The Egret Article

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”

By Laura Foy

We tend to take up a lot of space as North Americans. Canadians rank third in the world for average house size. It is estimated that lawns occupy a total area of more than 50 million acres across the continent. That’s an equivalent land area more than 25 times the size of Algonquin Park. Canada currently has protected 13% of our land and water area, with a pledged goal of 30% by 2030. However, most of that protected land exists outside of population centres.

The Carolinian Zone, the ecoregion in which we live, is home to a quarter of Canada’s human population and one third of its endangered and at-risk species. As much as 95% of the land is privately owned and only 2.5% is protected.

Our lawns are taking up valuable real estate and giving very little back. While we can never hope to fully replicate nature in our gardens, there are many ways that you can provide habitat at home and give back to nature some of the space we take up but rarely use.

What is habitat?

Habitat is made up of the physical resources that all living things need to survive and reproduce. In our gardens we can narrow this down to the following features:

1. Food
2. Water
3. Shelter
4. Places to raise young
5. ‘Green’ gardening

1. Food

Your garden habitat will eventually become host to everything on the food chain, from predators down to detritivores and decomposers.

Fruit and berries

When choosing plants to add to your garden, consider fruit bearing trees and shrubs. These species serve a dual benefit by often being species which bloom early in the season and offer pollen and nectar resources when many other flowering plants haven’t bloomed yet.  

Pollen and nectar

It’s not an exaggeration to say that pollen and nectar fuel thousands of species in our gardens. In Ontario we have more than 400 species of native bees. When you factor in the flower-visiting wasps, flies, lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), beetles, and ants among others, it becomes clear what an important resource flowering plants are to wildlife. These creatures are active anywhere from April through to November. It’s not a coincidence that there are native plants that also bloom throughout this same time period.

Seeds and nuts

As the growing season wanes plants put their energy into their own reproduction in the form of seeds and nuts. These little high-energy packages are the perfect food for animals in the winter when not much else is available.

Other food resources

You may choose to offer supplemental food in your garden in the form of bird feeders. Be careful to follow good food and hygiene practices for bird feeders to prevent the spread of illness and disease.

Food availability in your garden can be as simple as leaving a log to decompose, leaving fallen leaves and letting your dried and dead plant stalks stand over the winter. You might find yourself surprised and delighted when a downy woodpecker shows up to peck a tasty morsel out of a hollow stem!

2. Water

Adding a water feature to your garden can be as simple as a solar powered fountain or a bird bath. A bubbling rock, pond or rain garden are other ways to provide water for wildlife. You’ll find more than birds coming to access a nice source of clean, fresh water to drink and bathe.

3. Shelter

Shelter can come in many forms but serves the same purpose to all creatures, protection from predators and the elements. Shrubs provide a good spot for birds to retreat if a cat or a raptor shows up. We often find birds roosting overnight in the vines that grow on the one side of our house.  Small stones and logs can offer shelter to smaller creatures. Dense plantings can provide a spot to keep out of the elements and provide a shady retreat from intense midday temperatures and a covered spot to forage on the ground.

4. Places to raise young

Trees and shrubs are frequently hosts to nest-building birds, but even a dead tree can be home to cavity nesting species such as woodpeckers or even screech owls.

You may find your garden being used as a nursery to an array of animals, from small mammals to birds, and more insects than you probably ever knew existed. Butterfly and moth species spend most of their lives as caterpillars feeding on specific species or groups of plants, known as host plants. If you want the most bang for your buck, oak species are considered one of a handful of keystone tree species, known to host more than 500 caterpillar species.

Another group to consider are the creatures that live and reproduce in the litter and ground layers of the garden. If you mulch every bare inch of soil and rake up every fallen leaf, you’re eliminating the nesting habitat of hundreds of species that help build your ecosystem. Many of our native bees and wasps are solitary ground nesters that require access to bare soil. These species do not build colonies and will not guard their nests aggressively, so it’s safe to invite them into your garden and share your space. You will also be providing the right conditions for fireflies to complete their lifecycles. Who doesn’t love fireflies?

5. Green gardening

Green gardening means adopting sustainable practices in your yard. Reducing your lawn to reduce the amount of gas-powered equipment usage. Installing drip irrigation instead of using traditional sprinklers. Composting your kitchen scraps and yard waste. But in my opinion the most important green step you can take for your habitat is moving away from pesticides and herbicides.

Much of creating habitat comes with a shift in the way you look at your plants. Gone will be the instinct to track down the creature chewing on your leaves so you can determine the best way to eliminate it. Instead, you’ll find yourself trying to track it down to see which new creature you’ve invited into your space. By creating a functional habitat, your aphid infestation will soon be followed by a wave of aphid predators. Your spiders will become cached food for pupating wasps. Your slugs and snails become prey to firefly larvae, reptiles and amphibians. Your mosquitos may be hunted by tree swallows, dragonflies and bats. Your caterpillars will become food for fledgling birds. It’s okay to have mixed feelings about that last one!

Resources

People to Follow

• – Doug Tallamy
• – Lorraine Johnson
• – Heather Holm

Websites

• Windsor-Essex Native Plant Gardening https://www.facebook.com/groups/717320459068175/
• VASCAN (Database of Vascular Plants of Canada) https://data.canadensys.net/vascan/search
• NatureServe Explorer https://explorer.natureserve.org/
• In Our Nature https://www.inournature.ca/resources
• Blooming Boulevards http://www.bloomingboulevards.org/

Nurseries

• Native Trees and Plants, Amherstburg
• Heavenly Earth, Bothwell
• Maajigiin Gumig, Aamjiwnaang First Nation (Sarnia area)
• Golden Alexanders, Sarnia
• Ontario Native Plants, online at www.onplants.ca

My Top Recommendations

If you’re just getting started and feel a bit overwhelmed by unfamiliar plants, here are some of my top recommendations of easy to find and easy to grow native species.

Trees

1. Oaks (Quercus sp.)
2. Willows (Salix sp.)
3. Cherry (Prunus sp.)
4. Maples (Acer sp.)
5. Hickories (Carya sp.)

Shrubs

1. New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus)
2. Serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.)
3. Dogwoods (Cornus sp.)
4. Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
5. Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus)

Flowering plants (full sun)

1. Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum)
2. Virginia mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum)
3. Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
4. Milkweeds (Asclepias sp. especially butterfly and swamp)
5. Joe-pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum)

Flowering plants (part sun to shade)

1. Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)
2. Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)
3. Canada anemone (Anemonastrum canadense)
4. Wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
5. Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)