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Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year
Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year: A Month by Month Guide to Natural Events, New England & New York
Nature guide with a new approach -- not only where to go but when to go.
328 pages, Paperback
First published September 24, 1993
About the author
Scott Weidensaul
46 books150 followersBorn in 1959, Scott Weidensaul (pronounced "Why-densaul") has lived almost all of his life among the long ridges and endless valleys of eastern Pennsylvania, in the heart of the central Appalachians, a landscape that has defined much of his work.
His writing career began in 1978 with a weekly natural history column in the local newspaper, the Pottsville Republican in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. The column soon led a fulltime reporting job, which he held until 1988, when he left to become a freelance writer specializing in nature and wildlife. (He continued to write about nature for newspapers, however, including long-running columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Harrisburg Patriot-News.)
Weidensaul has written more than two dozen books, including his widely acclaimed Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (North Point 1999), which was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.
Weidensaul's writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Audubon (for which he is a contributing editor), Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife, among many others. He lectures widely on conservation and nature, and directs the ornithological programs for National Audubon's famed Hog Island Center on the coast of Maine.
In addition to writing about wildlife, Weidensaul is an active field researcher whose work focuses on bird migration. Besides banding hawks each fall (something he's done for nearly 25 years), he directs a major effort to study the movements of northern saw-whet owls, one of the smallest and least-understood raptors in North America. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East.
- excerpted from his website
His writing career began in 1978 with a weekly natural history column in the local newspaper, the Pottsville Republican in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. The column soon led a fulltime reporting job, which he held until 1988, when he left to become a freelance writer specializing in nature and wildlife. (He continued to write about nature for newspapers, however, including long-running columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Harrisburg Patriot-News.)
Weidensaul has written more than two dozen books, including his widely acclaimed Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (North Point 1999), which was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize.
Weidensaul's writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Audubon (for which he is a contributing editor), Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife, among many others. He lectures widely on conservation and nature, and directs the ornithological programs for National Audubon's famed Hog Island Center on the coast of Maine.
In addition to writing about wildlife, Weidensaul is an active field researcher whose work focuses on bird migration. Besides banding hawks each fall (something he's done for nearly 25 years), he directs a major effort to study the movements of northern saw-whet owls, one of the smallest and least-understood raptors in North America. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East.
- excerpted from his website
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 22, 2016
I have the edition that was published in 1993, so while the information about natural things to see is still relevant, references are dated. Contact information is only given as snail mail or telephone numbers, no websites or email; driving directions are just that and do not include GPS coordinates. Beyond that, this book has great ideas of things to see/do in New England/New York. There is the obligatory fall tree colors, maple sugaring, and occasional mammal/waterfall/flower suggestion, but I must say that Weidensaul's "birdiness" does come out as there is a definite bias toward all things birding. I personally think that is just fine, but if you don't own a pair of binoculars and can't tell a bufflehead from a pied-bill grebe, then this is probably not the guide for you.
October 8, 2026
a pleasant read. Each chapter touches on a specific species in depth. For instance, salmon in Lake Erie. Not a field guide of any kind.
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July 27, 2011Just skimmed really--perhaps I should make a resolution to read each month's chapter that month.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews