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JennGM
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I have a love/hate relationship with field guides. No two are alike, so there's always a reason for another one. So I have such a variety, and each one has its pluses and minuses.
My biggest beef with most field guides is that I don't like carrying so many books to one place. How to decide whether I'll need an insect or tree or animal or bird guide?
I did find a wonderful (OOP of course) book, for use in Europe unfortunately, called The Young Naturalist by Leonard Moore (later edition entitled The Young Naturalist's Handbook that is exactly the book I would like to carry. One book, small size, not oversized, hardback is my favorite. It is organized by types of areas you would visit, and gives overviews of different types of nature you would see in that area (beach, tundra, forest, field, moor). I'd really love to find something the same size and same approach for America.
But until then, different people ask what are your favorite field guides? I'd like input for young children's type field guides and then for older children. One and the same?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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guitarnan
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We decided to focus on birding when our children were younger. Our local field guide of choice is Stan Tekiela's Birds of Maryland and Delaware. We chose it because our dd could use it (lots of photos) and so could my dh (lots of written info). It has an audio CD but it's hard to use without a track list, so we have not listened to it very often.
One thing we really enjoyed as a family as we began our birding adventures was our dd's bird project - she spent much of one school year studying birds for science (as in, DVDs, books, coloring pages we printed out - she colored birds and cut them out and created a bulletin board of birds). Even our cats got in on the act  , trying to catch the birdies on the TV. We did bird counts (Christmas and Great Backyard) and took photos. Focusing on one aspect of nature study helped dd (who was then 7) find out how to observe, color, identify and describe one type of animal.
So, in summary, for us, field guides by type of animal or plant (we have zillions of tree guides for my dh, who is Mr. Tree Dude) are most helpful. We don't try to find an overarching guide to everything. For us, it is easier to bring the bird and tree books and then photograph everything else we want to identify - to look up later. Half the time we don't look them up anyway because we're too busy talking about birds and trees.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: Aug 25 2010 at 11:35pm | IP Logged
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I love field guides. I did make myself cull some out several years back so we don't have a large collection anymore. There isn't one brand of field guide that I like for different ages. What I find is that I prefer different series depending on what the field guide is for because some cover our area better than others. I'm tired so I'm having trouble explaining... an example: I like Audubon's North American Insects and Spiders because we can find most of what we need to ID there. I prefer Peterson's guide for birds because it is a Texas field guide. I really like the Golden Guide field guide to Spiders and Their Kin and my kids find the Golden Guide field guide to trees very easy to use. (We keep that tree guide, Golden's insect guide, and Peterson's bird guide in the car.)
One thing that's nice about the Golden Guides for younger kids is that they are small and therefore easier to carry around.
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lapazfarm
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For an all-in-one guide I really like this series: National Audubon society regional Field guides
The one I linked to is for Florida, but they have them for many regions (mid-atlantic, south-east, etc). I like them because they have trees, flowers, mammals,reptiles, etc all in one, so it's great to carry along when you don't know what you'll see.
Of course, since it's all-in-one then it isn't going to be as comprehensive as a guide to a single item like trees or flowers. But, it will cover the things you are most likely to see, and if it isn't in there, you can take a picture (or a leaf or sample) and id it at home with your more comprehensive guides.
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MaryM
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I agree whole-heartedly with Theresa and was going to suggest an all inclusive regional/state guide. As mentioned, it won't be as thorough/complete but most of us are really only likely to see the more common anyway on the majority of our outings.
These laminated field guides from Pocket Naturalist are nice also - again not as detailed having only the most common, but very easy to transport multiple guides on different topics. And they are durable too, for frequent use.
You can also create your own local/regional field guide on-line at eNature - ZipGuides
Like, Janette, I like the Golden field guides a lot as well for size and portability.
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Mary M. in Denver
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JennGM
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| Posted: Aug 26 2010 at 7:35am | IP Logged
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Ah, you ladies articulated the direction I have been taking. I appreciate the merits of different brands of guides for certain types of areas.
I didn't really word it correctly, that I'm not looking for something comprehensive to carry along, but a good overview that's easy to carry.
I agree about the Golden Guides on the portability.
We also had picked up a few of the Audubon Society Pocket Guides which are just so beautiful.
We're gearing for a vacation at the North Carolina shore, so I'm also looking for some simple guides for that area.
