National Audubon Society Guide to the Mid-Atlantic Stat Es

This a wonderful all-in-one guide to the Mid-Atlantic area. It's great to only have to carry one field guide that has it all, even including astronomy! Would highly recommend.

This is a field guide that's fun to read. It covers everything from trees to mammals. I got it when my son was a preschooler and he had a great time leafing through it. He learned a surprising amount. Obviously it's not for serious birders or someone who wants to identify insects, but that leaves a lot of us. The binding is unfortunately rather fragile; don't expect it to hold up to years of heavy usage. If you're interested in wildlife, go ahead and enjoy this book. You can get something more durable and focused later on, once your interests have developed.

The strength of this guide is definitely its breadth, not its depth. This is an asset for curious people who don't want to lug around 10 separate identification books for plants, insects, snakes, etc. It also makes it more readable than your average single-subject field guide; my husband has read it cover-to-cover! We discovered this book on a friend's bookshelf and after we gave it back we kept finding ourselves wishing we had it along on hikes. Although we are fairly knowledgeable, outdoorsy people, but there's always something new we want to look up. Now that we have our own copy, we pack this book when we want to travel light, and it has been surprising how many times we could find what we were looking for, or come close enough to greatly speed further research when we got home.

I bought this book to take on family hikes. Whether your interests are as general as that, or whether you are inclined toward serious plant/animal identification, this book should be helpful.It is oriented toward quick identification. The pictures are clear, colorful, and though small, should enable many matches out in the field. Although the write-ups are brief, and don't go much further beyond identification and some basic facts like location, there are occasionally some additional helpful information. For example, the section on mushrooms clearly identifies which ones are poisonous and deadly poisonous.The book has some additional chapters on parks in the region. It is well organized. I would imagine that for weekend walkers, this field guide might be the only one you'll ever need.

This series has answered a long outstanding need ... an one volume field guide that you can actually carry into the field. As a birder, I still carry a more detailed bird guide such as National Geographic or Peterson's. But I'm always running across a flower or tree or animal I'm curious about. This guide is the ideal second volume carry with you since it explains the the most common things you'll run across in areas other than your primary interest. Another valuable use is for leaders of youth groups, such as Scout leaders. As a Scout leader myself, I'm always being asked by the boys to help them identify a salamander or other animal. This guide allows you to do this in the field wihhout having to carry a whole library of field guides in your pack. In addition, by being regional guides they eliminate the things you won't find in an area, such as saguarro cactus in New Jersey. In sum, the appropriate book from this series is a good reference to carry with you as you explore the outdoors in your part of the USA.