Another Christmas Bird Count is in the books, with a number of new records! From the data file, we have records back to 2007. The most impressive of the records was the number of inidividual birds counted – over 11,000 (previous high of 9711). Plus 62 species counted this year, another record! (previous high of…
Category: Meetings
Copeland Forest Fall Outing
A small, congenial group of naturalists met in P2 of Copeland Forest at 10 am for a Fall walk. Included in the group were 5 members of the Orillia Naturalists and 2 guests. As with most of our outings, we proceeded at a slow pace, casting our eyes around looking for what we could identify…
2022 Eastern Bluebird Update
Leanore Wiancko provides this update for the 2022 season on the 29 Bluebird boxes that she maintains and monitors along the 12th Concession in Oro Medonte and Bass Lake Sideroad. Without doubt, this was the worst year for bluebirds at 16 fledged. The cold nights prior to May 24 left four dead and very little…
May Meeting
May 3, 2022 we met in person for our first in person meeting in 2 years. It was a blended meeting with 13 people in person and 17 people attending via Zoom, including our speaker, Megan Bonenfant of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Megan gave an enthusiastic talk about the Nature Conservancy and about her…
April Meeting
Jennifer Doubt from the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa joined us via Zoom on April 6 at 7:00 pm. Her subject was: Some ecological roles of mosses, and some wonders of peatBeing very small, to the human eye, bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) sometimes don’t get the credit they deserve for the many essential…
Christmas Bird Count Recap
Nine teams had a tough job with the weather this year, with cool temperatures and snow almost the entire day. Even in those conditions, there were some new records of note. It was apparent how important bird feeders are to count numbers! 6905 TOTAL BIRDS 264 (Total individuals) Species in Count Week or Unidentified 63 …
2021 Bluebird Update
Leanore Wianko provided an update on the 29 Bluebird boxes that she maintains and monitors along the 12th Concession in Oro Medonte and Bass Lake Sideroad. Number of Fledglings this year: 20 Eastern Bluebirds (worst count ever and not sure why)13 American Robins35 Tree Swallows (a record number)22 House Wrens Leanore noted challenging conditions this…
THE NATURE BOOK OF THE MONTH FOR NOVEMBER IS JUNGLE PEACE BY WILLIAM BEEBE
Nancy Ironside, ONC member, has reviewed Jungle Peace by William Beebe.When Jungle Peace was published in 1918, Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt wrote a Book Review, published in the New York Times.He advised all who love good books, very good books to get this book of Mr. Beebe. And so do I.Mr. Beebe, he says, was a…
Piping Plovers Presentation
Thank you to Andrea Gress from Birds Canada for the very interesting and entertaining presentation on Piping Plovers. You had us laughing while also learning about this species and the challenges they face.
March 3 Zoom -WILD PIG PILOT PROJECT WITH SPEAKER ERICA NEWMAN
Wild Pig Pilot Project & Research UpdateWhat is a wild pig, and are they really in Ontario? Erica will give a brief background on wild pigs in North America, and outline research findings from the ministry’s recent work with this invasive species. She’ll discuss why wild pigs are such a challenge for wildlife managers and…
Trivia Night
Thanks everyone for taking part in Trivia Night! About 40 people took part, and answered ID questions on plants, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. There were even bonus marks for scientific names. A big thank you to Toby Rowland for putting the trivia together and sharing his great photos and videos! There was…
Results of the 2020 Christmas Bird Count
Bald Eagle by Mary Collins Thanks to everyone who took part in the Christmas Bird Count this year!We had nine teams, 53 participants plus many feeders reports. All together, teams counted 8,721 birds and 56 species.In the past five years, here are the count numbers:2019: 3999, 54 species2018: 5250, 58 species2017: 5116, 57 species2016: 7460,…