NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, 18 February 2019
(Monday)
Please advise the editor if any errors are noted in
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Info Line telephone number: 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** Brian Coyle shares more of the short videos
captured on his trail camera. Three show a BOBCAT [Lynx roux] in different
situations. On one occasion it is checking out a rock that a male fox had
urine-marked earlier. Note the signature tail tip markings, of dark on top,
white on bottom, to distinguish a Bobcat from a lynx. A Canada Lynx [Lynx du
Canada] tail would be black top and bottom, as if dipped in ink. Note also the
relatively small footpads, consistent with Bobcat.
Some other videos show a RED FOX [Renard roux]
urine-marking a rock, as they do during their breeding season, which is on at
the moment, and others of COYOTES [Coyote] checking out the rocks and moving
about. These videos are all taken in a wooded area near Brian’s Lower Mountain
Road home. Check out the videos at the sites below
** Wendy Sullivan had a VOLE [campagnol] visit her
ground bird-feeding area on Sunday and got an excellent photo. Voles and shrews
are very common around bird-feeder yards, but we seldom see them during the day
to get a photo, as Wendy has. The timing is perfect to add one of Wendy’s
photos to the Nature Moncton meeting presentation on small rodents tomorrow
night, Tuesday. We’ll learn more then, on why Wendy’s visitor is a vole, not a
mouse, shrew or mole.
** I’m attaching a few photos from the Sunday
afternoon woods trail hike with the Miramichi Naturalists’ Club, led by Jim
Saunders. Nip twigs are tips of conifer branches dropped to the ground by
squirrels, to forage on the nutritious buds. The photo shows a nip twig that
has been feasted on for those buds. Another photo shows the typical corky,
rough bark of BLACK ASH [Frène noir], a tree prized by native people in the
past, for basket weaving. It’s not an abundant tree at the moment. The third
photo is of a cocoon that would have been housing the overwintering pupa of
probably a moth; this one had been parasitized.
** A reminder of the Nature Moncton meeting
tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7 o’clock at the Mapleton Park Lodge, with a
presentation on small rodents and wildlife so dependent on them. The write-up
is at the website
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
BLACK ASH BARK. FEB 17, 2019. NELSON POIRIER
COCOON. FEB 17, 2019. NELSON POIRIER
NIP TWIG SQUIRREL FORAGED. FEB 17, 2019. NELSON POIRIER
VOLE. FEB 17, 2019. WENDY SULLIVAN
VOLE. FEB 17, 2019. WENDY SULLIVAN
