NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
May 22,
2024
Nature
Moncton members as well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond are
invited to share their photos and descriptions of recent nature sightings to
build a fresh (almost) daily edition of Nature News
To respond
by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .
Please
advise both the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com and the proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca if any errors are noted in wording or
photo labelling.
For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .
Proofreading
courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
The live feed to the
Peregrine Falcon nest box camera can be accessed at https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**All appreciation to
Nigel McLaughlin for spending his evening Tuesday night sharing with Nature
Moncton and friends the amazing tree planting efforts and forest management for
the future in progress within the Fundy Biosphere Reserve.
Also appreciation to
Fred Richards and Cathy Simon for organizing an up-to-date review of the
progress of our Peregrine Falcon family. It was special to have Ron Arsenault
in the audience who was one of the small group, including Nelson Poirier, who
placed the original nest box on the summit of Assumption Place in 2011.
** On Monday, Gordon Rattray went to the White Rock area in Hillsborough
on a quest for greens for supper. He was a week late as the Ostrich Ferns were
fully open. Gordon wandered around and found other ferns also with fully unfurled
fronds. Observed and photographed were the following:
Interrupted Fern - Osmunda
claytoniana
New York Fern - Thelypteris
noveboracecsis
Northern Beech Fern -
Phegopteris connectilis
Northern Lady Fern -
Athyrium filix-femina
Oak Fern -
Gymnocarpium-dryopteris
Ostrich Fern - Matteuccia
struthiopteris frond and fiddlehead
Sensitive Fern - Onoclea
sensibilis
Gordon also found
some other plants on the walk: Forget-me-not - Myosotis scorpioides, Dwarf
Raspberry - Rubus pubescens, and Fly Honeysuckle - Lonicera canadensis showing flower and a seed case.
At home, Gordon was
able to get a photo of his resident Eastern Phoebe nesting in the same spot for
the third straight year.
**Susan Richards has had a female Yellow-bellied
Sapsucker visiting their front porch
landing, preening itself. It has visited several times. This bird shows a
black crown instead of the expected brilliant red crown and the yellow on the
breast appears accentuated which called for a consultation with Gilles
Belliveau. Gilles points out the following:
“As far as the black
crown goes, a small percentage of females have black crowns (shown in Sibleys)." This is the third or fourth photo Gilles has seen of a female with a black
crown in NB.
"The amount
of yellow underneath does seem to be variable and some individuals do seem to
have more than others. The photo also seems to have some 'warm' tones to it,
possibly from the white balance being a bit off, which may be making the yellow
appear even brighter.”
**Christine
Lever recently visited the UK and brings back a very interesting encounter with a Eurasian
Coot. The Eurasian Coot is very similar anatomically to the American Coot that
we now enjoy nesting in New Brunswick. Christine’s account is too good not to
be shared verbatim; therefore, I am quoting Christine directly with some beautiful
photos attached:
“I was in
the UK for 3 weeks from April 22 - May 13. While I was there, I took photos of
birds. I know that they're not NB birds but I wondered if people would be
interested in seeing them. The first birds I saw were Eurasian Coots. I
have to say that I became smitten with these lovely birds. Their feet are
amazing. They look like feathers (you can see their feet in the attached
photos).
The birds
stay on the water the whole time. Although they might hop up on a piece of
flotsam, they're most comfortable in the water. As you can see from the photos,
this little family lives on a canal in Hackney, London, UK. The canal is full
to the brim with the detritus of our throw-away lives. The pair of coots built
a nest using plastic straws, tetra drink packets, chip packets, and some reeds
and aquatic plants.
The mum
laid her eggs and the first day that I saw them, there was only one egg left in
the nest. Over the three weeks I was there, I visited them four times. The parents
are incredibly attentive and fierce defenders of their family. I saw both Mum
and Dad chase away ducks, geese and swans. When I say 'chase away' I really
mean it. They didn't stop chasing them until all of their mortal enemies had
disappeared around a bend in the canal.”
Thank you
Christine. That account is like being there!
**John
Inman was surprised to spot a Blue Jay picking
out the seeds in orange halves that he had put out for orioles. It is the first
time John recalls seeing this behaviour.
John also
photographed an interestingly marked spider.
BugGuide has identified it as the Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus). This is a common jumping
spider of the northern hemisphere but the editor does not recall seeing it previously. The common name refers to the vivid black and white bands giving it the zebra-like colouration. The white bands are actually hairs. The
spider is 5-9 mm in length.
**Brian Stone drove along the New Scotland Rd. on
Monday and stopped at a few select spots to search for photo subjects. He saw
and heard at least four Least Flycatchers, and got a photo of one, and
there were many warblers present along one dirt road including a Black-throated
Blue Warbler, a Nashville Warbler, and he heard a Bay-breasted
Warbler, Northern Parula, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Hermit
Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, and others.
At a small bog area, Brian photographed a
very distant Magnolia Warbler singing loudly in a far tree at the back
of the bog and he inserted a close-up crop of it into the photo to show the
bird better. A Green Comma Butterfly, a Mourning Cloak Butterfly
and an American Lady Butterfly posed briefly, and a Four-spotted
Skimmer Dragonfly perched on a twig long enough to join in the photo
session. In a ditch beside one dirt road, a poor Green Frog was being
assaulted by five mosquitoes.
Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nature Moncton
EURASIAN COOT. APRIL, 2024. CHRISTINE LEVER
EURASIAN COOT. APRIL, 2024. CHRISTINE LEVER
EURASIAN COOT. APRIL, 2024. CHRISTINE LEVER
BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER (MALE). MAY 20, 2024. BRIAN STONE
MAGNOLIA WARBLER. MAY 20, 2024. BRIAN STONE
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER (FEMALE, NOTE THE BLACK CROWN). MAY 21, 2024. SUSAN RICHARDS
EASTERN PHOEBE, MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
BLUE JAY ENJOYING ORANGE SEEDS. MAY 21, 2024. JOHN INMAN
BLUE JAY ENJOYING ORANGE SEEDS. MAY 21, 2024. JOHN INMAN
GREEN COMMA BUTTERFLY. MAY 20, 2024.. BRIAN STONE
GREEN COMMA BUTTERFLY. MAY 20, 2024.. BRIAN STONE
AMERICAN LADY BUTTERFLY. MAY 20, 2024. BRIAN STONE
FOUR-SPOTTED SKIMMER DRAGONFLY. MAY 20, 2024. BRIAN STONE
GREEN FROG. MAY 20, 2024. BRIAN STONE
ZEBRA SPIDER. (Salticus scenicus) MAY 21, 2024. JOHN INMAN
ZEBRA SPIDER. (Salticus scenicus) MAY 21, 2024. JOHN INMAN
FLY HONEYSUCKLE BLOOM SEED POD. MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
FLY HONEYSUCKLE BLOOM. MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
FORGET-ME-NOT, MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
INTERRUPTED FERN, MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
LADY FERN, MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
NEW YORK FERN. MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
NORTHERN BEECH FERN. MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
OAK FERN, MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
OSTRICH FERN, MAY 21, 2024. GORDON RATTRAY
