Thanks are extended to the eight club members who participated in this year’s annual Christmas Bird Count, held on December 28, 2019. Sightings of 17 species from the two-hour walk are noted below along with count numbers from December 2017 and 2018, for comparison. There was little activity in the Reserve – perhaps due to warmer weather some birds are staying farther north for longer.

Photos courtesy of Terry Parker, Professional Wildlife Photographer.

On October 5, the Ingersoll District Nature Club held a Fungus Walk at the Lawson Nature Reserve. Nine people came out for the walk, including four members of the Nature Club and five visitors. Led by Club member Bill Grant, the Nature Club found a good variety of fungi and explained several berries and plants found along the walk.

On September 7^th, Nature Club members walked the St. Mary’s Avon Trail, noting great weather and great co-operation from resident flora and fauna.  A beautiful walk, it covers a portion of the Grand Trunk Trail (an old rail line), including the high bridge over the river – a view of which is provided in the first photo.  Community members are invited to join our outdoor and indoor activities any time – all welcome.

Compiled from an email from Nature Canada

On August 19, 2019, the federal government announced their commitment of 175 million dollars in funding to support the creation of protected areas across Canada, reaffirming their commitment to protecting 17% of lands and inland waters. This is a historic moment for Canada, and for the nature community at large. If you were successful in your application for funding, we’d like to say congratulations!

This moment is an opportunity for the Nature Network to showcase it’s breadth across our country and to encourage our governments to do more to protect nature.  To do that, we are inviting nature organizations to celebrate loudly alongside us by sharing this exciting news with their members and supporters alike. We have created free content that you can use to engage your membership through emails and on social media; to let our politicians know that we are a strong constituency and that we are just getting started in our fight to protect nature!

If you would like to participate in the amplification of this major success for our community, please feel free to access the content provided through our Google Drive link. Every item is logo free and you are able to adapt it to your own specifications.

Let’s show Canada how proud we are of this accomplishment and showcase our passion for nature! #OurNature #doubledandprotected

On June 22^nd, members of the Club had a great day of bird watching at the Pinery Provincial Park.  The Park features an extremely rare and fragile Oak Savanna ecosystem with extraordinary biodiversity – over 300 bird species and over 800 vascular plants.  While just beyond the spring migration period, we felt fortunate to see a number of transitory and local bird species while walking only two trails.  Our bird count resulted in the following, noted below:

• Red headed woodpecker
• Bald eagle
• Robin
• Blue Jay
• Common Yellow Throat Warbler
• Redstart
• Towhee
• Kingfisher
• Eastern Wood Peewee
• Red winged Black Bird
• Turkey Vulture
• Oriole
• Chickadee
• Vireo
• Great Crested Flycatcher
• Scarlet Tanager
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Cardinal
• Grackle
• Tufted Titmouse

Members of the public are welcome to join in our outings.  There is no cost, and no experience required.  Members are always happy to share their expertise!  It can be very rewarding to participate in “citizen science”, or to simply enjoy the beauty of our feathered friends and their astonishing diversity of plumage, song, manner of flying and foraging.  Bird-watching is for everyone, young, old, the robust, those not so physically active.  IDNC hosts a Christmas Bird Count on December 28^th at the Lawson Nature Reserve – a great time to take a plunge into the interesting world of birds.  See our Activity List for more information.

Photos taken by IDNC member, Bill Grant, from a walk at the Lawson Nature Reserve on June 28^th.  Despite the mosquitoes, Bill captured some great shots of residents at the property!