In Praise of Field Guides

 Whenever I head out into the great outdoors for an "adventure", I will usually pack one or more field guides with me.  By "adventure" I mean any excursion with the express purpose of observing nature, and by "field guide" I mean any manner of pocket-sized book that is helpful in identifying the things you will find in nature.  I can hear the collective eye-rolling from here.  "Oh Skeeter, they're like little bricks in your backpack; why carry the excess weight?" Or better yet, "Oh Skeeter, we've got modern apps on your phone for this; get with the times!"  

Please hear me out.

Part of why I love field guides so much is first a function of who I am, and second is a function of what I'm trying to do.

A little bit about who I am.  As a fifty-something at the time of this writing, it's pretty safe to say that I grew up in an analog world.  This world was pre-internet, pre-cell phone, and pre-digital anything.  I mean, yes, there were computers on board the space ships that were going up, and banks were converting their records over from paper to computer around that time.  But in day-to-day life, if you wanted to learn about something on your own, you had to look it up in a physical book.  Our school library was loaded with books of all sorts, and you even used a card catalog to find them.  When I was old enough to have pocket money, I would buy my own books, especially ones that I enjoyed checking out from the library over and over again.  One series of books I began to collect were known as "Golden Guides."  They were richly illustrated, as printing color photographs in books was rare and expensive in those days.  The point here is, if I had a book in my hand, I could thumb through it and see, for example, hundreds of species of wildflowers, or in another book, hundreds of species of trees, all in one sitting.  It opened a world to me that wasn't some black box sitting in my pocket.  These books helped unlock a curiosity in me at a young age, because I learned about a world that I needed to go out and discover for myself.

A little bit about what I'm trying to do.  The idea of going on an outdoor adventure to study nature is but one aspect of any journey into a wood or meadow.  I might be going out there with the goal of exercise in mind.  I might be going out there just to clear my head.  Whatever the reasons, it's usually to unplug, and that's the operative word here.  Connecting with nature allows us a few moments in our day to disconnect from work, bills, tax filings, the news, social media drama, you name it.  I go outside to reduce my screen time as much as possible.  Granted, most cameras these days, either the one embedded in your phone, or a handy point-and-shoot camera, have a screen built into them.  Unless you're going to sit and sketch your findings, you're probably going to photograph them, and screens are therefore mostly unavoidable (unless you're the rare person who still uses film).  All this being said, any reduction in screen time is better than no reduction in screen time.  The benefit of this is that we learn to slow down a little bit more.  We engage with the world with our own eyes rather than a screen image of it.  This is how we actually connect with nature, by looking at it, smelling it, and sometimes even tasting it.  It's just you, your eyes, that wildflower, and the air between you and it.  

This is how we pause. This is how we rejuvinate ourselves.

Having said all of this, it's not like I don't use plant ID apps.  I just choose when and where to use them.

Let's say I'm out on the trail and I find a white wildflower I've never identified before.  I might have seen it a hundred times, but I might not know what species it is.  If the bugs aren't biting too fast, I might stop and snap a photo of it for later reference.  Then I might pull out a field guide that specializes in wildflowers.  I'd flip to the section on white flowers, and thumb through until I find a match.  I might then note this in a notebook and move on.  Suppose I don't find a match?  Well one of the drawbacks of printed field guides is that they are limited in the number of species they can contain in their 200 pages.  You're likely to only find the most common species in any given book.  So if  I come up short, I might look the plant up on something like PlantApp later using the photo that I took.  This way, I stay in the moment, and I remain as unplugged as I can while out on the trail.

Over the years, I've accumulated quite a collection of field guides.  I probably only bring no more than three with me on any given trip.  Sometimes I don't bring ANY books with me if my goals are more to do with covering ground than collecting photos of plants or trees.  But I have them, and they're an integral part of my library.  

Just a few of the many field guides in Skeeter's Library

The best part about field guides is that they have them for any age level.  Peterson puts out a series called "First Guides" which are designed for young people who are just starting out.  Golden Guides are still in production from St. Martin Press, and are perfect for beginners or seasoned adventurers of any age.  The Audubon Society has a series of thick field guides with extraordinary photography for the more advanced users.  If you're lucky, you might find one or two books that are specific to your area.

If you're finding that this sort of hobby is for you, consier investing in a couple books for yourself.  Focus on topics that you're most interested in.  It's a good way to enrich your experience and to invest in yourself.  Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

Winter Survey

In my first few blog posts, I talked a bit about what I do, and in this blog I'm actually going to do what I've been talking about.  This will be a brief walk-through of a recent short outing to the woods behind our house.  I've probably done this a hundred times but this time I'm going to document it.

At the time of this writing, it's early January, and the ground is pretty much frozen up and snow is on it's way in a couple days.  I thought, this is a good time to take a look at the forest floor and see what's looking green while the big trees are asleep at the moment.  If you're looking for something to do in the winter, this is a fun activity, and all you need is a camera and a field guide or two to help with plant identification.  Optionally, you can also bring a notebook to log your findings.

For reference, I'm conducting this activity in Eastern Connecticut, in what's known as a "dry-mesic oak forest."  The area was lightly logged about 22 years ago and while there are many older trees between 50 and 75 years old, many are younger, between 5 and 25 years old, along with saplins and seedlings.  The area is not old growth by any means.  Many acres of former farmland reforested in the last 125 years or so.  The evidence of stone walls through the woods suggest this space was once cleared, perhaps for animal pasture.

Four low-growing evergreen plants

The first group of plants I found were small and low to the ground.  Most of these are familiar to me, but I actually don't know the names of all of them.  I consulted three different field guides to narrow in on what these are called.  Two of them with round-ish leaves were a little too close to call, so I used a plant identification app and later confirmed their findings with Google to get an ID on one of these.  It turns out that they're ALL wintergreens.  Going clockwise from the upper left, we have what I believe to be American Wintergreen, Teaberry, Spotted Wintergreen, and what I believe to be Shinleaf.  I'll probably need to look at the two on the left again in the spring to see how similar or different their flowers are, to make sure I'm not looking at two of the same species.

The teaberry (upper right) has small leaves, and they grow along the ground.  In the summer and fall, you can usually see their bright red berries.  They are definitely edible, and you can make a tea out of them, but please don't eat any wild berries until you are 100% sure of what you're looking at.

One Google image and three field guide photos to help ID these plants

Moving on, I spotted three different non-flowering plants.  You might remember this category of plants from high-school biology class, but if you don't, don't worry about it for now.  For the sake of this discussion, we're going to say that out behind our house are evergreen ferns, one very tiny baby fir tree, and plenty of moss-covered rocks.  I know the fern to be a Christmas fern.  I don't know my mosses, and that tiny tree may very well be a hemlock, but time will tell.

Some non-flowering plants from the forest floor

We can talk about the larger trees another time.

So just like that, I've identified most of the plants in our little forest that are still green during the winter.  I'm sure there are a few I missed, but these help give an idea of what's common in our area.  Other naturalists can use this to see how their area is similar or different.  If they live in our same ecoregion, this information will be useful for them.

As for me, I could spend hours poking around in the woods.  Many of these plants are like old friends to me.  I take a great deal of joy in knowing what's around me.  As I like to say, "the floor of the forest never disappoints."

I'm a big fan of field guides.  Since this exercise was done on our own property, I left the books inside and consulted them later.  When I go on an expedition away from home, I'll throw a couple in my bag.  Why use an analog book when you've got the whole internet in your pocket?  I suppose it's a personal preference.  Time spent in a book is time not spent on a screen.  They're unplugged and help life pass a little more slowly.  And they are particularly useful in conserving your phone battery (I've been known to run my phone down just from taking too many photos!).  Personally, I can never have enough of these little books.  Here are the three I used in this exercise:

In the next post, I'll talk a bit about the mature trees and as an added bonus, I'll talk about signs of animal life that I found on this exursion.  Until next time... 

Results May Vary By Location

 As they say in real estate, location is everything.

Repeat after me: location, location, LOCATION.

In terms of the study of nature, everything you see will depend on where you are, and also WHEN you are.  Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that what you will see will vary from what I will see.  

I figure I first started picking up rocks and pebbles when I was about four years old, which means I've got roughly a fifty year history of studying nature in my home state of Connecticut.  Despite this, I've lived in several places across the state, and each of them have had variations in the trees and plants from one end of the state to the other.  For example, the northwest corner of the state may take on more of a northern hardwood appearance (sugar maple, beech, hemlock) versus a more oak-dominated forest here at home in the northeast corner (with a variety of oak trees and shagbark hickories).  Having said this, I know I can go right down the road and find some damp gullies loaded with hemlock and white pine that will start to feel like some of my favorite places in northwest Connecticut.  While a wider ecoregion will carry with it its own commonalities, many microclimates in a local region will make for different obervations.  Heck, even the north side of a hill in my home town will look a lot different from a wetland just down the road from here.  This is what makes being a naturalist fun.  There's no shortage of fun places to explore.

Northeastern Coastal Forest near our home

Many of the forthcoming posts in this blog will be from the context of where I live.  The takeaways for you will be methods that you can adopt for yourself, up to and including ways to observe and share your own local observations.  With any luck, our observations together will be of benefit to anyone out there looking to learn more about where each of us lives.  Right there, that's the best part about being a naturalist: someone can always learn from what we are doing.

And for the record, I wasn't entirely sure what an ecoregion was until I sat down to write this post, so yes, I learned something today.  Wikipedia has a great list of North American ecoregions.  Use it to learn more about where you live.  Cheers and happy hunting!  

Ecoregions of North America

How I Got Started as a Naturalist

When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I pretty much had my eyes glued to the ground when I was outside.  I was pretty good at pattern recognition so I knew when I found something out of the ordinary.  For example, in the days before Chem-lawn, my dad kept a meticulous half acre lot, but it was loaded with things like white clover and dandelion, mostly because the house was built on former cow pasture, so wild seeds were always nearby.  I remember spotting feathery leafy plants mixed into the grass at the edge of the driveway, which I would come to understand later in life that these were yarrow and wild carrot.  Similarly, after a winter of having a driveway sanded and shoveled, I would later find leftover quartz pebbles in the springtime, because I thought they were pretty.  This was the kind of child that needed to be taken to a Natural History museum immediately.  Parents, take note.

At the end of our street was a vacant lot that was designated as "open space".  It wasn't quite large enough to put a house on it, so they left it to go wild.  Us kids would ride our Big Wheels down to this lot and of course, we explored like crazy even though we never had a name for what we were doing.  I can still list the kinds of wildflowers that were growing like crazy in that field:

• oxeye daisy
• black-eyed susans
• goldenrod
• purple clover
• purple thistles
• cow vetch
• butter & eggs

... among many others.

Oxeye Dasies are not native to North America, but they are easy to grow.

It was in that field that I caught my first butterflies.  I think I had a glass jar full of them!  Regrettably, I learned the hard way that you needed to poke holes in the lid so that they could breathe, but that's another story altogether.  Hindsight tells me these were probably skippers of some sort.  They were dusty orange, and I tried to tell my mother they were all sleeping.

Not a Skipper, but probably a (Silver-Borderd) Fritillary

The back portion of our own lot, like most on that side of the street, were left wooded.  I didn't spend much time on tree identification, but I can tell you with certainty that we had several species of violets, ferns, and berries in that bit of space.  If we were ever issued the command to "go play outside," this was never a problem for me, at least, unless I didn't know how to identify poison ivy, which I couldn't.  After years of suffering, calamine lotion, and steroid shots, Cub Scouts fixed this permanently for me.  

Marsh Violets, similar to ones found behind our old house.

But until that point, the other mishap story that I love to tell is that my mother eventually learned that she always needed to check my pockets before doing the laundry.  I remember one time at a family gathering, she gave a list of what she'd find... pebbles, rocks, even live caterpillars!  I think the bits of broken crayons that made it to the dryer (and consequently, all over everyone else's clothes) fixed this for both of us.

So what's the takeaway here?  I think anyone, at any age, can cultivate curiosity, and with that, the observations will come.  Skills like plant identification need not be intimidating, as they are a natural consequence of traipsing through the woods and meadows.  You don't need epic wilderness to get started.  All you need is your own back yard or nearby park, and your eyes and ears.  How this plays out for you is your story.  Don't be afraid of mistakes.  Lord knows, I wasn't.

I eventually got my wish to visit a natural history museum.  More on that later.

I later went on to a successful career in Scouting.  Much, much more on that later.

And as an adult, I check my pockets more carefully now before doing the wash.

What is a Naturalist anyway?

 So let's start with defining what I mean by "a naturalist."  The term is not to be confused with a "naturist" who likes to run around with no clothes on.  I mean, if this is how you want to pursue the study of nature, by all means, please do so and I'll invest in the mosquito repellent industry!

Simply put, a naturalist is one who studies nature.  Some Google searches will take you to definitions that talk about degree requirements for becoming a professional naturalist.  This is fine too, although most of us seasoned adults have chosen our respective careers and aren't going back to school any time soon.  If you should decide on a mid-life career change after reading this blog, again, more power to you!  Some younger people who are just starting may wish to focus their academics on environmental sciences, and that would be awesome.

People like you and me are either amateur naturalists, or in my case, accidental naturalists (I made that last part up; don't Google it).  Don't be misled by the term "amateur," because a lot of science today is performed by citizen scientists.  Should you decide to go that route, I applaud you for your efforts, and I'll see you out there someday! But meanwile, many of us go to nature to seek peace and to recharge our batteries.  You can do this, and do it with a purpose.

Skeeter the legendary accidental naturalist

So what does an amateur naturalist do?  First and foremost, we spend time observing nature.  Genrally speaking, we will also record our findings.  With these two basic ideas in mind, there are limitless options on how you can do these things, based on your level of curiosity and skills.  For example:

• You could photograph wildflowers
• You could go birdhunting
• You could start an artistic nature journal
• You could go hiking and log what species you see
• You could plant a butterfly garden
• You could become a rockhound
• You can make dioramas with moss and plastic dinosaurs!
• Entomology is always fun, photo-wise or mounting-wise
• Amateur skywatching is never out of the question...

You get the idea...

There are many ways to have fun as a naturalist.

What kind of equipment do you need?  At a bare minimum, you need your eyes and ears.  That's it.  But gear sometimes makes a hobby more fun.  What you'll need depends on what you want to do.  For those looking for a more definitive list, I'll give you my own list of things I take with me into the field on any given day:

• A camera (usually my cell phone)
• A notebook and pencil
• A field guide or two
• A canteen of water
• A snack
• Insect repellant
• Extra socks
• A bag or rucksack to put it all in
• And an awesome hat (on my head)

I mean, you've gotta have a really cool hat.

What's in your bag?  And how cool is your hat?

Getting started is easy.  To paraphrase what I saw on another site earlier... start now by looking out your window.  BOOM, you're a naturalist.

Let's Go On An Adventure

 I am not sure where this obsession first started.  I mean, I was never a huge Indiana Jones fan, but I always liked to be outside.  Maybe the foundations were laid when I was a lad, suddenly designated as the Troop Historian and I was suddenly aware that I had to pay attention to everything going on around me.  Maybe it was just that I liked to identify things around me with the help of a half dozen Golden Guides.

But then one day, decades later, a friend of mine proposed that we "go on dinosaur safari."  And then, an idea was born.  It sorta manifested with a little still life I made, that looked like this:

I don't know what this meant, or where we were going, but the idea of heading off on an adventure, real or imagined, suddenly struck a chord with me.  I mean, who doesn't love dinosaurs?  How many of us used to pretend when we were kids that we were explorers, romping around in woods and meadows, picking up crystal-like rocks or catching fireflies?  There was magic in a new discovery, waiting around every corner, every tree.  And then we grew up.

Well I'm here to tell you that whether you're six or sixty, you can still approach the world with that same sense of wonder that a kid has.  I mean, sometimes we all need to get out into nature for a little bit and forget about the burdens of the day, right?  Sometimes you just need a moment to slow down, to look, and to listen to nature... and there's so many ways to do this.  

And sometimes you need an awesome hat when you're doing this.  

My name is Skeeter, and I'm probably the most unfamous naturalist that you've never heard of.  Welcome to my new blog.  Come with me.  Let's go on adventure.  We just might see some dinosaurs!