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.
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| 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.
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