Nature Moncton Nature News: Dec 6 2015

** Brian Stone shares a few photos he got while in the Hampton area on Saturday. The Hampton lagoons were quiet, with several MALLARD [Canard colvert] ducks, a few AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS [Canard noir] and one male AMERICAN WIGEON [Canard d’Amérique] posing for the camera. Brian also got a photo of a SONG SPARROW [Bruant chanteur] showing a deformed beak, and a very distant photo of a NORTHERN SHRIKE [Pie-grièche grise].

** The snowfall suddenly brought AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS [Bruant hudsonien] to our urban feeder yard, with several in attendance. A photo shows its signature bicoloured beak. A few DARK-EYED JUNCOS [Junco ardoisé] arrived with them, however, we seldom get more than a few juncos at our urban site. All the other expected regulars swelled in number, as I expect was the case at most feeder yards.

** The Nature Moncton workshop on Saturday afternoon went well. Many thanks to Roger LeBlanc for preparing us for the season of winter birds. Roger gave participants a very informative look at many species of birds we can expect to see in winter, running from birds that are relatively easy to spot to ones that are much more challenging to find. His presentation was full of interesting facts about these birds and gave everyone lots of motivation to keep our eyes open in the next few months to appreciate that many of Mother Nature’s beauties are still around us, despite the cold and snow.

** The Nature Moncton meeting will take place this Tuesday evening, Dec. 8, at 7 o’clock at the Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge, across from Cabela’s. The short annual meeting will take place after the speaker of the evening. Notices have been sent in advance, as per the constitution. The speaker will be Roger LeBlanc, who will share some of his documentary work recently done in the north as per the attached announcement.

Santa’s Birds.

Outtakes from a filming trip to the Arctic

With Christmas quickly approaching, it seems the jolly old guy in red is everywhere you go.

But way up North, where legend has it he lives, you can find lots of birds that

are the best life-time gifts for birders. Things like Snowy Owls, King Eiders and Long-tailed Jaegers nest way up there and our own Roger Leblanc was lucky enough to visit them on a recent documentary shooting trip. In this kind of work there is a lot more footage taken than what you will see in the finished product. Still a lot of it is of great interest if you want to know about birds, their nesting territories and their breeding behavior. So if you want to have a feel for the birds of the Arctic come join us to hear Roger’s stories and see his “director’s choice” of panoramic video which will show us the birds that make it home for the summer.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton