Nature Moncton Nature News: Feb 1 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, February 01, 2018 ( Thursday )

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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)

** In follow up to David Christie's recent comments on AMERICAN CROWS [Corneille d'Amérique] in the area, Georges Brun sends photographs he took during the recent mild weather event with large numbers of Crows assembled below the Gunningsville bridge area, but not as large a number as David had witnessed. Georges wonders if their intent may be the ground spiders there that are super hardy and are present there from February to March even when there are ice pellets for snow cover.

** Brian Stone used the brilliant sunshine of Wednesday to visit Mapleton Park. The ducks were all happily doing their snow plowing behavior. A BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tête blanche] flew over. An interesting AMERICAN CROW [Corneille d'Amérique] photo shows its eye one half blue. This is the "nictitating membrane", aka third eyelid, that the bird is able to close when it wants to protect the eye for any reason that it chooses. Brian also got a bit desperate for a new bird and so put an interesting clump of snow through Photoshop to satisfy his need. He also got the moonrise of the just past full moon on Wednesday evening. Some balls of snow were making some challenging patterns to be put to the test at the trail workshop on Saturday, February 03.

** I am very suspicious that we have a COOPER'S HAWK [Épervier de Cooper] in our west end Moncton neighborhood. I inadvertently interrupted a raptor consuming a Rock Pigeon between a neighbor's home and ours on Tuesday. It was large, but not as large as one would expect a Northern Goshawk to be. I have seen it fly through, but still have not been able to get observations to be more certain of its real identity.

** Our Little Brown Bats and Long-eared Bats have been nearly decimated by White-nose syndrome. The Big Brown Bat is not subject to White-nose syndrome as it overwinters in buildings, attics or other appropriate sites; not in moist damp caves favourable to the White Nose Syndrome fungus proliferation. Big Brown Bats are not numerous in New Brunswick but are very present and have the potential to carry the rabies virus. A man in Sussex was recently bitten by a bat in his basement as he was separating his cat from it. The bat tested positive for rabies and the man had to undergo the painful post rabies exposure treatment. The cat was vaccinated for rabies and so just a booster injection was indicated. This does not mean that all Big Brown Bats in New Brunswick carry rabies, but be advised to simply bear the possibility in mind if bats are encountered in buildings in winter.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton