Nature Moncton Nature News: July 14 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, July 14, 2019 (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)

** Brian Bauld shares some photos he got recently at the Lars Larsen Marsh in the Mary’s Point area. He got a series of a GREAT BLUE HERON [Grand Héron] wrestling with a large AMERICAN EEL [Anguille d’Amérique], creating quite a ruckus. The heron dropped it three or four times, then made the decision that the effort was not worth it and let its prey go. A day later, Brian watched a duck suddenly explode from the vegetation in the Larsen marsh and attack a Great Blue Heron, which presumably was getting too close to its brood. The heron retreated with a round of squawking.

Brian also got some nice photos of a MOURNING WARBLER [Paruline triste] in the area of the cemetery on Mary’s Point Road. He has never seen this species there during the many summers that he has walked past it. An EASTERN PHOEBE [Moucherolle phébi] was also a nice photo op.

Escuminac Point is a very special location in New Brunswick to make a few summer visits to. A significant portion is now under the arm of the Nature Conservancy to protect this unique habitat. Deana and Peter Gadd spent a few hours at Escuminac Point Saturday afternoon. They saw many Bank Swallows, perhaps 30+. They were still entering and leaving burrows so presumably young are being fed. There were 11 Bonaparte’s Gulls in various phases of age and molting, one still in breeding plumage, so they are in migration already. Peter notes they can winter off our Atlantic coast as well, according to Sibley. A Herring Gull was repeatedly dropping a mollusk on the rocks below to smash it open. They saw Northern Gannets, Common Terns, Black Scoters, Common Eiders, two Gadwalls (which seemed unexpected in salt water) and 10 Spotted Sandpipers as well as a few other species. A very pleasant and action packed visit.

** Jim Johnson reports that his Scotch Settlement yard had over a dozen occupied TREE SWALLOW [Hirondelle bicolore] boxes and an expanding CLIFF SWALLOW [Hirondelle à front blanc] colony that now has several nests fully fledged and others looking like everyone is ready for inaugural flights. A Nature Moncton nest box erected at the community cemetery was promptly occupied and is now fledging young.

** Jane LeBlanc got a photo of a fresh-looking WHITE ADMIRAL [Admiral] butterfly in her St. Martins yard. Jane still has CANADIAN TIGER SWALLOWTAILS [Papillon tigré du Canada] but is still waiting for her first MONARCH [Monarque] butterfly.

** On Sunday, July 7, I reported a female MONARCH butterfly ovipositing on yard Common Milkweed [Asclépiade commune] and Swamp Milkweed [Asclépiade incarnata. They were also laying on both milkweeds last year but I never saw an adult caterpillar, so decided to use a combo of ideas suggested by Rhéal Vienneau, Janet Kempster and Jim Wilson to possibly correct that. A series of photos show what has gone on over the past week. I was ready for the event with an 18-chamber Ice cube tray, with a cover (Dollarama), a one-hole punch (Dollarama), and a 00 artist brush (Michaels). With the hole punch, I cut out every egg I could find (18) and placed them in the chambers of the ice-cube tray. In 4 to 6 days, 90% had hatched, into tiny caterpillars. You could tell when they were about to hatch, as the apex of the egg would turn dark. Apparently they eat the egg shell, which must have happened very quickly, as they were moving about very soon after hatch. I used the 00 artist’s brush to transfer them to the leaves of planted Swamp Milkweed. Most went to the underside of the leaves as they eat the fine hairs on the underside first (pablum!). I placed them on the surface of the leaf but in future will place them on the underside. They attach quickly to the leaf and it’s a bit of a trick to get them off the brush. I’m attaching a photograph of a few of the day-old caterpillars. They’ve only been feeding for a few days, as of Saturday, but this technique does seem to be working so far. Hopefully over a one-month period, if successful there should be chrysalids formed in a few weeks, and adults ready to release for the trip south, by approximately August 7, if the procedure is successful. I imagine there are things that could potentially go wrong but after one week, so far so good. My grandson performed photography duties while some larvae were being transferred.

** Bob Blake keeps a record of morning temperatures and daily high temperatures at nightfall at his Second North River home. His June report comparing 2018 and 2019 is a bit late this month because there was a learning curve to create a table to best show comparisons compactly.

Weather stats for June. This year was much cooler in mornings but warmer afternoons

2O18		2O19
morning temperatures	daily highs and rainfall	morning temperatures	daily highs and rainfall
+5-1day +6-1 +7-5 +9-1 +10-1 +11-1 +12-3 +13-1 +14-4 +15-2 +16-4 +18-1 +20-1 +22-1	+9-1 +10-1 +11-1 +12-4 +14-1 +18-1 +21-1 +23-5 +24-3 +25-3 +26-2 +27-1 +28-1 +29-1 +30-1 +33-1 188mms. rain	+8-1 +9-1 +11-2 +12-4 +13-4 +14-4 +15-3 +16-7 +17-3 +19-1	+15-1 +16-1 +17-2 +18-2 +19-1 +20-2 +21-1 +22-3 +24-2 +25-4 +26-5 +27-3 190mms. rain