The Owen Sound Field Naturalists’ e-Herald

****A FRIENDLY REMINDER****

OSFN Indoor Program: Thursday, November 20, 2014
(At the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library auditorium @ 7:00 PM)

“FATAL LIGHT AWARENESS PROGRAM” with Paloma Plant
The fatal light awareness program is a non-profit organization that is governed by a Board of Directors and sustained by a terrific group of volunteers. FLAP was the first organization in the world to raise concerns about bird collisions with buildings in urban areas. Since 1993, FLAP volunteers have picked up tens of thousands of birds off city sidewalks.

Reminder for OSFN Outdoor Program for November 2014:

Sunday, November 16, 2014
“Waterfowl Around the Bay” with Fred Jazvac
Time: 10:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.
Limit: 12 participants
Register: Fred Jazvac @ (519) 797-3332

Reminder for OSFN Outdoor Program for December 2014:

December 2014
“Christmas Bird Counts”
Watch the Hart’s Tongue Herald and e-Herald for the dates and count contacts for Christmas Bird Counts in Owen Sound, Meaford, Saugeen Shores, and Wiarton.

Reminder for OSFN Indoor program December 11, 2014:

“MEMBERS’ NIGHT with Bob Rice
A potpourri of OSFN members’ slides, displays, art, collections and compositions focusing on the natural world. A limit of 10 slides and 10 minutes of presentation time is preferred.
Please register your presentation with Bob Rice at bob@ningwakwe.on.ca and/or (519) 477-1728 as soon as possible.

The club relies on memberships and donations at the door and at the hospitality table, allowing us to bring in quality speakers and to support club initiatives such as the Hart’s Tongue Herald & Young Naturalists.

You may join or renew your OSFN membership at the meeting, by mail or
on-line from the website using Pay Pal. Thank you for your membership.
Membership runs from September to June.

*** Please remember to bring your coffee cups to meetings***

Under Nature Links and then North America and then New York Times there is a link to lots of info about birds from a scientific perspective!

Watch the Hart’s Tongue Herald and e-Herald for the dates and

count contacts for Christmas Bird Counts in Owen Sound, Meaford,

Saugeen Shores, and Wiarton.

Please CLICK to view.

After being a consumer and follower kind of member in this club for a number of years, I was asked two years ago to take a more active role in the operations of the OSFN, and I am happy to report that it has been my privilege these past two years, to witness some of the inner workings of this club, to step up when asked to cover for others, and to represent the OSFN at various events, meetings, and outings.

It has been very satisfying for me to give back to this organization in some small ways after the many years when my main contributions were the provision of various snacks to share at indoor meetings, and occasionally for outings as well.

Much of the club’s success is a result of the team efforts of the directors and other volunteers, who step up and cover for each other when needed.  We are all very busy people, and this cooperative approach allows us to ensure that the programmes are delivered effectively to our members and guests.

I would like to encourage you in two areas – to let us know what you want from the club – more outings, perhaps on weekdays, speakers or guides that appeal to you, or if there is something the club used to do, that you miss, let us know, and we will see about restoring that activity.

Since becoming President in January of this year I have made a start on several initiatives
–  to ensure that the club is able to Celebrate being 25 Years old throughout 2014

–  to increase my own awareness and involvement with the Young Naturalists Club. Ensuring that this programme is vibrant, will pay dividends in the future when those youngsters continue to be engaged with Nature through their work or simply their lifestyle.

I have also tried my best to involve the club in activities of Ontario Nature, of which the OSFN is a member club. I am looking forward to increasing my interaction with Ontario Nature, personally, and as a representative of this club.

It is your club, so help us to keep you engaged, and feeling good about your membership.

The other area I see as having great potential is to invite your friends and associates to come and give us a try. One initiative that would be helpful is for you to give memberships as gifts to students, and other folks you would like to see enjoying what we have to offer. Increasing membership this way would be the simplest way to grow our revenues, so that we can deliver our programmes without relying on fundraising activities. It would also give us a greater pool of volunteers for club activities and for future directors.

I am looking forward to our new season of programmes being launched in September, as we take the Owen Sound Field Naturalists forward into the first of its next 25 Years.

John Dickson, President, Summer 2014

My interest in botany developed late in my life.  I decided to specialize in the woody plants considered native to Grey and Bruce Counties.  I have been volunteering at the Inglis Falls Arboretum for ten years now.  There are approximately 174 woody plants that are considered to be native to Grey and Bruce Counties.  At the Inglis Falls Arboretum we have a walk along which we are attempting to establish samples of each of these species. (Please come for a visit sometime.)  We are in the process of populating this web page with pictures and audio. Our goal is to make visits to our many local natural areas more interesting and educational.  This app should work on any platform (eg apple or android).  It is also a client side app meaning that it will work without access to the internet by first downloading the files onto your device.  This app can also be adapted to any plant set (orchids, ferns and so on) as well as, perhaps, to a student project.  In working at populating this app, I am finding out how much I have still to learn about my chosen specialty.  Therefore, to some extent, I beg your indulgence.  My email address is bill@greybrucewoodyplants.ca  if there are comments, questions or suggestions.   Bill Moses

due to weather.

The November meeting date is on the 21st, not the 14th as reported in the most recent Hart’s Tongue Herald.

The 114th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count takes place Dec 14, 2013 to January 5, 2014. This is the longest running Citizen Science survey in the world and provides critical data on population trends. There are tens of thousands of participants who know that it is also a lot of fun. Locally, there are 6 Christmas Bird Counts that actively advertise for participants.

Saturday, December 14—Hanover-Walkerton—Gerard McNaughton gmcnaughton@wightman.ca
Saturday, December 14—Owen Sound—Freeman Boyd boydsproduce@gmail.com
Sunday, December 15—Wharton—Lynda Steinacker lyndajoy@bmts.com
Wednesday, December 18—Bruce Peninsula National Park—John Haselmayer john.haselmayer@pc.gc.ca
Thursday, December 19—Kincardine—James Turland jaturland@gmail.com
Thursday, January 2—Saugeen Shores—Norah Toth ntoth@rogers.com