NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
March 17, 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 the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com 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
**A double bill Nature Moncton March
meeting is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, March 19. All details at the end of
this edition.
**Louise
Nichols has been noting a large population of tadpoles in their small pond in the
back of their Aulac house since the ice thawed. These are fairly large
tadpoles -- several inches in length. There is much scurrying about every
time she approaches the pond. Louise also took a couple of photos of
insects emerging in the warm sun of Saturday afternoon. She includes one
photo of a Winter Firefly and one of a Dark Fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus).
**John Inman reports a number of Song Sparrows have arrived to his Harvey yard in the last few days and quickly took
up singing. Purple Finch and American Goldfinch are sharing feeders,
and a nicely marked young Red-winged Blackbird posed for a photo, with adults singing.
On Saturday afternoon
another big wave of blackbirds arrived to replace the ones that left, mostly Common
Grackles this time and a nice photo was taken of a bright White-throated Sparrow and a Fox Sparrow
greeting one another.
Shannon Inman
photographed a well-camouflaged Woodcock earlier in the week along with
a Common Goldeneye in the Shepody River. She also noted the Rhubarb
nicely emerging earlier in the week.
**Andrew
Darcy points out that the popular documentary ‘500 Days in the Wild’ about a
Canadian woman who travels the entire TransCanada Trail in 6 years is also
available on Prime video for those who subscribe to it.
**Norbert
Dupuis sends a photo of a male Dark-eyed Junco nicely showing it in its
grey business suit and a Song Sparrow that shows the heavy barring of
the species.
**Pat Gibbs
photographed a Crow picking the wood on a dead birch even though there were
peanuts in the shell less than 10 feet away (foraging on bugs or gathering
nesting materials perhaps?) Also Pat has two hen and one male Ring-neck Pheasant, and those
pesky Rock Pigeons gobbling up most of the seed she puts out. Pat has seen three male Ring-necked Pheasants in her yard at various times since Christmas but
only one recently.
If anyone has any sure tips for keeping pigeons
away, short of putting her yard under glass or a giant net, she would be glad
for any advice; chasing them doesn't work and only scares the others,
dispersing the feed sites widely doesn't seem to work, putting the seed deep
under the evergreens doesn't work, using only tube feeders doesn't work. Does anything?
(Editor’s note: a dog has been a big help for the
editor to put the run to too many pigeons to keep neighbours at rest!)
**We received some interesting commentaries back on
the Harp seal photos that Pierre Vautour had photographed in the Bouctouche area recently.
Don McAlpine
comments
“Harp Seals
move into the Gulf and off NFL during the fall, where they depend on stable ice
conditions for breeding. There is a breeding area off the Magdalen Islands,
which is where this seal probably came from. Now is about the time some
females would be leaving weaned pups behind, so this may be a dispersing female
that got a bit off course. While there isn’t any sealing going on now, and Harp
Seal populations are doing well, numbers remain below pre-exploitation levels.
I suspect that recruitment will drop in the years ahead as the sea ice becomes
less extensive with climate warming.”
Jack Terhune
comments:
“I think it is likely that a number of seals will
have remained in the Gulf of St. Lawrence when they should have headed
north-west back to the Front. It is possible that when the normal
whelping time occurred (March 1 to 4 when 75% of the pups are usually
delivered) they had to give birth either in the water or on unsuitable shore
ice or perhaps even beaches and ledges. The seals that whelped in
these locations would have a high perceived risk of predation and may abandon
their pups. Any ice that was present may have been unstable and would not
have permitted proper nursing. The sighting of a number of dead pups is
unusual and reflects a high mortality rate in the pups born in that area.
In early March 1969 (my first year on
the ice) there was no ice in the central Gulf but a small patch in the
Northumberland Strait. Many seals hauled out on it and gave birth, but
the ice had a small area overall and was surrounded by sealing ships that were
waiting for the season to open. It looked like it would be a 100% harvest
and my colleagues from the University of Guelph along with the Fisheries
officers that were there, sent a recommendation "up the line" to have
the hunt postponed. That evening Minister Romeo Leblanc got up in the
House of Commons and announced a delay in the opening of the sealing
season. A week later, in mid-March, some freshwater ice from the St.
Lawrence River arrived near the Magdalen Islands, and a large number of seals
hauled out and gave birth. Unfortunately, this year I doubt that
any suitable ice has arrived or formed in the Gulf.”
**Brian Stone walked in Mill Creek Park in Riverview
on Saturday but didn't see any wildlife to photograph. He decided to check out
some of the trails at the back of the park that led into more wild areas, and
he ended up at a large beaver pond and dam. The weather was excellent,
and the walk was pleasant. Brian photographed some lichen and fungus along
the way as well as a living witches' broom high in an evergreen tree.
**Ian Winter captured a photo of the elusive
Steller’s Sea Eagle that has been wandering about Eastern Canada for almost two years now at the Robin Hood Bay landfill in St. John’s Newfoundland. Where will
it show up next??
** Nature
Moncton March meeting has a double bill feature night coming up this Tuesday night
March 19.
The first portion will be an excellent refresher on
the amphibians about to join us sooner than we realize. The write-up for the
first session is below and this presentation will be virtual:
MARCH MONTHLY MEETING PRESENTATION
Topic: Amphibians and Turtles in New Brunswick
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge
Presenter: Shaylyn Wallace
Shaylyn Wallace has lots of
experience with amphibians and turtles.
She completed a BSc in Environment and Natural Resources at UNB in 2017,
focusing her 4th-year project on the Hyla Park Nature Preserve,
specifically on Gray Treefrog Surveys.
In 2020, she completed her MSc, which included research on the impacts
of agriculture on Wood Turtles.
Shaylyn’s presentation for Nature
Moncton will help you learn about amphibian and turtle species in New Brunswick
and how to identify them. She will go
through the species we have in the province, as well as look-a-like
species. She will demonstrate what they
sound like, which habitat types you can find them in, and what you can do to
help these semi-aquatic creatures.
Don’t miss this chance to find out
more about these fascinating critters that live in our woods and wetlands.
This will be an in-person
presentation at the Rotary Lodge with a Zoom link for those who want to join in
from home.
All are welcome, Nature Moncton
member or not.
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89214168888?pwd=bEIvZzlieXFUbGZTVUhiV0pJVWdJQT09
After
the break, join us for "Tick Tock." Nelson Poirier will give an important presentation on the increasing
risk of the Black-legged Tick in New Brunswick.
He will show us how to distinguish it from other nonproblem ticks, what
to do if bitten by one, and how to prevent that from happening in the first
place. He will also talk about some very
useful new techniques that have been developed to help us with prevention,
identification, and treatment. Nelson
will have some preserved specimens and removal instruments on hand to demonstrate.
Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
STELLAR'S SEA EAGLE. MARCH 16, 2024. IAN WINTER
WOODCOCK. MARCH 14, 2024. SHANNON INMAN
FOX SPARROW. MARCH 16, 2024. JANE LEBLANC
FOX SPARROW AND WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. MARCH 16, 2024. JOHN INMAN
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. MARCH 16, 2024. JOHN INMAN
PURPLE FINCH AND AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. MARCH 16, 2024. JOHN INMAN
PURPLE FINCH (MALE). MARCH 16, 2024. JANE LEBLANC
RING-NECKED PHEASANT (FEMALE). MARCH 16, 2024. PAT GIBBS
RING-NECKED PHEASANTS (FEMALE). MARCH 16, 2024. PAT GIBBS
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. MARCH 16, 2024. JANE LEBLANC
SONG SPARROW. MARCH 16, 2024. JANE LEBLANC
SONG SPARROW. MARCH 16, 2024. JANE LEBLANC
DARK-EYED JUNCO (MALE). MAR. 16, 2024. NORBERT DUPUIS
COMMON GOLDENEYE (MALE). MARCH 14, 2024. SHANNON INMAN
AMERICAN CROW. MARCH 16, 2024. PAT GIBBS
AMERICAN CROW. MARCH 16, 2024. PAT GIBBS
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS. MARCH 16, 2024. JOHN INMAN
SONG SPARROW. MARCH 16, 2024. JOHN INMAN
SONG SPARROW. MAR. 16, 2024. NORBERT DUPUIS
ROCK PIGEONS. MARCH 16, 2024. PAT GIBBS
WINTER FIREFLY. MARCH 16, 2024. LOUISE NICHOLS
DARK FISHING SPIDER (Dolomedes tenebrosus). MARCH 16, 2024. LOUISE NICHOLS
TADPOLE. MARCH 16, 2024. LOUISE NICHOLS
TADPOLE. MARCH 16, 2024. LOUISE NICHOLS
TADPOLE. MARCH 16, 2024. LOUISE NICHOLS
WITCH'S BROOM. MARCH 16, 2024. BRIAN STONE
MILL CREEK DAM. MARCH 16, 2024. BRIAN STONE
BEAVER DAM. MARCH 16, 2024. BRIAN STONE
ORANGE JELLY FUNGUS. MARCH 16, 2024. BRIAN STONE
RHUBARB EMERGING. MARCH 14 2024. SHANNON INMAN