The Egret Article

By Jeremy Hatt

On November 18, the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club joined up w/ the Windsor Feminist Bird Club to host a Big Sit at the Delaurier parking lot in Point Pelee National Park.  

A Big Sit is as fun as it sounds! The basic idea is for birders stay in one spot, often in a comfortable chair, for an extended period to watch all the birds that fly by or over and count the total number of species and individual birds. We chose the Delaurier parking lot as it is a big open space w/ a good clear view of the sky. Migrating waterfowl, raptors, and passerines all fly over this area of the park and so it’s a great place to get a good variety of birds. Mid-November sees good movements of raptors like Red-tailed Hawk, Bald Eagle, and Northern Harrier, blackbirds, and finches like American Goldfinch, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin to name a few.  

In total we had 18 people in attendance and for many, this was their first time to an ECFNC event. This is also the first time ECFNC has partnered w/ the Windsor Feminist Bird Club, a connection that will hopefully result in more join events in the future! The Mission of The Feminist Bird Club is to “promote inclusivity and provide a safe opportunity for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, BIPOC, and women to connect with the natural world.” This mission aligns w/ the aim of ECFNC’s outreach to the community.  

The Big Sit started w/ introductions to both organizations and the volunteers who helped put together the event. We are grateful to Starbucks in Leamington for donating coffee for the event and snacks including cookies, croissants, and brownies were also provided to attendees. We birded from 9am to 12pm w/ a walk led by the Windsor Feminist Bird Club around the Delaurier Trail midway through the Big Sit.  

Highlights included 8 migrating Tundra Swans, several small groups of marsh and sea ducks overhead, 8 Red-shouldered Hawks, large flocks of Cedar Waxwings, Pine Siskins (200!), American Goldfinch, Snow Buntings, and blackbirds, and a good assortment of sparrows on the Delaurier Trail. For those that sat to the very end, the reward was a juvenile Golden Eagle soaring directly overhead five minutes before we packed up.  

This event was a great chance to meet new people and socialize w/ warm coffee and snacks while enjoying the crisp November air and letting the birds come to us. A big thank you to the Windsor Feminist Bird Club for helping host the event and leading a walk around the trails. You can learn more about the Feminist Bird Club and their various Chapters including Windsor at www.feministbirdclub.org.

By JoAnn Grondin

Our Annual Dinner went very well despite some setbacks.  Many thanks to our volunteers, those who attended, our speaker Dennis Higgs and our MC Kory Renaud.  Although we used to get numbers in the 80’s attending, we were expecting 59 people this time.  This allowed us to do some social distancing at each table with 6 people instead of 8.  It was a very pleasant evening and I have lots of people to thank.  Without their help, this dinner could not have taken place. So, thank you to . . .

Aileen Petrozzi for organizing the Silent Auction. (see below for list of contributors to the auction)

Ticket Sales:  Cathy Lapain, Aileen Petrozzi, Ojibway Nature Centre staff and JoAnn Grondin.  Our online ticket sales were coordinated by Kory Renaud.

Set up:  Pauline Renaud, Shirley Grondin, Aileen Petrozzi, Paul Petrozzi, Catherine Hogg, Kristen Derbyshire and JoAnn Grondin.

Reception Desk:  Pauline Renaud and Shirley Grondin.

Cashiers: Bonnie Ross, Cathy Lapain and Shirley Grondin.

Our MC:  Kory Renaud did an outstanding job as MC.

Paul Pratt and Patricia McGorman for giving brief tributes to our dear friend Betty Learmouth.

Congratulations to Paul Pratt, our Outstanding Achievement Award recipient, for all his hard work over the years.  Paul was one of the founding members involved in our Club start up.

Our Guest Speaker, Denis Higgs, for his interesting talk on Fish Communication even though the speaker system wouldn’t cooperate.    

To Dave Kraus for introducing our guest speaker and for thanking him.

To Pauline Renaud for drawing the names for the door prize winners. 

