Nature Moncton Nature News: Nov 26 2015

** Bob and Shirley Childs had a visit from a male RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER [Pic à ventre roux] on Wednesday morning, hopefully this is a different one from the one recently reported by Wendy Sullivan in Riverview. It came to the suet for the Childs.

**Louise Nichols visited the High Marsh Road on the Tantramar on Wednesday to see lots of RAPTOR activity, seeing possibly 6+ ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS [Buse pattue] 4 or 5 NORTHERN HARRIERS [Busard Saint-Martin] BALD EAGLES [Pygargue à tête blanche], adults and juveniles. She observed a Bald Eagle feeding on an COMMON EIDER [Eider à duvet]. This may be the same incident Peter and Diana Gadd observed earlier in the day when they spotted a few eiders that appeared injured possibly due to utility line strikes. Louise got an excellent photo of a light morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK [Buse pattue] on the road that leads to Paunchy Lake and saw others there. The photo shows the feathering right to the feet, and the large round “hockey puck” wing marks beautifully.

**Aldo Dorio photographed a PINE WARBLER [Paruline des pins] at his Neguac home on Wednesday. PINE WARBLER will be showing up occasionally at feeders over the winter months as a small portion of the population does over winter with us. Also Aldo notes the SEMIPALMATED PLOVER [Pluvier semipalmé] with the damaged leg continues to be present on Wednesday at Hay Island Park.

** Brian Stone and I went on a sleuthing mission Wednesday, first stop was Jules Cormier’s Memramcook yard to check out the English Ivy and the BALTIMORE ORIOLE [Oriole de Baltimore] foraging on its berries there. The BALTIMORE ORIOLE did not appear while we were there but Jules had photos to show it being a first year male. There was a large amount of English Ivy berries left on the vining plant. English Ivy vines up the trunks and branches of other trees and is very visible on the now leafless deciduous trees in Jules’ yard. He commented it is a very invasive plant but obviously savoured by the BALTIMORE ORIOLE which is not interested in the oranges that are now available to it, choosing the Ivy berries solely for 3 weeks now. Jules felt the source of the berries in his yard was from the Memramcook Institute next door where it had been planted many years ago and covers the stone wall of one of the buildings there. The Arthur Street Lagoon was devoid of birds except for a few MALLARDS [Canard colvert] and AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS [Canard noir] and one GREEN-WINGED TEAL [Sarcelle d’hiver] . Around to Petit Cap found 30+ SANDERLINGS [Bécasseau sanderling] with one tag-along DUNLIN [Bécasseau variable]. The abundant crop of clinging winter berries and heavy cone crop seemed evident everywhere we went. We left a MINNOW trap in a pond at Mapleton Park for part of the day. In the trap there were approximately 75 MINNOWS all of which appeared to be the NINE-SPINE STICKLEBACK which are returned to complete their mission. The ponds are apparently excellent MINNOW habitat.

** BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS [Jaseur boréal have arrived in the city. Brian Stone had a flock of 50+ arrive to his yard on MOUNTAIN ASH trees early Wednesday morning.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton