Nature Moncton Nature News: January 26 2015

** Janet Cormier shared photos of the many birds that came to her feeder in the storm. She got nice close-ups of SONG SPARROW [Bruant chanteur] COMMON REDPOLL [Sizerin flammé] and an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW [Bruant hudsonien] that nicely shows its signature bi-coloured bill and bits breast spot.

** Brian Stone’s PINE GROSBEAK [Durbec des sapins] flock of eight has become quite regular in his yard crab-apple tree. A few photos nicely show that this species is after the seeds of the fruit, discarding the pulp.

Brian also got a photo of the planet URANUS, near the brightening moon on Sunday night. Brian adds a screen shot from the app Stellarium to show the planet on the map there. If you had thought that Neptune and Uranus could only be seen with a telescope, I was with you. Brian is teaching us a bit about the sky.

** Dave Christie mentions hearing a BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE [Mésange à tête noire] singing on Saturday morning at Mary's Point. He had heard them singing earlier in the winter, especially during the warm period in December, but Saturday was the first since then. As noted in the weekly sky report, the days are beginning to lengthen. Possibly the increasing photoperiod makes bird song more of an item.

** The rescheduled TRACK, TRAIL & SCAT WORKSHOP is for next SUNDAY AFTERNOON, FEB. 1, not Jan.31 as mentioned yesterday. Where is January going? With snow coming on Tuesday, there should be lots of tracks to discover this week in advance of it. Let’s hope the snow is all in advance and not on Sunday afternoon. [Transcriber’s note: On the subject of tracks, during my walk along the shore at Mary's Point yesterday, I came upon the slim-toed, five-toed tracks of a RACCOON [Raton laveur] that was out exploring sometime after Saturday's wet snow stopped. I hadn’t noticed ‘coon tracks since December.]

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca