Nature Moncton Nature News: June 13 2018

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June 13, 2018 ( Wednesday)}

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_{Edited by: Nelson Poirier}_{nelson@nb.sympatico.ca}

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_{Info Line #}_{384-6397
(384-NEWS)}

_**_{Jim Wilson advises on the report of a possible
nesting MUTE SWAN in the Shemogue area. If indeed correct it would be very
important to get documentation of it to submit to the New Brunswick Bird
Records Committee, as it would be the
first known attempt of Mute Swans nesting in New Brunswick. Hopefully, someone
can get some documentary photos if it is indeed the case they are nesting. Jim
has left some instructions, where to send them, for the attention of the New
Brunswick Records Committee. Again to repeat, this was a second hand report and
yet to be confirmed.}

_{**
Brian Stone visited the Twin Oaks Bog on Tuesday to find some plants in this habitat
in peak bloom, including Labrador Tea, Bog Laurel, Cotton Grass and Blue-Eyed
Grass. The only butterflies encountered were Canadian Tiger Swallowtail and
several Sulphurs. There were lots of}_{PALM
WARBLERS [Paruline à couronne rousse]. Bog sites are a favourite habitat of
Palm Warblers. Six-Spotted Tiger Beetles
were spotted as well.}

_{On Monday, Annette and Brian Stone and Carol Shea did
a round of the area to get a nice observation of both SORA [Marouette de
Caroline] and VIRGINIA RAIL [Râle de Virginie] at the Sackville Waterfowl Park,
even though evening shadows were coming on. At the Cape Brulé Lagoon, a mother
AMERICAN BLACK DUCK [Canard noir] was leading her now surprisingly large
ducklings around the fence looking for an opening, which she persevered to
find. A TREE SWALLOW [Hirondelle bicolore] pair was contently occuping one of
the nest boxes erected there by Nature Sud-Est. At a stop in Petit Cap, 20
GREAT BLUE HERONS [Grand Héron] were in trees at the end of Chemin de L’ile
Road. Brian could not get all 20 in a single photo. CANADA GEESE [Bernaches du
Canada] with their now large size teenage goslings were about as well as WILLET
[Chevalier semipalmé], EASTERN KINGBIRD [Tyran tritri], and a YELLOW WARBLER
[Paruline jaune] was gathering one of its favorite nesting materials, last
years cattail head material.}

_{** A few years ago, Marc André Villard gave a
presentation to Nature Moncton on research he and a grad student had done on
BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER [Pic à dos noir] and AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER [Pic
tridactyle] in several cut blocks, in the area near Birch Lake, north of
Miramichi. They were surprised to find both species nesting there in snag trees
left in the cut block, but foraging in the uincut forest. They felt it may have
something to do with less nest predators, such as squirrels in lone snag trees.
Larry Sherrard and I went to the area where Marc André had done his work
on Tuesday, to find it exactly as he had described. He advised us to
watch for Woodpeckers going to snag trees to nest holes after they gathered
food from the uncut forest edge. We were pretty pumped to find a woodpecker
doing just that, feeling that we potentially had one of our target birds. The
nest hole was very high in the tree and and a long distance off, We got lots of
zoomed in photos, hoping for confirmation. On reviewing the photos we found we
had good photos of a HAIRY WOODPECKER [Pic chevelu] pair, not what we had
hoped. As the area was exactly as Marc André had described, I feel fairly
confident that Black-Backed and American Three-Toed Woodpackers are indeed
still there, but more coverage of the area is needed to find them. There were
some challanges in getting to the site in good time to search longer, so we abandened
it for another day. All thanks to Eric Sullivan, of the Dept. of Natural
Resourses in Miramichi, who gave some
great advice on finding the exact location. It is a very big area to find
specific spots.}

_{nelson@nb.sympatico.ca}

_{Nelson Poirier,}

_{Nature Moncton}