OFNC Book Club Spring Pick
OFNC Book Club Reads: Dispersals by Jessica J. Lee “Plants are often considered static,” author Jessica J. Lee writes. “But when I think of seed, of blossom, root, and rhizome, it is movement that I think of.” Lee’s book Dispersals: On Plants, Borders, and Belonging (Catapult, 2024) is the OFNC Book Club Pick for April and May. In this exploration of displaced plants (and people), she looks at species that have been moved intentionally (to create valuable crops or for [...]
Two resources about the Birds of Ottawa-Gatineau have been updated
Two important documents have been updated to December 31, 2024 and are now available on the OFNC website. Thank you to Greg Zbitnew for his efforts at keeping this information current. One is an annotated checklist of the birds in the Ottawa-Gatineau district. This document lists all 379 species that have been seen in the area. It includes detailed information on their status, first records, early arrivals, late departures, principal migration dates, unusual summer records and winter records. It is [...]
Editor’s Synopsis of CFN 138(1): New Discovery in Mer Bleue Bog
Editor’s Synopsis of CFN 138(1) Plus: FREE Online Access to Feature Article at https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v138i1.3195 The latest issue of The Canadian Field-Naturalist (CFN) should arrive soon in the physical mailboxes of those with print subscriptions. The Canadian Field-Naturalist is the official journal and publication of record for the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club (OFNC). The current issue is posted online at https://www.canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn. The cover photograph is stunning—an image of a newly discovered, described, and named animal in Mer Bleue Bog, a popular [...]
Register to Attend Student-run “Bird Safe” Summit
Bird Safe Campus Summit February 26, 2025 - #BSCS25 You’ve likely heard some variation of the proverb “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.” This speaks to our obligation to look after the environment — the land, the water, the skies, and all of their inhabitants. A group of students from Canada and the US are acting on their obligation, organizing and hosting this summit to connect and share their passion and [...]
OFNC Book Club Next Pick
OFNC Book Club Reads: The End of Eden by Adam Welz Instead of ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming,’ South African naturalist and writer Adam Welz prefers the term ‘global weirding’. The ecological disaster of our times is both unprecedented and strange, a maddening demonstration of ‘the butterfly effect’ where snow melt in the Arctic changes the shorelines of West Africa. In the OFNC Book Club Pick for February and March — The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age [...]
The Ottawa-Gatineau 2024 Christmas Bird Count Results are In
The 106th Ottawa-Gatineau CBC was held December 15, 2024. Temperatures ranged from -14.9 to -6.4 degrees Celsius, skies were most cloudy, with only a few centimetres of snow on the ground; waterways were partly frozen. 171 field observers plus 25 feeder watchers found 77 species and a 42,855 individual birds. The most abundant bird was, again, American Crow. We produced a roost count of 25,000 birds, down several thousand from the previous year, but the effort was hampered by more [...]
The Results of the Richmond (ONRI) Christmas Bird Count are In
The total species count this year was 56 , slightly lower than in the previous 4 years (58-60). An additional 8 species were found in the 3 days prior or after count day, so 64 species in count week overall. This was a better than expected result, considering how quiet it was in most places during the count. The full report is available at Richmond ONRI CBC Report for 2024
OFNC Book Club Next Pick
OFNC Book Club Reads: Bitch by Lucy Cooke What do albatrosses, whiptail lizards, and meerkats have in common? The females of these species are all used by writer and zoologist Lucy Cooke to demonstrate that, when it comes to the sexes, even the field of evolutionary biology has a few biases that need debunking. In the OFNC Book Club Pick for December and January — Bitch: On the Female of the Species (Basic Books, 2022) — author Cooke explores neglected stories [...]
Editor’s Synopsis of CFN 137(4) plus FREE feature article
This issue of The Canadian Field-Naturalist (CFN) received national attention over an article by a team of researchers at Simon Fraser University. The article, a deep dive into the evolutionary isolation of Canada’s vertebrates, was featured on CBC News: “Move aside, moose — a new study has found the most distinct animals in Canada.” It was also included in a segment on the popular radio show Quirks and Quarks; you can listen to the segment here). CFN subscribers have access [...]