It's not only Members' Night for the Owen Sound Field Naturalists this Thursday, it's also the launch of the fifth edition of the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey, 5th Edition, compiled by Tyler Miller.

John Dickson shares the OSFN's monthly Nature Club Newsletter:

– by John Dickson

The Owen Sound Field Naturalists (OSFN) present Members' Night,  6:30 to 9:00 p.m., Thursday, Mar. 9, at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.

This popular annual event features several speakers with a variety of nature topics to share.

Audrey Armstrong of the OSFN Publications Committee is delighted to announce that "You are invited to arrive early and join us for the book launch and sale of Vascular Plant List  Bruce & Grey,  5th Edition, from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. During this time you will have the opportunity to purchase (cash or cheque) copies of the book at the early bird price of $20.

"When the OSFN club meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. we will have a brief presentation by the List's compiler Tyler Miller, who will talk about the process of revising the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey, including his detailed dataset for the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey: Compendium version."

The fifth edition of the Vascular Plant List Bruce & Grey is a keystone publication of the Owen Sound Field Naturalists.

If you want to sustain wildlife with native plants, this book will give you all the native plants, shrubs and trees for Bruce and Grey counties. It is an essential reference for naturalists, botanists, life science inventory specialists, land use planners, resource management agencies, and consultants who are working within Bruce and Grey counties.

Popular hike leader and presenter David Morris calls his remarks What's Up, Buttercup. It will be a quick look at the diversity of buttercup species that can be found in this area, and some tips as to how to tell them apart.

Meg Dean will present a display of nature mementos from around North America.

And Rob Wray will offer his Multi-genre Photographic Tour of Grey/Bruce's Natural Environment, by a Beginner Photographer, including the meme-ready Unhappy Cardinal, right.

The evening will also feature a second launch – of ticket sales for OSFN's 8th annual Celebrate Earth Day Keynote Speaker event featuring Lenore Keeshig, aboard the Chi-Cheemaun at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, Apr. 23, and sponsored by Caframo.

Renowned storyteller, poet, author and naturalist Lenore Keeshig's presentation is entitled Good of the Earth.

"In celebration of Earth Day, I want to share through stories, my understanding of Anishinaabe relationship to the land beginning with the name we call ourselves and where we come from. These stories will highlight various facets of Anishinaabe connection to the land and water, from a barren landscape to the food we eat and where we stand today in this era of Truth and Reconciliation," says Ms. Keeshig.

John Dickson will have the first available tickets – limited seating, still only $5 each, cash please – for this special event, for sale to those in attendance.

In addition to being live at the Bayshore, OSFN also plans to offer Thursday's event as a Zoom webinar.

To request a Zoom link please send an email, in advance, to [email protected] with Members in the subject line.

To learn more about OSFN, Young Naturalists, upcoming speakers and field trips, etc., please visit owensoundfieldnaturalists.ca.

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Ingrid Remkins caught the Lord and Lady of the Valley, a pair of bald eagles, north of Kimberley.

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Congratulations to the Huron Fringe Birding Festival, on their 25th anniversary season, Friday, May 26, to Monday, May 29, and Thursday, Jun. 1 to Sunday, Jun. 4, celebrating birds, birding and nature.

The Festival is based out of beautiful MacGregor Point Provincial Park, where events explore the rich niches of the Park and also venture throughout the fringe of land along Lake Huron’s shore, up the bountiful Bruce Peninsula, and to many significant natural areas of Bruce and Grey counties.

The Festival offers an incredible 90-plus events over two four-day weekends in late May and early June.

This time of year captures both the end of migration and the beginning of the nesting season, ensuring an abundance of birds. Morning, afternoon, all-day and evening events are offered daily.

You can choose to attend one, some, or pick a full-Festival package. All events are led by top local, provincial and global tour leaders.

Whether your interest is strictly for the birds, or if you wish to delve into botany, photography, geology, cultural history and more, you will be sure to find interesting, informative and fun events.

But sign up early as many events fill within the first few days of registration. This is one popular festival!

I recommend you visit the website and check out this year's lineup so that you can select your preferred items when the HFBF registration opens Friday, Mar. 17, at 6:00 a.m.


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On Friday, Mar. 4, Grey County Master Gardeners offered Seminar 2 of their free 2023 Eco-Responsible Gardener Seminar Series, via Zoom.

Entitled The Best Plants for Ontario Food Forests, it featured Ben Caesar, owner of Fiddlehead Nursery in Kimberley, as he identified some of the easy to care for trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials that provide sustainable crop harvesting.

In a virtual tour Mr. Caesar shared his ever-expanding demonstration garden of the best plants for edible and beautiful landscapes. To learn more please visit greycountymastergardeners.com.

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William Gray spied a Pine Grosbeak near Ben Allen on March 1.

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OSFN's Young Naturalists (YN) Coordinator, Jody Johnson Pettit, compiled this report on their recent activities:

Seven children and their caregivers attended the Owen Sound Young Naturalists hike from the Pottawatomi Memorial Forest to Jones Falls and back on Sunday, Feb. 26.

We played several rounds of Owl And Mouse – a predator / prey game. We also looked in crevices, examined tracks in the snow, ferns, moss, fungi, marvelled at the escarpment and the power of the waterfall.

The next meeting of the YN is scheduled for Sunday, Mar. 26, at the Georgian Bay School for the Arts. We will be creating several nature inspired arts and crafts.

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Fely Clarke rousted up some turkeys on the prowl February 21 off Grey Road 25.

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Quite a few people in this area have been rewarded for their nocturnal efforts and adventures in recent weeks witnessing, first hand, many fabulous natural (some might say supernatural) sightings of northern lights – the aurora borealis – as well as unusual juxtapositions of celestial bodies in our night skies.

And, in the Mediterranean, the powerful forces of nature have recently contributed to rough seas, resulting in the destruction and sinking of sea-going vessels along with passengers and crew members, in the area of Calabria, Italy.

To close, I have à propos nature phenomena quotes from two sources – first from Peter Nichols' Ruffo of Calabria, which I just happened to be reading when I heard Calabria mentioned in the news:

"Often I dream that I am out riding in the mountains ... It is beautiful country ... The air is a soft champagne from which the cork has just that moment flown away; the breeze light, the chestnut forests a rich green marked with the cream of the blossoms ... "

... and later:  "In my dreams it is all one, the prelude and the catastrophe; the relentless hot wind ... followed by torrential rain and the subterranean roaring. Then the great rents in the surface of the earth ... the earthquake had split the Ancient city apart ... "

Secondly, from OSFN's Earth Day Keynote Speaker of 2022, Hap Wilson, in his Dance of the Deadmen, as protagonist Jack Hornby in his nightmare dreams of the Great War, seeing "men falling, flailing, getting up again in a strange macabre dance ... the dance of the deadmen ... "

... and Edgar wakes him with: "Come down to the river! ...The northern lights, remember, the dance of the dead Jack, they're incredible. You can get a dandy look at them from the river ... "

... then: "they walked to the centre of the frozen Thelon River ... looking up into the heavens to watch the spirits dance." 

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source: OFSN