I’m at the Smith Clove Elementary School in Central Valley this week and next. With the 1st grade students we’ve been ecologists studying “Who is who, what they do, how they grow and where they go” in the forest ecosystem. We are taking advantage of a beautiful nature trail that crosses a stream and circles through a mixed hardwood forest, with some fairly large black cherry, white ash and variety of oak trees.
We spent some time talking about habitat – the place where animals live because they can find “ FOOD, WATER and HIDING PLACES” (I think students can better identify with hiding places versus shelter).
Trees are a big part of our exploration, including identifying a locust tree (deep “V” shaped valleys in the bark, deep enough that you can hide your pinkie in them) and a cherry tree (the burnt potato chip or burnt corn flake bark tree). We do a Billy “B” verse (I look to do it as a repeat after me chant – "Who’s Billy “B”?" – definitely a great resource, check him out on the website link) “The roots grow deep”, “Deep into the ground”, “Look for water”, “And drink it when it’s found”.
We explore rotten logs and the concept of what happens to dead things – they “DECOMPOSE”. We found a red-backed salamander under one log. These amphibians are probably the most numerous land vertebrate in our woods. Later, going back to get some pictures of the salamander I found a slug that appeared to be eating salamander eggs. Is this common? I’ll need to research that more.
Here’s something to think about. The large earthworm pictured with the red-backed salamander is the very well known nightcrawler, Lumbricus terrestris. These worms are not native to our northern woods. Their introduction and spread may actually be a problem for the small salamanders like the red-backed. The nightcrawler is out competing the smaller native worms that the red-backs feed upon, resulting in a population of the large nightcrawlers that are too big for the salamanders to eat. Scientist are studying this situation to see how the red-backed salamander will fare. The moral to the story; if you have a bunch of nightcrawlers left over after a day of fishing don’t dump them in the woods.
We found lots of fungi, one of the organisms that help to “DECOMPOSE” things. The best ones were some puff ball fungi, which gave us a chance to see how they puff out “smoke” – the tiny, dust-like spores that will blow away and grow into more fungi if they land on some dead plant material.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Larvae and Owl Pellets at Bell Top Elementary
My Bell Top stay resulted in a couple of interesting activities/observations that I’d like to share. The first was on one of the school yard ecology nature walks. A student discovered these interesting caterpillars, or so we thought. Because the larva reacted to disturbance by curling back their abdomens over their bodies, my initial reaction was that they were sawflies, which are actually a kind of wasp, but I wasn’t sure so I told the kids that I would have to do some RESEARCH. There were dozens of them eating gray birch leaves, leaving many bare leaf stems. Not going with my initial thought of sawflies, I went to Caterpillars of Eastern North America looking through all of the pages. No luck, so I perused the introduction and low and behold under the section entitled "Not Quite Caterpillars" I found a photo and description of the Croesus latitarsis sawfly. My initial reaction was right, we had found sawfly larvae!
The other activity that I want to share was Owl Ecology, a class I do for many schools. In this class I introduce students to the world of ornithology. I challenge them with the fact that they could be ornithologists studying owls in their own back yard and surrounding community. We start off with the fact that scientists ask questions. What questions would we ask to start off a study of owl close to home – what would those owls be and what habitat would they live.
I like to cover the three most common owls students might encounter, the Eastern Screech-owl, the Great Horned Owl and the Barred Owl. I throw in the Common Barn Owl since the pellets we dissect come from them (check out the Pellets Inc. website link). We chant the types of habitat these owls like – the Screech-owl “Woods and fields and woods and fields – and they don’t mind buildings”; Great Horned Owl “Woods and fields and woods and fields and they don’t like buildings” (at least not a lot of buildings like in a typical city) and the Barred Owl “ Woods and woods and woods and more woods”.
We talk about the calls the owls make and how we would keeps a science journal to record our data on where we find the owls. We discuss their hunting and feeding behavior, and how they produce pellets, the ball of fur and bones regurgitated by the owl after they’re meal. We then investigate the pellets to see if indeed mice are the most favored food (I present this as a hypothesis – “Mice, or rodents, are the number one favored food, shrews are second and tied for third are moles and small birds”. Students dissect pellets, two students per pellet using their hands, a paper clip unbent to serve as a probe, a scrap piece of white paper to work on and a double-sided information sheet (on one side are instructions and a mouse skeleton diagram, on the other side is a bone sorting chart showing the various bones, skull, jaw, fore limbs, shoulder blades, hip bones, hind limbs, vertebrae and ribs). I give them these basic clues as to what to look for and what kind of animal the owls ate (incidentally the pellets come from Barn Owls of the Pacific northwest areas of northern California, Oregon and southern Washington, purchased from Pellets Inc.) – an orange/yellow claw looking bone is not a claw, it’s a jaw of a mouse (actually a vole), a tiny beak like skull with very tiny purplish teeth is from a shrew, a relatively large skull with white teeth from front to back is a mole and birds have no teeth look for a beak and keeled breastbone.
The students dive into the dissection and soon you hear “What’s this?” reverberating around the room. We take time to tally our findings and see if my hypothesis is correct. We always find that mice/rodents are indeed the most often eaten food, sometimes shrews do come out in second place, sometimes we determine that we need more data to figure out if shrew are indeed second and moles and birds third. No matter what our discoveries are it’s an exciting class.
The other activity that I want to share was Owl Ecology, a class I do for many schools. In this class I introduce students to the world of ornithology. I challenge them with the fact that they could be ornithologists studying owls in their own back yard and surrounding community. We start off with the fact that scientists ask questions. What questions would we ask to start off a study of owl close to home – what would those owls be and what habitat would they live.
I like to cover the three most common owls students might encounter, the Eastern Screech-owl, the Great Horned Owl and the Barred Owl. I throw in the Common Barn Owl since the pellets we dissect come from them (check out the Pellets Inc. website link). We chant the types of habitat these owls like – the Screech-owl “Woods and fields and woods and fields – and they don’t mind buildings”; Great Horned Owl “Woods and fields and woods and fields and they don’t like buildings” (at least not a lot of buildings like in a typical city) and the Barred Owl “ Woods and woods and woods and more woods”.
We talk about the calls the owls make and how we would keeps a science journal to record our data on where we find the owls. We discuss their hunting and feeding behavior, and how they produce pellets, the ball of fur and bones regurgitated by the owl after they’re meal. We then investigate the pellets to see if indeed mice are the most favored food (I present this as a hypothesis – “Mice, or rodents, are the number one favored food, shrews are second and tied for third are moles and small birds”. Students dissect pellets, two students per pellet using their hands, a paper clip unbent to serve as a probe, a scrap piece of white paper to work on and a double-sided information sheet (on one side are instructions and a mouse skeleton diagram, on the other side is a bone sorting chart showing the various bones, skull, jaw, fore limbs, shoulder blades, hip bones, hind limbs, vertebrae and ribs). I give them these basic clues as to what to look for and what kind of animal the owls ate (incidentally the pellets come from Barn Owls of the Pacific northwest areas of northern California, Oregon and southern Washington, purchased from Pellets Inc.) – an orange/yellow claw looking bone is not a claw, it’s a jaw of a mouse (actually a vole), a tiny beak like skull with very tiny purplish teeth is from a shrew, a relatively large skull with white teeth from front to back is a mole and birds have no teeth look for a beak and keeled breastbone.
The students dive into the dissection and soon you hear “What’s this?” reverberating around the room. We take time to tally our findings and see if my hypothesis is correct. We always find that mice/rodents are indeed the most often eaten food, sometimes shrews do come out in second place, sometimes we determine that we need more data to figure out if shrew are indeed second and moles and birds third. No matter what our discoveries are it’s an exciting class.
Barn Classroom at Bell Top Elementary, East Greenbush CSD
Bell Top Elementary School – October 3-5, 2006
I’ve been working with Bell Top Elementary in the East Greenbush School District for many years. They have a wonderful barn classroom that is the focus for a lot of outdoor environmental education above and beyond my residence program that I bring each year.
I’ve got to tell you what I know about the barn classroom because it’s a wonderful inspiration for all schools – an inspiration to take advantage of whatever the outdoors school environment has to offer. Every school has something outdoors that can be put to use inspiring a sense of science, a sense of wonder, a sense of questions that can lead to exploration and learning.
If I don’t have the whole story straight I apologize, but I think that I have the basics. As I understand it, it all started with a student teacher that wanted to do maple sugaring in the spring. She got the permission of the classroom teacher and the administration to do so. They went out into the woods surrounding the school, identified several maple trees, tapped them, and boiled off the sap in the classroom (actually they may have done it in the cooking classroom, yes – the school does cooking classes – a great way to inspire reading, follow directions, making measurements – a whole host of interdisciplinary learning inspired by food!) to make maple syrup.
Several years later when that same teacher, now hired by the school, returned she got the whole school (it is a small school, a couple of classes each for grades K to 5) to take on maple sugaring as a project in the spring. All kinds of learning revolved around the sugaring; reading about it, studying the Native American history of sugaring, tree identification and life cycles, measuring sap, learning about evaporation, teamwork and cooperation. The teachers got parents involved to help tend the boiling-off fire.
While tending the fire on a typical cold, drizzly early March day, the teachers and parents working the project wishfully thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little sugar shack?” I’m sure in their minds’ eye they saw a simple pole or shed structure with a roof that would keep off the rain.
This led to some research. Several people put together a grant to see what it would take to build a sugar shack. With that grant they consulted with an architect that advised them on what would need to be done to build a small sugar house/barn. Then back to the grant writing, which secured the funds to build a small barn. The architect suggested “Wouldn’t it be nice to have an English style barn for the front half and a Dutch style barn for the other half?” And that was what was built.
The barn, called the Barn Classroom, serves as focal point for apple cider pressing in the fall. In the spring it is a sugar house. Last year I did sheep shearing in the barn while a craftsperson did hand spinning of animal fiber in the art room. The Barn Classroom is the centerpiece for a beautiful nature trail that winds its way through the surrounding woods where the maple trees for springtime tapping grow. A few years ago I surveyed the nature trail with 4th and 5th graders and used that data to draw a scale map for the trail, while the K through 3rd graders developed pages for a nature trail booklet based on topics explored on nature walks I had taken them on.
What a wonderful model for school to look at. Every school should investigate what the outdoor school environment has to offer the teachers and students for learning. Every school doing so needs financial support to help them take advantage of these outdoor learning opportunities. Then , as I tell my classes, “The outdoors is our science laboratory – with all kinds of opportunities for exploring, discovering and learning.”
I’ve been working with Bell Top Elementary in the East Greenbush School District for many years. They have a wonderful barn classroom that is the focus for a lot of outdoor environmental education above and beyond my residence program that I bring each year.
I’ve got to tell you what I know about the barn classroom because it’s a wonderful inspiration for all schools – an inspiration to take advantage of whatever the outdoors school environment has to offer. Every school has something outdoors that can be put to use inspiring a sense of science, a sense of wonder, a sense of questions that can lead to exploration and learning.
If I don’t have the whole story straight I apologize, but I think that I have the basics. As I understand it, it all started with a student teacher that wanted to do maple sugaring in the spring. She got the permission of the classroom teacher and the administration to do so. They went out into the woods surrounding the school, identified several maple trees, tapped them, and boiled off the sap in the classroom (actually they may have done it in the cooking classroom, yes – the school does cooking classes – a great way to inspire reading, follow directions, making measurements – a whole host of interdisciplinary learning inspired by food!) to make maple syrup.
Several years later when that same teacher, now hired by the school, returned she got the whole school (it is a small school, a couple of classes each for grades K to 5) to take on maple sugaring as a project in the spring. All kinds of learning revolved around the sugaring; reading about it, studying the Native American history of sugaring, tree identification and life cycles, measuring sap, learning about evaporation, teamwork and cooperation. The teachers got parents involved to help tend the boiling-off fire.
While tending the fire on a typical cold, drizzly early March day, the teachers and parents working the project wishfully thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little sugar shack?” I’m sure in their minds’ eye they saw a simple pole or shed structure with a roof that would keep off the rain.
This led to some research. Several people put together a grant to see what it would take to build a sugar shack. With that grant they consulted with an architect that advised them on what would need to be done to build a small sugar house/barn. Then back to the grant writing, which secured the funds to build a small barn. The architect suggested “Wouldn’t it be nice to have an English style barn for the front half and a Dutch style barn for the other half?” And that was what was built.
The barn, called the Barn Classroom, serves as focal point for apple cider pressing in the fall. In the spring it is a sugar house. Last year I did sheep shearing in the barn while a craftsperson did hand spinning of animal fiber in the art room. The Barn Classroom is the centerpiece for a beautiful nature trail that winds its way through the surrounding woods where the maple trees for springtime tapping grow. A few years ago I surveyed the nature trail with 4th and 5th graders and used that data to draw a scale map for the trail, while the K through 3rd graders developed pages for a nature trail booklet based on topics explored on nature walks I had taken them on.
What a wonderful model for school to look at. Every school should investigate what the outdoor school environment has to offer the teachers and students for learning. Every school doing so needs financial support to help them take advantage of these outdoor learning opportunities. Then , as I tell my classes, “The outdoors is our science laboratory – with all kinds of opportunities for exploring, discovering and learning.”
Monday, October 02, 2006
Field Guides and Reference Books
Many time teachers and students ask me how I know what I know. The answer is from many years of listening and learning from others, and reading. There are many guide books available and more published every year. I'm sure I'm not the only naturalist that has to watch his wallet when visiting a bookstore. These are my favorites and ones that I find most useful (although any book on nature is definitely useful).
Martin, Alexander C., Herbert S. Zim and Arnold L. Nelson. American Wildlife and Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits. New York: Dover Publication, Inc. 1961.
This is a reprint of a book published in 1951. I am not sure if it is still in print, but it is well worth borrowing from a library or buying used. The first part of the book lists many of the common animals and what they eat, while the second part of the book lists common plants and which animals eat them.
Palmer, E. Laurence revised by H. Seymour Fowler. A Fieldbook of Natural History. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1949. ISBN 0-07-048425-2.
Another “golden oldy” that is out of print. It is an encyclopedia of natural history giving a short account, usually 5 or 6 paragraphs about a wide range of natural science topics starting with the stars and ending with animals. It covers the atmosphere and weather, rocks and minerals, plants (it is outdated in areas of taxonomy; for example in lists fungi in the plant kingdom), and animals, providing basic information on each.
Ehrlich, Paul R., David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye. The Birder’s Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Fireside/Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1988. ISBN 0-671-62133-5.
Another great bird resource. The left side pages present information on bird species (organized as most bird books are by taxonomic order, the most primitive birds - loons, first, and the most advanced birds - finches, at the end. The right side pages are various essays on ornithological topics. It’s called a field guide, but it could be considered an encyclopedia.
Pasquier, Roger F. Watching Birds. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1977 ISBN 0-395-25343-8.
I think this is one of the easiest books to read to learn about the biology and ecology of birds. Unfortunately I believe it is out of print.
Sibley, David A. The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2000.
ISBN 0-679-45122-6
Sibley, David A. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2001.
Two of the most recently published bird books provide a huge amount of information on North American birds.
Budliger, Robert E. and Gregory Kennedy. Birds of New York State. Auburn, WA: Lone Pine Publishing International. 2005. ISBN-13: 978-1-55105-326-4. Author Bob Budliger is a long time friend, colleague and birdwatcher of mine. We enjoyed many Christmas bird counts and few World Series of Birding days together. I have seen several other books in this series, including Birds of New England and Birds of Pennsylvania. This book is nice in that it covers only birds expected to be seen in the state.
Glassberg, Jeffrey. Butterflies through Binoculars: the East. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999. ISBN 0-19-510668-7.
Dunkle, Sidney W. Dragonflies through Binoculars: a Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America. New York: Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 0-19-5112687-7
Both of these recent books encourage the use of binoculars to get a close up look at two very popular insect orders, the lepidoptera (the butterfly half of the order) and the odonata.
Wagner, David L. Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2005. ISBN 0-691-12144-3. Any exploration outdoors will uncover a caterpillar or two. This book is the only one that I know of that covers over 600 of the moth and butterfly caterpillars found in eastern North America. One of the greatest features of the book is a foodplant index which is a most useful aid in identifying a caterpillar.
McGavin, George C. The Pocket Guide to Insects of the Northern Hemisphere. London, England: Parkgate Books Ltd. 1998. ISBN 1-85585-362-0.
I think this is one of the best beginner books on insects. I don’t know if it is still in print. I bought mine at discount table at Barnes & Nobles (or was it Borders?). I wish I had bought all of the copies they had. It has very nice illustrations and good detailed information on about 200 insect families, just right for the beginning entomologist.
Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1977.
One of the two classic wildflower field guides. I think naturalists are pretty well divided in half as to which guide the prefer, Newcomb’s or Peterson’s. Newcomb’s uses a code system that incorporates observations of plant parts that leads to sections of the book where the final identification is done by matching the diagram.
Peterson, Roger T. and Margaret McKenny. A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and Northcentral North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1968. ISBN 0-395-183251
The Peterson guide uses a visual approach that involves observations of color, form and other details. This does help lead to a better understanding of plant families (scientists use the word family for very closely related groups).
Peterson Guides: the most popular of all the field guides, probably the inspiration for most field guides and worth a short story about Roger Tory Peterson and what led him to write about and illustrate birds. The story goea, as a child in western New York he walked a long distance to school. As it was, he was often late in arriving. After many late arrivals, one of his teachers (I believe it was third grade) asked him why. He explained that on his way to school he would stop and study the many birds he encountered and before he knew it he’d be late. This teacher didn’t punish him. Instead, she said if he was going to be late that often he would have to write a report on the birds he observed. Those early bird observations, writings and drawings set Mr. Peterson on a path that would change how almost everyone looks at the natural world.
My favorite Peterson Guides:
Murie, Olaus J. A Field Guide to Animal Tracks. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1974. ISBN 0-395-19978-6.
Covell, Charles V. Eastern Moths. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1984. ISBN 0-395-361001
As far as I know Houghton Mifflin has not recently printed this book, although I don't think they say it is out of print. At a family nature convention many years ago I was introduced to night-lighting for moths and other nocturnal, light-attracted insects. I had to get the guide to Eastern Moths. I searched in what seemed to be almost every book store from Albany to Boston for it. I even searched for it on used book store sites like ABE.com with no luck. I finally walked into a small paperback book store in Gloucester, MA. They had two copies. I should have bought them both.
Harrison, Hal H. A Field Guide to Birds’ Nests. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1975. ISBN 0-395-20434-8.
Houghton Mifflin also publishes other books and materials under the Peterson name. These are the Peterson First Guides and Peterson Flash Guides. The First Guides are intended for younger or beginning naturalists. They are described as being a simplified guide. My favorite is:
Wright, Amy B. Peterson First Guide: Caterpillars. Boston: Moughton Mifflin Company. 1993. ISBN 0-395-56499-9
There aren’t many books on caterpillars. This is a great help for identifying and learning about a very easily found creature.
The Flash Guides are plastic laminated fold-out posters. The two I use often are the Flash Guide to Hawks and the Flash Guide to Animal Tracks.
Golden Guides: another very popular series of guides in two formats published by Golden Press of New York. There are the pocket sized books called Golden Guides. The series include several dozen titles. My favorite is:
Reid, George K., Herbert Zim and George Fichter. Pond Life. New York: Golden Press. 1967.
Then there are the Golden Field Guides. These books are the standard field guide size. Probably the most popular is
Robbins, Chandler S., Bertel Bruun and Herbert S. Zim. Birds of North America. New York: Golden Press. 1983. ISBN0-307-33656-5.
This book features range maps on the same page as the bird species account, a criticism of the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds. I knew an ornithologist that took his Golden Field Guide to Birds of North America and drew in all of the field mark notes found in the drawings in the Peterson guide (one of the strengths of that guide).
Another popular series is the Stokes Nature Guides published by Little Brown. My favorites:
Tyning, Thomas F. A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1990. ISBN 0-316-81713-9.
Stokes, Donald W. A Guide to Nature in Winter. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1976. ISBN 0-316-81720-1.
This is the best book on nature in winter. It almost reads like a novel and is full of information.
