Customer Reviews

National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah (Audubon Field Guide)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love this series! I've singled out Southwestern just because I've been there recently and will be there again soon, but my comments here are more directed to the series as a whole.

These books are a wonderful introduction to natural history and identification. The information, though very condensed, is much more enjoyably presented here than it was in many a dull college "-ology" course. Overall, I agree with the New England guide publisher's comments about the series as a beginning to a more in-depth appreciation of natural history.

My gripes--and they are very small in comparison to the general usefulness and many great aspects of the guides--are actually with the comprehensiveness, which in some cases may lead to misidentification or confusion. It seems that the most common, conspicuous, and obvious species are generally included (good!), but there are some additions which might better have been excluded, or at least qualified: is the average person really going to be able to correctly identify, say, blue or skipper butterflies (only a couple of species included) or Brewer's and winter Chipping sparrows with the information in this book? The tougher ID's involved here take more skill and experience than the average person is likely to have, and the guide usually doesn't even caution the reader that this is so. I think it would have been better to at least alert the reader (in the proper places) that not all ID's are easy and that even experts sometimes have trouble, et cetera, just to clear things up. The only place I've yet noticed anything like this caution is the gulls ("confusing array of plumages").

Also there is the typical Audubon focus on adult males of species, while neglecting females and immatures, although this is more forgivable here than in the more specific guides--there just isn't room to cover everything here.

So, while I think it's marvelous that these guides will help so many people develop an understanding of, interest in, and love for the natural world, perhaps even more written emphasis on the variety and complexity of nature would have been better as an alert that, while the common and easier-to-ID species are included, many more species are out there to challenge us after we've acquired more in-depth knowledge.

I can't wait to return to the Southwest and use this great guide to help acquaint me with its wonders.

if you plan to visit the southwest and spend any time outdoors. Indispensable for hiking trips, but equally useful for finding national parks, etc. Full of interesting info on geology, history, and, of course, wildlife. Top-notch printing and it's well written, too....

this is the one to take! Like carrying a park ranger in your backpack to help you know what you are looking at. Trees and wildflowers, animals of the land, sky and water, minerals, stars of the night sky. Increase your knowledge and understanding of the beautiful places you visit and your own backyard. Check out the Audubon Field Guides to Florida and other regions as well. Well worth the money. Lots of color photographs and well organized for easy use.

This is a delight to come home to after a walk or a trip to the river. I try to bring a wildflower home to check out in the book, and am never let down.

While it seems almost an impossible undertaking to include four very large states in one book, in fact the Range guide helps focus the book quite a bit.

As an artifact, the book is well made and should last some time.

Just returned from a tour of the Southwest. The field guide was easy to use. I liked the fact that it covered so many aspects of the Southwest and eliminated having to tote five or six field guides to cover most of the subject matter.

I live in Chandler, Arizona and often go hiking and camping in all parts of the state. There have been many times I've found an insect, plant, or bird that I've so badly wanted to identify. I've taken this book with me on many, many occasions and it has come in hand magnificently. It gives warnings about dangerous plants/animal/bugs/and other things to be on the look out for. It also includes a guide to the night skies, depending on the season. The first 80 pages are packed full of information about the southwestern states, then it goes into Fungi, Invertebrates, Spiders, Insects, Birds and sooo much more! It's an extremely informative book!!

The only negative comment I have is that it seriously lacks on the spiders that Arizona has to offer. It includes only about 8 subspecies of spiders, when Arizona has so much more than that. It doesn't include anything about the Brown Recluse Spider, which can be quite deadly...

This is a good book to have along as you explore the beauty of the region. It is not very comprehensive, but then if it was it would not be small enough to carry with you in the field, which would defeat its purpose. I feel it is well worth the price and will use it on my upcoming venture into the Southwest this October. I will also take several other books on the Southwest because each provides additional information for this region. It's not possible to get all the reference information in one volume, but this is a great book if you can only have one, and it is small enough to carry along on hikes or explorations. It is also bound properly for field use, an important feature.

After years of looking for a simple to use field guide that actually allows me to quickly identify almost every animal I see, I stumbled on to this guide when a friend had a copy. Used that one numerous times before finally getting my own copy as a birthday gift.

Excellent, easy to use field guide. You will be the "nature nerd" of the group with this in your pack.

has everything from weather, plants, animals, rocks ALL NM natural details and the why's of it all. certainly glad we bought this, has helped us amazingly so here in NM in so many different ways.
The book is made sturdy, pics are clear and bright, written knowledge is understandable and descriptions/star maps/details/pics/migrating maps/ tracks/nest details, seeds, etc are easy to read/use and understand at a glance or in detail. too much to go into detail, even how to test rocks...

Great book...some of everything and not too big/heavy to bring along. Excellent to use with kids too because of all the good color pictures!