With COVID-19 restrictions easing in Ontario, the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club is excited to announce the return of our pop-up outings! The next pop-up will be at Lakeview Park Marina in Windsor at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26. We will meet in the main parking lot of the marina. Lakeview Park Marina is a popular winter destination for birding in Essex County because the water always stays open where the Detroit River flows out of Lake St. Clair. It is an excellent spot to observe overwintering waterfowl, gulls and eagles. Up to 18 bald eagles at one time have been observed from the marina this winter, and thousands of waterfowl is a common sight. This is also a great location to take photos so photographers in the club are encouraged to attend. Spotting scopes are recommended if you have one.

Lakeview Park Marina is located at 9200 Riverside Drive East. The main parking lot is accessed at the intersection of Riverside Drive East and Riverdale Avenue. The outing will be from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. but you can come and go any time. The main parking lot and viewing areas are paved and fully accessible. In the winter, there are no public washrooms available at this site.

It is expected that those in attendance at the pop-up outings are fully vaccinated and preferably boosted. Provincial COVID-19 guidelines will be followed during these outings and a written safety plan is available upon request.

Pop-ups are intended to be informal, casual and social, and take place at various locations around Essex County. We will continue to provide an array of days and times to accommodate members with different availabilities. They will usually be announced at least a week before the date of the pop-up. They will not have an official leader but rather we hope those in attendance will share their own knowledge since there is such a wide range of experiences and interests within the Club’s membership. One or more members of the Membership Committee will be in attendance to meet at the start of the pop-up. We will also spend some time using the iNaturalist app and the ECFNC iNaturalist Project so if you have a smart device, we encourage you to bring it along to help identify anything interesting we find and contribute to the Project.

If there is light rain or snow, we will go ahead with the outing but if it is storming, freezing rain or blizzard conditions, the outing will be cancelled.