Long before All About Birds and their Merlin bird app, I used field guides to learn about and identify birds. New to Colorado in the 1990s, I tried using the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region (public library). As a beginning birder, I was soon overwhelmed by the sheer number of birds included and frustrated by its organization — photos and descriptions on different pages meant lots of flipping back and forth! I eventually discovered The Guide to Colorado Birds (public library) by Mary Taylor Gray and it quickly became my go-to guide. Full of color photographs with clear size, habitat and identification tips and limited to Colorado, it proved to be an easy-to-use and reliable source over the years. My foray into field guides began, however, with my grandmother.

My paternal grandmother, Sibyl, moved in with my family when I was three years old. She brought with her a 1939 edition of A Field Guide to the Birds: Giving Field Marks of all Species Found East of the Rockies by Roger Tory Peterson and a two volume 1937 edition of The Book of Birds: The First Work Presenting in Full Color All the Major Species of the United States and Canada edited by Gilbert Grosvenor and Alexander Wetmore. I spent hours by her side watching birds out her south facing window and thumbing through these books. I have her birding “life list” based on the check marks she made in ink in her Peterson guide.

Last year I discovered my great-grandmother Nelle’s diary from 1947 while visiting my dad. I especially love this entry about spotting a bobolink which brings my grandmother Sibyl’s birding passion to life. I imagine the rustling of her dress and click of her heels on the front steps as she rushes to tell her neighbor about their rare visitor.