Welcome to the Forum, @daffydork :)
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thanks! @trh_blue
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Welcome @daffydork! Do you know, by chance, how much those guides cost?
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My favorite is FIELD GUIDE TO INSECTS AND SPIDERS OF NORTH AMERICA (2008) by Arthur V. Evans (trademark: National Wildlife Federation).
This field guide has high quality photos, and good descriptions, as well as the range, feeding habits, methods of self defense, and where the different arthropods are often found. It also includes information on reproduction and other information about a species.
The book has diagrams in the front, a map in the far back, and a waterproof cover (though it’s probably only water resistant).
It also describes how to make a insect or spider collection, or to take care of arthropods in the back of the book. It even has a how-to guide on macro photography at the end! It has tips on finding and studying arthropods too. This guide has over 940 arthropod species and is light weight.
The only con for me is the fact that not all the insects or other arthropods I’m trying to identify, but I usually find what I’m looking for.
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I coincidentally stayed at the Big Creek reserve the same time as Arthur Evans a few years ago, he was researching his upcoming beetles of western north america book. A very nice guy and he let us moth at his light. :-)
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FIELD GUIDE TO INSECTS AND SPIDERS OF NORTH AMERICA ____($9.00 - $18.00)
BIRDS SONGS BIBLE ______________________________________($100.oo - $350.oo)
Birds of Pennsylvania field guide ________________________________($5.00 - $15.00)
THE ULTAMATE GUIDE TO BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS _____________($5.00 - $15.00)
Wildflowers (Northeastern / North-central North America _____________ ? ($10.00-$20.00)
Peterson First Guide to Wildflowers __________________________________( $5.00 )
Pond Life _____________________________________________________($3.00 - $6.00)
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Cool! Out of all the field guides I have, his FIELD GUIDE TO INSECTS AND SPIDERS OF NORTH AMERICA is my favorite! I lucked out when I found it at a garage sale.
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Thanks! Why does the BIRDS SONG BIBLE cost so much? Ah…It is partially electronic? Fascinating.
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Wow, the Golden Guide to Pond Life is still in print! I still have mine from when I was a kid! The cover looks totally different from your picture.
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It also says that the Birds Song Bible has all the types of birds in North America, but I’m not sure.
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A potential substitute for the Birds Song Bible would be the iBird Pro app. And you can download everything for offline use (most of my field sites have lousy connections). It takes up quite a bit of space on your device but you can have a field guide with audio on your phone or tablet. I always have my phone so it’s a handy way to check an unfamiliar song or sighting.
The Cornell All About Birds website https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse is good for songs/calls. Or the Macaulay Library http://macaulaylibrary.org/ if you want a full raw collection of the variation out there.
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One app I have, is Bird Net. You record bird calls with it, and the app tells you what it is. Most of the time, it’s spot on! After that, you can save the recording, and put it on iNat!
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lately, i’ve been taking photos of really distant birds in flight as they’ve been migrating through the area, and i came across this Ducks at a Distance guide (https://www.fws.gov/uploadedFiles/Ducks%20at%20a%20Distance.pdf), which has been helpful for identification of (distant) ducks in flight.
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Here is all my field guides:
Four does seem like quite a small number but they make it up with quality, “quality over quantity” it seems ;)
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the merlin app also has sets of recordings in the id info (from macaulay)
Birds: Helm field guide, https://ebird.org/
Butterflies and moths: Wikipedia, https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org, https://www.mothsofindia.org,
Insects: https://bugguide.net, https://ftp.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/
Spiders: https://wsc.nmbe.ch, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Flowering plants: https://powo.science.kew.org/, https://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/FloraPeninsular/
Cetaceans: Mark Carwardine handbook
Fungi: https://fungi.myspecies.info, http://mushroomexpert.com
Grasses: Kellogg Indian grasses checklist and above links
Gastropods: https://www.bagniliggia.it/WMSD/WMSDhome.htm, https://www.molluscabase.org/index.php, nudibranchs Gosliner, shells Dance and shells Harasewych books.
Ants: https://antwiki.org/wiki, https://www.antbase.net/
Fishes: https://www.fishbase.se/, https://www.marinespecies.org
I currently watching a video “guide”. It is series of daily reports from the Derby Hill Birding Observatory on Lake Erie in New York State for their hawk watch. There are a number of still photos and screenshots of their videos. The author takes time to point out key characteristics of a bird in flight. I am particularly interested in the hawks because we do get migrating raptors on the lakefront near Cleveland, Ohio. But, I do appreciate the other birds.
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I recently bought two booklets from the Pollinator Partnership. I bought a Bee Basics guide and a guide to Bumblebees. I am trying to learn how to ID them but, it is difficult. Still, these guides were good to read through. They are also available as free PDF downloads.
I have read a couple of books by Stephen Buchmann, Ph.D who contributes to the Bee Basics guide. I wish he would write more books!
https://www.pollinator.org/shop/books
I also requested this book from the library.
"The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bee"s by Joseph S. Wilson
I am finding that bees are more difficult to identify than dragonflies.
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My collection is heavily skewed to the West Coast of North America, since that’s where I came from, and many are for specific locations. They’re all treasured…
Some online resources I use (besides of course iNat and the already mentioned BugGuide) are:
Eggs is eggs – a beginners guide to seashore eggs
Freshwater Gastropods of North America
Flyguide
Identification Guide - Owl Pellets
and when you want to try helping with audio observation IDs…
Frog and Toad Calls
Sample Songs of Crickets and Katydids - some you may find you can’t hear due to the frequency
Can you ever really have enough field guides??? (-:
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I highly recommend Bumblebee Economics by Bernd Heinrich. Nice graphic at the back showing black/yellow marking patterns for many species.
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