Nature Moncton Nature News: July 19 2015

** Louise Nichols got a lucky photo of an AMERICAN LADY [Vanesse de Virginie] caterpillar on Saturday in her Sackville garden. It was on its favourite food plant, CUDWEED [Gnaphale des vases]. I suspect that it is a caterpillar very few of us have seen. It’s very striking, like so many caterpillars on their feeding mission this time of year.

** Marguerite Winsor had a BLACK SWALLOWTAIL [Papillon du céleri] butterfly emerge from one of the chrysalises that she had form in her home a mere 10 days ago. This happened on Saturday while they were out for two hours. This process can obviously take place very quickly. As there is both the similar species, the Black swallowtail and the Short-tailed Swallowtail reported today, a line is drawn to one of Marguerite’s photos to show the yellow spot present in the Black Swallowtail but not present or very faint in the Short-tailed Swallowtail.

** Aldo Dorio comments that he has spotted a SHORT-TAILED SWALLOWTAIL [Papillon queue-corte] butterfly at Hay Island Nature Park for 20 days in a row, as of July 18. That’s a lot of observations for this restricted-range species [but within the expected range]. He also had a female BRONZE COPPER [Bronzé] butterfly observation there on Saturday as well as a Hummingbird Clearwing moth caterpillar at his Neguac home. I suspect many of us have missed this well camouflaged caterpillar.

** Anne Marsch and Louise Nichols came across a large number and variety of dragonflies and damselflies on Friday at the White Birch Ducks Unlimited impoundment near Sackville. Photos of some of their finds are attached, of TWELVE-SPOTTED SKIMMER [La gracieuse], DOT-TAILED WHITEFACE [Leucorrhine moucheté], DUSKY CLUBTAIL [Gomphe pointu] and SPREADWING [leste] damselflies.

** The photo of a banded SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER [Bécasseau semipalmé] sent out yesterday was confirmed by the team at Johnson’s Mills to have been banded there on August 5, 2014; this one was seen at Robichaud wharf on July 17, 2015.

** I made another intriguing visit to the yard of Rhéal Vienneau in Dieppe, with his invaluable talent to attract and grow butterflies and moths and then release them. Rhéal had many chrysalises of RED ADMIRAL [Vulcain] butterflies that had recently formed from caterpillars, he had collected from his yard STINGING NETTLE [Ortie] patch. He gave me 9 chrysalises, showing me how to attach them to net material with a dab of non-silicone caulking and hang them to let them complete their transformation to adulthood. One emerged as an adult butterfly the next day and flew off. A photo shows how Rhéal advises to hang the chrysalises to wait for emergence of adults.

** It was rewarding to visit the home of Steve and Rose Dernier in Irishtown to see the CLIFF SWALLOW [Hirondelle à front blanc] nests there. There are seven nests over one window ledge and four placed over a nesting platform put up for Robins. I was there on Thursday morning and most of the birds seem to have fledged young, with a few still carrying food to large nestlings. One swallow had fallen from the nest and was not able to fly; they replaced in the nest and found that there were many fowl-mites [liponysse des volailles] on the bird.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton