Some birds are starting to arrive. The next few months bring the excitement of waves of migrants heading to their breeding grounds and others establishing their territories locally. If you started a year list, or just want to learn where and what you might see in the OFNC study area, here's a reminder of an [...]
Image Caption: One of the Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum) recently found in a novel, marginal, patchy, anthropogenically-disturbed habitat in New Brunswick. This 2023 discovery (see feature article) expands the known range of the species in the province, the single previously known site being relatively undisturbed and surrounded by extensive forest in Fundy National Park. Photo: [...]
OFNC member takes the Ontario Master Naturalist Program by Bev McBride I had my assignment. Find an insect or other invertebrate and describe it in a field journal. It was early March. No problem. There were plenty in the basement. But no, I wanted to find one outside. I hoped it would be alive. I [...]
Two fabulous reference documents have been updated by Greg Zbitnew and are now available on the OFNC website. Check them out. The first is the provides information on the 381 (tentative) species of birds seen within the OFNC 50 K Study Area. It can be found Ottawa Annotated Checklist -December 2025 The second is the [...]
A New Take on North America’s Most Famous Birder In Kenn Kaufman’s introduction to his 2024 book, The Birds That Audubon Missed, he describes the expedition to Labrador (or what was called Labrador at the time, but is now the easternmost part of Quebec) that John James Audubon took in 1833 and his subsequent discovery [...]
The 107th Ottawa-Gatineau CBC was held December 14, 2025. Temperatures ranged from -16 to -9 degrees Celsius; skies were most cloudy in the morning and mostly clear in the afternoon; winds ranged from light to moderate; snow cover ranged from 12 to 26 centimetres; waterways were mostly frozen. 150 field observers plus 21 feeder watchers [...]
OFNC Point Pelee Excursion – May 6-10, 2026 Update: We are now keeping a waiting list. We have received as many registrants as we have rooms. If you are on the waiting list, don't despair just yet - it is not uncommon for there to be some changes during the registration process and as deposits [...]
Cover Image: Julius Csotonyi’s depiction of an adult Spinops sternbergorum defending her offspring from an attack by an albertosaurine tyrannosaur during the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era. See the article by Mallon et al. (pp. 294–299) of a newly discovered fossil, most likely Spinops sternbergorum, a ceratopsid species previously known only from Dinosaur Provincial [...]
The 2025 Richmond Christmas Bird Count took place on December 20. It was the 10th count year. The total species count this year was 56, same as last year and a bit below the record of 60 found in 2020. An additional 5 species were found in the 3 days prior or after count day, [...]
