A guided nature journal that lives in your phone
Person by person, street by street, we need to repair our connection to nature. Encounter is a free, guided nature journal from nature writer Melissa Harrison that will open your eyes to your nearby wild, whether you live in the heart of a city or the deepest countryside. Backed by research from our advisor, Professor Miles Richardson, it’s full of seasonal prompts, tips and ideas tailored to your location within Britain and Ireland, plus expert content for those who want to learn more. Encounter will help you develop a rich, meaningful and lifelong relationship with the natural world.
Features
Keep a journal
Create your own nature notes using text, photos, or – if you’re on the move – dictation. Record what you encounter each day and use it to compare one year to the next.
Tag your encounters
Add tags to your journal entries to record creatures, plants and natural phenomena. Your tags build a vital picture of what’s going on across the UK, and make the app smarter.
Get inspired
Tips, ideas and prompts from Encounter and Melissa Harrison will alert you to natural events going on in your area, giving you new things to experience as the seasons change.
Encounter’s founder:
Melissa Harrison is a nature writer, children's author and novelist who lives in Suffolk. A collection of her ‘Nature Notebook’ columns for The Times, The Stubborn Light of Things, was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, as was Rain: Four Walks in English Weather. She wrote and presented the hit nature podcast ‘The Stubborn Light of Things’ and has edited four anthologies of writing about the seasons in support of The Wildlife Trusts. Melissa has appeared on Springwatch, Springwatch Unsprung and Countryfile, and speaks regularly on the radio. She writes a monthly Substack newsletter, and can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Threads as @m_z_harrison.