Nature Moncton Nature News: April 25 2020

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, 25 April 2020 (Saturday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Catherine Clements

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

**Dave Christie again saw YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS [Paruline à croupion jaune] around his Mary’s Point home on Thursday, but was especially appreciative to see his first RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET [Roitelet à couronne rubis] of the season, and especially to hear it in full song.

**Judith Dewar had her working from home day brightened when a female PILEATED WOODPECKER [Grand Pic] checked out her yard CRABAPPLE [Pommetier] tree and flower garden. A very pleasant diversion.

**Mac Wilmot has had YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS [Paruline à croupion jaune] arriving to his Lower Coverdale yard this week. They are coming to a store-purchased suet blend.

Brian Stone went for my short walk down Gorge Rd. on Friday and photographed the pussy willow that he did earlier in the week that was just breaking out. It seems to be now starting to show nice yellow blooms which are the anthers of a male pollen catkin. Female seed catkins would clearly show the green female pistils

Brian got a photo of the two day old waxing crescent moon and Venus at 8:54 PM on Friday night.

He felt lucky and have skies just barely clear enough to see Elon Musk's chain of 30 (?) or so Skylink satellites fly over at 9:30 pm. They crossed the sky and went right through the Big Dipper bowl. He tried for a photo but it streaked so the individual satellites were not visible in the photo, but were very clear to the eye. It was an amazing show! Brian includes an internet photo to show how it looked to the eye.

He will try for a better shot when they fly over again Saturday night starting at about 9:33 pm. Anyone going out to look should be out and ready by 9:30 PM. They will come up in the north/west sky and go up past to the left side of Venus and cross the sky slightly to the southerly side. He is assuming they will be further apart than they were Friday night, but still close enough together to be quite impressive. The link attached below describes what is happening

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink

Last weekend, while Brian Coyle was checking a trail cam at a beaver pond, he accidentally flushed a female Canada Goose off her nest to take a quick photo and depart. The male was following him as he unknowingly approached the nest. He is seen preening. Brian will leave this trail cam alone for a few weeks, to allow the chicks to hatch and not disturb the nest.

The feeding frenzy after spawning Herring at the Pointe-du-Chene wharf continued on Friday. Daryl Doucet got a nice frontal photo of a Grey Seal to show the characteristic W shape of the nostril and the flat forehead. The dark patch pattern of the pelage can be quite variable in the Grey Seal.

Daryl also got a frontal photo of a Double-crested Cormorant that nicely shows the swept back black tufts on each side of the face in breeding plumage to give this bird species its name.

A male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was in the Harvey neighbourhood late Friday to visit the yard of Sybil Wentzell and a female Brown-headed Cowbird came to her feeder during windy conditions Friday as well. Sybil got great photos of the handsome male sapsucker as well as the female Brown-headed Cowbird that is easily overlooked or misidentified due to its very conservative plumage compared to its very differently plumaged male partner.

**Jane LeBlanc took note and photographed a RED-BERRIED ELDER [Sureau rouge] bush seeming very much enjoying the heat and very near ready to open up and bloom. Jane also had a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH [Sittelle à poitrine rousse] visit her St Martin’s yard.

**The warm afternoon on Friday brought Mining Bees [Abeille des sables] to blooming Crocus in our Moncton yard. Mining Bees of the Andrena group are some of the first bees to fly. Also attached is a photo of a clump of INTERRUPTED FERN [Osmonde de Clayton] just emerging. This is one of several clumps from wild plants transplanted to the front yard of our Moncton home as ornamental several years ago. They have emerged every year on schedule, and are very pleasant and showy for May, June, and July. If transplanting them, it is important to do so just as they are emerging, as the photo shows, and with a large clump of earth with them. A few COLTSFOOT [Pas-d'âne] happened to be smiling in the background.

**We’ve had the BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES [Mésange à tête noire] going in and out of a deck-placed nest box for a few weeks, but they seemed to be just going in and out as if investigating. There were wood shavings placed in the bottom quarter of the box. I recently gathered patches of ground moss and placed them near the nest box as there was none in the yard. They showed no interest, so I put some in the box, which seemed to change everything. It may be coincidental, but they immediately started carrying nesting material pulled from a neighbour’s burlap-covered cedars, and the nest is now being built in the moss. I’m not sure if the moss placed inside encouraged them or not, but occupancy does seem to be taking place.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton