September Members' Meeting - Bird Friendly Initiatives

By Sheila Laurin

On 10 September, the guest speaker at our club meeting was Dr. Brendon Samuels.  In his presentation, he explained some of the important initiatives that the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP)  FLAP.org is involved in to raise awareness about declining bird populations in Ontario and ways to protect birds in urban areas by making changes to policy.   As a member of the Bird Friendly core team in London, he is involved in the effort to promote the certification of London as a top Bird Friendly City. On their website Birdfriendlylondon.ca, there is a lot of information about the subject and what citizens can do to assist and enjoy birds in their community. 

The presentation also gave an overview of some of the ways to provide a safer environment for birds. Specifically, many birds have difficulty navigating around windows and structures with reflective surfaces.  Birds can get injured or killed when hitting window surfaces due to their limited sight capability.  These bird-glass collisions are preventable.  There are several ways to treat your windows so that birds are less likely to hit them.  For example, an effective product is window collision tape that is applied to the exterior of windows.  There are also other methods and options for bird-safe glass that can work as well, if done correctly.

Bird Friendly London has established a group of partnerships that are collectively working together to save the birds, which play a key role in our ecosystem.  One of these partners is the University of Western Ontario, Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR).  Researchers at AFAR study how birds work, and how they adapt to their environment.

Festival of Hawks

By Jeremy Hatt

ECFNC once again took part in the Festival of Hawks at Holiday Beach Conservation Area this year with an information booth and by helping lead hikes during the weekend of September 13 to 14^th. This annual event organized by ERCA and the Holiday Beach Migration Observatory is a great way for locals and tourists alike to experience Holiday Beach and its 40ft Hawk Tower overlooking the marsh where migrating hawks and songbirds are monitored daily from September to the end of November.

The Festival of Hawks includes demonstrations on bird banding (including hummingbird, songbird, and raptor banding), hawk identification workshops, and a program full of walks and talks by local experts. A highlight for many is being able to see banded raptors up close before being released back to the wild. On Saturday, ECFNC once again co-led a walk with the Windsor Feminist Bird Club, a partnership that continues strong with several co-hosted events each year.

Amherstburg Honours Club with Environmental Stewardship Award

By Chris Hart

On Saturday, September 27th, our Club was honoured by the Town of Amherstburg with their Environmental Stewardship Award in the Grassroots Initiative Leader category. This award recognizes a small or community-based organization that has made significant strides in environmental education and action. Club president Kory Renaud and Board member Michelle Gordy accepted the award on behalf of the Club (Top right photo, by Cathy Lapain).

The award presentation took place at the Town's annual Fall tree planting event at Briar Ridge Park, so naturally, Kory grabbed a shovel and got to work (Bottom left photo, by Michelle Gordy). The award itself is pictured Top left and Bottom right. 

Congrats to everyone. Keep up the great work!

October Members' Meeting - Bats!

By Sheila Laurin

On Wednesday, 8 October 2025, Tanisha Agarwal, as part of the Outreach program for the Toronto Zoo, gave us a presentation about their Native Bat Conservation Program and their efforts to conserve Ontario’s bats.  She gave us a general overview of bat characteristics, so we better understand these fascinating animals. To delve deeper into this subject, you can read their bat conservation guide and visit their website.  Bats - Toronto Zoo Some key highlights include: The taxonomic order for bats is  Chiroptera which is a winged mammal. There are over 1400 species across the world, many of which live in Central, and South America.  There are many different types of bats, some are large, some are very small and lightweight.  Bats are specialized in what they eat:  fruit, insects, blood, meat, pollen and nectar.  In Ontario, our bats eat insects and use echolocation (sound waves) to find their food in the dark.  There are eight different species of bats in Ontario, and many are suffering from habitat loss and disease, so there are efforts ongoing to protect our bats and their habitat.  

Recently, sound monitoring devices were installed across many selected sites in Windsor/Essex County in July and August 2025. The bat calls were recorded every night and from the data analysis, it was determined what species of bats was in the vicinity at that time.  The results showed that the Big Brown bat was 86% of the population, followed by the Eastern Red Bat at 6.5% and the Silver-Haired Bat 5% and with a small number of other species present.  Bats give off different types of calls when searching for food, when approaching an insect and feeding. Acoustic monitoring is very useful but it has some limitations and the technology is steadily improving. To get more data about the health of the population, emergence counts and trapping and tracking them is also utilized.   The North American Bat Monitoring Program maintains a bat population database and is particularly focussed on bats that are migrating across North America.  https://www.nabatmonitoring.org/  Citizens can assist bats by keeping their cats indoors, decrease pesticide use, plant pollinators, install bat houses and report sightings.

ECFNC Goes Batty!

By Janice Boussey

A huge thank you to those members that participated in the Backyard Bat Acoustic Monitoring program in partnership with the Toronto Zoo. The zoo was gracious enough to share their data and give a virtual presentation at our October meeting. They provided a good overview of bats around the world and told us a little more about our local species.

It was an exciting summer watching the data come in at each site. By sharing this information perhaps you can fall in love with bats as much as our member contributors did. One of the questions asked by the project to each contributor was “has my attitude toward bats improved” to which the most common answer was “I have always loved bats”. No scary halloween monsters here, just sweet furry little fliers sharing our outdoor spaces.

A total of 18 sites contributed data to the project spread out over the county from May until September.

Club Contributes to new Nature Conservancy of Canada property in Essex County

Jack Miner's Migration Festival - October 18th

By Cathy Lapain

Despite the wind gust and a tent that constantly wanted to fly away, we had a beautiful day to sit and relax and talk to a few people at the festival.  Member Alexander Campbell joined us at the tent to promote our Turtle Committee. He had many items on display from Hawk feathers to Turtle eggs that kept the kids interested and asking questions.  We had the opportunity to pet a 4-H club’s fury and cute rabbit  and spent the afternoon talking to turkeys in the cage behind us, and also were visited by a Red-Breasted Nuthatch that seem to come to our tent area to say hello!   Due to light traffic at the festival we spent a lot of the time watching Turkey Vultures, blackbirds and killdeers flying around the area.  Thanks to Sheila Laurin, Janice Boussey, Alexander Campbell, Melanie Masse and Aileen Petrozzi for helping out at the tent. (Sheila and Alexander pictured below)

In the New Year, people who may be reluctant or unable to do the physical work of pulling, cutting, spading or hauling may be able to assist with mapping the spread of invasive phrag in Essex County. More information will be forthcoming in spring as we develop a program for this project.  

Sincerely,

Aileen Petrozzi - chair

Heather Inksetter - co-chair

A Big Thank you the Volunteers and Auction Donors

Volunteers:

Cathy Lapain, Joann Grondin, Shirley Grondin, Michelle Gordy, Ellen Van Wageningen, Karen MacDougal, Peter Kathmann, Megan Irwin, Roland Chaudat , Tim Shortridge and Vicki Rees

Auction Item donors:

Joan Murphy-Walker, Lou Ann Meloche, Sheila Lauren, Laura Foy, Tim Hince, Karen MacDougal, Shirley Grondin, Ken Lapain &Sons, Cathy Lapain, Karen Cedar, Patricia Pleli, Megan Irwin, Joann Grondin, Christine Gross, Gord Cascoyne, Judy Carney, Ellen VanWagingen, Lee Valley, Michelle Gordy, Janice Bousey, Michelle Mastelloto, Paul Bourque, Catherine Hogg, Carl Marolani and John Balga.

Also, another thank you to the many bakers that brought in the deserts.

For those who do not know the Heritage Fund donates money to help purchase or protect special properties. The last few years due to covid we have only had the annual dinner as a fundraiser.  We now sell coffee and mugs.  The $3000 will replenish our account since we donated $20,000 in September to Nature Conservatory of Canada for a propriety off 6^th concession and McCormick.

We are planning a fundraiser in August. The last two years we have had a movie night in August.  This year will be showing “Wildflowers” thanks to anonymous donor.  Wildflowers have been shown at many film festivals.   

“Mountain writer and historian Meghan J. Ward recruits a team of creative women to revisit Mary Schäffer Warren’s 1908 expedition to Maligne Lake, in Alberta’s Jasper National Park. Blending backcountry adventures with historical research, Wildflowers demonstrates that sometimes we must look back to blaze a better trail forward.”

Look for more information in the new year about Wildflowers.  https://www.wildflowersfilm.ca/story

Thank you again to all the volunteers and to our members that came out and supported our club.

Sincerely

Aileen Petrozzi

Yes, It's Somehow Already Christmas Bird Count Season!

By Jeremy Hatt

It seems hard to believe but Christmas Bird Count Season is upon us once again and it’s time to clear your schedule and sign up for one (or all) of Essex County’s excellent CBC’s across the region! Counts are all day long and volunteers are assigned an area to cover to count every bird they see. Usually an in-person roundup is held at the end of the day to tally numbers and get a species count. Volunteers can count by themselves or join a group. This is a great way to volunteer for a good cause as data collected over several years gives us a snapshot of winter bird populations in our area and reveals trends of species’ abundances over time.

More information on CBC’s and how to participate can be found at: https://www.birdscanada.org/bird-science/christmas-bird-count. The site also includes a map of each Circle in Essex County. Seven counts take place in our region: Point Pelee, Cedar Creek, Comber, Holiday Beach, Detroit River, Lakeshore, and Lake Erie Islands.

Email the Coordinators below if you would like to volunteer for any of these counts.

Point Pelee CBC – December 15, 2025 – Sarah Rupert (sarah.rupert@pc.gc.ca)

Cedar Creek CBC – December 20, 2025 – Paul Pratt (pratt.paul@icloud.com)

Comber CBC – December 21, 2025 – Jeremy Hatt (hattjeremy@hotmail.com)

Holiday Beach CBC – December 27, 2025 – Jeremy Hatt, Kory Renaud (hattjeremy@hotmail.com, koryrenaud@gmail.com)

Detroit River – January 1, 2026 – Paul Pratt (pratt.paul@icloud.com)

Lakeshore – January 3, 2026 – Jeremy Bensette (jeremybirder@gmail.com)

Lake Erie Islands – date TBD – Jim Pogacnik (jpogacnik@lakemetroparks.com)

Highlights from previous Christmas Bird Counts can be found in past issues of the The Egret available on the Essex County Nature website.

Looking for Ring-necked Pheasant Sightings in Windsor!

By Jeremy Hatt

I am currently researching the history of Ring-necked Pheasants in Essex County and am hoping to gather more data on sightings in Windsor, LaSalle, and Tecumseh, especially recent sightings from the last few years. If you have seen pheasants in Windsor, LaSalle, or Tecumseh and haven’t already uploaded the records to eBird or iNaturalist, I would love to hear from you! You can also help by uploading any sightings of pheasants from these areas that you see this winter. The pheasants in these areas are likely the only remaining naturalized populations left in Essex County. If you have any other insights into pheasants in this region that you would like to share, I’d also love to hear from you. Please email me at hattjeremy@hotmail.com.

Above Photo: Ring-necked Pheasant at East Riverside Park, by Paula O’Rourke