WHAT'S THAT?
"Anyone who can use about half a dozen books competently can identify whatever he sees" - John Hillaby "Journey through Britain". This long distance walker was right to emphasise the greater importance of ecology and conservation for the naturalist, but we do like to put a name to things…….
In 1949, I bought "The Observer's Book of British Birds" as being more portable than the five volume "Handbook of British Birds", which at £7.00 had taken some saving up for. Then, "How to know the Birds" arrived from an American pen-friend. It didn't seem much help in south-west England with its Redheads, Chickadees and Mockingbirds. Most of the illustrations were line drawings, some just silhouettes. I didn't appreciate this revolutionary approach until its author, Roger Tory Peterson, became a collaborator in "A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe". Field marks, jizz, behaviour thenceforward helped birdwatchers ask the right questions. And this technique is useful for sorting out mosses, grasses or even committee members at indoor meetings.
Children have always had to cope with suspect Robins on Christmas cards, imaginative "Wild Things" and "Hungry Caterpillars", as well as better class reference books. Pity about the titles in the currently popular "Horrible Science" series including "Nasty Nature". Give me Bill Oddie any day. Or the handbag sized I-Spy booklets (Creepy Crawlies, British Wildlife etc.) offer concise information and 'points', which mean, of course, David Bellamy's Seal.
A recent second-hand bargain was a bulletin from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, original price 3s.6d. "The identification of common water weeds" has clear drawings and encouraging statements:- Carex riparia "Apart from a few other sedges there are no other plants with which it can be confused". This refrain is repeated: "Except for confusion with other species of Equisetum, this plant is easily recognisable". And for all of us who have lived dangerously on the water's edge: "Mentha aquatica is not likely to be confused with other plants except for the several other mint species which it closely resembles." (Why do we worry about extruded stamens?).
Penguin Books published nearly 20 years ago my favourite reference book: "Nature made ridiculously simple or How to Identify Absolutely Everything" by Miles Kington. I remain ever grateful for his categories, especially when flower stalking; is it a "Golden Meadow Thing" or a "Tall Yellow Pseudo-Dandelion"?
Winter may be the time for convalescence and reading reports of what other people successfully identified last year, or for when labelled specimens can be re-examined with a hand lens. Whether housing rocks, ferns or lichens, the shoeboxes inevitably contain dead spiders. But soon there will be no excuse for not learning a few more names. Guided walks, field trips, rock pool dipping will be on offer somewhere. Sharing knowledge and ignorance in the wild is very rewarding.
Diana Downing