Author Doreen Pfost will present a naturalist program Friday at the Elroy Public Library. (Contributed photo)

By KARI PREUSS | Elroy Public Library director

Calling all outdoor enthusiasts! Hunters, gardeners, photographers, writers and hikers: An opportunity to enhance your experience in the great outdoors is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at the Elroy Public Library.

Do you carry a pen and paper when you take a walk? Maybe that sounds like too much trouble, but keeping field notes can help improve our observation skills and make us better naturalists. Nature writer Doreen Pfost will discuss tools and techniques for taking notes in the field and will offer tips on how to organize and use those notes. After the program, join an optional nature walk and try out your note-taking skills.

Doreen Pfost is a writer and communications consultant who lives in Elroy. She is the author of “This River Beneath the Sky: A Year on the Platte” (2016), a book that weaves field notes, natural history and human history into a series of interconnected essays about Nebraska’s Platte River, where a half-million sandhill cranes stop over each year on their spring migration.