NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
March
31, 2025
Nature
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Georges Brun just happened to see a concentric circle in the water just prior to tidal bore arrival on the Petitcodiac River Sunday morning. A large number of observers managed to witness a harbour porpoise. Obviously, there were fish in the river. It would start a large circle, then reduce its size, and gradually snack on its catch.
Tides are high at the moment until this Thursday,
and then they begin to decay until the next new Moon.
They saw the harbour porpoise before tidal bore arrival
and then again at high tide.
Usually, they see these mammals in May.
**Brian Coyle managed to get out to a couple of trail
cameras Sunday morning and was pleased to get a mink "ice
fishing" in broad daylight. It appears that it is looking through the hole
in the ice and then diving in when it sees a fish. It was successful with this
dive. Take a look at the action in the video below:
(Editor’s note: The video really shows the speed and
agility of the mink to dive and get fish prey with such ease!)
**Richard Blacquiere spotted his first green-winged
teals at the Hampton Lagoon on Sunday morning. He tallied eight in the largest
lagoon. There must have been a flight into the area overnight.
Turkey vulture numbers continue to grow. A photo shows a portion of the 40 birds estimated to be in the area this morning.
**Jane and Ed LeBlanc took a drive to the Hampton lagoons to see what they could see on Sunday morning. They saw northern shovelers, common goldeneyes, ring-necked ducks, and gadwalls, as well as many others. They also met Richard Blacquiere on the trail, who pointed out where the wood ducks were, but between the sun and the fence, Jane couldn't get a photo of them.
**John Inman is noting a few new rusty blackbirds
passing through. Male brown-headed cowbirds have been strutting around with
their tails up, with some of the common grackles in John’s photos
appearing to be female.
(Editor’s note: John Inman’s yard has certainly become a
hotspot this past season for rusty blackbirds, whose numbers have gone into sharp
decline.)
**Pat Gibbs woke up on Sunday morning to see signs of digging in her backyard.
This is quite possibly the remnants of the tailings of the Star-nosed Mole as
it bulldozed its way underground to overwinter last fall. The ground gets
covered by snow, and we don’t tend to notice them until spring.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
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