By Em
Phone apps can be really helpful for identifying things in nature, but it can sometimes take awhile to find what you’re looking for, and that bird or butterfly or insect may disappear in the meantime. That’s why Jill and I always snap a quick photo if we can.
But a more “old-fashioned” tool that comes in really handy when we want to ID something in a hurry is a folding pocket guidebook. They are like laminated road maps (if anyone remembers what a road map is anymore!).
I have apps and guidebooks galore, but when time is of the essence, these quick-reference guides rarely let me down.
You can get them for birds, butterflies, mushrooms, wildflowers, rocks, trees, reptiles, animals tracks and just about any other nature category you can think of.
I keep one of the butterfly guides on my back porch.
And Jill and I have a small stack of folding bird guides we keep in her car at all times. Even after decades of birdwatching, many ducks and hawks are still challenging for us to ID—especially in the spring when our skills are rusty after a long winter.
Ducks can be too far away and hawks can move too fast for good photos. That’s when we rely on binoculars and one of the fold-out guides.
Because they are laminated, you can easily wipe them off if you get sunscreen or mud on them or it rains or you spill your coffee.
Best of all, they take up very little space and you can easily find them for sale at your local bookstore (check the nature section!) or online.
