By Claire Elliott and Barry Cottam
Snapping Turtle by Josh McCullough
On Saturday evening, January 17, Barry Cottam and Hume Douglas hosted the second annual OFNC Member’s Photo Night. To accommodate the growing popularity of this event, the meeting was held at the Central Experimental Farm’s Neatby Building, the location of the OFNC monthly meetings.
Fourteen club photographers presented to a group of a couple of dozen onlookers. The emergent theme of the night seemed to be naturalists on vacation, as there were many wonderful photos from all over North America. However, the natural history of the Ottawa region was also well represented.
Starting in the south, Hugh Metcalfe introduced us to the many birds he encountered during his work as a bird surveyor in Florida and Mississippi. Suzanne Deschệnes also showed pictures from this region, all from 25 of Florida’s 27 National Wildlife Refuges. The first butterfly presentation of the night came from Gillian Marston, who visited Mission, Texas, for the Butterfly Festival held during fall butterfly migration. Heading east, Barry Cottam introduced us to the many wonderful insects of rural eastern Prince Edward Island.
Drosera rotundifolia (Roundleaf Sundew) by Eden Bromfield
Traveling west across the continent, our resident butterfly expert Rick Cavasin (see Butterflies of Ontario) took us on a second butterfly tour of Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming, while Gordon Belyea presented his lifer birds from a trip to Arizona and New Mexico. From Vancouver we saw beautiful western trees with Lorne Peterson. And in the north, Eden Bromfield combined scenes of the beauty of ice and snow with his interest in rare flora, and Claire Elliott exhibited an inventory of the flora and fauna of the Barrenlands in the Northwest Territories.
The photos taken in the Ottawa region showed the amazing diversity of our local natural history. The first presenter of the night, Dale Poulter, captured our attention with a wonderful display of caterpillar diversity, seen around her home in Perth. Victor Rakmil then presented a series of portraits entitled “Animals with Attitude.” Local flora were well represented by Brian Carson and his study on Trillium colour variants and by Josh McCullough’s artistic macro and landscape shots. Lastly, Diane Lepage, who was recently featured in a member profile, took us on a broad tour of our local fauna, focusing on insects she’d never seen before.
Thanks to Barry and Hume for organizing this event for a second year, to all of the photographers for sharing their beautiful photos, and to the audience for giving their support. We look forward to the 2016 photo night!
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- Comparing buds of Sugar (left) and Norway Maples (right).
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- Comparing the keys of Sugar (left) and Norway Maple (right)
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- Volunteer, Derek, after freeing that tree in the background from a mass of dog-strangling vine that was twisting into its lower branches.
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- Melanie, planting her first tree ever!
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- Done! Three more trees planted, an area cleared for more, another balsam fir marked (left), and Jada (the dog) is ready to go home.
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- Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)
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- A fern, planted about 5 years ago along with other woodland species, is now overwhelmed by new growth and species responding to the increased light.
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- Once upon a time, 4-5 years ago, I pulled out the DSV that was growing under this walnut tree. I put down some newspapers to keep it from growing back (this doesn’t really work) and forgot about it. This year, I noticed there is almost no DSV under this tree. The few DSV plants there are small and wilted.
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- An area that was sprayed with Roundup last summer and again this spring. DSV is yellow and wilted, but most other vegetation has also been killed.
