What gets written up
Anything with a date and a place attached. A bird arriving three weeks early. A plant found outside its known range. A river that has been re-meandered and the fish that came back to it. A study that quietly changes a number everyone has been quoting for a decade.
What does not get written up: vague alarm, unsourced claims, and anything that cannot be traced back to a record, a paper, or a named person who was standing there.
How a dispatch is put together
Each one starts as a note — a date, a location, what was seen. Then the check: is there a record, a survey, a paper, a ranger or a researcher who can confirm it? If yes, it gets written. If not, it stays in the notebook until it does.
Dispatches are deliberately short. If a subject needs more room, it gets a longer piece and the short version links to it. Nothing here is written to fill a page.
Who writes it
Field Notes is written and edited by [Your name], based in [Your location]. Background: [a line or two about your work — ecology, conservation, journalism, guiding, whatever it actually is].
If you are out there more than I am, your notes are better than mine. Send them.