Nature books

Getting the right book can make all the difference in getting started identifying flowers, trees or birds. Below are some tips on what to look for when buying a book, and some I have found helpful.

You can order books by clicking on the Amazon link at the bottom of this page. If you do, then this website receives a small commission, which goes towards its upkeep and development.

Hot tip: you can also find photos and information about many flowers, trees and birds on Wikipedia. The RSPB website also has an excellent section for identifying birds, including song clips.

FLOWERS

Flower books all have their deficiencies. Some use illustrations (colour drawings) of flowers and some have photographs, but both have their problems. A photo shows you what the flower actually looks like, but an illustration can give you the critical detail that you need to identify it. That means illustrations work better for some flowers, and photos for others, and many books now use a bit of both.

Until a few years ago, most flower books also arranged their contents by scientific families, which is not much use for a beginner. Thankfully, many now do it in colour order.

	Wild Flowers Dorling Kindersley Pocket Nature series an excellent beginner’s guide: packs an amazing amount onto each page photos of plant growing, in its habitat, and illustrations of details. Distribution maps and a diagram that shows the size of plants. Drawbacks: a bit heavy for its size. Some of the main photos are rather indistinct. Only has a quarter of the flowers covered in the Majorie Blamey book mentioned below. Some flowers covered are not found in Britain		Blacks Nature Guide to Flowers Similar to the Dorling Kindersley book above. Slightly less detail on each flower, but better photos
	Majorie Blamey’s Wild Flowers by Colour published by Domino an interestingly different approach, in that it shows lots of flowers per page, arranged by colour and then families. Flowers shown actual size. packs over 2000 flowers – all you will ever need – into a relatively light book. sections on habitats, showing what flowers you may find in grassland, for example. short section on flowering shrubs and berries. Drawbacks: does not show what whole plant looks like that can be vital in identifying some plants. Some white flowers illustrated on a white background, which makes them hard to see		Readers Digest Wild Britain Guide to Flowers excellent illustrations, showing both detail and what the full plant looks like when growing arranged not just by colour, but by the number of petals Drawback: a little bit chunky, though not over heavy
	Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland by Rae Spencer-Jones and Sarah Cuttle published by Kyle Cathie Publishing in association with Plantlife and Natural England far too big for field use, but a wonderful reference book to have at home presents a photograph of a picked version of each flower in colour order and the order they appear during the year you can use this book to test your knowledge (cover up the text page and identify the flower!)

While the above books are excellent to get you started, you will find surprisingly quickly that you start trying to identify flowers that are not in your book. Once you get to this stage, you need a book that has all the flowers growing in the UK:

Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland, by Majorie Blamey, Richard and Alastair Fitter, published by Domino the bible of British flower books – covers absolutely everything that can be found flowering in UK, including shrubs and trees, and every detail you need to identify them. Drawbacks: not for beginners: you need to know the flower families. Also seriously heavy, and sadly seems to be out of print: try re-sellers on Amazon, or see the Cassel guide below

Cassell’s Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe by Christopher Grey-Wilson and Majorie Blamey Seems to be the replacement for the Domino book mentioned above Drawback: currently only available in hardback (a very heavy book, not for field use), but I am guessing this will change

TREES

The ideal book will have both a picture of the full grown tree as well as close ups (ideally illustrations rather than photos) of its leaves, flowers or catkins, and fruit or nuts. It is useful to know when the tree flowers and produces catkins. One flaw with most books is they arrange trees by families, but see the New Holland and Readers Digest ones below, which arrange their contents by leaf type.

	Trees in the Collins Gem series Meets all the above criteria and fits in your pocket. The perfect book for beginners Drawbacks: does not have the more exotic park and garden trees which after a while you might be curious about. Arranges trees by families, but there are not that many, and you soon find your way around the book.		The Pocket Guide to Trees published by Mitchell Beazley Brief details on a wide range of trees, including more exotic ones, in a pocket format. Drawbacks: perhaps a bit lacking in detail on individual trees. Sadly seems to out of print. You may get it through re-sellers on Amazon.
	The Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs of Britain & Europe published by New Holland A good substitute for the Mitchell Beazley book: has various exotic trees as well as the basic native ones Contents arranged by leaf type Photographs and illustrations of leaves and fruit Includes shrubs and climbing plants found in hedgerows too Drawback: slightly clunky layout		The Field Guide to the Trees and Shrubs of Britain in the Reader's Digest Nature Lover’s Library arranges the trees by leaf type – that is, with similar types of leaf together. useful sections on berries, catkins and identifying trees from their twigs Drawbacks: a bit short on basic data such as when the tree flowers. The contents page does not mention the above special sections, which makes them hard to find. A bit larger than the above two books, but not too heavy to carry around.

SHRUBS

You may laugh, but there are all sorts of interesting plants that are neither trees nor flowers, yet which produce flowers, berries and which you may want to identify. Yet nobody does a wild shrub book.

The New Holland and Reader's Digest books in the tree section are useful here. All three Majorie Blamey books in the flower section also have full coverage of flowering shrubs.

BIRDS

For birds, you ideally want a book with illustrations of each bird in a number of different poses and behaviours, together with information about their character, habitat, breeding behaviour and song. Failing that, a good clear illustration or photo of each bird will do.

You can simplify things considerably by getting a book on garden birds. This will include just about all the birds you will see in the countryside in the south east, probably also including common birds of prey and seagulls, while excluding the more specialist wading birds, other sea birds and ducks,

	The Pocket Guide to Garden Birds, published by Mitchell Beazley meets all the above criteria, but sadly now seems to be out of print. You may get it through re-sellers on Amazon. The Birdwatchers Pocket Field Guide to Birds of Parks and Gardens by Mark Golley, published by New Holland in association with The Wildlife Trust could be a substitute for the above		Green Guide to Birds of Britain & Europe published by New Holland Only one illustration per bird, but they are very clear pictures, and this is a light book
	RSPB Pocket Guide to British Birds published by Helm The most light and slim of all the RSPB guides The RSPB also does a Garden Birdwatch book, but much of this book is taken up with features on how to build nesting boxes and feed birds The RSPB also gives its approval to Pocket Birds published by Dorling Kindersley, which has good photos, but is rather heavy		Birds in the Collins Gem series like all books in this series, very informative in an extremely compact size They also have a Garden Birds title Drawback: these books have only one small photo of each bird, which can make it hard to identify particular aspects of their plumage
	Reader's Digest Wild Britain: Garden Birds Chunkier than the others, but has a wonderful range of pictures for each bird Drawback: like others in this series can be light on the basic data Reader's Digest Field Guide to Birds of Britain also has wonderful photos, but includes all birds rather than just garden birds, and is even heavier		Birdsong CDs Lots are available. Again stick to one for garden birds so as not to be burdened with waders and seabirds. I have found Songs of Garden Birds from the British Library sound archive perfectly adequate. The RSPB website also has brief song clips for many birds.

BUTTERFLIES & INSECTS

Butterflies rarely sit still long enough to be identified, but it is nice to be able to name some common ones. As for insects, most people will not have the patience to study them. But here are some books, if you are interested:

Insects in the Collins Gem series is a useful pocket book, but does not have butterflies, moths or spiders: for that you need the Butterflies or Spiders books in the same series

Insects of Western Europe by Domino Guides is an authoritative guide to all insects, spiders, butterflies and moths, but probably more for an insect enthusiast.

Home Reference

Also useful as a home reference, but rather too heavy for field use is Complete British Wildlife published by Collins, which has the most common butterflies, moths and insects, along with a selection of mammals, birds and flowers

© Peter Conway 2009 • All Rights Reserved