Nature Moncton Nature News: Sept 14 2015

** The first Nature Moncton meeting of the new season will take place Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge, across from Cabela’s. The guest speaker will be Courtney Smith from the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance. After working two years on a WOOD TURTLE [Tortue des bois] project, she will have a lot to share about how Wood Turtles are doing locally. The announcement of her presentation is below. As always, everyone is welcome.

“Courtney Smith of the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance will be speaking about a study of the Wood Turtle, Glyptemys insculpta, that has been undertaken within the Petitcodiac River watershed. The Wood Turtle is a long lived, semi-aquatic, species that is endemic to northeast North America, and is in various stages of decline throughout its range. In New Brunswick it is listed as threatened on the Species At Risk Act. In 2014 and 2015, field work was conducted throughout the watershed to determine wood turtle habitat as well as daily activities such as foraging, copulating, and overwintering. Much effort was focused on assessing threats within the habitats as well as outreach to riparian landowners and watershed citizens.

The purpose of Courtney's talk will be to present the results of her fieldwork and outreach, and to provide listeners with an understanding of the current threats facing wood turtles in New Brunswick.

** Several photo submissions are held up today because I’ve had problems with Internet connections over the weekend, to get second opinions and verifications. Hopefully they can go ahead tomorrow.

** Dave Christie comments that Sept. 10-15 is normally his last period to have RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS [Colibri à gorge rubis] visit. On Thursday, Sep. 10, he had three that fed heavily all day, but none appeared on Friday, with its intermittent rain. However, on Saturday he had three sightings of a single bird [also seen twice on Sunday.]

Dave also reports that the GREAT EGRET [Grande Aigrette] continues to forage at Waterside, tending to be seen at the west end of the marsh and more frequently during the latter part of the day. Dave did not see any GREAT BLUE HERONS [Grand Héron] with it on Saturday, but other observers report that one had been showing aggressive behaviour towards the egret.

** Anne Marsch and Brian Stone visited the Cap-Pelé area on Saturday. Brian captured photos of the many BONAPARTE'S GULLS [Mouette de Bonaparte] there at the moment, got lots of gull activity, a BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tête blanche] checking out a retired OSPREY [Balbuzard pêcheur] nest, a COMMON MERGANSER [Grand Harle], GREAT BLUE HERON [Grand Héron] activity, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER [Pluvier semipalmé] and more. Some great action shots.

** Stu Tingley and Merv Cormier have pointed out that the warbler photos from the Sept. 9 edition were mislabeled. They were both labeled as PINE WARBLER [Paruline des pins] but Stu and Merv concur that one is a fall BAY-BREASTED WARBLER [Paruline à poitrine baie] and the other is a MAGNOLIA WARBLER [Paruline à tête cendrée]. Both are reattached today, correctly labelled. Thanks to Stu and Merv for those corrections, which have been corrected in the Blogspot of Sept. 9, as well.

** A boatload of naturalists spent all day Saturday on the Bay of Fundy, off Grand Manan, with Captain Russell Ingalls. As usually, the magic of the bay performed with pelagic species, and some less pelagic. GREATER SHEARWATERS [Puffin majeur] and phalaropes were very numerous, the vast majority of phalaropes being RED-NECKED PHALAROPE [Phalarope à bec étroit] with a number of RED PHALAROPES [Phalarope à bec large] noted as well. Several SOUTH POLAR SKUAS [Labbe de McCormick] were a nice bonus, but only one suspect GREAT SKUA [Grand Labbe], lots of NORTHERN GANNETS [Fou de Bassan] and expected gulls but 4 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS [Goéland brun] were special. Several NORTHERN FULMARS [Fulmar boréal] came to the chumming, and a dark-phase fulmar was special. Several POMARINE JAEGERS [Labbe pomarin] were attempting to steal food from the other birds.

A short follow-up visit to Kent Island on Sunday gave a BAIRD'S SANDPIPER [Bécasseau de Baird] along with many expected shorebirds. It was special to see the burrows of the LEACH'S STORM-PETRELS [Océanite cul-blanc] in the wooded areas, and have one of the Bowdoin Research Station people bring out one of the chicks from a burrow, through a trap door used for research on this species.