i heart my field guides

If you know me well then you know that I ADORE my field guides. I wish I had more, more, more field guides !!!  I think the Internet is A#1 for my research needs too but my field guides bring me hours of joy. Thus far I have field guides for Insects, Insects and Spiders, Rocks and Minerals, Sea-shells, The Night Sky, Birds of North America, Trees, Weeds, Medicinal Plants, Wild Flowers, Mushrooms and Little People. I get really geeky about identifying stuff. I like to record in my guides the date and place I find things. I take pictures. I read alot. I guess I could be considered an amateur naturalist.

While camping last weekend I came down with a serious case of Camera envy. There were at least 3 people sporting fancy Nikon Digital cameras with very large lenses. Oh the pictures I could take with a big ass zoom lens. For example, I could share with the world the gripping images of the  cute little woodchuck (aka. groundhog) that forages in our backyard everyday. Oh, woe is me :) 

Well, I've something to save up for now !

 

I DO love my field guides but as I mentioned, the inner nets <smirk> is tops for identifying all sorts of things. I identified this moth with help from my books and two great websites: What's That Bug? and Bug Guide. 

A good place with a lot of information and general field guides is Enature.com. For plants, I recommend a book called Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification by Thomas J. Elpel.

I am always on the look out for good  creature identification resources on the web. Do you have a favorite? Drop me a comment .

*Me thinks this is a Polyphemus moth from the Giant silkworm or Saturnid family. Specifically, I'm guessing it is a Tulip-tree moth. We have a huge Tulip-tree behind the house....makes sense.