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 guided nature journal from nature writer Melissa Harrison that will open your eyes to the wild world around you, whether you live in the heart of a city or the deepest countryside. Full of seasonal prompts, tips and ideas, it will help you turn photos, notes and audio into a rich, meaningful and lifelong relationship with the natural world.
Features
Keep a journal
Create your own nature notes using text or – if you’re on the move – voice-to-text capability. Keep a record of what you see and hear each day and use it to compare one year to the next.
Map your walks
Record the route of your walks and let Encounter plot your discoveries on a map, whether they’re photos, notes or audio recordings.
Expert prompts
Optional prompts from nature writer Melissa Harrison will alert you to natural events and new things to experience as the seasons change.
Identification help
Our goal is to incorporate the most reliable forms of image and sound identification to help you tune in to your nearby nature.
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.