To the people who donated door prizes.  I don’t have all the names, so will just thank everyone collectively.

To the Legion staff for the setup, cooking and great service.

Thank you to all who attended.  It was great to see friends that I had not seen since COVID stopped the world.  The total evening turned out quite well!!

On behalf of the Heritage Committee we would like to thank all the donors that contributed to the Silent Auction. Thank you very much:

Mike Malone and Joan Walker                          Tracy Cameron  

Dave Kraus          Bonnie Ross                  Lee Valley           

Carl Maiolani                Karen Cedar                  Howard and Carol Williams

Cathy Lapain                 Joan Murphy-Walker   JoAnn Grondin             

Paul Pratt                      Linda Menard-Watt     Kenlyn Bryant              

Dan Loncke                   Shirley Grondin            Ferninanda Van Gennip

Pauline Renaud            Karen and Peter Kathmann

Catherine Hogg             Clare McAllister            Christine Gross

By Kristen Derbyshire

By the close of the year, the club will have hosted a total of 54 events! That’s more than one event per week of the year. We’re really keeping you guys busy! Of that total number of events, 41 will have been Pop-ups – smaller scale gatherings which are organized by the Membership Committee to bring us all together for a moment and immerse ourselves in the abundant nature of Windsor-Essex County.

A good chunk of those Pop-ups can be attributed to the Bi-Weekly Walks which are held at Black Oak Heritage Park in Windsor. This idea to host a regular rendezvous at Black Oak to observe the natural surroundings as the seasons change was initially thought up early this year by Howard Williams. Before leaving us a few months ago to move with his wife to the east coast, his contributions to the club were invaluable. The club is happy to continue the bi-weekly Black Oak walks in his absence, turning them into a custom of sorts – in honour of Howard.

As for the remainder of the Pop-up Events the club hosted this year.. Well, the Membership Committee really put some heart & soul into them! The crisp January air could not hinder our zest for the outdoors, and the club began the year of Pop-ups by touring LaSalle Conservation Lands, and the “Grand Canyon of Essex County” – a section of the Greenway. The pop-ups persisted through the brisk Winter months and then finally, we saw the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel that is Spring. Late March saw us trekking trails at Malden Park and questing for waterfowl at Essex Sewage Lagoons. April and May afforded us endless possibilities, such as watching the sunset on the property of Dave Kraus, being enchanted by the Jane’s Walks guided by our friends Grant Munroe and Mike Evans, celebrating Mother’s Day at Kopegaren Conservation Area, and kicking off our Bi-Weekly Black Oak walks. The Springtime birding bliss and greenery glee carried into Summer, with a Pride Month Birding Walk in partnership with OFO at Ojibway. We continued our affair with the trails of the Greenway, and basked in the balmy Summer air at Big Creek Conservation Area and John R. Park Homestead. We got our first look at Nature Conservancy of Canada’s newly acquired Upper Cedar Creek, which we then toured again in the Fall – upon exclusive invitation from NCC. We watched the autumn leaves fall as we enjoyed the Annual Member BBQ & Matchet Rd Cleanup at Ojibway, and cozied up while we spotted autumn birds at the Big Sit at Point Pelee hosted by Jeremy Hatt and Windsor Feminist Bird Club. With the Winter chill returning, things start to slow down a little bit again – but not by much! We look forward to participating in the Annual Christmas Bird Counts, and the Show & Tell Monthly Member Meeting at Ojibway Nature Centre – both taking place in December, and bringing the year to a comfortable close.

It’s getting chilly out, but we’re not hibernating! The Membership Committee is keeping busy and we already have some exciting ideas we hope to see come to fruition in the New Year. We wish to keep things fresh and sprinkle in some new approaches to Pop-ups. Stay tuned, keep your eyes peeled, to be continued, etc! Special thank you to our members who join us at our Pop-ups. We look forward to having the pleasure of seeing more of you in the New Year!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and have a Happy & Healthy New Year! 

Kristen Derbyshire
Membership Secretary”