Birds

RSPB Handbook of British Birds by Holden and Cleeves. ISBN 9 780713 675603

This covers the 282 commonest birds seen in Britain using 1,150 illustrations and distribution maps.   It won’t cover every rare migrant, but that is also an advantage as it excludes all European and North African birds that other guides do include and so make identification more confusing.  I prefer to start from the basis of what I am likely to see at a given location rather than what I am never going to be see there.

Collins Pocket Guide to Birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East. ISBN 0 00 219894 0

This covers many more birds over a much wider area and is the one I use when I can’t find a bird in the RSPB book and when I’m in foreign parts.

The Birds of Bishop’s Stortford and District by the BSNHS

Nicely illustrated with line drawings, this tells you what has been seen where locally. New edition is due out in 2008.

Butterflies

Philip’s Guide to Butterflies by J.A. Thomas.  ISBN 9 780540 089802

Very well illustrated with photographs and paintings, it is a field guide to all species of butterfly found in Britain and Ireland.

Ferns

Collins Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe. ISBN 0 00 219136-9

I use this for the ferns and horsetails.  I can’t make anything of grasses, sedges and rushes – they bore me silly and all look the same!

Fungi

Dorling Kindersley Pocket Nature Fungi by Evans and Kibby.  ISBN 9 780751 336962

Photographic guide to the fungi of Britain and Northwest Europe.  Beautiful book!

Insects

Collins Complete British Insects by Michael Chinery. ISBN 0 00 717966 9

Photographic guide to 1,500 species of insects with location maps.

Field Guide to the Insects of Britain and Northern Europe by Michael Chinery. ISBN 0 00 219216 0

This is not so well illustrated as the previous item, but contains much more information. So I use them both.

Moths

Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Townsend and Waring. ISBN 9 780953 139965

Illustrated by Richard  Lewington and covering our entire resident and immigrant macro-moths.   Very well laid out and illustrated.  Moths are so difficult!!

Collins Tree Guide by Johnson and More. ISBN 0 00 713954 3

The most complete fully illustrated field guide to the trees of Britain and Northern Europe. It covers not just native trees, but the exotics seen in parks and gardens.

Wild flowers

Wild Flowers of Britain and northern Europe by Fitter, Fitter and Blamey.  ISBN 0 00 219765 0 (there are later editions available)

This is my BIBLE!  I have other books on wild flowers, but this is the best one. Beautifully and clearly illustrated with paintings that show so much more than photographs ever can, it also has a very useful key arranged by colour and the number of petals a plant has. Even I can understand and use that.

Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose. ISBN0 7232 5175 4

A guide to 1,600 wild plants found in Britain and Ireland.  This book combines a botanic key approach with some good illustrations.  I use it to sort out really difficult

plants that look very similar.

Flora of Bishop’s Stortford by John Fielding and the BSNHS

A list of vascular plants found in our area.  Some locations of rarer plants are given.

General

Natural History of the Garden by Michael Chinery. ISBN 0 00 635322 3

This tells you about everything that you might see in your garden – worms, slugs, snails, insects, weeds, birds, mammals, spiders, woodlice, centipedes, millipedes etc.

Wild Essex by Tony Gunton and Essex Wildlife Trust.  ISBN 0 9530362 2 7

Guide to over 90 Essex Wildlife Trust reserves and 80 other free entry wildlife sites in Essex and East London