nature
All I Want for Christmas Is a Beetle
By Mik
e Geo r ge
Mike George is our regular contributor on wildlife and the countryside in France. He is a geologist and naturalist, living in the Jurassic area of the Charente
IF YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER DORA BRYAN SINGING THAT SONG IN 1963 (ALTHOUGH OF COURSE SHE WANTED A BEATLE), WELCOME TO THE TWILIGHT NATURALISTS’ CLUB!
Y
ou probably have all the equipment and expertise you will need, and speaking from my own experience, your love of getting out into the country and down on your knees to examine a wayward bug is lessening as time passes. For the rest of you, though, field biology may well be a new and fascinating pursuit, but you may be bewildered by the array of expensive stuff you seem to need to enhance the experience. Here is my strongly biased list of what is hot and what is not.
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BOOKS When you are starting off, you need easyaccess information. Wait until your interest and preferences develop – as they will; you cannot encompass all aspects of biology in depth. Then you can buy specialist books to tell you more. For now you just want to identify things and get a little knowledge about them. I am assuming that you cannot easily read technical French, so the books are in English. Where to my knowledge a French version or equivalent exists, I will say so.
▪ Wild Animals. Dorling Kindersley (DK) Pocket Nature series. Excellent for identification and basic information. A French edition exists which is a direct translation. ▪ Insects of Britain and Northern Europe. Collins Field Guide series. An old reliable for the things you are likely to see. In French, Guide Photo des Insects (Guide Delachaux series) is perhaps more comprehensive, but less easy to use. Also in French, Les Petites Bêtes (Le Guide Nature series) is good. There are many books
