Although this book has an urban focus, it’s actually a great starting point for taking a much closer look at the natural world around us – and this is just as true for the creatures in the bush as those in the city.
(First, a disclaimer: I’ve had some of my own nature writing published on the Urban Field Naturalist website, so yes, I am a bit biased in favour of this group and the great work that they do.)
This book is the output of the Urban Field Naturalist Project, which was set up to help people better understand the wildlife that share our surroundings and to turn their observations into shareable stories. It’s a great project and you can read those shareable stories that ordinary people have created on their website and associated social media.
Wildlife exists all around us: in our backyards, on our balconies, in parks and disused industrial areas. The urban environment is home to a diverse array of other living creatures, from ants, spiders, and snails, to birds, possums, lizards, and even those wayward weeds emerging through cracks in the footpath. If we pay attention, each of them is an invitation into a unique and intricate mode of life, into an entire world of growth and decay, of communication and sensation, going on right under our noses
Urban Field Naturalist Project
This would be a great book to take with you as you travel – it may help to give you an entirely new perspective on the things that you see in the bush, from the tiny insects at your feet, to the birds that soar overhead. What’s not to like about a book that covers our beloved bin chook, the Ibis, in detail?
Did you know crows can identify humans by their faces? Or that ibises can ‘see’ with the tips of their bills? Let the team from the Urban Field Naturalist Project amaze you with weird and wonderful facts about cockatoos, magpies, spiders, possums and other animals just outside your doorstep. Then get inspired to cultivate a deeper connection with tips for observing, sketching, photographing and making field notes – or simply sitting still to observe and listen.
Urban Field Naturalist Project
As the blurb says, this is more than just another identification guide, and that’s what makes it such fun. Readers are encouraged to slow down and to become interested observers and to become much more deeply involved in the natural world around them. Inspiring stuff and highly recommended.
A Guide to the Creatures in Your Neighbourhood is available from Murdoch Books.
