NATURE
MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, September 20, 2019 (Friday)
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Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** Daryl Doucet was able to get
excellent photos of a leg-banded RING-BILLED GULL [Goéland à bec
cerclé] in
the Pizza Hut yard in Moncton on Wednesday.
Some sleuthing discovered this gull banded by a team lead by Professor
Jean-François Giroux at the Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM). It was banded at Iles Deslauriers in the St.
Lawrence River on June 18th, 2019.
This is the first report they have received on this gull, and Professor
Giroux would like to send all appreciation to Daryl Doucet for noting and
taking the time to get good photos to positively identify it. Looks like the Pizza Hut in Moncton may prepare
more flavourful morsels than those in Montreal!
Daryl’s photos are attached.
** Brian Stone and
I paid a visit to Petit-Cap on Thursday.
They’re surely are lots of shorebirds still with us and lots of
confusing plumages. There were a
surprising number of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER [Pluvier argenté] and all in
juvenile or basic plumage, along with many SANDERLINGS [Bécasseau
sanderling], LEAST SANDPIPERS [Bécasseau minuscule] and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS
[Bécasseau semipalmé], many SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS
[Pluvier semipalmé], WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS [Bécasseau à croupion blanc] and a few we
have to work on yet. Several HORNED LARK [Alouette
hausse-col] were roaming the dune, and several CASPIAN TERN [Sterne
caspienne] were present.
A freshly expired SAND LANCE minnow on shore gave us a chance to look
closely at this much sought after nutrition-packed prey, especially for
terns. Dorion gave the dunes a severe
battering, but shorebirds continue to be plentiful at this special site. When we arrived, we saw a group down the
shore with scopes, so left our scope back.
It turned out to be the Les Amis de la Nature Thursday group which was great
to meet up with, but they moved on with their scopes to their next stop. We should have returned for our scope as this
is such a necessary tool for shorebirding, so possibly missed some good
species. One surprise when we started to
look at photos at home was the number of leg-banded birds with bands that could
be read. There were at least 11 which
Brian got, and I have not had a chance to search through my own yet.
** On a more local note, the 3 female HOODED MERGANSER [Harle
couronné] that continue to stay feeding in the creek off Gorge
Rd., leading to Mapleton Park have photos attached today that were missed
yesterday. Brian saw them there on
Tuesday.
** This week’s Sky-at-a-Glance is added to this
edition, courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2019
September 21 – September 28
Autumn has arrived, and dedicated stargazers are happy to have the longer observing time afforded by earlier sunsets. The summer constellations appear reluctant to move on, however; emerging from twilight in nearly the same place each night because the earlier darkness masks that they rise four minutes sooner each day. But move on they do, and by mid-evening the two groups of autumn constellations lord over us.
Perseus sits below W-shaped Cassiopeia in the northeast these evenings. Cepheus, the king of ancient Ethiopia, is a house-shaped constellation fenced within his wife Cassiopeia, Cygnus and the North Star. The feet of Princess Andromeda are below the W of Cassiopeia, and her head is at the tail end of Pegasus the winged horse. The asterism called the Great Square of Pegasus rises as a large diamond, a harbinger of the baseball post season. Rounding out the mythological tale is Cetus, playing the role of a ferocious sea monster that is stoned, in a manner of speaking, by Perseus in his rescue of Andromeda. Cetus is actually a whale, and segues to the second group: the water constellations.
To the left of the Sagittarius Teapot we see the large chevron of Capricornus the sea goat, representing the goat-boy flautist Pan who didn’t completely morph into a fish when he tried to escape monstrous Typhon. Above and left is the source of all this water; Aquarius, the water bearing servant of the Olympians. Below him is the southern fish, Piscis Austrinus, and further east we have Aphrodite and Eros as Pisces the fishes. Cetus swims below them, and well above Capricornus we see Delphinus the dolphin trying to leap back into summer.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:04 am and sunset will occur at 7:19 pm, giving 12 hours, 15 minutes of daylight (7:09 am and 7:24 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:13 am and set at 7:05 pm, giving 11 hours, 52 minutes of daylight (7:18 am and 7:10 pm in Saint John). The Sun crosses the equator Monday at 4:50 am – the autumnal equinox – heading south for winter.
