Field notes, written where you are standing

The highest-value activity in the entire craft, measured by what it costs against what it prevents.

Ten seconds that make the specimen

Locality data cannot be recreated later. Everything else about a specimen can be improved at home; this is the only thing that has to happen where you are standing.

And memory is worse than anyone expects. Two spots on the same hillside blur within a week, and a season of trips blurs entirely.

What to write

Date, and who was there.

The locality at every level you know it: working or occurrence, district, county, state.

Where exactly on the site, which dump, which face, which level, because a large site is several localities.

Coordinates, with the datum, if you take them.

What you took, roughly, and what it was associated with in place.

The host rock and anything about the occurrence that will not be visible at home, which is the information that is genuinely lost otherwise.

Keeping notes and material together

A notebook that stays with you, and a number written on the wrapping that ties to a note.

The failure mode is one bucket, two spots. Separate bags per location, labeled as you fill them, is the entire fix.

Write on the wrapping directly with a permanent marker. A slip inside the paper works until the paper is unwrapped somewhere windy.

Photographs

The occurrence, the face, the specimen in place if you can. They cost nothing and they carry information no note holds.

A photograph of the notebook page, which is your backup for the notebook.

And a photograph of the site from a distance, which is how you find it again in three years.

References