Nature Moncton Nature News: Jan 2 2017

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, January 02, 2018 ( Tuesday )

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

Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com

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

** January 01 was surely a beautiful, sunny start to 2018 despite the cold. Georges Brun got the sunrise as it blazed up with the Dieppe water tower in the background. The brightness continued until sunset as the first full moon of 2018 rose. Georges Brun, Brian Stone and I all got photos from different perspectives. As Curt Nason explained in his December presentation a Lunar month is 29.5 days which means that this month of January will be one of those with two full moons.

** Peter Gadd got a photo of a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK [Épervier brun] as it was terrorizing his Miramichi feeder yard birds on Monday. The MISTLE THRUSH [Grive draine] had fled approximately five minutes before Peter saw the hawk. The Mistle Thrushis present today and appears to be moving between its two favourite sites on Manny Dr. and seemingly more so at top of MacMillan Dr. in Miramichi.

** There seems to be a high number of SNOW BUNTINGS [Bruant des neiges] this winter with recent reports. Bob Blake comments that he has seen several hundred around a farm field in Wheaton Settlement on Sunday.

** Pat and I made a Tantramar Marsh run on Monday afternoon. As Fred Dube had recently commented RING-NECKED PHEASANTS [Faisan de Colchide] seemed to be everywhere. We only saw three ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS [Buse pattue] which was very different from last year at this time when there were many more. An interesting discussion between a Rough-legged Hawk and a RAVEN [Grand corbeau] showed the very similar size of these two species as the Raven was successful in moving the hawk off a barn roof peak. They appeared identical in size as they discussed their issue.

SNOW BUNTINGS [Bruant des neiges] were abundant along with a few HORNED LARKS [Alouette hausse-col]. No Owls were seen, but the bonus was a GOLDEN EAGLE [Aigle royal] which was spotted on a pylon at great distance with a scope definitely being needed. Some barely documentary photos of it are attached of it perched and it flying off the pylon.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton