Field notes: our OFNC blog2018-01-04T14:38:10-05:00

OFNC Book Club Reads: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

By Jessica Sims The Book: Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures (2020) by Merlin Sheldrake, 368 pages Mushrooms are having a moment. Workshops, books, and classes on wild mushroom foraging abound, while fantastic fungi can be found populating books and TV shows. But these incredible organisms, albeit an excellent device in science fiction, also have so much to teach us about the natural world. For September and October, the OFNC Book Club [...]

September 15th, 2024|Categories: OFNC Book Club, OFNC event|Tags: , , |

Editor’s Synopsis of CFN 137(3) plus FREE feature article

Editor’s Synopsis of CFN 137(3) Free Online Access to Feature Article The latest issue of The Canadian Field-Naturalist (CFN) will soon arrive in the physical mailboxes of those with printed copy subscriptions. The Canadian Field-Naturalist is the official journal and publication of record for the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club (OFNC). The current issue is already posted online. Issue 137(3) follows the double Special Issue 137(1–2), dedicated to a remarkable Canadian scientist and naturalist, Dr. Donald F. McAlpine. Don is the [...]

June 29th, 2024|Categories: Canadian Field-Naturalist, Publications|Tags: , |

Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas – It’s Peak Breeding Season

  Peak bird breeding period in Southern Ontario begins on Friday 24 May and continues through to 10 July.  If you are out and about, remember that almost every bird you encounter can be added to the Third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas: a once in a generation province-wide community-science effort to provide data that will help shape conservation efforts for years to come. Every observation is welcome and valued: whether a bird seen or heard in appropriate habitat (possible breeding) [...]

May 23rd, 2024|Categories: Birds|

Survey: OFNC-run Book Club

Are you a nature lover and a book lover? Would an OFNC-run Book Club that focuses on new titles in natural history interest you? We would be grateful for your thoughts in this short survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdbvEG4mXwYDOBjdY_1lvHC3K-0C9P682a2i_72l5JvBEqc0w/viewform?usp=sf_link The survey will run until June 15, 2024, so be sure to submit your responses before then. Thank you!

May 8th, 2024|Categories: Uncategorized|

OFNC Winter Feeding Program 2023-24

The OFNC maintained 4 winter feeding stations in 2023-24.  Three of these feeders are on NCC property and authorized by LAP 25743.  The fourth feeder is at the Museum of Nature in Gatineau. A pole mounted feeder is located at the Dewberry Trail near P23 on Dolman Ridge.  Suspended feeders are located at the Pine Grove Trail near P18 and another on NCC Trail 28 near the former Wild Bird Care Center. Downy Woodpecker at Stony Swamp Feeder by [...]

April 29th, 2024|Categories: Birds|

Nature Walk at Riverwood Park, Sunday, April 21, 2024

It was a bit cool and overcast but over 35 people showed up before 10 o’clock to explore the natural area at the corner of Riverside Rd and Hunt Club. Owen Clarkin, Chair of Conservation for the OFNC was leading the walk, in collaboration with Andrei Grushman from the Hunt Club Community Association. The most direct route from our meeting spot at Kimberwick and Chancellor was too muddy to use so the group went the long way around up to [...]

April 22nd, 2024|Categories: Conservation, OFNC event|

Introduction to the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and the Ottawa Region: Overview and Data Entry

With peak breeding season a few weeks away, the fourth year of the Third Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas is about to kick into high gear. If you have registered as a participant but want to know more about the Atlas and how to share your observations, I hope you will participate in a virtual meeting on Zoom at 1930 on Monday 15 April 2024. The meeting will provide an Introduction to the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas in the Ottawa Region, [...]

April 7th, 2024|Categories: Birds|