NATURE
MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, August 02, 2018 (Thursday)
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For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .
** Louise Nichols followed some reports
to successfully see and photograph a COMMON GALLINULE [Gallinule poule-d'eau]
at the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Wednesday morning. The bird seemed to be
staying in the area along the boardwalk that extends from the covered bridge to
the church. It is always nice to get to see a Common Gallinule. Louise’s
excellent photos show it standing and down in the water to nicely display
identification features.
** Louise and Maurice Richard had a PEREGRINE
FALCON [Faucon pèlerin] on power lines by Jones Lake early Thursday morning, at
6:00 am, bobbing its head and sleuthing the area. It then disappeared into a
treed area. There have been no reports of shorebirds around Jones Lake as there
have been in the past but possibly the new gate structure doesn’t need the dry
down periods that the shorebirds found so attractive before.
** AMERICAN CROWS [Corneille
d'Amérique] with significant white areas showing underwing when they take
flight are shown in Sibley’s as “rare, not regular”. It is a bit of a surprise
to have had three reports of this over the past ten days. Grace Matthews in
Sussex has been noting a family of AMERICAN CROWS [Corneille d'Amérique] in a
small field by her Trout Brook home in Sussex. She is noting two of the young of
the year birds that are now nearing the size of their parents have large
patches of white under both wings when they take flight. All three reports have
been a distance apart but this is the first time two are being seen together to
suggest a latent gene is being exhibited.
Marquerite Winsor was surely watching
at the right moment when she was able to watch a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar shed
its outer skin to grow to its next instar. The shed skin is pointed out in
Marguerite’s photo which the caterpillar promptly ate after the photo was taken.
Suspect few of us get to see this!
** Judy Marsh has experienced the BLUE
JAYS [Geai bleu] planting peanuts and now has some big sunflowers coming up in
her neighbors flower bed a distance from her birdfeeder. She suspects the Blue
Jays again are the Johnny Appleseed. Beautiful blossoms that should be popular
bird fare soon.
** Krista Doyle got a photo of a MERLIN
[Faucon émerillon] near their Doyle’s Brook camp on the Miramichi River
suspecting that it was from a fledged nest nearby as four were seen together.
The Merlin numbers plummeted after the DDT scenario in the 1970’s but have come
back strongly on their own and seem to be as comfortable nesting in a wooded setting
as in an urban area. They can sometimes be hard on other nesting birds such as
Swallows as they fledge. The Merlin does not build its own nest and uses
abandoned nests, often of Crows.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
COMMON GALLINULE . LOUISE NICHOLS. AUG. 1, 2018
COMMON GALLINULE . LOUISE NICHOLS. AUG. 1, 2018
MERLIN. AUG 1, 2018. KRISTA DOYLE
MERLIN. AUG 1, 2018. KRISTA DOYLE
MONARCH BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR JUST EMERGED INTO NEW INSTAR. AUG 1, 2018. MARGUERITE WINSOR
SUNFLOWERS (THANKS TO BLUE JAYS). AUG 1, 2018. JUDY MARSH
