- by John Dickson, Owen Sound Field Naturalists

In recent years this upcoming weekend has become an opportunity for celebrating many things - Family, Heritage, and Nature too.
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is scheduled for February 12-15, inviting people to report their observations of bird sightings, as well as share their photos, and watch on a map of the world as count data are applied to a visual representation of a world wide activity. My own best memory of this event was from a few years ago, on the coldest morning of the winter, when I counted 29 Cedar Waxwings and one fluffed-up Robin, enjoying the remaining fruit on a Mountain Ash tree visible from our window. Alas, most winters since then, that tree has been fruitless, as has been my checking for the return of the waxwings! To learn how you can participate please visit www.birdcount.org

The Grey County Master Gardeners are offering the second of three zoom seminars on Saturday February 27 at 1PM to help you create and maintain an environmentally sustainable and beautiful garden. Entitled Gardening with Nature - Building Gardens from the Ground Up it will feature Julie Anne Lamberts, local gardener and operator of By the Bluffs Nursery near Wiarton. By the Bluffs Nursery is an ecological plant nursery and permaculture orchard, and Julie is a nature lover and conservationist. Her nursery, orchard and gardens are grown in harmony with the environment using techniques that restore the health of land, water and air. To register for this event please visit www.greycountymastergardeners.com

The hikes planned for February by the Friends of Hibou, (FoH) were suspended during the current COVID-19 lockdown.
In the meantime FoH reminds you that the trails are still open for your use. To check and to verify whether any guided hikes have been rescheduled after the planned easing of some restrictions February 16, please visit www.friendsofhibou.com

The Owen Sound Field Naturalists (OSFN) are offering their monthly presentation entitled Tanzania: Cultures of Maasai and Lions; and Zanzibar: A World of Spices, at 7PM Thursday February 11 online, via Zoom. The guest speaker is OSFN President Pamela Kinchen, who documented her journey to Africa with photographs, research and special memories. Kinchen describes it as A Dream Trip realized to see it All – Before it’s Gone! Three weeks of “Pinch me – I’m really Here!” These events are open to the public as well as OSFN members. If you would like to attend this event, but did not receive the zoom link via email, please contact [email protected] with “Tanzania Webinar” as the subject title, or visit www.osfn.ca

Another local organization I can recommend is the Bruce Grey Woodlands Association, which has recently posted several learning opportunities related to trees, tree pests, invasive species, new initiatives for wood products, etc. To check them out please visit www.bgwa.ca

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is now offering online learning opportunities too. For example, Mark Peck shared his article Animal Crossing describing and explaining about how the nomadic winter finches are irruptive migrants who plan their travels based on food supply.
Other offerings can be found at "ROM at Home", or under "collections and research" at www.rom.on.ca. Mark Peck is Manager of the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity at the ROM, and has given presentations to OSFN with his father, the late George Peck.

Almost a year ago, Beaver Valley Birding was launched on a Facebook platform, by David Turner of Flesherton. Observing that the club has been very active with its sightings and photographs, I asked David about what he had in mind when he created the group, to which he replied "So I started the Beaver Valley Birding page on March 29th, 2020, as a way to connect local birders together for the purpose of sharing information and their love of local birds. I thought it would be a great way to share locations of interesting birds to some folks who don't know where to look for birds and to meet other birders from the area. Birding is a great way to share outdoors activities and two sets of eyes are always better than one. One of my main hopes was to have people meet and go birding in groups. This still happens now with small numbers, but I'd hoped to be able to have people meet me, then I could show them some of the best spots to go. The site has become more popular than I ever thought it would, with 285 members. Hopefully we can all have a big birding event when the Covid crisis is over. Seeing the amount of seasoned birders willing to help new birders out with ID's and other information is the best bonus so far with the page. Also the quality of photography is impressive. Lot's of help for beginners there too."

I have certainly found the site to be fascinating, due to the terrific postings of excellent photos, and helpful advice and tips for identification. Kudos to David Turner for this very successful initiative.
If you are interested in seeing for yourself, visit Beaver Valley Birding on Facebook.

In response to my tribute last month to Gus Yaki, I have learned from an acquaintance of mine, here in Owen Sound, that she and her future husband met on their first field trip led by Yaki, and went on several more of his well organized trips. His leadership skills, his understanding of the group dynamic, and sharing his nature knowledge made for very educational and memorable experiences.

To close, a Nature quote from Farley Mowat's Grey Seas Under, set in Canada's Atlantic provinces "...February of 1938 was more violent than any of its predecessors for thirty years. It began with a full-blown hurricane and went on from there to try to make its opening days seem like an idyllic June."