Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Mid-Atlantic: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia

The mid-Atlantic seaboard, from New York to Virginia, houses some three dozen federally administered wildlife preserves, 23 of them open to the public. Some, such as the Delmarva Peninsula's Chincoteague Island and the Great Dismal Swamp, are relatively well known and heavily visited. Others, such as West Virginia's Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, which shelters some 200 bird species, and New Jersey's Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge, which is less than an hour's drive from Manhattan, are little-known treasures. Prolific science writer Edward Ricciuti provides brief descriptions of the region's publicly accessible wildlife refuges in this guidebook, with directions on how to get to them and suggestions on what to see and do once you arrive. His book makes a fine resource for those seeking to escape the city and make for uncrowded woods and water. --Gregory McNamee