By Jeremy Hatt

On June 17, 2023, seven Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club members joined Jennifer Nantais and me for the second annual Pride Bird Walk at Ojibway Park. This event is a joint venture of ECFNC and the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) and celebrates the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Now more than ever, events like these are essential for clubs to provide as we see the erosion of rights and a rise in hate and intolerance, especially towards the Trans community. It is so important to experience joy and a sense of community during these times and we hope events like these provide a space for people to experience just that.

Once again, we had great weather for the event, but not quite as cool as it was in 2022! The energy of the group was wonderfully positive and some familiar faces were in attendance as well as people new to ECFNC. Once again, the event resulted in new members to the Club.

Birds were a bit hard to come by but we ended up seeing many of the expected woodland breeding birds of Ojibway including Red-bellied Woodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos, White-breasted Nuthatch, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Wood Thrush, Eastern Towhee, Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Indigo Bunting; an amazing assortment of colours.

The newly appointed official bird of Windsor, the Tufted Titmouse, also did not disappoint w/ several throughout the park giving great views. In total, we ended up seeing 33 species of birds and lots of other interesting plants and wildlife along the trails that Jennifer helped teach the group about.

Seeing new Pride Bird Walks popping up across Ontario and even new clubs specifically dedicated to celebrating the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in nature makes me feel a lot of hope. Look out for more events in the future and we’ll see you at next year’s Ojibway Pride Walk in June!