The Egret Article

By Phil Beaudoin 

Botanical formulations,
from the Prairie’s chemically radiant odes,
Emit sky-high projections,
taller than a word’s monument,
to all Avians known.

Living the dreams of a sub lunar Fire Weed,
ensnared in the pointillist mysticism of a light cascading Willow;
The Prairie’s roving medicinal airs,
dapple a mesmerizing skin, bathing where the shade grows;
Fragmenting one’s terrestrial wears,
as original nature roves;
In a whirling procession,
of religiously glowing Oak clones.

The Prairie rides a dreaming peace,
to sublimate human health;
Along the vortice of reasoning, captured in the ornate venation,
of the human vine’s physiological wealth.

Where the anatomy of true scientific diversity,
walks through the theories, secreted in an alchemical night’s spell;
The emanations of the tall grass hissing,
recite nomenclature which so solemnly quells;
Like an Orbweaver Spider-Saint at noon, recalling the phylogenetic patterns,
of an ecological mind’s self.

The Prairie breaths a resonance of speciating diversity;
kept in time rhyming, with the hallucinations,
of a humanoid evolutionary history.

It hunts with an insectoidial mythology,
that was born about one’s thoughts amidst dividing leaves,
unveiling human souls;
While, the modes about which songbirds reproduce like distributed seed
and unified polymorphic terrains, are divining at the presence of,
orchestrally arranged, migrating nodes.

As a Redwinged Black Bird,
the Prairie defends its nest with wrathful vengeance.
For the mere thought of a human trespassing upon its scientific excellence,
is a gesture of inhumanity,
towards the nesting of an infinite existential resonance.

As a biologist,
the Prairie speaks itself into descriptions of biological relevance,
Identifying each bone, each plume, each cell,
like the emancipated body that is the temple of the naturalist;
The future of Earth’s eloquence,
the academic void, which teleports the modern consciousness;
Where permutes the Lepidopteran symmetries,
about cerebral elegance;
The frontal lobe of vegetation’s animal stem,
voraciously consuming, intellectual eminance.

The Prairie foments storms of human thought,
like Early May’s morphology;
Unveiling green charisma, as our psychological time,
continues to bloom the cerebellum’s studies,
with a memorized seasonal veracity.

Like a Massasaugua Rattlesnake,
who’s spirit once stared into the ambiance of Prairie din,
Each species remembers the light that exists,
when biological diversity breaths the greatest wind;
The most elegant air, and the most camouflaged verse,
to have inhaled the cycles of this terrain;
The most medicinal arosol, the most divine sentience of soil,
to have been emitted, with the cognitive seance,
that protects the visionary waters, of a good Prairie brain.

Yes, the Prairie is alive, hydrologically active,
and atmospherically famous, a true champion of the Earth’s aolian din stare;
This is probably why we writhe in its life and live in its force,
responding to its presence, as waveforms of water,
the echos of air;
The sway of a grassland, around the womb that is mothered,
gestating life’s growing cures,
Out of which, the human being, may always be uttering,
a composition for a Prairie that is fare, not accursed.

By Catherine Hogg and Aileen Petrozzi

April 2023 to April 2024

It was a wonderful time to meet our members. Socializing and talk not only about nature but other topics. Contributing to our list of flowers, birds and trees etc.

Thank you to all our members and friends that joined us. Hope you will join us for another year at Spring Garden monthly walk. Starting June 23^rd at 2pm.  Spring garden walk will be the last Sunday of the month going forward.

There were too many highlights of the year. Here is just three that have interesting facts:

Prickly Ash

A source of medicine for our First Nations. (Tooth Ache Tree) This Shrub is used by the pharma companies today. The shrub can grow into trees and belongs to the Citrus family. It is the host to the Giant Swallowtail (source google)

American Ground Nut

Gathered as a source of Food by our indigenous people who sliced and cooked it like potatoes (source I nature)

Magnificent Sycamore Tree

Flower pollen and seed flowers grow on the same tree. Fruit aggregate persists during winter, wind dispersed and frequently reproduced from stumps. (source Trees Canada, John Farrar)

Hope to see you on our walks!

Catherine Hogg and Aileen Petrozzi

Saturday, 13 April, 2024

By Laura Neufeld, Jacqueline Serran and Ian Naisbitt

We acknowledge that the Little River Watershed is in the traditional and ancestral territory of the Caldwell First Nation, a member of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa and the Potawatomi Peoples.
We recognise that Indigenous Peoples had an original connection with their ancestral land. We are dedicated to learning about and helping Caldwell First Nation to protect, preserve and restore their ancestral lands and waters. We value and respect the contributions and relationships of the Indigenous Peoples in their ancestral territory.
Mnaadendamowidaa Shkaakaamikwe
Respect Mother Earth

The Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA), Detroit River Canadian Cleanup (DRCC) and the City of Windsor partnered together to sponsor the River Cleanup at Teedie Park in east Windsor. Essex County Nature/ Lil’ Reg were welcomed to participate in the cleanup.

The public was invited to pick up “Winter Blown” litter along the area adjacent to the river. The cleanup began at 10 a.m. and continued until noon. We have had abundant amounts of rainfall currently so the level of water in the river was high and muddy water was streaming down river! At the end of the day, volunteers collected 193 kilograms of litter. Some of the items included: a basketball, flip-flops, calculator, construction wood,  lots of plastic items, spray cans and of course another shopping cart!

Mother Nature provided another wonderful day for working outdoors. Daybreak revealed a temperature of 6 C → feels like 2 C = Yikes! However, the forecast is a high of 14 C and sunny = Yahoo! Wind will be northwest at 30 km/ h gusting to 60 km/ h. Mister Beaufort’s translation: “Fresh Breeze” to “Near Gale” = Yikes again! UV index 5 or moderate. It turned out to be a sunny day with a wee zephyr. No rain whew! 

Today’s cleanup will address two of the Beneficial Use Impairments (BUI) of the Detroit River Area of Concern (AOC):

• Degradation of fish and wildlife populations (BUI # 3).
• The loss of fish and wildlife habitat (BUI # 14).

Nestling Bees

Obviously, we noticed the white flowering first. Upon closer observation though, we noticed tranquil bees resting in the curled up flowers. It was a chilly morning and apparently the bees found protection from the cold by nestling in the flowers.

Shopping Cart Nightmares

Today, one volunteer managed to retrieve 1 shopping cart from the river. However, we also found 2 old shopping carts in the river. We have noticed these 2 remnants before, they are firmly stuck in the river bed. They brought back nightmares for some of the older volunteers who have spent hours pulling carts from the river in the past.

The record for retrieving carts from the river in one day is 68! Nightmarish indeed!

Muddy Water = Erosion of soil upstream.
However, notice the soil that has been deposited in the bends of the river course.
Over the years, trees and shrubs have established themselves and grown to create wildlife habitat! It’s Mother Nature’s way.

Watching the water flow in a serene moment of the cleanup.