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How do you find answers to your questions about nature?
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So we’re going outside. A lot. Observing, a lot. And we see so many things we wonder more about. But how do you find out the answers? I don’t think you can Google a paragraph… “Last night we were out at dusk and after the sun went down, there was a crazy cool color pattern on the eastern horizon. It was uniform, exactly uniform, consisting of blue and white/pink lines in a very specific pattern. There were no clouds, it was just the sky. What made that?”
And when we see bugs and insects, trees, or hear birds call or wonder how to find those incredibly loud locust/cicada things…how do you get answers? I just want someone to go outside with us who knows everything about everything to answer all our questions.
Finding answers to your nature questions is not too difficult but you will not find one source that will answer all the hows and whys. Sometimes there is no known answer to the hows and whys. It also takes time. Observation and reading books about what you find is a lifelong process. Don’t be discouraged! Keep observing carefully and you will get some of your answers that way. Make notes about your observations. Where do you usually see a certain insect? Where did that bird nest? What did he eat in June? Is it the same food he eats in August? Gradually over time you will start to really know the habits of nature things.
Field guides and nature websites are great tools for identifying things in nature and for learning some basic facts. Look for books at the library on specific topics. There are books on cicadas that will explain their lifecycle and habits. There are books on birds, mammals, insects, plants, properties of light, etc. Also, look for books written by naturalists about their personal observations of nature. The library is usually the best source for these books because, unfortunately, nature/science related books do not stay in print for very long. Be aware that most books on nature/science topics will have some evolution content and/or environmentalist content.
Resources for nature study:
Books by brother/sister team Judy Burris and Wayne Richards
-Nature’s Notes: Bite-sized Learning & Projects for All Ages
-The Secret Lives of Backyard Bugs
-The Life Cycles of Butterflies: From Egg to Maturity, a Visual Guide to 23 Common Garden Butterflies
Books by Jim Arnosky, Millicent Selsam, Glen Rounds, Robert McClung and others for younger readers.
Books by R. D. Lawrence, Edwin Teale, Sigurd Olson, and other naturalists for older readers.
Field Guides
Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Comstock
Allaboutbirds.org
Arkive.org
Bird call CDs
I’m curious to hear others’ answers because we are always scrambling to find them. I will say though that I have found a smart phone to be a great resource, first to take pictures so we can look things up layer at our leisure but also for apps to take the place of multiple bulky field guides when we are out and about. ibird is one if the few apps I have paid for and I love it. The Audubon apps go on sale occasionally too.
Nebby
Since moving to a totally new location (weather-wise, geographically), we have had a difficult time identifying species of trees. Our kids have several types of leaves on our nature shelf, and it took my husband and I days of research and Googling to identify them. One is still unidentified. I have often wondered the same thing: how do I answer all these questions when searching online often turns up questionable answers??
For tree identification you sometimes need more than just the leaves. You might need to know if the leaves alternate or are opposite on the branch, what the leaf bud looks like, what the fruit looks like, what the bark looks like, and/or if the tree is even native to your area. If you live in a metro/suburban area knowing if the tree is native or not is important. Garden centers sell trees people want in their yards not necessarily native trees for an area. Sometimes if you can’t identify a tree in your neighborhood with a field guide, then a trip to a local tree nursery may help identify it.
Young trees can sometimes be hard to identify too. They are not mature enough to have fruit or the bark of an older tree. It took me several years to identify a tree the birds planted in my yard. I could not identify it by the leaves only. I had to be very observant of other trees in our area that had similar leaves so I could find out other clues (bark, fruit) to help me identify it. It turned out to be a tree with very unique bark that does not show in young trees.
I typed blue, white, pink lines in the sky into my search engine (Bing) and this is what I found on Wikipeadia:
The Earth’s shadow is the shadow that the Earth itself casts on its atmosphere, which is often visible from the surface of the Earth, as a dark band in the sky near the horizon. This atmospheric phenomenon can sometimes be seen twice a day, around the times of sunset and sunrise. When the weather conditions and the observer’s viewing point permit a clear sight of the horizon, the shadow can be seen as a dark blue or greyish-blue band. Assuming the sky is clear, the Earth’s shadow is visible in the opposite half of the sky to the sunset or sunrise, and is seen right above the horizon as a dark blue band. A related phenomenon is the “Belt of Venus” or “anti-twilight arch” (sometimes written as “antitwilight arch”), a pink band that is visible above the dark blue of the Earth’s shadow, in the same part of the sky. There is no clear dividing line between the Earth’s shadow and the Belt of Venus; one colored band shades into the other in the sky.[15][16]
@Karen: Fascinating info about unidentified tree leaves! Your first answer really inspired me to start my nature journal again…
Look around in your community and see what resources for people to answer questions exist. If you have any universities, natural history museums, or similar types of things they can be a lot of help. I used to work at our local museum and people very often brought specimins in to be identified – if the naturalists on shift could not help, the museum’s zoologist would look at the item and get back to people. many museums also have things like kits to show local plants and animals, or publications for the local area.
Another great place for nature publications with very local information is any sort of agricultural extention office or college. Websites for state services to do with parks, agriculture, forestry, and other natural resouces can be great sources of information.
Organizations with local branches dedicated to conservation or environmental topics will also usually have publications, and sometimes people who can help you.
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