeling around.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: It looked as if they were learning what the wind could do.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, an adult female flew in from the east.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: She called, and within a second, the four youngsters headed her way.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: She was about 50 feet off the ground.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize that she had a mouse in her talons until she dropped it mid-flight.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: One of the kids tried for the mouse with his or her mouth and completely flubbed it,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Andy told me.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: All four young birds then dove to the ground in search of the meal.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: For Andy, moments such as this are not really about the photographs.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he loves to nail the shot,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: to come up with a wonderful image of what he has seen,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: but it's more about the time outside, to being witness to the natural world.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: The camera is merely the instrument that provides a reason Not
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: that he truly needs one, to go out and observe.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: His observations are a two-way street.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: He has found that paying attention to the birds
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: so carefully supplements what he has read and brings the birds more to life,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: which leads to better photographs.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Photography has also rekindled his passion about birds and the perils they face.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: How do his actions impact birds?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: How can he work to benefit them?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Watching and documenting birds through photography has heightened my awareness
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: of habitat loss,
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: and I have become passionate about doing what I can to preserve habitats,
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's supporting the local land trust,
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: volunteering for citizen work,
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: or planting our yard to create habitat for birds, pollinators, butterflies, etc.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: As I noted, so many of Andy's photographs are amazing.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were clearly taken by someone with a passion for birds and a gift for photography.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: But now I know that they were something more.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: They were illustrating the importance of getting outside,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: of paying attention, and of knowing the natural history.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: They were the product of his passion.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were the art of the intention to attention.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: author and voice of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: and natural world around Seattle, Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more details about my walks,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: talks and books,
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: including In the Range of Fire and Ice,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: along with a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website, geologywriter.com.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to slow down, pay attention and enjoy the world around you.