For me my love for nature started when I was 7 years old, I my love for nature wasn’t truly for nature I was a freak head at that time I only loved animals, and in my village there were buffaloes and goats I often fed them leaves which I found them on ground. I only visit my village in vacations so every time I come to village I found new goats , when I ask them where are why relatives where are the old ones they never told me, because they were sold for meat. Gradually when I grow older I accepted the fact, in despair of course.
When I was 10 years old I watched the pigeons feeding on my terrace, by that time I wasted my whole afternoon on terrace and when I come from terrace my mother welcomed me with same statement" what do you do on the terrace, in the summer?" , It sound more fun in Hindi.
Slowly I started watering plants on my terrace then my terrace become greener and greener, I started planting more and more plants.
And in lockdown I observed the metamorphosis which amazed ,me a lot and here I am now.
I wonder what’s your story what makes you curious and love nature.
I was fascinated by nature ever since I was a very small child. Whenever I got to be outdoors I would pick up and bring home wildflowers, leaves, insects, shells, pine cones, feathers, stones, whatever I could find that looked interesting to me.
And I was lucky that in England at that time, nature was considered to be a suitable subject of study for young children. Each of the classrooms in my elementary school had a small “nature table” at the front, where children were encouraged to leave natural objects they would bring in. In addition, my elementary school had been built on a large field that had a strip of woodland on one edge. Our teacher would take us out for nature walks in the woodland maybe once a week or so.
William Henry Dall, a leading 19th century malacologist, said, “Naturalists are born, not made”. And I think he may have been right about that.
For example, I believe that if you let small children play on a beach, you will find that if there are shells there, the children will all pick up some shells, and be fascinated by them.
The difference is that in my case I stayed fascinated with nature my whole life, and I don’t expect that to change. I am 73 now.
Sadly in elementary schools, I played in dust, yes lifeless dust. But in middle school pigeon made the nest in our window who was a full attention seeker, whenever our boring lectures were taking place and pigeon comes I always see through the window and see the pigeons, and often scolded by our teacher." Nature was a good attention seeker in our class"
My love for nature probably comes from my aunt. When I was younger I would go to my aunts house while my parents worked. Where I live we have near to no trees & growing them is hard, however, my aunt managed to grow a couple dozen.
Comparing the wildlife she had compared to where I live I would say was quite different. I was stunned when we did a trick where we would turn a wheelbarrow upside down & come back a couple days later, flip it over and see what was under it. There was these ladybug looking insects under there which is what I was mainly interested in and lots of other small bugs. I was really impressed by just how much species you could see just by making a small habitat for animals!
Also not to mention my aunt has a greenhouse. I would help her water the plants in there & clear up the place. What probably got me interested in plants is the fact she had a 60 year old cactus in there. It blew me away when she told me it was 60 years old!
My love for nature has always been within me, so I can’t exactly say how it started. What I can say, is that both my grandparents had gardens. One of them being so large in such a small space that the town called it “The little rainforest”. She won best yard a few months in a row. I’ve been trying to fix it up since it started falling apart… I have always loved how if you respect nature, it will respect you back, at least from my experience so far. Wild animals and domestic love me for some reason. Never could catch a fish on a hook, but they swim into my hands readily. There was the time that 46 skunks visited my house and rubbed against our legs like cats… I love nature because the possibilities and experiences never end.
I don’t know where my interest came from. I’m a nosey person at the best of times and always have been. As a kid, I spent most of my time outside in a little patch of bush, fields and a pond. Red Rose tea helped - boxes had little cards in a series to stick into albums. Dinosaurs, tropical birds etc. and since my parents drank a lot of tea, I got a lot of cards. They also bought me a few books, but did my interest come first and the books second? I don’t know. My mum also took us to the library routinely. So really, it’s always been part of my life, even when I pursued interests that did not involve it. And now I’ve come back to it later in life!
