A Naturalist's Bookshelf

This is a very slow time of year in nature, so I'm taking a couple of weeks off to travel. As an apology for missing a few newsletters, I took this opportunity to create a new page on the Nature Notes website as a resource for everyone in the Methow Valley.

As you may already realize, there are an overwhelming number of field guides to help you identify and understand the plants and animals you'll encounter in the Methow Valley, North Cascades, and north-central Washington. Because my life's work prompts me to buy and practice using every field guide I can find, I've ended up with an especially impressive collection of local field guides, and I wanted to share a list of what I consider to be the most important and useful field guides for our region.

This list is now a permanent page on the website so you can refer to it anytime you want. It's an evolving list that will be updated as new books come to my attention, and I welcome hearing about your favorite books in the comments below. At this point, the list focuses on field guides and leaves out books that are more general natural history descriptions, but let me know if you'd like me to add those too.

Enjoy! And in the meantime, please help support the work I do by making a one-time donation or signing up for a paid subscription so I can create more resources like this!