participant reports

65th Long Point Christmas Bird Count

Photo, above: Orange-Crowned Warbler, taken by Stu Mackenzie Story by Stu Mackenzie The 65th Long Point Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was held on Saturday, December 20, 2025, incorporating both the Long Point Family Winter Bird Count and the traditional formalized CBC. The count covers a ~24-kilometre diameter circle centred on the lighthouse south of St. Williams. Over 100 participants surveyed sixteen territories, contributing approximately 120 hours in the field, travelling 400 km by car and more than 110 km on foot. In total 27,710 birds were observed of 108 species. Highlights and Low-lights: Green-winged Teal - First time missed on the count since 2016. Virginia Rail – Tracks of a rail were found on fresh snow from the night before which was determined to be a Virginia Rail. This was the 17th for the count and the first since 1997.…
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35th Fisherville Christmas Bird Count–Report

Photo of Eastern Bluebird by Len Grincevicius Report by Sarah Sharp This year marked Fisherville’s 35th annual Christmas Bird Count, and although the weather was against us, the twenty dedicated counters made an amazing effort to once again document all of the birds in the area. The temperature ranged from -5ºC to 3ºC with wind gusts up to 40km/h from the Southwest. There was drizzle in the late morning turning to snow/freezing rain in the afternoon. A total of 45 collective hours were spent in the field counting birds, with a collective 430km travelled by car and 29km travelled by foot. Thank you kindly to David Maida, Anne Marie Henry, Duane Brown, George Uimonen, Nicole Richardson, Andy Johnson, Jeff Skevington, Ruchard Skevington, Angela Skevington, Tom Thomas, Bill Smith, Amanda Anstice, Hugh McArthur, Julia Wever, Jacob Wever, Randy Wilson, Michael Kirchin,…
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2025 Birdathon–George Pond’s Report

Photo, above: Great Crested Flycatcher Contributed by George Pond Three of us, my son and daughter-in-law David and Heather started “Birdathon 2025” just before 7 a.m. on May 16, an hour or so later than planned because of an early morning storm. Birds in the St Williams forest were mostly back on territory and were actively singing. We had soon identified a number of warblers including Chestnut-sided, yellow, common yellow-throat, hooded, ovenbird, blue-winged, magnolia, yellow-rumped and pine. Rose-breasted grosbeaks, scarlet tanagers, Indigo buntings, eastern towhees, chipping sparrows, a red-breasted nuthatch, wood thrush, catbird, chickadees, red-eyed vireos, great-crested and least flycatchers and a surprise black-billed cuckoo were all found. A field in the Backus woods complex netted field, song, and grasshopper sparrows but no vesper sparrow sang. We walked into the pond in the Backus woods and flushed a pair of…
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George Pond’s Birdathon Report for 2024

(photo, above: Chipping Sparrow. Photo taken by NFN member George Pond) By NFN Member George Pond May 21 turned out to be a beautiful, but very hot day, a wonderful day to be in the “Great-out-of-doors.” I met my son David and daughter-in-law Heather at their rural home, south of Simcoe at 6 a.m. We ticked off the Great Horned Owl fledglings that had been begging for food throughout the night and headed for the St. Williams forest. It was already quite hot but there was enough song to keep us interested and we had soon ticked off Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Yellow, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded, Mourning, Chestnut-sided, Blue-winged, Pine, Ovenbird and Magnolia warblers. Red-eyed Vireos were common as were Eastern Towhees, Song and Chipping sparrows, Indigo Buntings and House Wrens. A Red-breasted Nuthatch was the only one of…
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Great Canadian Birdathon 2024: Mike McMillan’s Report

(Photo, above: Northern Flicker. Photo by member Jeff Hiebert) I had planned to do the birdathon with Barry Jones on either May 13 or May 14. However, the weather was unsuitable those two days. Since Barry was not available on the 15th and 16th I decided to split the 24 hours over those two days. So that I had company and a spotter each day two friends, Jo-Anne Barber and Krystyna Tanner, graciously agreed to accompany me, each for part of a day. On the 15th Jo-Anne and I intended to start at the Townsend sewage lagoons, but we were unable to get into them. At 1:15 p.m. we began the birdathon at a small stream down the road from the lagoons. Here we heard a Common Yellowthroat and perched on a fence was a Savannah Sparrow. We drove to…
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2020 Christmas Bird Count – Fisherville

(Feature photo, above: Tundra Swans, photo by Diane Salter) Report by Linda Thrower, Compiler As a compiler I was lucky enough to have a Christmas Bird Count this year. A lot of people had to do double duty and cover more than one square to say this count was covered. So, with a lot of co-operation from the birders and the weather the Fisherville CBC was held on December 28th, 2020. It had snowed for Christmas which a lot of parents and Santa were glad to see. The luck continued with enough warmer temperatures and rain to take away all of that snow by the 28th. But luck can only go so far and once again the winds picked up just enough to send all of the smaller species of birds and even some of the larger ones into hiding.…
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Ontario Nature Carolinian East — Fall Meeting

Report by Jan Grincevicius Twice a year the member clubs under the umbrella of Ontario Nature, Carolinian East Region, meet to update their activities and discuss other current issues. The member clubs take turns hosting these meetings. This time, the Fall Meeting was hosted by the Norfolk Field Naturalists in the Walsingham Community Centre. Ontario Nature was represented by Lisa Richardson, Nature Network and Communications Coordinator. Representatives from eight groups were present: Niagara Falls Nature Club, Halton/North Peel Naturalist Club, Hamilton Naturalists’ Club, Peninsula Field Naturalists, South Peel Naturalists’ Club, Norfolk Field Naturalists, The Long Point Biosphere, and Nature’s Calling Environmental Education. Discussion highlights include: Halton/North Peel Naturalists Club The Bees and Beyond — A Pollinator and Biodiversity Workshop was well attended. Participants learned about the importance of pollinators and native plants. Each participant received six native plants. Members participate…
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“Marvellous Milkweed” Seed Collection: Participant Report

Article by Lisa Timpf, NFN Director. Photos by Laura Robson When I saw the notice about the "Marvelous Milkweed Seed Collection" event circulated to Norfolk Field Naturalist members, I was intrigued. Sponsored by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the event was scheduled for Friday, October 5th. The purpose was to collect milkweed seeds that would be used for meadow restoration in the Backus Block. It was pitched as a three-hour commitment, which didn't seem like a lot, so I thought I'd take the plunge. I had my first pleasant surprise of the day when I joined the circle of volunteers as the coordinators did their pre-event sign-in. Two of my former Simcoe Composite School classmates whom I hadn’t seen in forty years had also volunteered to help out that day, and it was great to see them. Right on time,…
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