Saturday, February 02, 2008

"Nature BC" Guide by James Kavanagh

Living at our float cabin inspires us to learn more about nature. As we observe birds, plants and the occasional animal, we like to identify them. Because we don't have an expert background in biology, we use several nature guides to give us a hand. We purchased one of our first guides at Canadian Tire. It's called Nature BC: An Illustrated Guide to Common Plants and Animals by James Kavanagh with illustrations by Raymond Leung, Linda Dunn, Horst H. Krause and Marianne Nakaska.

This is a great little guide with illustrations (rather than photographs) and brief descriptions for the novice or casual observer. The descriptions include a distribution map and information including the common and scientific name, size, habitat, key field marks for easy identification, behavioral characteristics and points of interest. What I really like about this book is that it includes mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, shorelife, trees, shrubs and wildflowers all in one 175 page book. It has durable pages and binding, and is small and light for carrying in a backpack or the car. It is my first choice before going to my more technical guides. The only categories missing are insects and spiders, but I guess you can't have everything in 175 pages.

If you don't have a Canadian Tire Store handy, you can find Nature BC at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. I'm always looking for good nature guides. Do you have any favourites? -- Margy

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:43 AM

    Good morning Margy,
    One of the books that I like is
    Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast,by Pojar & Mackinnon. It covers Washington,Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska.I take it with me on plant walks. The other one is Wild Harvest Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest by Terry Domico.
    Betty

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  2. Good suggestions, I'll put them on my watch list for book store shopping. Have you been back to the Cozy Corner bookstore lately? I need to go back and see if they've gotten any new books. I meant to go downtown where the used bookstore closed but never made it. Too busy doing nothing I guess. -- Margy

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