Stokes, Donald W. A Guide to Observing Insect Lives. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1983. ISBN 0-316-81727-9.
Lastly, another series of nature guides, called the Finder published by the Nature Study Guild in Rochester, NY. These are pocket sized and very inexpensive. My favorites are:
Miller, Dorcas. Track Finder: A Guide to Mammal Tracks of Eastern North America. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1981.
Watts, May Theilgaard and Tom Watts. Winter Tree Finder: A Manual for Identifying Deciduous Trees in Winter. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1970.
Watts, May Theilgaard. Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees by Their Leaves. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1991.
Watts, May Theilgaard. Flower Finder: A Guide to Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1955.
If you have any questions or would like more information please make use of the comments on this blog.
Martin, Alexander C., Herbert S. Zim and Arnold L. Nelson. American Wildlife and Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits. New York: Dover Publication, Inc. 1961.
This is a reprint of a book published in 1951. I am not sure if it is still in print, but it is well worth borrowing from a library or buying used. The first part of the book lists many of the common animals and what they eat, while the second part of the book lists common plants and which animals eat them.
Palmer, E. Laurence revised by H. Seymour Fowler. A Fieldbook of Natural History. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1949. ISBN 0-07-048425-2.
Another “golden oldy” that is out of print. It is an encyclopedia of natural history giving a short account, usually 5 or 6 paragraphs about a wide range of natural science topics starting with the stars and ending with animals. It covers the atmosphere and weather, rocks and minerals, plants (it is outdated in areas of taxonomy; for example in lists fungi in the plant kingdom), and animals, providing basic information on each.
Ehrlich, Paul R., David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye. The Birder’s Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Fireside/Simon and Schuster, Inc. 1988. ISBN 0-671-62133-5.
Another great bird resource. The left side pages present information on bird species (organized as most bird books are by taxonomic order, the most primitive birds - loons, first, and the most advanced birds - finches, at the end. The right side pages are various essays on ornithological topics. It’s called a field guide, but it could be considered an encyclopedia.
Pasquier, Roger F. Watching Birds. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1977 ISBN 0-395-25343-8.
I think this is one of the easiest books to read to learn about the biology and ecology of birds. Unfortunately I believe it is out of print.
Sibley, David A. The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2000.
ISBN 0-679-45122-6
Sibley, David A. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2001.
Two of the most recently published bird books provide a huge amount of information on North American birds.
Budliger, Robert E. and Gregory Kennedy. Birds of New York State. Auburn, WA: Lone Pine Publishing International. 2005. ISBN-13: 978-1-55105-326-4. Author Bob Budliger is a long time friend, colleague and birdwatcher of mine. We enjoyed many Christmas bird counts and few World Series of Birding days together. I have seen several other books in this series, including Birds of New England and Birds of Pennsylvania. This book is nice in that it covers only birds expected to be seen in the state.
Glassberg, Jeffrey. Butterflies through Binoculars: the East. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999. ISBN 0-19-510668-7.
Dunkle, Sidney W. Dragonflies through Binoculars: a Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America. New York: Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 0-19-5112687-7
Both of these recent books encourage the use of binoculars to get a close up look at two very popular insect orders, the lepidoptera (the butterfly half of the order) and the odonata.
Wagner, David L. Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2005. ISBN 0-691-12144-3. Any exploration outdoors will uncover a caterpillar or two. This book is the only one that I know of that covers over 600 of the moth and butterfly caterpillars found in eastern North America. One of the greatest features of the book is a foodplant index which is a most useful aid in identifying a caterpillar.
McGavin, George C. The Pocket Guide to Insects of the Northern Hemisphere. London, England: Parkgate Books Ltd. 1998. ISBN 1-85585-362-0.
I think this is one of the best beginner books on insects. I don’t know if it is still in print. I bought mine at discount table at Barnes & Nobles (or was it Borders?). I wish I had bought all of the copies they had. It has very nice illustrations and good detailed information on about 200 insect families, just right for the beginning entomologist.
Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1977.
One of the two classic wildflower field guides. I think naturalists are pretty well divided in half as to which guide the prefer, Newcomb’s or Peterson’s. Newcomb’s uses a code system that incorporates observations of plant parts that leads to sections of the book where the final identification is done by matching the diagram.
Peterson, Roger T. and Margaret McKenny. A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and Northcentral North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1968. ISBN 0-395-183251
The Peterson guide uses a visual approach that involves observations of color, form and other details. This does help lead to a better understanding of plant families (scientists use the word family for very closely related groups).
Peterson Guides: the most popular of all the field guides, probably the inspiration for most field guides and worth a short story about Roger Tory Peterson and what led him to write about and illustrate birds. The story goea, as a child in western New York he walked a long distance to school. As it was, he was often late in arriving. After many late arrivals, one of his teachers (I believe it was third grade) asked him why. He explained that on his way to school he would stop and study the many birds he encountered and before he knew it he’d be late. This teacher didn’t punish him. Instead, she said if he was going to be late that often he would have to write a report on the birds he observed. Those early bird observations, writings and drawings set Mr. Peterson on a path that would change how almost everyone looks at the natural world.
My favorite Peterson Guides:
Murie, Olaus J. A Field Guide to Animal Tracks. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1974. ISBN 0-395-19978-6.
Covell, Charles V. Eastern Moths. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1984. ISBN 0-395-361001
As far as I know Houghton Mifflin has not recently printed this book, although I don't think they say it is out of print. At a family nature convention many years ago I was introduced to night-lighting for moths and other nocturnal, light-attracted insects. I had to get the guide to Eastern Moths. I searched in what seemed to be almost every book store from Albany to Boston for it. I even searched for it on used book store sites like ABE.com with no luck. I finally walked into a small paperback book store in Gloucester, MA. They had two copies. I should have bought them both.
Harrison, Hal H. A Field Guide to Birds’ Nests. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1975. ISBN 0-395-20434-8.
Houghton Mifflin also publishes other books and materials under the Peterson name. These are the Peterson First Guides and Peterson Flash Guides. The First Guides are intended for younger or beginning naturalists. They are described as being a simplified guide. My favorite is:
Wright, Amy B. Peterson First Guide: Caterpillars. Boston: Moughton Mifflin Company. 1993. ISBN 0-395-56499-9
There aren’t many books on caterpillars. This is a great help for identifying and learning about a very easily found creature.
The Flash Guides are plastic laminated fold-out posters. The two I use often are the Flash Guide to Hawks and the Flash Guide to Animal Tracks.
Golden Guides: another very popular series of guides in two formats published by Golden Press of New York. There are the pocket sized books called Golden Guides. The series include several dozen titles. My favorite is:
Reid, George K., Herbert Zim and George Fichter. Pond Life. New York: Golden Press. 1967.
Then there are the Golden Field Guides. These books are the standard field guide size. Probably the most popular is
Robbins, Chandler S., Bertel Bruun and Herbert S. Zim. Birds of North America. New York: Golden Press. 1983. ISBN0-307-33656-5.
This book features range maps on the same page as the bird species account, a criticism of the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds. I knew an ornithologist that took his Golden Field Guide to Birds of North America and drew in all of the field mark notes found in the drawings in the Peterson guide (one of the strengths of that guide).
Another popular series is the Stokes Nature Guides published by Little Brown. My favorites:
Tyning, Thomas F. A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1990. ISBN 0-316-81713-9.
Stokes, Donald W. A Guide to Nature in Winter. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1976. ISBN 0-316-81720-1.
This is the best book on nature in winter. It almost reads like a novel and is full of information.
Stokes, Donald W. A Guide to Observing Insect Lives. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1983. ISBN 0-316-81727-9.
Lastly, another series of nature guides, called the Finder published by the Nature Study Guild in Rochester, NY. These are pocket sized and very inexpensive. My favorites are:
Miller, Dorcas. Track Finder: A Guide to Mammal Tracks of Eastern North America. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1981.
Watts, May Theilgaard and Tom Watts. Winter Tree Finder: A Manual for Identifying Deciduous Trees in Winter. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1970.
Watts, May Theilgaard. Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees by Their Leaves. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1991.
Watts, May Theilgaard. Flower Finder: A Guide to Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families. Rochester: Nature Study Guild. 1955.
If you have any questions or would like more information please make use of the comments on this blog.
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