Over the weekend I ordered a bunch of books from the library on Ohio hiking and wild life. Yesterday I got the Ohio State Park's Guidebook, but was very disappointed because it is almost exactly the same info as on the Ohio State Park's webpage, sometimes verbatim.
Tonight I just picked up the Trees of Ohio and Birds of Ohio field guides. They are both pocket sized books by the same author, Stan Tekiela, which are basically organized by one species per page (left side has pictures, right side descriptions). I have already used the bird book to help identify some of the birds that I saw at Tinker's Creek this weekend, including the gray catbird, eastern kingbird, and the possible northern harrier. Overall, it seems quite a nice book, but I am not a huge fan of the organizational scheme. It is organized primarily by color (loosely by size within colors), whereas I have always found sorting by bird type (such as the Audubon Society books) to be easier - it is easy to tell the difference between a hawk, a duck, and a finch, but not always easy to tell if a bird is predominantly grey, white, or brown. I have not had a chance to use the trees book, but am very excited about doing so.
I also got a hiking book, Hiking Ohio: Scenic Trails of the Buckeye State by Robert Folzenlogen. It's a bit old, but how much can the trails really change in 17 years? I just flipped through it briefly, but it seemed to have quite a few nice hikes in the area. I will probably take it to work and photocopy the hikes that look good.
I've got several more fun books coming!
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