A magnetic fishing game - a square of cardboard with underwater river scenes painted on it. Various cardboard fish with iron rings through their heads and a little stick with a magnet dangling from it. You dropped the magnet into the cardboard square and scored points for the type of fish you pulled out. But I can’t say for certain if that was what sparked my interest or if it was the first outlet for my interest. I would have been 2 or 3, so not free to go looking for real fish.
I cannot remember a time that I was not interested in some aspect of the natural world. Perhaps it was because we lived on the edge of S. Florida’s Everglades at a time when Miami was still a sleepy town. Frogs and toads laid their eggs in the puddles left behind by summer rains, which gave us the opportunity to collect them in jars, feed them, and watch them develop into miniatures of what they’d become. Forbidden visits to the canals on the way home from school allowed us to catch minnows and other critters in the shallows. There were also the beaches, especially the less traveled barrier islands, where we collected pieces of coral and shells to bring home, and spent hours examining seaweed for tiny shrimp and crabs.
Noting my interest, my parents bought me a small and simple microscope for my ninth birthday. That opened a whole new world.
When my kids came along, they spent a lot of time outside. One was extremely curious about insects and became obsessed with them, so I learned about them, too. That interest piqued my interest in dragonflies about ten years ago and my more recent interest in bees and other pollinators. In the process, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the birds and other animals that share space with them. It’s also forced me to learn a little about plant life, as knowing the plant your “bug” sits on can help with ID.
We have lived all over the country. Wherever we go, I think it is important to learn about our non-human neighbors. Some people follow a checklist, the same way that others collect coins. My interest lies more in observing organisms to see how they interact with each other and with the greater environment.
I suppose at a very early stage of my life, my mam used to take me when baby till we moved to Switzerland when I was 5, to the Chester zoo (UK), even now, 64, I still have memories of the zoo… Nature always attracted me more than sport…
I noticed that you dont become a Nature lover on the late, some interest in nature, yes, but true lover, no, so I educated my kids to respect and admire nature very early, my son still like to come with me when I go out for nature observations…
I also learned to observe, admire and respect nature with renowned naturalists with whom I spent weeks in the swiss mountains…
I was lucky to grow up in small, isolated places all over the country (India), and so experienced a lot of natural biodiversity, moving to different states every couple of years. The colonies we lived in were surrounded by greenery and, thanks to my mother’s efforts in each place, we also had lovely gardens. My mom spent a lot of time tending her plants. We loved walking our dogs all over those green colonies, and mom could not take 10 steps without pointing out some tree or leaf or even a wierdly shaped branch. I was only interested in animals then and regret not paying more attention to the amazing variety of flora. I was crazy about James Herriot’s beautiful stories about the animals he encountered and their personalities, and wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian!
Moving to city life to pursue my passion of being a scientist in a lab instead, I have really missed those huge open spaces. Communing with nature was left for vacations, which we mostly spend in wildlife sanctuaries or at beaches. The pandemic restrictions opened my eyes to the amazing amount of urban biodiversity all around us. Finding my daughter sharing this joy has pushed me to hunt for special niches in parks and green spaces around my city. And we found iNaturalist to help us really identify and catalog this biodiversity so I guess that’s one thing I owe to this terrible pandemic!
I think all Indian moms are nature lover but my mom often remove the grasses in the pots(for me grasses are beautiful as they also have beautiful flowers) instead my mother grows tohri and lauki( bottle gourd and ridge gourd).
I started to love nature at the age of 8. I got inspired by watching Nat Geo Wild and Animal Planet. I took nature as my best friend,whenever I get too bored or feel upset I just go to my near by park or my terrace garden that cools me down. Nature is my forever friend and I love it the most.
My parents too love nature but not to the extent as I do. Since 2015 I saw a great change in me,I tried my very best in protecting nature (from smallest of the creatures to bigger trees and plants in and around my area).
For the past 3 years I am spending a lot of time with nature rather than with people,not many people can understand the happiness when you are a part of nature as they may think its a waste of time and all that nonsense.
When I got introduced to INaturalist 3 months ago,these 3 months have been my best days of my life. INaturalist helped me to get very close to nature and I love it very much.
This is what makes me a Nature lover
