Nature Moncton Nature News: April 13 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, April 13, 2019 (Saturday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: bjpstone@gmail.com

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

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, April 13, 2019 (Saturday)

To view the photos mentioned in this edition go to http://nminfoline.blogspot.ca .

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .

For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .

Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: bjpstone@gmail.com

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

** Louise Nichols went to White Birch Impoundment near Sackville to clean out her Nature Moncton swallow boxes from last season on Friday. They were well used by Tree Swallows but she also found some surprises by critters that had used them over the winter. One of them had a large storage cache of dark seeds of mostly one type. This was most likely to have been a Deer Mouse food cache. A few others had caterpillars in them, with brown spiky hairs, of unknown identity which are probably a moth species. One box had a Mud Dauber wasp nest in it with cocoons in place ready for adults to emerge later. The Mud Dauber is a solitary wasp and is not aggressive. Louise’s set of nest boxes did their service for the Swallows and were then used by other members of Mother Nature’s community after the Swallows left.

The impoundments were only partially thawed with still lots of ice present. Waterfowl that Louise noted were AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS [Canard noir], MALLARD DUCKS [Canard colvert], GREEN-WINGED TEALS [Sarcelle d'hiver], and CANADA GEESE [Bernaches du Canada].

** Janet O’Donnell photographed a WHITE-TAILED DEER [Cerf de Virginie] in her Geary yard near Oromocto recently that was fitted with a neck collar. Joe Kennedy at the New Brunswick Fish and Wildlife branch was very helpful in explaining. This is a part of a project in progress jointly with UNB where one hundred White-tailed Deer are being monitored. Joe comments “this particular animal was collared in Fredericton Junction in January 2018 as a fawn deer and was probably attending a feeding station with its mother. The deer is rather unusual because of her increased activity. Most adult female deer simply migrate between summer and winter range and have small local ranges. This female had similar summer and winter range and had a couple of random hikes. It might be a function of juvenile dispersal. It will be interesting to see where she settles this summer.”

Look closely at the attached map which shows the movement of this animal ever since she was tagged to show she is somewhat of a traveler. The wound on the side of the animal is coincidental and appears to be well healed.

** Jim Carroll got some photos of one of two MOURNING CLOAK BUTTERFLIES [Morio] that were out enjoying Friday’s warmth in Upper Greenwich, Kings County. This species overwinters as the adult butterfly and is ready to boogie on the first warm days. Note the bark-like camo of the hind wing which the butterfly simply closes the wing against tree bark to become very cryptic to overwinter. Fresh specimens that appear later in the summer will have a stronger yellow band to the upper wing edges.

** Clarence Cormier got some awesome photos of a male MERLIN [Faucon émerillon] that nicely show some signature field marks. Note that the black bands on the tail are much wider than the white ones, which would be the opposite in a Sharp-shinned Hawk. The gray-blueish back makes it a male, vs the dark chocolate brown of the female. The weak moustache mark also shows well, and there is no evidence of white undertail coverts which would be obvious in the Sharp-shinned Hawk. This Merlin has been monitoring Clarence’s bird feeder yard for the past few days.

** Gordon Rattray paid a visit to Susan and Fred Richards’s property in Taylor Village on Friday with a Northern Cardinal observation in mind. The Richards’ resident female NORTHERN CARDINAL [Cardinal rouge] did show for photos. Gordon comments that their yard was lively with three Sparrow species, SONG SPARROWS [Bruant chanteur], FOX SPARROWS [Bruant fauve] and AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS [Bruant hudsonien] along with a male RING-NECKED PHEASANT [Faisan de Colchide] that put on a special show.

** Annette Stone witnessed an unexpected encounter between an AMERICAN CROW [Corneille d'Amérique] and a GROUNDHOG [Marmotte commune] in her Moncton yard on Friday. Annette feels that there may be a pair of Groundhogs in the area as she has seen a larger and a smaller one. The Crows are also nest building nearby and they are frequently seen carrying sticks. One crow started following a groundhog about and was seemingly flicking leaves at it and then getting in a few stabs in the butt. When the Groundhog ignored the prodding the Crow seemed to get frustrated and do the leaf tossing and the butt poking again repeatedly, doing it several times. Ignoring the Crow seemed to work for the Groundhog!

** David Christie reports that John Inman at 225 Mary’s Point Rd. had a surprising influx of BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS [Vacher à tête brune] on Sunday, April 07 … 10 males and 7 females. Numbers dropped down to just a few later in the week. This is a surprising number of Brown-headed Cowbirds at one time as these blackbird kin are not normally in these numbers. John Inman also had an EASTERN PHOEBE [Moucherolle phébi] in trees in his yard on Thursday.

David reports seeing a few KILLDEER [Pluvier kildir] on the Mary’s Point marsh on Friday. SONG SPARROWS [Bruant chanteur] and DARK-EYED JUNCOS [Junco ardoisé] continue to be very numerous, but the FOX SPARROWS [Bruant fauve] have dropped to 2 in number in his yard. Dave spotted his first YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER of the spring tapping on a maple tree near his home. He also spotted his first BLUE-WINGED TEAL travelling with 10 GREEN-WINGED TEAL on a pond in the marsh. He came across a seal which appeared to be marooned high on the beach from high tide. Dave and a few others watched it as it took a half hour to flipper its way out to a stream of water to a cove. It was so covered with Fundy mud; they could not identify it to species.

** Kevin Renton reports that their household retired on Thursday night to the hooting of GREAT HORNED OWLS [Grand-duc d'Amérique] talking with one another, and woke up Friday morning to the lively vocalisation of AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d'Amérique]. Their EVENING GROSBEAK [Gros-bec errant] troupe is still present and a FOX SPARROW [Bruant fauve] arrived on Friday.

** Brian Stone got a few photos of some water birds off Point Pleasant Park in Halifax on Friday. One shows some immature male COMMON EIDERS [Eider à duvet], a COMMON LOON [Plongeon huard] in nonbreeding plumage and a HORNED GREBE [Grèbe esclavon] that appears to be starting a molt. Beyond his camera reach were RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS [Harle huppé] and BLACK SCOTERS [Macreuse noire] that he could hear making their purring vocalizations.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton