Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 20 2015

** The October monthly meeting of Nature Moncton will take place tonight Tuesday October 20th at the Mapleton Park Rotary Pavillion across from Cabela’s at 7 pm. The guest speaker will be André Bourque from Ski Codiac who will cover location and clubs of Cross Country Skiing within 100 kms of Moncton, and expand on the use of these trails. It will also be great to know the location of these trails for hikes and field trips in other seasons. André ’s presentation starts at 7 pm sharp, and as always all are welcome !

** Please note the SUNFLOWER seed delivery to the meeting night is delayed until the November 17th meeting. Farmer Mike has advised the recent rain falls have made a delay in getting the crop in and dried. If anyone has not reserved or wants more, call Dale Gaskin at 734-2197.

** Susan Richards got an interesting photo of the morning PLANET line up on Monday morning at 6:47 am in the eastern sky from her Taylor Village home. VENUS, JUPITER and MERCURY can be picked out. MARS is there but a bit hard to detect. Brian Stone took Susan’s photo and labelled the planets. Brian comments this morning-lineup will be closer towards the end of the month.

** Dale Gaskin reports a huge ASH tree in his Dawson Settlement yard very suddenly dropped all its leaves seemingly overnight and a few BUTTERNUT trees seem to be doing the same, sudden drops in leaves. Dale comments AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d’Amérique] are working the MOUNTAIN ASH crop very hard at the moment as well.

** Clarence Cormier comments when he looks out his Grand-Digue window it would seem quite quiet at the moment, but a walk in nearby woods and trails is very active, as there’s lots of wild food available at the moment. He’s seeing good numbers of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES [Mésange à tête noire], WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS [Bruant à gorge blanche], SONG SPARROWS [Bruant chanteur], AMERICAN GOLDFINCH [Chardonneret jaune], BLUE JAYS [Geai bleu], a dozen AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d’Amérique], DOWNY WOODPECKER [Pic mineur] and HAIRY WOODPECKER [Pic chevelu], PORCUPINE [Porc-épic d’Amerique] on the TAMARACK [mélèze] tree, a SNOWSHOE HARE [Lièvre d’Amérique] is a regular, and a group of hundreds of AMERICAN CROWS [Corneille d’Amérique] have been passing over the past few weeks. He now has found they’re working a harvested corn field.

** Brian Stone took note of a variety of Mushrooms fruiting in Mapleton Park on Monday. Many mushrooms can be hard to be certain of from a photo without a spore print, or seeing them from all angles. The ones that could be placed with a good guesstimate label were BIRCH POLYPORE, WOLF’S-MILK SLIME, RED-BELTED POLYPORE, YELLOW FAIRY CUPS, and BLUE CHEESE POLYPORE. Brian also got a close up photo of a FIREFLY insect and a CLADONIA sp. LICHEN.

** There are a lot of creatures that live at the bottom of our waters that we seldom get a chance to meet. We have several species of the fish the SCULPIN in our fresh and salt waters, but tend to be bottom feeders. They are similar in overall appearance, but some, especially those in deeper waters like the Bay of Fundy, can be surprisingly large. Their unusual appearance and outstanding armament with a huge mouth may be something only a mother can say is beautiful. I had one take bait while fishing for Striped Bass on Sunday and placed it on a large stone for a photo before releasing it. It had a crab in the back of its throat that had obviously just started to swallow before taking my bait. And, by the way, a nice STRIPED BASS enjoyed the bait later !

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton