Recommended Reading
Field Guides/Identification
- National Geographic Field Guide to
the Birds of North America, 4th Edition; by National Geographic Society, Mel Baughman Editor
This is my personal favorite Field Guide to the Birds, and I've relied upon it heavily both in the local area
and across North America. The 4th Edition is also completely updated and accurate as of November 2002.
- The Sibley Guide to Birds;
by David Allen Sibley
A beautiful guide to North American birds, and an achievement in terms of its artistic quality, information and
design. I feel that the two major advantages of this book are, one: the orderly fashion in which the plates are
organized, allowing a quick comparison of age, sex and seasonal plumage of similar species, and, two: the in-depth descriptions
of most all of a bird's vocal repertoire. I tend to use this guide as more of a desk reference than a 'Field Guide'.
The most recent edition is the first, put out in October of 2000.
- Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America;
by Roger Tory Peterson
The first, and I'd consider it to
be still one of the best field guides to our local birds. It was with this Field Guide that I had first learned
to 'bird', and in retrospect, I think I was fortunate to have chosen this guide to begin with. The plates are simple,
clear and straightforward and the overall design is very user friendly. Advanced birders may find the guide perhaps
slightly simplistic, but for beginning birders, this is the guide that I would suggest. The 5th edition is the most
recent, published April of 2002.
- All The Birds of North America; American Bird Conservancy; by
Jack Griggs
This seems to be the underdog of Field Guides as I've never actually seen
anyone use this guide in the field, and I seldom see it referenced or even on the shelves of birders. It's too bad,
because I think that this Field Guide has a lot of good things going for it. Particularly for beginning and intermediate
birders, there is a wealth of peripheral information dealing with identification, life history and conservation issues.
Not to mention excellent plates, species accounts, range maps and a perfect pocket size. The only issue that I have
with this book is its organization. While most field guides are organized by taxonomic order, this guide takes a bold
step and is organized by dividing the birds by body and/or bill shape. It's actually a nice idea as each family of birds
has a somewhat unique and diagnostic bill shape, and this organization can be especially useful for beginning birders to match
their birds with the guide, but for those who have learned to find species in a guide organized by taxonomic order it can
be a tough book to navigate. Of course, there's always the index for reference. This is the only perceived short-coming,
and I feel that this is out-weighed by the books many positive contributions to bird identification. The most recent
edition was published in November 2002.
- Hawks in Flight; by C. Sutton, P. Dunne &
D. Sibley
I'd consider this to be the best
book on the subject as it's a very thorough treatment with a refreshing and realistic approach. One of the main trends
of this book is to move away from simple 'field mark identification', which often isn't possible when observing soaring raptors,
instead to focus on the bird's overall presence: i.e. body shape, flight style and posture. Well written and supplemented
with excellent line drawings and photographs, I feel this book goes a long way to demystifying an often difficult-to-identify
group of birds. The most recent reprint was in April of 1989.
- Butterflies Through Binoculars - A Field
and Finding Guide to the Butterflies in the Boston-New York-Washington Region; by Jeffery Glassberg
A thorough, complete and user-friendly
guide to all of the region's Butterflies, this is the book that I learned with and continue to rely upon. The full color
photographs are amazing and the supporting text deals with identification, similar species, habitat, flight period, abundance,
range, and major food plants. Perhaps the only book needed for the confident identification of most of our butterflies.
The most recent edition was published in May of 1993.
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide; by Lawrence Newcomb
This guide to the flowering plants of the northeast takes
on an approach different to any other, in that its 'key' is based on just a few standard questions about the structure of
the specimen and then quickly leads you directly to the species. It takes a little getting used to, but it does
work, and ultimately will lead to more confident field identifications. Our area is well-covered and a great majority
of our plant species are represented by superb line drawings. When out 'botanizing', this guide, supplemented with
Peterson's Wildflowers will often be more than enough to deal with most of what's to be encountered.
The latest publication was in 1989.
- A Field Guide to Wildflowers; by Roger Peterson &
Margaret McKenney
Like his guide to the birds,
this Field Guide to Wildflowers was an early entry in the field of conservation and still stands the test of time.
Our region is well-represented by a vault of terrific line drawings, along with the occasional color plate. As is typical
of most guides to wildflowers, this book is organized by color first and general habit second. This doesn't
always make for quickest of identifications, but most wildflowers encountered can be distinguished with this
book. I often use this in conjunction with Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. The most recent revision
was in March of 1998.
- Ferns (Peterson Field Guides); by Boughton
Cobb
I've always had a passing interest for the ferns, but this
book really brought that interest to the forefront. Perhaps the initial aspect in that development was the book's
line drawings, illustrated by Laura Louise Foster. These illustrations bridge the distance between art and science in
a way that keeps you turning the pages while still being able to make accurate identifications. And from the illustrations
I began to read the text and found described a world to be explored. However, this book is more than just well-illustrated
and well-written, it also is a top-notch field guide able to identify most every fern encountered, as well as the clubmosses
and horsetails. This is one of my favorites. The most recent publication was in March of 1999.
- Flora of the Northeast; by Dennis W. Magee &
Harry E. Ahles
Not necessarily a field guide, this Manual of the Vascular
Flora of New England and Adjacent New York isn't quite just a technical key either. The key aspect does
account for the bulk of the text's 1264 pages, but the peripheral information, including brief family and species descriptions,
range maps depicting county-by-county occurrence maps for almost every species, and even the occasional line drawing, this
tome pretty much covers it all. Not to mention the inclusion of every species recorded in the region, even the
rare and endangered. However, it is VERY technical, relying solely upon keys that sort plants by minute details
of structure. This is a handlens field guide and I wouldn't recommend it for the novice unless you want to take
the time to learn technical terms and have the patience to initially spend a lot of time working over a single specimen.
But if you have a good grasp, or if you strive for a good grasp of the inner workings of the botany world, than this
an invaluable reference. The most recent publication was in September of 1999.
More book listings to follow