Thanks for the input, and keep it coming! I reopened this up because it seemed in the past someone would say "I like Petersen" and that would be the end. There's such a variety out there!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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CrunchyMom
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guitarnan wrote:
| We decided to focus on birding when our children were younger. Our local field guide of choice is Stan Tekiela's Birds of Maryland and Delaware. We chose it because our dd could use it (lots of photos) and so could my dh (lots of written info). It has an audio CD but it's hard to use without a track list, so we have not listened to it very often. |
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Thanks for this recomendation, Nancy! This looks ideal for us.
And I didn't realize that the Audubon society had regional guides. Our family always had the Audubon guides growing up (the bird one lived in the kitchen window sill that overlooked the feeder), and I really am fond of them. Its nice to know I could have a single book to take to the park or keep in the car.
I bought our Golden guides used (for a song), but I do need to figure out a way to keep them together and make them more usable.
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Lindsay
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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guitarnan wrote:
| We decided to focus on birding when our children were younger. Our local field guide of choice is Stan Tekiela's Birds of Maryland and Delaware. We chose it because our dd could use it (lots of photos) and so could my dh (lots of written info). It has an audio CD but it's hard to use without a track list, so we have not listened to it very often. |
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I thought I'd look up to see if there is a Virginia one, and I immediately recognized this is the one we have on our counter (next to the feeder). This is well-loved book here!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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juliana147
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I like the Audubon regional guides, too. For older children, I also like Reader's Digest's North American Wildlife. Just enough of the most common plants, animals, trees, and insects are included to thrill my older kids.  They understand that not everything they see will be in there. It's a beautifully illustrated, colorful book, too. On the downside, it is very large, and tough for a kid to lug around in a backpack. It usually gets left in the car when we go on a trip.
We use our field guides constantly, and have a small collection of them. I still have mine from when I was younger, and the only ones commonly available were Peterson's, and some Audubon. These are wonderful references for me, because of the years of marginal notes. We write in the dates we see the birds (or plants, or animals!), and where we are when we see them. It brings back so many memories. So, I guess that's my additional advice- don't just look things up, write in your books! If you aren't sure about something, you can put a question mark next to the entry...
-juliana
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Mackfam
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juliana147 wrote:
| I also like Reader's Digest's North American Wildlife. |
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Me too, Juliana! I'm so glad you mentioned it!
The guide we open daily is the field guide Juliana mentioned above: North American Wildlife. We enjoy the illustrations, the way the book is divided up, and the brief information about the specimen. I like that this one book covers: mammals, birds, reptiles & amphibians, fish, invertebrates, trees and shrubs, wildflowers, nonflowering plants, and mushrooms. Each section is color coded by a small tab at the edge of the page so you can easily jump from section to section in the book. In some field guides we feel just as lost after reading the description than we did before...but we always learn something from this field guide - we all really enjoy the descriptions in this book! We might look in other field guides after we look something up here, but we always seem to go to this book first. Also, I've noticed that my older daughter will prop this book open if she needs an example as a guide for a nature sketch; she really likes the illustrations. I also like that this book is hardcover. The drawback is that this book is large and not very portable with over 560 pages. It does have a great index of both scientific and common names.
We also like the Golden Nature Guides and use them frequently, and we like the Peterson's Guides as well.
The only guides we bring with us on a nature walk are the Pocket Naturalists that Mary mentioned because they're nice and small and easy to tuck in a bag or pocket. We prefer to just bring a good digital camera and take lots of pictures of specimens and surroundings and then sit down after a nature walk with field guides and pictures from our camera.
I didn't know about the Audubon regional guides, so I'd like to check those out!
What a great thread! I learned a lot from the different field guides you all prefer!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Grace&Chaos
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I've enjoyed looking up the different guides people use. We have acquired ours from trips to specific places. Will pick this up or that. I never really put a thought behind it except the kids like it and look at it.
Some that the my kids really enjoy are the Natuional Audubon Society First Field Guide and Peterson's First Guides. The National Audubons' are our favorites; they are colorful and enough information that the kids are not overwhelmed. I'm not sure how available they are but I got ours on Ebay a couple of years ago. They have several: birds, trees, insects, etc.
My dh always ends up carrying our pack with nature study supplies (we love him so much  ) that I never thought about just needing one. The kids always need to have their own. And of course everybody picks a different one to take on each outing.
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Jenny
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Field Guides Revisited
