5
important part of studying
nature is learning to respect
and care for it.
Taking notes on what you
identify will both enhance your
enjoyment and increase your
learning. You might want to jot
things down in the margins of
your book or keep a separate
journal, but it is definitely
worth establishing the habit of
keeping records.
Your notes should include
the species, whether it is male
or female (if appropriate),
where you found it, the date,
the surrounding habitat, and
any unusual characteristics or
behavior. Start to notice
patterns. Looking back over
your notes will give you a
deeper appreciation for the
cycles of nature as you realize,
for example, that a
hummingbird reappears at your
feeder on the same date each
year.
Unlike humans, the rest of
nature responds to an eternal,
unchanging clock, and that can
be very reassuring to those of
us dependent on the
sometimes whimsical and ever-
changing demands of work and
family.
Don’t stop with just keeping
a written record of your
discoveries. There are many
ways to “collect" nature as you
learn about it. Taking pictures
is an obvious choice, and you
might decide to create a
series of specialty albums –
mushrooms, animal tracks,
seed pods, and so on. These
can be helpful when you try to
remember what you have seen,
and they can also be used to
educate others.
As you work with your field
guides, you will start to learn
what characteristics are most
helpful when attempting to
identify a species.
For example, a beginner seeing
a bird usually notices the color
first, and perhaps the general
size. The experienced bird
watcher knows that
identification is easier if one has
taken note of smaller
characteristics, such as eye
rings, head patches, and beak
shape.
Similarly when studying
flowers, the color of the blossom
may catch your eye, but you’ll
quickly learn to notice the
number of petals and the type
and placement of the leaves.
Nature identification relies
as much on eliminating
possibilities as it does on
matching up characteristics. If
you are trying to identify a
tree with deeply lobed leaves,
you might first eliminate all
those without similar leaves,
and then consider more
detailed characteristics
among the species that
remain. Many plant guides are
set up in this manner, asking
you to make a series of choices
which will gradually narrow your
search to just a few possible
matches.
As you gain in knowledge, you
will probably find that you want
more than one field guide for
each category that you’re
studying. Take your time and
build your library gradually,
making notes on what you have
found helpful in your current
guide, and what you wish it
offered in additional material.
Which Guide To Buy
When all is said and done,
which field guide is the best.
As you may have gathered,
there is no definitive answer to
that question. Your own
experiences will ultimately
determine the best books for
your needs.
In the meantime, the
following series of guides come
highly recommended by many
nature lovers and would be a
good place to start:
• Stokes
• National Geographic
• Peterson
• Audubon
Leaf Arrangement
& Types
Alternate Opposite Whorled
Simple
Palmately
Compound
Even-pinnately
compound
Odd-
pinnately
compound
– Golden Field Guide, Trees of North America
Bipinnately
compound
