In addition to a wide variety of general field guides, I have collected several area specific guides since beginning my explorations of Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan. To identify the flora and fauna of the area, I consult the following:
Birds of Indiana Field Guide (pocket version) and Birds of Michigan Field Guide with CD of songs and calls which I purchased at Fernwood.
While not necessarily a good choice for beginners, Indiana Wildflowers provides a comprehensive guide to area plants. For those just getting started, I would suggest something arranged by color of the flower rather than by botantical families.
101 Trees of Indiana is one of the best tree field guides I have encountered.
Despite having maps of distributions only for Michigan, Butterflies of Michigan is a good resource for this area.
For getting to know the area more generally and for remembering to see the magic in the world around me, Great Lakes Nature: An Outdoor Year is a wonderful resource.
For creating more natural habitats around your home, I recommend Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants. Granted this is not specifically about the region where I live but still very useful. I have read the library copy and will own my own as soon as I own a yard of my own. The structure of the books is introducing a non-native and often problematic plant and then identifying native species with similar characteristics.
For putting the ecological systems of the dunes in context, I like Dune Country: A Hiker's Guide to the Indiana Dunes. Though not about nature specifically, I also find Indiana Off The Beaten Path to be useful in my area explorations.
Two of my favorite nature magazines are Outdoor Indiana and Nature Photographer. One of the resources I am still lacking is a good guide to dragonflies and damselflies; unfortunately the one I want is out of print and very expensive.
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