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