Nature Moncton Nature News: Aug 17 2015

** Susan Richards got a photo of a PHANTOM CRANEFLY [Tipule fantôme] visiting her Taylor Village yard, as well as a fresh BLACK SWALLOWTAIL [Papillon du céleri] butterfly visiting her herb garden.

** John Massey got an awesome photo of the large web of one of the ORB-WEAVER SPIDERS [araignée orbitèle]. It must have been able to fill its grocery larder readily with this masterpiece of engineering.

** Fledgling birds can often be an identification problem, when not around their parents. Georges Brun found himself in that situation with a fledgling YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER [Paruline à croupion jaune]. It showed very heavy streaking on the breast with a yellow blush, and overall dark. However, the signature yellow rump was ablaze. Gilles Belliveau comments that Sibley illustrates a juvenile without the yellow rump, but every juvenile he has ever seen sports the bright yellow rump.

** Anne Marsch and Brian Stone were out surveying a butterfly square on Sunday and saw butterflies and lots more. COMMON WOOD-NYMPH [Satyre des prés] butterflies are flying at the moment and lots of VICEROYS [Vice-roi]. Other items of interest noted and photographed were a BARN SWALLOW [Hirondelle rustique] feeding a fledgling, INCH-WORMS [chenilles arpenteuses] on their feeding missions, some colourful flower flies, a.k.a. SYRPHID FLIES [Syrphides] on their nectar missions, acting as wasp mimics and performing valuable pollination, PILEATED WOODPECKER [Grand pic] and AMERICAN KESTREL [Crécerelle d’Amérique].

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton