Lillian StokesCritiques

Feathered Friends

Picked up this awesome little book published in 2001 (with 128 pages) for just $.25 at our local public library book sale on 9/1/2022. Has BEAUTIFUL photos to help identify 106 different kinds of butterflies. LOVE IT and can’t wait to start using it.

8/29/22

This is a selective guide to fifty genera of wildflowers chosen by the authors to represent a variety of lifestyles and habitats. For each wildflower there are five sections: Introduction, Wild and Garden Relatives, What You Can Observe, Flower-watching, and Through the Seasons. There is also a glossary at the end of the book.

For each wildflower, there is a lovely watercolor to introduce the flower, and then other drawings in the rest of its chapter. There are no color photos, however, which may impair one’s ability to distinguish clearly one wildflower from another. The book also seems geared to more temperate regions - I could not locate any desert wildflowers in this book.

NA

Outstanding photographs, comprehensive collection with descriptions and details.

This spring I began a native plant garden, and less than two months after getting everything in the ground, I’d acquired a monarch caterpillar on the milkweed. In a patch of weeds I removed everything that wasn’t a violet, the violets happily expanded to fill the space, and fritillary caterpillars appeared. I’ve gotten hooked on watching the caterpillars, and am contemplating how to expand the repertoire next year. This book is maybe not the “complete guide” it claims to be, but it covers the basics nicely, not for every butterfly in existence, but for the dozens that are typically around in the US. It has a section of life size butterfly photos for identification, a section of caterpillar photos, example plans of small and large butterfly gardens, a list of nectar plants and their bloom times, a list of caterpillar host plants, and a chapter on butterfly behavior. I mostly wanted it for the section on each butterfly family, which includes details about its behavior and preferences, a map of species range, and a table noting habitat, food, and time frame for life cycle stages. For the novice, a useful reference.

(read 25 Aug 2012)

excellent book for the home gardener, part of the excellent Stoke's series.

A practical wildlife gardening book for the beginner.
Stokes Backyard Nature Books

This lightweight guide is handy for field use, but the softcover format won't survive many seasons of use. The diagrams of the undertail coverts and the thumbnail color index is helpful.½

I've wanted this for many years, though nothing of the sort existed. As soon as I knew it existed, I grabbed it. Wonderful execution. Knowing which birds I hear makes me feel like less of a stranger in my own land.

A great book for attracting wildlife to your backyard.

great info for newcomers to briding. It breaks by colors adn then other identifying characteristics.