OSFN Newsletter – February, 2025: Young Naturalists hiking on snowshoes

February 8, 2025

Owen Sound Field Naturalists (OSFN) next speaker presentation features Dufferin County Forest Manager, Kevin Predon and is entitled ‘Forestry Isn’t Always An F Word’ – or – ‘The Musings and Opinions of a middle-aged Forestry Professional, Attempting to Create an Appreciation for Sustainable Forestry.’

Kevin’s goal is to cajole the Audience into an appreciation (or at least an understanding) of commercial forestry and its progressive environmental practices.

This talk is scheduled for 7pm Thursday, February 13th at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre. Doors open by 6:30pm for a chance to check out OSFN’s many gift ideas – a Fern Buff, Fern t-shirts and sweaters and OSFN’s publications including the new edition of Ferns Bruce & Grey.
Everyone is welcome, with admission by donation – (free for OSFN Members). The event will also be shared virtually via this Zoom link that is also posted with the event listing at www.osfn.ca

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/wonBm4mxQv6qWBM7P1OO1w

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The Great Backyard Bird Count February 14-17, 2025, is an annual four-day event that engages bird enthusiasts of all ages around the world in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are. Anyone can participate, from beginners to experts. You can count for as little as 15 minutes on a single day, or for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy – and it helps the birds! The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint program of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon with Canadian partner Birds Canada.

Visit Great Backyard Bird Count to learn more and get started!

For more information contact:
Olivia Carvalho
Great Backyard Bird Count Coordinator
ocarvalho AT birdscanada.org

Photos by Les Anderson

Red Tailed Hawk waiting in the snow for its next meal to appear. This deep snow cover makes it difficult for them to find the small rodents that are one of their main food sources. That’s why many raptors find our feeders are a good place to find a meal. It’s all a matter of survival till Spring arrives. Near Wiarton

Coopers Hawk seems to have decided it will stick around for a while. Much to the displeasure of the local squirrels & birds. But nature plays no favourites.

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Young Naturalists report by Amanda Eriksen

The January meeting was held at the property of Owen Sound Field Naturalist member Pam Kinchen, where her son Jeff led us on a tracking hike. The snow conditions were perfect for snowshoeing, which was also a first experience for several of the 13 in the group. Jeff was a wealth of knowledge. He gave us many tips on how to tell what animal we were looking at based on not only what the track looked like, but the pattern, the spacing and “why here”. We saw many deer tracks, deer beds, a coyote track and a fisher track.

Deer Bed – photo by Marsha Courtney January 26

OSFN snowshoe hiking- photos by Marsha Courtney January 26

The February meeting will be crafting with Nature held in the GSCA building boardroom. I hope to make it moth and butterfly themed.

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This year’s Huron Fringe Birding Festival will be held May 23rd – June 1st at MacGregor Point Provincial Park. Registration begins at 6 am, March 14, 2025 The program is available for viewing at Huron Fringe Birding Festival

Mrs. Nothern Cardinal January 28th by Rob Wray

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The 32nd Annual Grey Bruce Woodlot Conference & Exhibition will take place on Saturday March 29, 8am to 3pm at the Elmwood Community Centre.

Topics: 20 Years of Tree Planting & Biodiversity Impacts; Invasive Species in Your Woodlot; The Forest Birds of Grey-Bruce; Private Lands Advanced Forest Resource Inventory Project; Forest Health Conditions in Ontario – 2024 Update;

Included with Admission: Door Prizes, Coffee & Refreshments, and more.

Tickets: Advance Tickets $30 (RECOMMENDED). AT THE DOOR : $40 CASH OR CHEQUE ONLY PAYABLE TO THE “GREY BRUCE WOODLOT CONFERENCE”

For more information, visit https://gbwc.blog/

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The Grey Sauble Conservation Foundation has announced details for its upcoming Springtime events.

April 22, 2025: Earth Day Hike
May 8, 2025: Earth Film Festival at the Roxy Theatre in
Owen Sound. Tickets available at the Roxy Theatre.
June 8, 2025: Memorial Forest Ceremony

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Help Support Conservation Projects:
Please consider making donations to the Grey Sauble Conservation Foundation and help GSCA maintain and enhance our beautiful conservation areas.

You can also show your support by purchasing a GSCA
Membership parking pass ($45+ HST for residents and
$80+ HST for non-residents) and enjoy visiting GSCA
properties all year.

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In closing:

Nature quote from About this Life, by Barry Lopez remembering his early years in California in the 1950s – ‘I felt the hysteria that came with brush fires fanned by Santa Ana winds and caught the astringent smell of creosote bush after a desert rain…. the sound of a night wind clattering ominously in the dry leaves of eucalyptus trees’

Nature quote from Bush Runner – The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, by historian Mark Bourrie who lived for a while in Grey County – referring to the Lake Superior snowbelt – “Until the lake freezes in late January, bitterly cold winds crossing Superior from the north and west pick up steaming moisture from the lake and dump it on the land until the snow is more than three feet deep. Once the lake, or at least most of it, freezes over, prairie and Arctic winds arrive as drier, bitterly cold air, and temperatures plunge down to about forty below zero. (At this temperature, -40 is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius.).”