Nature Moncton Nature News: Sept 16 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, Sep. 16, 2018 (Sunday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: David Christie maryspt@mac.com

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

** Nature Moncton’s fall season starts on Tuesday evening, September 18, with the first monthly meeting at 7 o’clock at the Mapleton Rotary Lodge, across from the former Cabela’s location. Ronnie- Gilles LeBlanc will be the presenter to tell us how our region’s dykelands, that we roam so frequently, came about and how very significant they are. The write-up is attached below:

As naturalists and bird watchers, we roam over many wild places. And in our quests we often find ourselves in or near the very rich-in-biodiversity salt marshes of the region. But many of the most accessible marshes having now been converted to dykelands, have you ever asked yourself why and how that happened? The presentation offered at Nature Moncton’s September meeting will focus on this subject. The talk given by well- renowned historian Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc, who has had a long and illustrious career with the Université de Moncton and Environment Canada, will help us understand better these very special places. Without people realizing it, much of the Bay of Fundy's polders or dykeland in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia offers some of the best farmland in the world which has been achieved thanks to the « aboiteaux ». This technology, which originated in North America with French settlers nearly four hundred years ago, has evolved very little over the centuries. Considered among the first major civil engineering works on this continent, the aboiteau system allowed the Acadian people to prosper until the middle of the eighteenth century and it is thanks to this technology that the agricultural regions of the Bay of Fundy flourished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This presentation will address issues such as the origin of the aboiteau system as well as its operation, with illustrations from yesterday and today that will illuminate for us the complexity of a device designed to cope with the most powerful tides in the world. As naturalists, knowledge of nature is always something we strive for and this presentation should help us understand much better an important part of the natural world that surrounds us. Don’t miss it!

** Louise Nichols, Wendy Sullivan and Elaine Gallant visited Petit-Cap on Friday afternoon to check on shorebirds. Among the expected shorebirds, Louise got a nice photo of a HUDSONIAN GODWIT [Barge hudsonienne], as well as one in kneeling position, as well as what they thought was a STILT SANDPIPER [Bécasseau à échasses] but were not able to get a good photo due to the sudden appearance of a bounding dog on the scene. A few sightings of Stilt Sandpiper were made at that site on Thursday; there seem to be more reports of them than usual this year.

** Dave Christie comments that he usually has the last hummingbird of the season at Mary’s Point around the end of the first week of September. This year RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS [Colibri à gorge rubis] were regular until Sept. 5, then none until Friday, Sept. 14, when an apparent juvenile male was fueling up on Phlox and late-flowering Hosta. Dave also had a second hummingbird individual [somewhat larger] that dropped by on Saturday morning. He felt this one to be a female with clean white throat while the straggler on Friday had a streaked throat that suggested an immature male. Saturday’s visitor came right inside Dave’s sunporch, requiring netting and release.

On Sept. 12, while releasing a Blue Jay trying to steal dog food from his porch, Dave noted a brightly marked carrion beetle, the TOMENTOSE BURYING BEETLE [Nécrophore à thorax tomenteux], named because of its hairy yellow thorax. Like many carrion beetles, it is showing mites clinging to its body, in the photo that Dave got of it.

** Brian Stone and I spent time at Keji Park in Nova Scotia last week. I spent a few days with him and we scoured trails and waterways for interesting items, and found lots. We’ll dribble out some of the photos we got together and also some that Brian got solo over the next days.

It was interesting to watch a group of six adult COMMON LOONS [Plongeon huard] gathering together in a small inlet, suspected to be post-breeding birds gathering together for migration later.

The plant PARTRIDGEBERRY [Pain de perdrix] was in fruit, showing the two “eyes” at the base of the fruit, as a result of the split ovary, and also the heavy white central line of its leaf. Two mushrooms noted were HEMLOCK VARNISH SHELF [ganoderme de la pruche] that grows only on Hemlock trees, and the RED-BELTED POLYPORE [Polypore marginée] which is not as particular about its tree substrate; the belt will turn reddish as it matures.

We encountered a lot of WITCH-HAZEL [Hamamélis de Virginie] shrub on one trail. This shrub has some unique features. Its buds are still enclosed and will burst into a bright yellow bloom in October, and sometimes even into November, defying frosty times, to form the witch-hazel nut, while other plants are long past flowering. The Witch-hazel also is host to the Witch-hazel Cone Gall that forms the unique gall on the leaf that’s photographed. It will turn red as it gets older and can be very numerous. There is also a lot of Witch-hazel shrubs at French Fort Cove in Miramichi.

One beach area of a freshwater lake had many small PICKEREL FROGS [Grenouille des marais]. They were very cryptic and very fast.

An area of the vining plant GROUNDNUT [Patates en chapelet], a.k.a. Indian Potato, was displaying its colourful unique blooms. These blooms are triploid in our area, which means they do not produce viable seed. However, this plant does produce very edible small tubers, thus the name Indian Potato, which are on underground roots, which are very capable of producing new plants, not requiring seeds to propagate.

A GARTER SNAKE [Couleuvre rayée] was encountered and cooperated for photos, including one of Brian conversing with it. Note the enlarged area in the body that indicates it had recently had a meal, very probably one of the abundant frogs in the area.

A nice stand of NEW YORK FERN [Dryoptéride de New York] was encountered. The only two native ferns that we have with pinnae going to the base are the New York Fern and the Ostrich Fern [Ptérétide noduleuse]. Ostrich Fern is much larger and has no spore cases on the underside of the pinnae.

It was nice to see several BAND-WINGED MEADOWHAWK [Sympétrum semi-ambré] dragonflies in one area. Note the huge, darker reddish-brown area at the base of the hind wing to easily identify this meadowhawk.

Several young of the year AMERICAN TOADS [Crapaud d’Amérique] were commonly seen. Note the parotoid glands pointed out to easily identify our only toad, plus the very warty skin. The parotoid gland gives off an offensive liquid when the toad is handled. This makes many predators drop it, except for some such as snakes and Broad-winged Hawks.

BEECH-DROPS [Épifage de Virginie] is a plant found under Beech trees that is parasitic on the tree’s roots. Most plants were well past their blooming stage but a few were in full bloom, which can be appreciated in close-up photos. The plants are usually 4 to 10 inches in height. They do not photosynthesize as they get their nutrition compliments of the Beech roots.

The red pods of MARSH ST-JOHN’S-WORT [Millepertuis de Virginie] were showing nicely as they mature.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton