Essex County Nature

08/18/2026

📣Fall Volunteer opportunities!

🎙️Have you been told you could talk up a storm? Is people person on the top of the skill portion of your resume? Love talking nature, only nature, and everything nature?

We got you! Man our booth this fall at Festival of Hawks, September 19th - 20th, and Jack Miner Migration Festival, October 15th - 18th.

Join us and help us sell our books, annual dinner tickets and bird friendly coffee! If you’re interested, email:
Festival of Hawks - [email protected]
Migration Festival - [email protected]

And the best part, you don’t need to send us your resume! We trust you and would love to have you represent us at one or both of these festivals!

08/14/2026

🏕️If you didn’t have the urge to go backcountry camping after Wednesday’s movie night — then you probably weren’t there!

🔥I’m trying to ignore the urge to pack up my sleeping pad and dehydrated food to tell you what’s going on in the club.

🥾This Sunday - Our adventure on the Greenway continues. Meet us in McGregor - Tilray Brands Plant Positivity Community Greenway Entrance near the corner of Walker Rd and Scott Ln.

🤫Wednesday, August 19th - We have an exceptionally lovely evening planned for our member. I don’t want to ruin the secret, so members - check the last ECFNC email. Not a member, join us and take full advantage of what the club has to offer.

📚September 14th - Don’t talk about book club - join us for the 1st book club meeting. For our first book, we’re diving into Traditional Ecology Knowledge. We’re talking Braiding Sweetgrass, The Serviceberry, Sacred Knowledge… only to name a few. Pick a book, meet us at the Tecumseh Library, introduce your book and then we’ll have guided discussion.

08/05/2026

🪄Just when you thought nature couldn’t be more magical 🪄

✨ Its always that much more magnificent when watching the Jr Egrets discover the wonders of Essex County Nature!

Thanks to all who made it! The Jr Egrets had the chance to see some chipmunks, butterflies, caterpillars, bees , lots flowers the colour of a rainbow 🌈, rabbit , spiders, fish and the big snapper turtle that lives in the pond.

07/27/2026

WOW! Way to fly towards an opportunity! We have NO MORE room for volunteers🦋. Thank you to all who reached out!!

Hopefully, this is the first of many counts at Point Pelee.
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The Point Pelee Butterfly Count will take place on Saturday, August 8, for the first time since 2011.

07/27/2026

07/26/2026

Let’s Shellebrate!

📹🔴Reporting Live from the Turtle Conservation Committee: Hatchlings are here!!

This afternoon, we have exciting news to share. Our first hatchlings of the 2026 season have hatched!

Please give a warm welcome as these Northern Map Turtles make their appearance to the world.

During this past May, their mom had laid her eggs on the side of a busy gravel road. Luckily, the female was observed while nesting and trained volunteers from our very own Turtle Conservation Committee arrived on the scene that evening to carefully excavate the nest and bring the eggs back for incubation. Because of the work these dedicated volunteers do, these hatchlings will now be released back to the area they were found.

Want to get involved in the fun?

Please consider joining the Turtle Conservation Committee! Please email: [email protected] for more details.

Want to help our committee help even more turtles? Consider donating to our turtle conservation fund to support our conservation efforts!

Donations can be made via:

Etransfer: [email protected]
*please make sure to note in your donation that funds are to be used for the Turtle Conservation Committee.

Cheque: addressed to the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club
*please make sure to note in your donation that funds are to be used for the Turtle Conservation Committee.

We would like to thank everyone for all their hard work making this possible, from the dedicated volunteers to the community who submitted reports of nesting turtles and even those who shared and spread awareness of the important conservation efforts we have taken on.

Thank you,
The Turtle Conservation Committee

*Please note that all work carried out is done so with proper provincial permits & registrations.

07/22/2026

WEDNESDAY - Don’t miss Invasive Species Centre workshop on the Spotted Lanternfly.

07/21/2026

✨🎥 MOVIE NIGHT 🎬✨

Movie: Wildflowers
Date: August 12th @ 7PM
Location: Ojibway Nature Centre

Wildflowers was inspired by the rich yet overlooked legacy of Mary Schäffer Warren. “I set out to tell the story of a woman I saw as a 'wildflower' — someone feminine and beautiful yet rugged and resilient,” says Pacis. The film reminds us of the importance of expanding who gets to tell adventure stories and how those stories are told. Investigating Mary's story closely, the team uncovered a complex character whose life intersected with a tumultuous time of westward settlement in the Canadian Rockies. The film ultimately explores this intersection, as well as themes of healing in nature, land stewardship, and reconciliation.

BANFF , ALBERTA — From Figment Films and Meghan J. Ward, Wildflowers is a documentary film that blends history and backcountry adventure to explore the legacy of famed early 20th-century Rockies explorer Mary Schäffer Warren. Directed by emerging filmmaker Trixie Pacis, in Wildflowers an all-female creative team, led by mountain writer Meghan J. Ward, embarks on an extraordinary journey that retraces Mary Schäffer Warren’s 1908 expedition to Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park, Alberta. Combining archival research and field expeditions by horse, hike and canoe, Wildflowers pays homage to the past while documenting modern-day journeys inspired by Schäffer Warren’s photographs, books, and art.