Winter Activities and Guides

Here is a list of the field guides I carry around in my car and on hikes during the winter months.

General Winter Field Guides include:

1. Field Book of Animals in Winter by Ann Haven Morgan
1939 Very good book and fun to read.

2. Stokes Guide to Nature in Winter by Donald Stokes

3. Winter World by Bernd Heinrich not really a field guide but an excellent source of animal behavior in winter months.

Also try some of the seasonal books that include winter months. Here are a couple that I have and use.

1. Nature in Miniature by Richard Headstrom – chapters by month.

2. Watching Nature (A mid-Atlantic natural history) by Mark S.Garland. This is a must read for anyone in the eastern panhandle. He also has chapters for winter months. Again not a field guide but lots of good information.

3. Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year. Scott Weidensaul. A month by month guide to natural events in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

4. Winter Search Party to Insects and other invertebrates by Helen Ross Russell
Winter is a good time to look at insects. This book gives good ideas for finding them.

Any books on tracking Mammals is also good for winter activities:

5. Stokes guide to Animal Tracking and Behavior by Donald and Lillian Stokes


Looking for galls and seed pods is another winter activity:

1. Pods – Wildflower and weeds in their final beauty by Jane Emberstoy

2. Guide to Wild flowers in winter by Carol Levine

I like these small pocket size Nature Study Guides for winter:

1. Winter Weed Finder by Dorcas S. Miller

2. Winter Tree Finder by May Theilgaard Watts

3. Track Finder by Dorcas S. Miller

4. Berry Finder: Eastern by Dorcas S. Miller

Golden Guide to Non Flowering Plants is good for moss and lichen which stands out on a winter walk. Also any book on Moss and Lichen is good.

Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians by Bill Roody is an excellent book for identifying polypores and winter mushrooms.


Fossil Collecting in the Mid-Atlantic by Jasper Burns. This can be fun at the end of winter when we start getting a few warmer days.

Looking for frogs and fossil in early March can be a lot of fun. I like Amphibians and Reptiles in West Virginia by Dr. Tom Pauly

Any guide on stars and the moon and atmosphere is also useful during the winter. It gets dark earlier and the sky seems to be clearer. During the day and at sunset looking for sun dogs and pillers can be rewarding during the colder months.

So dress warm and get outside, there is lots to discover!

Visit more outdoor sites at Outdoor Wednesday.