Hitting the Books
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| Great spangled fritillary on butterfly weed Image - Marge Loch-Wouters |
The following list of books and websites are by NO MEANS all the possible identification resources you can tap to learn more. They are my current go-to's. Think of it as a snapshot of this summer season and the resources I currently have at hand. To be honest, I am a hound for finding new websites to try and buying or checking out new field guides so this list is absolutely not the last word.
Wildflowers
Minnesota Wildflowers website- first stop for verification. Detailed information on wildflowers, trees, shrubs, ferns, vines, grasses, sedges and aquatics. Modeled after field guide and a gem. I also will refer to my old classic Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to Wildlflowers; The Audubon Socirty's Field Guide to North American WIldflowers - Eastern Region and Stan Tekiela's small Wildflowers of Minnesota Field Guide
Fungi
Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest by Teresa Marrone and Kathy Yerich. This is a field guide I carry with me in fall and have at my side at home throughout the season. It is still better than any app I've found and reliably addresses the mushrooms and fungi I sight. While I will also check the Picture Mushroom app for a quick ID, I find it's accuracy pretty poor and expensive if you want it to identify fungi while in the field.
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| University of MN Bee Lab |
There are websites/social media galore for our Driftless area! Both the WI DNR Bumble Bee Brigade and the University of MN Bee Lab have rich resources and identification help at their websites. I am also a huge fan of the Wisconsin/Midwest Bumble Bee Observers Facebook page where the amazing Judy Cardin generously helps you identify the species you are seeing. She also created really helpful Key Identification Trait cards for WI bumblebees which sits at my side for reference.
Native Bees
Common Native Bees of the Eastern United States is a true field-sized guide that is light and portable and is waiting for me to get serious about identification of these small bees. I'm afraid I'll need a net and speciman jar to ID these until I can gain more knowledge about these tiny swift pollinators!
Ferns
I find them endlessly tricksome but am slowly adding to my identification skills thanks the Welby Smith's Ferns and Lycophytes of Minnesota and sheer determination. A recent guided field trip gave me some additional recommended, and less-academic titles to acquire: Joe Walewski's Ferns & Allies of the North Woods and Linda Levine's Identifying Ferns the Easy Way: A Pocket Guide to Common ferns of the Northeast. I can hardly wait to dig in.
Dragonflies of Wisconsin by Karl and Dorothy Legler with Dan Jackson is a huge help to me. 188 species of odonata are described and includes data on their appearance, range, size and other details. The full-color photos may include male, female and juvenile forms. This paperback (available for sale at Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge by their Friends group or through the Wisconsin Dragonfly Society) is absolutely mandatory if dragonflies are your jam.
Birds
Oh my gosh, you name it, we have it - Sibley's, Ehrlich's Birder's Handbook, Peterson's Estern Birds, Tekiela's Birds of Wisconsin. I am still awful at most birds that don't actually visit my yard and am over-reliant on Merlin in the field, but there's always hope right?
Whether you are a casual observer or more dedicated as you hike, identification of what you are observing can lead to a richer experience in nature. Let me know your go-to guides whether apps, websites, books or your own philosophy. After all, on my natural history and identification shelves, there's alwaysroom for one more!
- What Do You See? Field ID Tips (Using Your Senses) - Part 1 9/10/26
- What Do You See? Field ID Tips (What's App?) - Part 2 9/14/26
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