Nature Moncton Nature News: Jan 6 2016

** Jules Cormier leaves some comments from the Memramcook area and his feeder yard. The BALTIMORE ORIOLE, LINCOLN’S SPARROW and PINE WARBLER that he'd had earlier are no longer present, however the feeder area is active with 40+ GOLDFINCH, 10-15 AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS and 5 SONG SPARROWS. Jules comments that is considerably more song sparrows then he usually has in the winter.

A NORTHERN GOSHAWK has visited his yard area twice recently that he saw, a BALD EAGLE keeps an eye on the area and a male NORTHERN HARRIER was hunting a marsh area near his home and it came and perched briefly in a tree beside his home.

There has been a dark morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK noted in the marsh area from time to time as well.

Jules also comments AMERICAN ROBINS seem to be significant in number, he noted 35+ in the Memramcook region in recent days.

** Raptors are arriving to Kevin Renton's as well in Stilesville to check out patrons. They had a NORTHERN GOSHAWK come by on Tuesday with pheasants on its agenda and a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK with chickadees in its sights.

** Marlene Hickman reports a flurry of activity at her Dorchester feeder yard on Tuesday that included many expected regulars but a small flock of EVENING GROSBEAKS was special with lots of AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES. For a time she comments the air was filled with ducking and diving around the feeders.

** Brian Stone came across a flock of approximately 30 TURKEYS near where they are visiting family in Perth, Ontario. He comments he had to shoot the photos very fast as they went in all directions as soon as they stopped. There is a season for turkey hunting in Ontario and have heard reports they are a very wary game-birds and hunter wise.

Brian also is noting 18-20 BLUE JAYS at once in the feeder area, that's a lot of winter Jay's on one spot. AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS seem numerous as well. It was -22° C in Perth on Tuesday morning and Brian noted a display of shining ice crystals falling from the sky, this scenario being called "Diamond Dust". Brian got a video of that and it should be seen at the attached Drop Box URL.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ai1kr280351sjka/Diamond%20Dust%20Snow.MOV?dl=0

** A few observations on a brief trip to Fredericton on Tuesday. Going and coming via Route 105 in Sheffield we were only able to locate one very distant ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, a dark morph. A photo shows its dark body and white tail base when perched and the white on the wing underside as it took flight. The only other raptors noted were 2 adult BALD EAGLES.

Also of interest was a wind turbine that is on display in the Marysville area in Fredericton. There's been a lot of design work going into this unit and is hoped to have potential to be manufactured and used in NB. This unit on display was approximately 12-15 feet in height. The signage beside it is shown in a photo as well.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton