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The Egret - Volume 40 - Issue 4 - December 2024 |
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Footprints in frost will fade and melt; but memories made, forever felt |
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Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach
By Jeremy Hatt
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Every year in September the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory and Essex Regional Conservation Authority host the Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach, a popular event in Essex County that highlights the spectacular migration of raptors through our area each fall. "Hawk Fest" includes many exciting activities from banding raptors and passerines to observing hawks migrating over the Hawk Tower to presentations and walks.
ECFNC had a table display at the event this year as well as hosting a joint walk with our friends from the Windsor Feminist Bird Club. We had a great turnout of over twenty people who were enthusiastic about not only birds but plants, insects, and other wildlife we came across. |
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The Club Celebrates 40 Years at the Ontario Field Ornithologists Convention
By Jeremy Hatt
Every other year, the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) hosts their Annual Convention in Leamington and Point Pelee National Park. This year the Convention was held from September 20-22.
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Birders and bird-enthusiasts travel from across Ontario to attend the Convention, which consists of a "Birds and Beers" social gathering on Friday night and a banquet Saturday night, which includes an Annual General Meeting, awards, a silent auction, vendors, and a keynote speaker, much like our own Club’s Annual Dinner. This year's keynote speakers were Joseph Pitawanakwat, Andrés Jimenéz Monge and Junaid Shahzad Khan of Creator's Garden who gave an enlightening presentation on cataloguing the Anishinaabe traditional names of birds. Members of the Caldwell First Nation were also present to talk about their connection to the region and open the Convention with a smudging ceremony.
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Several members of the Essex County Field Naturalists' Club (ECFNC) volunteered for the Convention including leading hikes, helping organize, and speaking at the event. |
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A Common Buckeye butterfly, seen while on the Friends of Pike Creek Nature Walk, 6 October 2024. (Photo by Sheila Laurin)
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October Meeting Recap: Controversial History of Taxonomy
By Sheila Laurin
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At the October meeting guest presenter and club member Grant Munroe gave a wonderful talk on the tricky subject of the history of taxonomy. Here is my brief summary of this:
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Folk taxonomy began with early people who formed a common naming of plants and animals in their community and used these groupings in everyday business.The country Papua New Guinea has a huge diversity in flora and fauna that has been of interest to taxonomists over the years. Grant, discussed the term “umwelt", it means an animal or individual’s relationship with its environment. In about 300 BC, Theophrastus in Ancient Greece, wrote the earliest surviving treatise on plants, that classified them mainly by their medicinal effects. Some more medieval texts were used until the 1600s in Europe. The book that had a huge impact on this science was written by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, called Species Plantarum. |
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Grant also discussed the Birders on Birds mini-book series, published by his company Woodbridge Farm Books, in partnership was Pelee Island Bird Observatory (PIBO). The series includes works by Margaret Atwood and Rodrigo Lopez, who was the guest speaker at our Club's May members' meeting. (Photo by Chris Hart) |
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Migration Festival at Jack Miner's
By Lou Anne Meloche
ECFNC took advantage of a great opportunity on October 19th to host an information table at Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Kingsville. The annual Migration Festival draws a large crowd to tour the buildings and enjoy raptor shows, among many other activities. We spoke to folks about all the hikes we hold throughout the year, education at our meetings and the many activities we carry out in the community. (Looking at you, Phrag Fighters.) We had a chance to talk to lots of kids, talking up the Jr Egrets, and even raffled off one of their backpacks. We sold books and memberships too!
It was an excellent day with perfect weather. Next year we hope to be there for both days of the festival. Thanks to Bernadette Robertson, Cathy Lapain, Lou Anne Meloche for their time.
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Fall Phrag Fighters!
By Aileen Petrozzi
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Fall was a great for our Phrag fighters. Working with the City of Windsor we tackled Blue Heron Pond. With the weather cooperating, the first three Saturdays in October and November 5th. our members and City of Windsor guides waded into the pond's edge. Using cane cutters, we proceeded to cut phragmite as far we could go below the water level. This method is called “cut to drown.” Cutting beneath the waterline can drown the plant by inhibiting the supply of oxygen to the lower plant parts.
Heather Inksetter and I want to thank the best group of Volunteers and Guides!
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Essex County Nature Building Community: Collaborations with the Windsor Feminist Bird Club
By Jeremy Hatt
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One of the goals of the ECFC's Membership Committee recently has been to develop and strengthen connections with other naturalist groups and organizations in the region. One of these organizations is the Windsor Feminist Bird Club (WFBC), a local Chapter of the Feminist Bird Club, which is a global network with the following mission: “promoting inclusivity in birding while fundraising and providing a safe opportunity for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, BIPOC, and women to connect with the natural world.”
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When WFBC started, the Ontario Field Ornithologists promptly reached out to ask if they would provide leaders for Birding With Pride at Point Pelee National Park, an annual birding event celebrating the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Our Club was also at this event and connected with WFBC to collaborate on local outings going forward.
On November 18, ECFNC and WFBC participated i ntheir 2nd annual Big Sit at the Delaurier Homestead parking lot at Point Pelee National Park. Participants brought lawn chairs and warm clothes and sat in the parking lot from 9am to 12pm to record every bird that moved through during the morning. Starbucks donated coffee and members brought baked goods and other snacks. |
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The Club's Annual Dinner - 40th Anniversary Edition
By Aileen Petrozzi
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Great food, great speaker and great company! We couldn’t have asked for anything else.
November 16th our members and non members enjoyed our Annual Dinner and Auction at St Mary’s Hall in Maidstone. We celebrated our 40th Anniversary as a club with speaker, Adam Shoalts (pictured above). He discussed his book “Where the Falcon flies”.
The Auction was a success producing over $2300 for the Heritage fund. We would like to thank all the volunteers and donors. Without them this would not have been possible.
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The Club would also like to congratulate Cathy Lapain as this year's recipient of the Essex County Field Naturalists' Club Outstanding Achievement Award.
Cathy is a long time member of the Club and has been the Treasurer since 2013. She is a very active member of the Executive Board and the Heritage Committee. Cathy has helped to organize and carry out many key Club events, including the Annual Dinner, and our Bake sales on Earth Day at Malden Park and at the Holiday Beach Hawk Fest. Congrats Cathy and well deserved. |
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Field Nats Unite! The Enjoyment of Nature Brings Three Neighbouring ClubsTogether
By Jeremy Hatt
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Earlier in the year, President of the West Elgin Nature Club (WENC), Kelly-Sue O’Connor, reached out to the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club (ECFNC) suggesting we have a Zoom call to share strategies for increasing membership engagement in our respective Clubs.
Our Membership Committee agreed that this was a great opportunity and began to plan a meeting time but Kelly-Sue then suggested something even better: why not include the Sydenham Field Naturalists (SFN) in the conversation? Kelly-Sue knew the President of SFN, Mike Smith, well and figured we might as well make it a tri-county meeting to bring together members from Essex, Chatham-Kent, and Elgin. A labyrinthine email chain was soon underway and before we knew it, members from all three Clubs agreed on a date and time to meet in person in Chatham!
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The meeting was a resounding success. We met on October 8, 2024, at the Sons of Kent Brewing Co. for food, drink, and discussion. There was a lot of energy in the room as representatives of each Club gave a brief history of how each one was created, what they offer their members, and how they plan to expand and improve moving forward.
One of the major developments from the meeting was planning a few joint events each year hosted by a different Club on a rotating basis. This was later coined the Nature Neighbours Series. |
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Nature Neighbour Series 1: Wallaceburg Sycamore Woods
By Sheila Laurin
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On Saturday, 7 December some of our members attended a guided tour of the Wallaceburg Sycamore Woods (WSW) given by Larry Cornelis, member of the Sydenham Field Naturalists (SFN) club. The WSW was created in 2005 and the SFN act as stewards of this nature preserve. (partnered with Chatham-Kent) The reserve is not accessible to the public, however the SFN has scheduled outings for an opportunity to tour this gem. |
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This 11 acre woodland is Carolinian Forest, which has been well preserved and contains a variety of old growth trees. Some species present are: Sycamore, Shumard oak, Freeman (soft) maple, American hornbeam, Basswood, Chinquapin oak, American beech, Silver maple, Bitternut hickory, Burr oak, Shagbark hickory, Nannyberry (
Viburnum), and Swamp white oak. When the forest was purchased it was cleaned of garbage and some native plants were added for example Trillium, Bloodroot, Wild ginger, and Ferns. Very few invasive plants were in need of reduction, for example, Privet and Garlic mustard. When there were gaps in the tree canopy due to storms, some native trees were added. |
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This is a wet area and it naturally has pits and mounds developed from felled trees. The Sycamore trees are the tallest in the forest and have the biggest leaves. The largest Swamp white oak showed some balding of the bark at the base which only occurs after about 150 years and impressive stagheaded branching. Larry explained that he uses the coefficient of wetness (CoW) value to describe which trees typically occur in different water conditions. The big Shumard oak, shown in the photo (with Larry), has the distinguishing feature of very large buttress roots. This deciduous forest is home for many species of wildlife. |
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December Marks the Start of Another Christmas Bird Count Season
By Jeremy Hatt
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Dig out the winter gear, dust off the notebooks, and ready the thermoses because Christmas Bird Count (CBC) season is upon us! Coordinated by Birds Canada, this long-standing tradition sees birders and volunteers count all the birds they see within 10km radius circles across the country from December 15 to Jan. 5. ECFNC has a long history of CBC participation in its 40 years as a Club and encourages members to get involved.
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CBC’s are great events for seasoned and beginner birders alike and a good chance to explore areas you may not visit as often in your local area. Volunteers can either be assigned to an area to count or watch your feeders if they fall within a count circle. Roundups held after the counts are a fun way to meet fellow volunteers and share stories and highlights while tallying the day’s counts, often over food and drink. CBC’s are also an important way to contribute to citizen science and a deeper understanding of the birds wintering in Essex County.
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Mainland Essex County hosts six CBC’s, including a brand new circle this year covering the Comber region. Many ECFNC members volunteer for and coordinate these counts and every year there are notable species found in the County. The Club encourages interested members to contact any of the coordinators in the list below to participate in one of the upcoming CBC’s.
See the events setion below for more details on count locaton and contact information. |
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Lil'Reg: History of the 12 Spotted Skimmer Logo
By Ian Naisbitt
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In the past, our Little River Enhancement Group participated in Little River Watershed Tours once a year. Our group would visit the sites where volunteers cleaned up the river or planted trees. We checked how much garbage accumulated over the past year at the cleanup sites and estimated the success rate of the trees we planted at other sites. |
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We also looked for potential sites that could use our help. While at Weston Park in Tecumseh, we hiked around the drain that flowed through the park and we were pleasantly zoomed by a swarm of dragonflies. It was quite an impressive moment for us.
Later when our members were brainstorming names for our group and logos, this special moment came to mind.
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We approached Susan Thompson, graphic artist at the Windsor Star, and asked her to design our logo. We requested from her to draw a crest with a dragonfly in it. Susan asked which one and we said you decide.
Now you know the whole story
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UPCOMING EVENTS
For full details and the latest updates, visit www.essexcountynature.com/events
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Member meetings are now starting at 7pm, and pop-up events are still popping up!
The ECFNC is working diligently to host fun, exciting and educational events, as well as inform our members of those events put on by like-minded organizations.
Please stay tuned for Member Updates as new events are announced. |
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ECFNC December Members' Meeting
Member Showcase
Wednesday, December 11, at 7:00 p.m.
Ojibway Nature Centre
A chance for members to show and tell their nature tales from the past year. |
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Christmas Bird Counts
Various Dates across Essex County
Many ECFNC members volunteer for and coordinate these counts and every year there are notable species found in the County. The Club encourages interested members to contact any of the coordinators in the list below to participate in one of the upcoming CBC’s.
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- Cedar Creek - December 14 (Paul Pratt: pratt.paul@icloud.com)
- Point Pelee National Park - December 16 (Sarah Rupert:sarah.rupert@pc.gc.ca)
- *NEW* Comber - December 22 (Jeremy Hatt: hattjeremy@hotmail.com)
- Holiday Beach - December 28 (Jeremy Hatt: hattjeremy@hotmail.com and Kory Renaud: koryrenaud@gmail.com)
- North Shore - TBD (Jeremy Bensette: jeremy_bensette@hotmail.com)
- Detroit River - January 1 (Paul Pratt)
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ECFNC Monthly Members' Meeting
Second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 p.m.
Ojibway Nature Centre
January -
Greenhouse Integrated Pest Management
- Joanna Dawson
February -
Wonderful Wildlife (..birds) of Peru
- Cameron Chevalier and Jeremy Hatt
March -
Annual General Meeting
plus Guest Speaker TBD
Stay tuned for more information |
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Monthly Walks in Spring Garden
Third Sunday of the Month, 10am
Join us in the Spring Garden Natural Area of the Ojibway Prairie Complex to monitor changes in the natural world on a monthly basis as the year progresses.
We will meet at the Titcombe Parking Lot off Malden Rd.
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Keep any eye out for the next installment of the new Nature Neighbours Series! |
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Join or Renew your Membership for 2025!!
Another year has come and gone. For those looking to join the club, or renew memberships, just tap the button below to pay online. (You don't need a PayPal account. Just tap "enter as a guest' and then "continue to payment" if you want to use a credit card.)
Annual membership fees are $10 for students, $20 for other individuals and $25 for families. If you have questions or can't remember when you last paid for your membership, contact membership secretary Janice Boussey
Please send cash or cheques by mail to:
Cathy Lapain, treasurer
Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club
c/o Ojibway Nature Centre
5200 Matchette Rd.
Windsor, ON, N9C 4E8
(*Cheques should be made out to the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club. Please indicate on the cheque if it is a membership fee or a donation.)
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Visit www.essexcountynature.com/junior-egrets to join the excitement.
The Junior Egrets' page is being updated regularly, so check back often. |
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Request for Photos!
Have you seen anything neat in nature lately? Did you happen to catch it on camera? If so, consider submitting it to egret@essexcountynature.com and we could include it in future articles or posts. Be sure to include your name and all relevant information about the photo (who/where/what/when). |
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Stay tuned for more!
Any future events will be announced during monthly meetings and listed in our calendar.
Look out for email updates about any events.
Check out our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun content updates!
Visit our website to view historical issues of The Egret (1984-present).
A new year is upon us, so don't forget about renewing your membership dues.
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STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE ESSEX COUNTY FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB! |
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About Us
Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club is a non-profit, open-to-the-public volunteer organization that focuses on promoting the conservation and restoration of the diverse natural heritage of Essex County and the surrounding region. We also strive to provide educational opportunities for the people of Essex County to become acquainted with and better understand the natural environment. |
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Contact Us
Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club
c/o Ojibway Nature Centre
5200 Matchette Rd.
Windsor On,
N9C 4E8
Except for our annual dinner in November, monthly meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm at Ojibway Nature Center, 5200 Matchette Road, Windsor. All are welcome! We also have monthly outings posted in the ‘Events’ section of this newsletter as well as on our website. |
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EXECUTIVE BOARD
President: Kory Renaud (koryrenaud@gmail.com)
Vice-President: Chris Hart (c.hart14@yahoo.ca)
Chair Person: Jennifer Nantais (jennifer.nantais@gmail.com)
Secretary: Aileen Petrozzi (petrozzi2@gmail.com)
Treasurer: Cathy Lapain (aclapain@gmail.com)
Membership Secretary: Janice Boussey (electric.chickadee@gmail.com)
Directors:
Dave Kraus (519-257-8674)
Carolyn Brown (carolynabrown99@gmail.com)
Jeremy Hatt (hattjeremy@hotmail.com)
Kathleen Woodhouse (kathleen.woodhouse22@gmail.com)
Sam Dundas (dundas.samantha09@gmail.com)
Xander Campbell (xandercampbell777@gmail.com)
Melanie Masse (melmasse3@gmail.com)
Vicki Rees (vickirees@hotmail.com)
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CHAIRPERSONS/LIAISONS
Ontario Nature Liaison: Jennifer Nantais
ERCA Liaison: Gina Pannunzio
Bluebird Committee: Don Bissonnette
Ojibway Liaison: Chris Hart
Citizens Environment Alliance Liaison: Phil Roberts
Canada South Land Trust Liaison: Dave Kraus
Detroit River Canadian Cleanup Liaison: Gina Pannunzio
Climate Change: Jennifer Nantais
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COMMITTEES
Egret Editorial: Chris Hart, Sheila Laurin
Junior Egrets: Jen Nantais, Carolyn Brown
Heritage: JoAnn Grondin, Dave Kraus, Gerry Waldron, Shirley Grondin, Cathy Lapain, Tim Shortridge, Aileen Petrozzi, Ellen van Wageningen
Little River Enhancement Group: Ian Naisbitt (chair)
Fish Book: Dave Kraus
Website & Social Media: Kory Renaud, Kristen Derbyshire
Membership: Jeremy Hatt (chair), Carl Maiolani, Aileen Petrozzi, Janice Boussey
Grant Committee: Chris Hart, Jennifer Nantais
Phragmites Committee: Heather Cohen, Aileen Petrozzi, Rose Simard, Joan Murphy-Walker
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ECFNC MEMBERSHIP
Your annual membership fees help to support the local efforts of the club. To learn more about becoming a member, please contact our membership secretary, Janice Boussey.
- Receive the quarterly newsletter The Egret via email
- Enjoy guest speakers at the monthly meetings
- Explore our natural heritage with a guide
- Help restore and protect Essex County’s natural heritage
Online Payment Option
Join or renew your membership online at www.essexcountynature.com/membership
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