Peter AldenReseñas

Finding a copy of this treasure at a wonderful thriftstore in Sedona was the cherry on top of an already delightful trip. Until finding it, my only sorrow of the adventure had been my near-total ignorance of the desert flora that was on spectular springtime display.

There is a certain power and satisfaction to naming. Once I had this book, I felt both as I reviewed the many pictures from our trip and named the beauty I'd captured. I squealed with delight to find the book not only features flowers (my personal obsession) but also star charts of the night sky, explainations of different geological formations, butterflies, mammals, and more.

Overall very easy to use. However, a number of photographs were not clear enough -- either too far from subject or too shadowy -- for confident identification.

This field guide to the southwestern states has over 1,500 full-color images including over 1,300 high-quality photographs, 9 maps, 16 night-sky charts, and over 100 drawings. Part One is an overview of the topography, habitats, ecology, weather, and night Skys. In Part Two, there is specific information on the flora and fauna of the southwest by each picture, indicating size, appearance, seasonality, habitat, range, and brief identifying comments about, for example, leaves and blooms for flora, or calls and male versus female appearance for fauna.

Part Three focuses on parks and preserves in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

The pictures are excellent and so helpful, and the size of the guide is convenient for carrying around in your backpack while out and about.

NY, PA, NJ, MD, DL, WV, VA

So nice that all kinds of the local species are together in one book, plus a brief geological history, the different biotopes and sky maps! We have used it in Yellowstone.

This field guide makes a useful supplement to another field guide. If, for example, you're going out to spend a day in the field birding, you could throw this small volume in your daypack alongside your birding field guide. Then when you're at the beach watching 2nd year Glaucous-winged Gulls feeding on small crustaceans, you can pull out this guide and determine that they are eating Red Crabs (Cancer productus). This volume is also useful for getting an overview of the flora and fauna of California -- echinoderms, arthropods, crustaceans, molluscs, mammals, etc., etc. However, the small size and encyclopedic scope of the book means that species descriptions are cursory, and identifying photos are too small; and some of the species descriptions are so brief as to be just plain misleading. On the other hand, one of the best sections in the book is the listing of parks and nature preserves in the back of the book -- this section alone is worth buying the book for.

Pros: Beautiful pictures, well organized, pretty comprehensive
Cons: Pictures are small and hard to identify in varying seasons, not enough background info on individual species

A good quick-reference for the more common types of plants and animals endemic to the state as a whole, but poor for identifying the many sub-species and local flora and fauna that exist in California's microclimates. Likely useful for a casual birder in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but not for a curious hiker on the Central Coast or Channel Islands.

How can I read this book?

This book is extremely helpful when trying to identify animals or plants. Its also useful to get an idea of what kind of animals live in the region, since i am dont live in the rockies it was greatly helpful when i visited the region. I would buy the book again and again. It has all the basic info about all flora and fauna in the region. This book is indespensible!

Surprisingly comprehensive, in a format even my four year old can manage, small enough to take with us on hikes and exploring trips, this book has been in use constantly since we purchased it last year. Hurray for field guides!

Very good resource, especially for seeing what fauna wanders through our yard.

This book uses photos to help you figure out what you're looking at. Unfortunately the photos don't necessarily mean that's what it looks like in real life. Have found it very useful for both plant and insect-type identification in Southern Utah.

Great to have while hiking to help identify plants, birds, butterflies....

This book is wonderful because it covers so many subjects. It's got sky charts, geological information, plants, fish, mammals, birds... The diversity of subjects is also its greatest weakness. It simply can't afford to go into great depth about any of them. I tried actually taking this book into the field and was sorely disappointed -- nothing that I needed to look up could be found in it. It's a wonderful book, but a poor field guide for anyone serious about the outdoors.