Author: Glenn Berry

Friends of Kilally Meadows
“Buckthorn Busting” Project

As one of the recipients of a 2018 Nature London Eco-Grant, the Friends of Kilally Meadows (the Friends) was awarded $950 to support their “Buckthorn Busting” efforts. The group removes invasive buckthorn flanking the Thames Valley Trail on the north side of the Kilally Meadows Environmentally Significant Area (ESA). Stumps are covered with a secured plastic bag to prevent regrowth. Buckthorn seedlings are also removed.

The Buckthorn Busts in the Kilally Meadows ESA are the creation of Mike Robertson and Betty Nafziger. The Friends provided labour for four of twelve busts in 2018 as well as food and beverages for participants on two occasions.
Upon hearing Mike state that it would be very helpful for participants to have adequate numbers of high quality tools at their disposal, the Friends successfully applied to Nature London for an Eco-Grant. The new tools (saws, loppers, shovels, gardening forks and hand pruners) have allowed organizers to accommodate more participants
and allowed those participants to cut and remove buckthorn with greater ease.

Through their efforts, the Friends assist in protecting the ecological health and unique habitats of the 350-acre Kilally Meadows ESA that are threatened by the encroachment of invasive species. In their efforts, which will continue in 2019, they have been supported by the City of London in the person of Linda McDougall, for which they are most grateful.

Nature London is most pleased to recognize and support the work of the Friends through the Eco-Grants program. Club members are encouraged to visit Kilally and, if anyone asks you the purpose of those black bags, you’ll know!

Butterfly abundance and distribution are indicators of trends in the health of the environment and state of biodiversity both locally and across the entire migration route of some species. Their rapid lifecycles and high sensitively to environmental conditions makes monitoring population trends important to early identification of problems. Citizen science volunteers and butterfly counts are key to influencing fact-based policy decisions.

The Nature London Annual Butterfly Count serves a number of purposes including:

• Data is submitted to the North American Butterfly Association and aggregated to monitor butterfly populations across broad geographic regions.
• It raises public awareness by hosting an event that will increase general interest in butterflies and nature.
• Butterfliers have a chance to socialize and have fun.

Members of Nature London, West Elgin Nature Club, and other participants hold their annual butterfly count in the Skunk’s Misery area northwest of London. Members of the public are welcome; experience is not necessary. The full-day outing, usually on the first Sunday in July, involves a lunch break at a nearby park and a potluck BBQ afterwards. There is a nominal fee. Detailed information can usually be found in the Spring edition of The Cardinal or the Nature London Events Calendar.
Monarch Butterfly on Swamp Milkweed

Nature London has launched a new YouTube Channel! The channel contains videos taken by Nature London members that can be shared from our website, in The Cardinal, at indoor meetings, and in the eNewsletter. To visit the Nature London YouTube Channel, click on the image below. No account is needed to view the videos, but please consider creating a Google account, subscribing to the channel and enabling notifications. Subscribers will receive a notification every time a new video is uploaded.

In addition, Nature London has added a Featured Member Video section to our website’s homepage. Occasionally, a new video will be picked to highlight a member’s videographer talents.

If you have a video that you would like to share, please submit it to the Nature London Photo Coordinator at photo.coordinator@naturelondon.com. A few guidelines to consider for video submissions follow:

1. All submitted videos must be owned by Nature London members.
2. Contributing videos to the database grants permission for their use in Nature London publications, both print and electronic. For any other uses, authorization would be requested from the contributor.
3. Videos should be provided in their native, raw format. For example, MP3, MP4, MOV, AVI, etc. They can be transferred using Microsoft OneDrive, Google DropBox, Apple iCloud, etc., but there may be a size limitation. If the limitation is exceeded, they will have to be transferred using physical media, such as a thumb drive.
4. The following information should be included with the videos, if available:
   • Subject
   • Author
   • Date/time taken
   • Location taken
   • Any timestamps of interest in the video

AOS Conference: August 8-12

Posted March 27, 2023

Nature London will be involved with this year’s conference in London. Check here for updates.

Articles and Bylaws Renewal

Announcing a call for members to assist. Click here for more information.

Posted March 9, 2023

Middlesex Birding Checklist and More…

Posted January 22, 2023

The 2022 Christmas Bird Count results are now available. In addition, check out the updated Middlesex County Birding Checklist.