The Amateur Naturalist's Handbook

When I first acquired this book many years ago, I was in awe of the attension to detail Vinson Brown poured into the book. It profoundly affected my ability to observe the world around me. Molecular biology has and is doing great things for humanity, however, it is through patient observation of the natural world we come to understand it. Vinson Brown's other books are very good as well, I would suggest collecting them all before they go out of print or further interest is lost in natural science.

A well written piece, so self explanatory that any novice easily use it. It is loaded with well drawn pictures and charts, and not only deals with subjects such as cloud recognition and rock collecting but how to capture bugs, trap building instructions are included. It deals with just about every aspect of nature all at a very easy to read level for either the casual stroller to the serious student. So you can gather walk along and enjoy knowing what things are actually learn about a certain plants or animals. This is really fun book I take it along on road trips with my kids and have a blast at the beach collecting pill bugs and burrowing ghost shrimp. Now that I know there names I can tell everyone what they are.