A Field Guide to the Familiar

This field guide invites all aspiring naturalists to focus on one familiar plant, animal, or natural phenomenon at a time, and observe it in detail. It offers descriptive information on dozens of common subjects - from frost and fruit flies to blue jays and beech trees - and includes a drawing of each. Organized by seasons, it encourages readers to look more closely at the natural cycles of life in our world, and discover how much there is to learn. Whether read sequentially or used as a field companion or handy desk reference, A Field Guide to the Familiar (first published in 1984, and reprinted here with new reading suggestions) gives everyone a sense of the natural world as an accessible - and endlessly fascinating - place.