Wildlife reference books

Hi folks. I am looking for a bit of help on reference books for the library. I am finding it difficult to locate good, detailed references on a lot of the wildlife I shoot. White Pelicans, 30,000 at present here on the Great Salt Lake, are proving to be a problem. Even the state wildlife agencies don't have much on them. Then, overviews of 'ecology', 'wetlands', 'biomes', etc. are toughies. Anyone know of good reference materials that go from general to somewhat specific on the subjects without being total scientific treatises? I need the info to properly label, caption & catalogue images with the intent on improving the writing I do to accompany the images to editors. Thanks, Dan.

For birds (since you mention white pelicans) two good starting points are Audubon's Encyclopedia of North American Birds (about 20 years

old, but other than name changes, still very relevant) and The Birder's Handbook.

 

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There's also the Handbook of American Birds, which is not complete. I have the two volumes on diurnal raptors. Detailed species accounts including a lot of research references. Does require some knowledge of technical terminology for one to make effective use of it.

 

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There's also the Stoke's series of books on bird behavior and natural history, non-technical but gives good background information on all North American species in, oh, a dozen volumes or so.

 

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Since you're in the Great Basin, of particular relevance is the series of books on the Great Basin published by University of Nevada in Reno. Gives a lot of information on general ecology and distribution of species. The Birds Of The Great Basin is very good (hey, I know the illustrator, it must be! :), and was the first to appear. I've also got the shrubs and trees volumes, and there are also separate volumes on fish and geology. I'm not sure if the mammals volume has appeared yet. Sagebrush Ocean is the overview volume of the series, and provides an excellent summary of the geology, hydrology, climate, and ecology of the Great Basin. Given your locale, I'd snatch the whole series up. I'm certain you can find them in a good SLC bookstore, if not, you can mail-order from Portland Audubon (503-292-WILD) though we don't always have the whole series in stock. Portland's Powell's Bookstore is also a fantastic mail-order resource, and though I don't have their webpage address (I bike there, myself) I'm sure alta-vista and yahoo! do.

 

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This is a start. There are literally thousands of useful books to own, these just came immediately to mind.

 

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Since you're located on the Great Salt Lake, how come we've never met at the Goshutes, the hottest raptor migration site west of the Big Muddy??? :) You're only about three hours away!