The Moon is at third quarter this Saturday, and it is new and at perigee next Saturday. Jupiter and Saturn remain as the favourite targets in the early evening, but after twilight Jupiter is getting too low for steady atmospheric observing. Venus can be seen with difficulty in binoculars very low in the west 15 minutes after sunset, with Mercury a binocular field to its left.
The provincial astronomy club, RASC NB, meets in the UNB Fredericton Forestry-Earth Sciences building at 1 pm on September 21. All are welcome.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Autumn has arrived, and dedicated stargazers are happy to have the longer observing time afforded by earlier sunsets. The summer constellations appear reluctant to move on, however; emerging from twilight in nearly the same place each night because the earlier darkness masks that they rise four minutes sooner each day. But move on they do, and by mid-evening the two groups of autumn constellations lord over us.
Perseus sits below W-shaped Cassiopeia in the northeast these evenings. Cepheus, the king of ancient Ethiopia, is a house-shaped constellation fenced within his wife Cassiopeia, Cygnus and the North Star. The feet of Princess Andromeda are below the W of Cassiopeia, and her head is at the tail end of Pegasus the winged horse. The asterism called the Great Square of Pegasus rises as a large diamond, a harbinger of the baseball post season. Rounding out the mythological tale is Cetus, playing the role of a ferocious sea monster that is stoned, in a manner of speaking, by Perseus in his rescue of Andromeda. Cetus is actually a whale, and segues to the second group: the water constellations.
To the left of the Sagittarius Teapot we see the large chevron of Capricornus the sea goat, representing the goat-boy flautist Pan who didn’t completely morph into a fish when he tried to escape monstrous Typhon. Above and left is the source of all this water; Aquarius, the water bearing servant of the Olympians. Below him is the southern fish, Piscis Austrinus, and further east we have Aphrodite and Eros as Pisces the fishes. Cetus swims below them, and well above Capricornus we see Delphinus the dolphin trying to leap back into summer.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:04 am and sunset will occur at 7:19 pm, giving 12 hours, 15 minutes of daylight (7:09 am and 7:24 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:13 am and set at 7:05 pm, giving 11 hours, 52 minutes of daylight (7:18 am and 7:10 pm in Saint John). The Sun crosses the equator Monday at 4:50 am – the autumnal equinox – heading south for winter.
The Moon is at third quarter this Saturday, and it is new and at perigee next Saturday. Jupiter and Saturn remain as the favourite targets in the early evening, but after twilight Jupiter is getting too low for steady atmospheric observing. Venus can be seen with difficulty in binoculars very low in the west 15 minutes after sunset, with Mercury a binocular field to its left.
The provincial astronomy club, RASC NB, meets in the UNB Fredericton Forestry-Earth Sciences building at 1 pm on September 21. All are welcome.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER AND LEAST SANDPIPERS. SEPT 19, 2019. NELSON POIRIER
BONAPARTE'S GULL. SEPT. 19, 2019. BRIAN STONE
CASPIAN TERN. SEPT. 19, 2019.. BRIAN STONE
GREATER YELLOWLEGS. SEPT. 19, 2019. BRIAN STONE
HOODED MERGANSER (FEMALE). SEPT. 17, 2019. BRIAN STONE
HOODED MERGANSER (FEMALE). SEPT. 17, 2019. BRIAN STONE
HORNED LARK. SEPT. 19, 2019.. BRIAN STONE
LEAST SANDPIPER (LEG BANDED). SEPT. 19, 2019. BRIAN STONE
LEAST SANDPIPER (LEG BANDED). SEPT. 19, 2019. BRIAN STONE
RING-BILLED GULL (LEG BANDED). SEPT 18, 2019. DARYL DOUCET
RING-BILLED GULL (LEG BANDED). SEPT 18, 2019. DARYL DOUCET
RING-BILLED GULL (LEG BANDED). SEPT 18, 2019. DARYL DOUCET
RUDDY TURNSTONES. SEPT. 19, 2019. BRIAN STONE
SAND LANCE. SEPT. 19, 2019. BRIAN STONE
SANDERLING. SEPT. 19, 2019.. BRIAN STONE
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. SEPT. 19, 2019.. BRIAN STONE
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER IN NON-BREEDING PLUMAGE AND SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER (LEG BANDED). SEPT 19, 2019. NELSON POIRIER
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER IN NON-BREEDING PLUMAGE. SEPT 19, 2019. NELSON POIRIER