Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 15 2017

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, Oct. 15, 2017 (Sunday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Transcript by: David Christie maryspt@mac.com

Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

** Nature Moncton’s OCTOBER MEETING will be taking place at 7 p.m., this coming Tuesday night, Oct. 17, at the Mapleton Rotary Lodge across from Cabela’s. The guest speaker will be Wayne Harrington from the Greater Moncton Walking Group. He will give a presentation about the various walking trails Moncton. I suspect that some naturalists may not be aware of many of them yet. The write-up for the presentation is added below.

NATURE MONCTON OCTOBER Presentation.

October 17, 2017 at 7pm
Location: Mapleton Park Lodge, off Cabela Dr.
Presenter: Wayne Harrigan.
Topic: The Greater Moncton Walking Group

The Greater Moncton Walking Group has been around since October 2005. It started because walking in the fresh air is healthy and pleasant and the bonus is the added fun of walking regularly with others. Usually the walks last about 60 minutes, but that's flexible.
Who participates? Everyone is welcome. Participants walk at their own rate and at their own risk.
For this presentation, Wayne Harrigan will talk about the various trails in Moncton used by the walking group when they take their walks every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 am. Be sure to attend if you want to learn more about this group and more about walking opportunities in the Greater Moncton area.

**If you want to know where the group is walking at any time, just phone Wayne Harrigan at 386-2187 or e-mail wbharrig@nb.sympatico.ca

** Mitch Doucet got some excellent photos of the western WILLET [Chevalier semiplamé] that has been lingering in the shore area near Cocagne. His photos very clearly show the differences from the eastern Willet that we are accustomed to seeing in the area, especially those of the bird in flight. This bird tends to be seen inland from the bridge on Route 535, just north of the road leading to the road to Treasure Island, which is a private road.

** The FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER [Tyran des savanes] on Miscou has been rather elusive in recent days, but Léon Gagnon did get very short observations of it on a neighbour’s clothesline on Saturday, and later Mrs. Gagnon spotted it on the roof of the house. This was at Wilson Point. It was cold and windy at the time, and it flew off in the same direction as it did when he saw it earlier in the week.

Léon also had a visit from a small flock of RUSTY BLACKBIRDS [Quiscale rouilleux]. On Saturday he was able to get a close-up photo of one of them in his yard, and another documentary photo of the group in late September.

** Leigh Eaton came across an expired insect that caught his attention under the hood of his car. It was a WATER SCORPION [scorpion d'eau] that is usually in water, and preys on other insects, and will bite a human if carelessly handled. They are common underwater life that we just don’t see very often.

** Aldo Dorio saw a SNOW BUNTING [Bruant des neiges] at Hay Island on Saturday but was able to get a photo. It’s nice to hear that they are starting to join us for the upcoming season. Note the bland non-breeding plumage in contrast to the breeding plumage exhibited when the left us early spring.

** There was an open house on some of the work, very interesting to naturalists, that is going on at Mount A, and with Nature New Brunswick and Bird Studies Canada also involved, from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday afternoon at the Sackville Commons. Brian Stone and I dropped by and found several displays very interesting.

Dr. Diana Hamilton was there with some of her colleagues to explain some of the great work they are doing in the study of shorebirds with monitoring devices.

Liza Barney was there from Bird Studies Canada to promote FeederWatch and announce a similar new program that they are getting under way to involve schools. More information is available at <http:birdscanada.org/education> or Lisa can be reached directly at <education@birdscanada.org>

.Dr. Vett Lloyd was present with a demonstration on ticks and work being done on them.

Adam Cheeseman was present with a demonstration on programs that Nature New Brunswick is working on.

It was a very interesting display. Unfortunately there seemed to be little and short-time announcement of this great afternoon exposé of things happening that many naturalists would be interested in hearing about.

** Afterwards, Brian and I dropped down to the Shepody - Cape Enrage area. Winds and weather conditions were not great but we did see the CRESTED CARACARA [Caracara du Nord] very briefly at its favourite haunt down the old mill road at Shepody.

The violent winds at Cape Enrage kept the SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER [Tyran à longue queue] lying low, if it is indeed still there. A MERLIN did briefly perch during a hunting mission to give a nice photo. A turmoil of clouds and sunset provided a bonus observations.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton