| Guide/Handbook Title | Comments |
Contri- |
|
(see also "Tracks and Tracking") |
||
| At Timberline; a Nature Guide to the Mountains of the Northeast, Frederic L. Steele (Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1982) | D.W., F.W. | |
| Bogs of the Northeast, Charles W. Johnson (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1985) | D.W. | |
|
A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore (Peterson Field Guides), Kenneth L. Gosner (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1978) |
This is my main source when I go to the beach. | A.R.S. |
| The Field Guide to the New England Alpine Summits, Nancy G. Slack and Allison W. Bell (Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1995) | D.W., F.W. | |
| Guide To Nature In Winter, Donald Stokes (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1976) | Adds significantly to one's enjoyment of winter! | A.R.S., J.K.M. |
| The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (annual) (Freeport, Me.: DeLorme, 1988- ) | The indispensable guide to Maine's rural and woods roads and trails, backcountry water bodies, obscure locales, and remote haunts and habitats. Maps at scale 1:125,000. This is my standard for the exact form of the names of Maine's minor civil divisions (cities, towns, townships, gores, and plantations). | F.W. |
| Maine's Natural Heritage; Rare Species and Unique Natural Features, Dean B. Bennett (Camden, Me.: Down East Books, c1988) | F.W. | |
| National Audubon Society Field Guide to New England, Peter Alden et al. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) | F.W. | |
| New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution, Richard M. Degraaf, Mariko Yamasaki (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2001) |
Originally co-authored with Deborah D. Rudis, published by the U.S.
Forest Service Northeastern Forest Experiment Station in 1986.
Perhaps so revised in 2001, with a new co-author and publisher, that it could
be considered a "new" work. Natural history and species/habitat relationship of: amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, including marine species. Sections for special status designations and rare terrestrial, coastal, and migratory species. This is the book for advanced yet accessible study. Not a guide for identification, but a summary of studies and information on New England wildlife. Truly great reference guide. One of my "essential four" Nature guides. |
L.S. |
| Omni Gazetteer of the United States of America. volume 1: New England (Detroit, Michigan: Omnigraphics, 1991) | Using authoritative sources the editors have compiled a comprehensive list of place names, land and water features. This is the source I depend on for obscure lake, stream, inlet, bay, pond and hamlet names. | F.W. |
| A Sierra Club naturalist's guide to the North Atlantic coast: Cape Cod to Newfoundland, Deborah Berrill and Michael Berrill, (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1981) |
Though now out of print and available only in libraries, this is the
best comprehensive guide to coastal ecosystems ever
produced. Among other things, it includes the best
description of Maine's geological history during the past 600,000 years
and the best explanation of tides (for students in particular) that I
have read. There are some color plates and good lists of organisms typically found in the various ecosystems covered (rocky, sandy, mud flats, estuaries, etc.) It is really more of a handy reference than a field guide. |
D.H. |
|
Tracks
and Tracking |
||
|
(see also "Fauna") |
||
| Animal Tracking and Behavior, Donald and Lillian Q. Stokes (Boston: Little, Brown, 1986) | An excellent guide to "reading the signs." |
J.K.M. |
| Bird Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species, Mark Elbroch, Diane C. Boretos, and Eleanor Marks (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 2001) |
It follows the format of a book of a similar
title done in England (Brown, et al.) which was so unique and
informative I used it to help me figure things out here in New
England! Having someone do a North American version was a boon to
us all. Identification methods include: tracks, trails, discarded feathers, feeding leftovers and caches, pellets, nests, droppings, skulls and bones. One of my essential four books for identification and/or further study. |
L.S. |
| A Field Guide to Animal Tracks, Olaus J. Murie (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982, c1972) second ed. (Peterson's Field Guide Series, no. 9) |
D.W. |
|
| Mammal Tracks & Sign: A Guide to North American Species, Mark Elbroch (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003) | Mark Elbroch was an apprentice of Paul Rezendes (as well as a wildlife biologist, etc.). It is the most comprehensive tracking book for North America to date. .One of my essential four books for identification and/or further study. | |
| Tracking and the Art of Seeing; How to Read Animal Tracks and Signs, Paul Rezendes. 2nd ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1999) |
"Excellent advanced guide, with photographs of
tracks, animal feet, etc." -- J.K.M. "Not just for advanced; for beginners as well. This is 'the essential' guide. If I could only choose one book -- this would be the one. There are so many misleading guides out there, bad drawings, etc.; one might as well start out with the best!" -- L.S. |
J.K.M. L.S. |
| Wildlife Signatures, A Guide to the Identification of Tracks and Scat, Maine Geographic (Freeport, Me.: DeLorme Publishing Company, 1983) |
A.R.S. |
|
|
(see also "Tracks and Tracking" and "General") |
||
| A natural history of American birds of eastern and central North America, Edward Howe Forbush, John Bichard May, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and others (New York: Bramhall House, 1955) | It is a wonderful book that no serious bird watcher should be without. It is available as a used book at many of such sites on the web. | J.F. |
| The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region, John Bull and John Farrand, Jr. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977) | F.W. | |
| Birding by Ear: Eastern / Central. Walton, Richard K. and Robert W. Lawson. Sound recording, 3 audio cassettes (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1989) | F.W., J.K.M. | |
| Birding in Atlantic Canada, Roger Burrows (St. John's, Newfoundland: Jesperson Press, 1992) | F.W. | |
| Charmants Voisins: les Oiseaux du Québec, Claude Mélançon (Montréal: Éditions du Jour, 1969) | F.W. | |
| A Field Guide to Birds’ Nests of 285 species found breeding in the United States east of the Mississippi River, Hal H. Harrison (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975) | D.W. | |
| A Guide to Bird Songs, Saunders, Aretas A. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1951) | F.W. | |
| Maine Amphibians and Reptiles, Malcolm J. Hunter, Jr., Aram J. K.. Calhoun, and Mark McCollough, eds. (Orono, Maine: University of Maine Press, 1999) | D.W., F.W. | |
| More Birding by Ear: Eastern /Central, Walton, Richard K. and Robert W. Lawson. Sound recording, 3 audio cassettes (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1994) | F.W. | |
| Whales of the Bay of Fundy, Tim Beatty (St. Andrews, N.B.: Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre, c1989) | Useful for the Gulf of Maine, as we are in nearly the same bioregion. | D.W. |
| Butterflies Through Binoculars, Jeffrey Glassberg (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999 | A.R.S., J.K.M. | |
| Dragonflies Through Binoculars, Sidney W. Dunkle (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000) | A.R.S. | |
| Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States, John L. Capinera (grasshoppers) Ralph D. Scott (artist) Thomas J. Walker (katydids & crickets) (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2005) |
A new (2004), handsomely illustrated field guide to Orthoptera for all of the U.S.. Comprehensive and definitive. Color illustrations of each species, shaded range maps, identification sketches, detailed species accounts all make this a very user-friendly guide book for this diverse and varied insect group. |
|
| A Field Guide to the Moths of Eastern North America, Charles V. Covell (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984) | Part of the Peterson Field Guides series, this is THE standard reference for identifying moths in our area, with 64 photographic plates (many in color). and descriptions for over 1,300 species. Additional line drawings show details helpful for identification. This excellent book is out of print but many libraries have copies. | A.R.S. |
| Golden Guide to Spiders and their Kin, Herbert and Lorna Levi (New York: Golden Press, 1968) | Despite its age, no other book comes close to identifying these remarkable creatures as thoroughly as this one does. | A.R.S. |
| A Guide To Observing Insect Lives, Donald Stokes (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1983) | A.R.S. | |
|
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders, Lorus and Margery Milne (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980) |
Though it is a tiny little Golden Guide, it is still the best for arachnids. I use it a lot. | A.R.S. |
|
Peterson Field Guide to Caterpillars of North America, Amy Bartlett Wright (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993). |
All of the Peterson "First Guides" are handy and conveniently-sized to take into the field. |
A.R.S. |
| Stokes Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies and Damselflies, Blair Nikula, Jackie Sones, Donald and Lillian Q. Stokes (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2002) | I can't say enough good things about this new, small and inexpensive guide. Most guides don't say much about damselflies, but this one does justice to both those and dragonflies. An absolute "must" for any Nature watcher. Blair Nikula's pictures are superb for identification and alone are worth the price of the book. I've also seen his work on the Maine Odonata website. | A.R.S. |
| Flora (including fungi and trees) | ||
| AMC Field Guide to Mountain Flowers of New England (Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1977) | D.W. | |
| The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Eastern Region, William A. Niering and Nancy C. Olmstead (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979) | F.W. | |
| Berry Finder: A Guide to Native Plants with Fleshy Fruits for Eastern North America, Dorcas S. Miller, et al. (Rochester, NY: Nature Study Guild, 1996) | This little booklet, part of the Nature Guide Guild's series, is excellent for its purpose. To identify a berry, one looks at the keys by color, size, season, etc. and quickly narrows it down. Well illustrated, showing both the berry and the plant. | F.W. |
| Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants, Bradford Angier (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1978) | D.W. | |
| The Flora of Bic and the Gaspé Peninsula, Québec, H.J. Scoggan (Ottawa: Canada Department of Resources and Development, 1950) | F.W. | |
| Forest Trees of Maine (Augusta: Maine Forest Service, 1908 - ) | Updated every few years. Latest edition is 1995. | D.W. |
| Golden Guide to Weeds, Alexander Martin (New York: Golden Press, 1972) | Weeds are hated by people but I still find them fascinating. They are found everywhere and many are attractive and have fascinating life histories. | A.R.S. |
| A Guide To Enjoying Wildflowers, Donald and Lillian Q. Stokes (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1985) | I think the wildflower guide is out of print, surprising since I think it's particularly good. Also, anything by the Stokes is excellent, including the 3-volume A Guide To Bird Behavior. | A.R.S. |
| Mushrooms of North America, Orson K. Miller (New York: Dutton, 1986) | D.W. | |
| Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide; an ingenious new key system for quick, positive field identification of the wildflowers, flowering shrubs and vines of Northeastern and North Central North America, Lawrence Newcomb (Boston: Little, Brown, c1977) | D.W. | |
| North Woods: an Inside Look at the Nature of Forests in the Northeast, Peter J. Marchand (Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1987) | F.W. | |
| Orchids: a complete guide to Maine's orchids, Philip E Keenan (Freeport, Me.: DeLorme Publishing, c1983) (Maine Geographic series) | D.W. | |
| Spring Wildflowers of New England, Marilyn Dwelley (Camden, Me.: Down East, 2000) second ed. | I met Marilyn Dwelley at one of the garden fairs in our area. At that time this book, with its wonderful artwork, was still out of print. She is an artist in her own right, but explained that the illustrations were not meant for their artistic value but to emphasize, in a single composite drawing, the key identification features of each plant's flowers, leaves and stalks. I am glad that Down East Books republished it. | F.W. |
| Summer and Fall Wildflowers, by Marilyn Dwelley (Camden, Me.: Down East Enterprise, c1977) | Complements Dwelley's notable spring wildflower guide. | D.W., F.W. |
| Trees and Shrubs of New England, Marilyn J. Dwelley (Camden, Me.: Down East Books, 2000) second ed. | A good companion to Dwelley's spring wildflower guide. | A.R.S. |
| The ultimate mushroom book; the complete guide to identifying, picking and using mushrooms -- a photographic A-Z of types and 100 original recipes, Peter Jordan and Steven Wheeler (New York, NY: Smithmark, 1995) | D.W. | |
| Geology | ||
| Bedrock Geologic Map of Maine, scale 1:500,000, edited by P.H. Osberg, A.M. Hussey II, and G.M. Boone (Augusta, Me.: Maine Geological Survey, 1985) | A.R.S. | |
| Glaciers and Granite , David L. Kendall (Unity, Me.: North Country Press, 1987) | A.R.S. | |
| Roadside Geology of Maine , D.W. Caldwell (Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing, 1998) | A.R.S. | |
| Sky Objects and Phenomena | ||
| Light and color in the outdoors, Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert (New York: Springer-Verlag, c1993). First English edition (1954) entitled The nature of light and colour in the open air | This is the guide that answers my questions about rainbows, moonbows, sundogs, light pillars, the green flash, and also tells me to look for other colorful, rare and little known sights in the sky. This field of study is curiously called "meteorological optics." | F.W. |
| Stars and planets, Ian Ridpath (New York: DK Pub., c1998) (Eyewitness handbooks series) | A sky observer's manual for all levels of observers in three segments: our solar system (planets, sun, comets, etc.), the constellations (1-2 page descriptions of all 88), and monthly sky guides (2-page sky layouts for both northern and southern latitudes). Includes a general introduction on stargazing, telescopes, the celestial sphere, and the universe. Great color pictures, charts and straightforward commentary. Constellation pages list interesting objects for naked-eye, binocular and telescope viewing (star clusters, nebulas, and multiple stars). Planet pages have a 5-year location guide. Includes glossary and index. | L.W. |
| 1001 things everyone should know about the universe, William A Gutsch (New York: Doubleday, 1998) | Based on the author's experience, the most commonly asked questions (plus many of his own choosing!) are answered in plain language. Topics range from astronomy to physics to geology. Examples: what might you see as you approach a black hole, the truth about the Martian canals, or "What do trains and moving stars have in common?" Well-organized; good teacher's resource. Some small black-and-white illustrations and photographs. The fun and insightful text is the pull here. Great casual "browsing" material or serious reading. | L.W. |
