The Egret Article

By Chris Hart

The past few months have had quite the impact on the ecology of the common human (Homo sapiens). Closures to local businesses and establishments have created a sense of habitat fragmentation that this species is not used to. Areas of preferred use and high traffic have been minimized and/or removed, and as such, individual home ranges have contracted and seen drastic shifts. This has resulted in reduced connectivity among neighbouring units (including those with familial ties), and therefore lowered the potential for interaction with members of the same species (i.e. other humans). What has also happened, however, is that these shifts in habitat use have lead to an increase in chance interaction with members of other species (i.e. those with fur, feathers or scales). Below are a few photos of some local flora and fauna taken by a couple of club members.

Let us know if you have any neat natures photos that you would like to share!

By Paul Pratt

The third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas starts January 2021 and continues to the end of 2025. Earlier atlas projects ran from 1981 to 1985 and 2001 to 2005. During the second atlas participants logged 150,000 hours of field time and submitted 1.2 million individual breeding bird records, an amazing achievement.

An atlas square is 10 km X 10 km in size. In Essex County there are 36 full or partial atlas squares. During the last atlas 151 species were recorded with breeding evidence. Volunteers are needed to document breeding behaviour in each atlas square over the next five years.

Now is a great time to start investigating which breeding birds are in your neighbourhood and local birding patch. If you want to see what was found in the Essex Region or a particular square during the last atlas visit:

https://www.birdsontario.org/atlas/datasummaries.jsp?lang=en

If you are interested in volunteering to atlas breeding birds please contact Paul Pratt or Karen Cedar, the regional atlas coordinators.

Karen Cedar
Ojibway Nature Centre

Paul Pratt

By Gina Pannunzio

It’s that time of year where many people and their pets are out and about exploring all the trails and green spaces across Windsor Essex. We hope that if you go, you enjoy the experience and practice some tick safety while out exploring. Being tick smart is all about being prepared. Here are several things you can do to be tick smart and keep your loved ones, including pets safe.

• Wear light coloured clothing
• Consider wearing long sleeves
• Tuck your pants into your socks
• Use bug spray, and spray head to shoes
• Stay on the trail or paths. Avoid walking through areas that have tall brush or grass, or that are undesignated trails.
• Bring a lint roller with you for post walk removal of ticks
• When you get home, do a thorough tick check. You should check your neck, hair line, behind your ears, between your toes, and in your armpits.
• If there are ticks in the area you were walking, consider putting the clothes you wore in the dryer for ten minutes.

Some Tick Facts

Ticks are small arachnids, a relative to the spider and are a crawling, non-flying insect. They are external parasites that live by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. They vary in size and colour. Ticks are very small (1 to 5 mm) when unfed and female ticks get larger and change colour when feeding. Ticks pass through three life stages including larva, nymph and adult. Nymph ticks are most likely to spread Lyme disease because this stage is common during summer months. Their small body size makes it difficult to feel or detect until engorged, meaning the body expands due to blood meal. Ticks in Windsor-Essex are most active between April and November. Nymphs are active in the late spring and early summer while the adults are active in the fall.

Other Helpful Resources

• Ontario’s Public Health Lyme Disease Protocol / Management
• Provincial Case Definition – Lyme
• Health Quality Ontario – Clinical Guidance Document
• Lyme Disease: Frequently Asked Questions
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USA): Lyme Disease
• Healthy Canadians: Lyme Disease