Nature Moncton Nature News: Dec 8 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, December 8, 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)

** The Nature Moncton December meeting is coming up this Tuesday, December 10, with guest presenter Alain Clavette, on “Winter Birds”.

The Salisbury Naturalists’ Club meets the second Tuesday of the month on a regular basis. Unfortunately, its meeting falls on the same night this month, as Nature Moncton is held a week earlier due to Christmas. They are also hosting an excellent presentation, on shorebirds. Details of both are attached at the end of this edition, coming up front on Tuesday morning.

** Jamie and Karen Burris came to visit the INDIGO BUNTING [Passerin indigo] in our Moncton yard on Saturday and were able to get awesome photos of it in the morning sun, to show much more blue in the plumage than seemed to show in earlier photos. It makes one wonder whether it may be a male. It continues to spend most of its time at a hanging feeder containing white millet, and drops down to the ground to feed on fallen sunflower chips, as one photo shows. It seems to like the chips but does not go to the feeders containing them, and Jamie brought up a good point that it may choose not to go to those feeders, because they are usually crowded with AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES [Chardonneret jaune] and some HOUSE FINCHES Roselin familier]. It has the behaviour of nearly constant tail-flicking, which is now making it easier to spot. It seems to be getting more comfortable in its fourth day now, so I hope it lingers until Christmas Bird Count period and count day, and, probably a pipe-dream, I hope it lingers until the onset of breeding plumage.

Jamie also got an excellent open-wing photo of a NORTHERN FLICKER [Pic flamboyant] in his yard, to see the brilliant yellow undercarriage as it dropped down to feed on his grape vine.

We just don’t see many insects motoring happily along on the snow surface. Jamie photographed a very small one on Friday, which BugGuide has suggested to be a GALL MIDGE [Mikola fagi]. I assume that it feeds or is connected with plant galls in some way but not able to get more detailed information. It was very small and fragile-looking, but must be very hardy.

** Louise Nichols came across some mammal tracks in shallow snow in the Aulac area on Thursday. The tracks were making a trail 11 inches apart and were equidistant from one another. This pattern is typical of the Mustelidae group. Weasel [mustela] would be one of the first rule-outs, but without more sleuthing a definite call can’t be made.

** Jane LeBlanc captured her St. Martins yard RUFFED GROUSE [Gélinotte huppée] taking advantage of some MOUNTAIN-ASH [sorbier] berries to flavour its normal winter bud diet.

** Aldo Dorio got a photo of a female COMMON MERGANSER [Grand Harle] and a female COMMON GOLDENEYE [Garrot à oeil d’or] in the water off Hay Island on Saturday.

** Pat and I visited the Tantramar Marsh area on Saturday and were able to spot only one ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK [Buse pattue], whereas Les Amis de Nature spotted two on Thursday and one SHORT-EARED OWL [Hibou des marais] at dusk. It really hit home, how very important the MEADOW VOLE [Campagnol des champs] really is to Rough-legged Hawks,Red-tailed Hawks, Short-eared Owls, Northern Harrier [Busard Saint-Martin], Foxes [Renard roux] and Coyotes. It was only three years ago these predators were in amazing abundance, but only because the Meadow Vole was abundant.

Tuesday night’s presentations are attached below

"Flying Beauties of Winter"

Date: December 10, 2019
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Mapleton Rotary Park Lodge (across from where Cabela’s used to be)
Speaker : Alain Clavette

Like it or not, winter is coming. In fact, for the south of the province it seems to have started early. But don’t despair -- spring will be back. And in the meantime Mother Nature will offer some very special treats along with the white stuff, such as winter birds! What are they, why and when do they come and where can one find them? To help you answer these questions and many more, Nature Moncton has lined up a great presentation on the subject with one of our top provincial bird experts. Come and meet the naturalist and birder Alain Clavette (of CBC radio fame) for an evening of beautiful photography and info-filled comments on some of the birds that you can observe in New Brunswick only during the long winter months. An added bonus will be that all the photos in the presentation will be originals taken by Alain who doubles as a very talented nature photographer. The presentation could even be a good warm-up for your ID skills which you can use at the Moncton Christmas Bird Count, scheduled for December 14th. Don’t miss this one!

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

Salisbury Naturalist Club Meeting- Tuesday Dec.10th @ 7PM
Parks and Leisure meeting room at 62 Douglas Street, Salisbury.

(across from JMA Armstrong School)

Our guest presenter this month will be Rebecca Linhart. She is a Masters student at Mount Allison University. She works under the supervision of her professor, Diana Hamilton and closely with the Canadian Wildlife Services. They are investigating the movement, behavior, diet and habitat use of Semipalmated Sandpipers here in Atlantic Canada and Ceara state Brazil.

Semipalmated Sandpipers make their annual Fall migration through this area and they arrive in the tens of thousands. I am sure you have seen them either at Mary's Point or Johnsons Mills.

Rebecca will have to present her thesis to a panel of jurors eventually and we will be getting a preview of her work. It should be very interesting and she is very keen to do this.