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So far Chris Hart has created 134 blog entries.

Field Nats Unite! Nature Brings Three Neighbouring Clubs Together

By |2024-12-09T23:03:36-05:00December 9th, 2024|The Egret Article|

By Jeremy Hatt

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.

The 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!

The inaugural meeting of three Nature club Neighbours

The meeting was a resounding success. We met on October 8, 2024, at the Sons of Kent Brewing Co. for food, drink, and discussion. Five members from ECFNC, four members from SFN, and one member from WENC were present for the meeting. 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 and the first outing was hosted by SFN on December 7 at Sycamore Woods in Wallaceburg. The event was a great success with 26 people attending from all three Clubs. ECFNC, SFN, and WENC plan to meet in January or February to discuss another spring event hosted by WENC.

This type of collaboration is the first of its kind for ECFNC and really demonstrates what is possible when different groups come together to share ideas. Members are encouraged to bring forth any ideas they have for the Club and how ECFNC can continue to strengthen our community. It is also encouraged that members attend the events put on by our three Clubs as it’s a great way to meet new people and share the knowledge, history, and nature of our local areas.

Meeting Minutes
arranged by Mike Smith, President SFN

Sydenham Field Naturalists / Essex County Nature / West Elgin Field Naturalists – Collaboration Meeting 08 OCT 2024 / 6:30 PM / SONS OF KENT

  1. Roundtable introductions
    a. Mike Smith, President SFN
    b. Ismay Earle, Vice-President SFN
    c. Sherri-Anne Wills, Communications Chair SFN
    d. Patti Henderson, Membership Chair SFN
    e. Carl Maiolani, member ECFNC
    f. Jeremy Hatt, Membership Chair ECFNC
    g. Melanie Masse, Social Media ECFNC
    h. Janice Boussey, Membership Secretary ECFNC
    i. Aileen Petrozzi, ECFN
    j. Kelly-Sue O’Connor, WEFN
  2. Potential Collaboration Opportunities
    a. Youth / membership attraction initiatives
    b. Joint outing for all club members to attend
    c. ECN Natural Heritage Restoration Program
    i. Does the seed collection manual still exist? Possible to get a copy?
    d. Carolinian Canada – Southern Ontario Seed Strategy
    e. ReForest London – Seed Corridor Initiative
  3. Sydenham Field Naturalists
    Has been in existence since 1986, steward two properties for the municipality (Wallaceburg Sycamore Woods, PawPaw Woods) and one for Ontario Nature (Sydenham River Nature Reserve), planted two Miyawaki forests this past spring in municipal parks in Chatham, working more closely with Enbridge for funding of projects and initiatives, annual plant sale is our primary fundraiser, associated closely with ReLeaf Chatham-Kent (native plant gardening FB group), SFN started a FB group called Birds of Chatham-Kent, recent grant received from Invasive Species Action Centre for removal of multiflora rose from Pawpaw Woods
  4. Essex County Nature
    Also celebrating 40th year this year, a few properties that the club has helped purchase, membership committee started ‘pop-ups’ – more casual outings without a specific ‘leader’, monthly meetings in Windsor at Ojibway, quarterly newsletter – content supplied by members, Phrag Fighters committee has been a success and making good connections to the community, agreement with city of Windsor to remove phrag around a stormwater pond, consultations with private landowners and Caldwell First Nation
  5. West Elgin Field Naturalists
    Club started in 1947, KS is President and supported by a board of directors, do not have conservation goals, Monday morning walk every week, share natural sightings at each meeting, have monthly speakers, lack of knowledge about the club in general, started Instagram page which attracted new members, 30-40 members attend each meeting, do butterfly counts every year
  6. Grant / Fundraising Opportunities
    a. Invasive Species Action Center, TD Friends of the Environment, Federal 2 Billion Tree Program, municipal specific opportunities such as Chatham-Kent Community Fund
    b. Breweries – custom beer – Sons of Kent, Red Barn Brewery have both done similar things in the past with other non-profit organizations
  7. Combined Event
    a. SFN can offer up a walk in Sycamore Woods – 11 acre old growth woodlot in Wallaceburg. Access is restricted to SFN board members only, so a specific date would need to be coordinated.
    b. Maidstone Conservation Area is another good possibility
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Little River Enhancement Group – History of the Logo

By |2024-12-09T21:46:08-05:00December 8th, 2024|The Egret Article|

By Ian Naisbitt

Our Crest is a 12 Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly.

“Twelve-spotted Skimmers are fast and agile. If given time to count, one would see a total of twelve brown-black spots on all four wings of the male – three on each one. Between these black spots sit eight bright white spots that may even appear light blue. White smudges also appear next to the body. The female and immature males have the twelve brown-black spots, but not the white ones, so it is still acceptable to call them all twelve-spotted. Males have a powdery blue abdomen or ‘tail’. The female tail is mostly black with a long yellow stripe on each side. Adults feed on small flying insects.
Like other skimmers, the Twelve-spotted Skimmer is usually found near sources of water. Females lay eggs in ponds, lakes, or slow-moving streams and rivers where they hatch into naiads/ nymphs. The young naiads look more like crustaceans than dragonflies and spend this early life stage underwater. After feeding and growing, nymphs eventually crawl out of the water and molt into winged adults.
This species is common across all three countries on the North American continent. They are active mostly in the summer and are fast fliers. Look for these large, robust skimmers near the water’s edge by lagoons, creeks, ponds, and lakes.”

~Insect Identification.org

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.

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. 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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ECFNC Annual Dinner – 40th Anniversary

By |2024-12-09T22:16:31-05:00December 8th, 2024|Annual Dinner, Awards and Honours, The Egret Article|

By Aileen Petrozzi

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.  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.

Donors to the Auction:
Viewpoint Winery Lakeside Bakery Jones & Co. Ken Lapain &Sons Ltd
A.J. Matte Electric Blackburn media Jack Miners Cerebral Escape Creations

Joan Murphy-Walker, Karen MacDougall, Peter Kathmann, Laura Foy, Carl Maiolani, Janet Tuite, Kory Renaud, Howard Williams, Eleanor Mazzara, Anne Barbour, Dave Kraus, Linda Menard Watt, Catherine Hogg, Lou Anne Meloche, Shirley Grondin, Joann Grondin, Mary and Pierre Masse, Kelly Morrissey, Dan Loncke, Claire McAllister, John Balga, and many anonymous.

Volunteers:
Cathy Lapain, Joann Grondin, Shirley Grondin, Megan Irwin, LeeAnn Meloche, Vicki Rees, Janice Boussey (PowerPoint presentation)

I will be conducting a survey in the New Year to see how we did and how we can improve. I will be re-establishing the Heritage Committee in March to go over the survey and how we can fundraise.  Hope you will join the committee.

Thank you again for coming out and enjoying our Annual Dinner.

Happy Holidays
Aileen Petrozzi

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.

MP Windsor-Tecumseh Irek Kusmierczyk, Guest speaker Adam Shoalts, and Club President (and dinner MC) Kory Renaud
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