Nature Moncton Nature News: April 7, 2020

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, April 7, 2020 (Tuesday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: david.cannon@rogers.com

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

** Ron Steeves started his faithful watch of migration in the New Horton and Cape Enrage area Monday. The forecast called for not much wind, but that sure was not the case for Ron, as the winds at that site were ferocious. Ron arrived at Cape Enrage at 7:45 a.m. to find 9 GREAT CORMORANTS [Grand Cormorant] were trying to round the point. The full moon tide was just moving in, with the strong wind pushing it upstream. Waterside Marsh was so completely flooded that it even pushed the BLACK DUCKS [Canard noir] out of the marsh. The rough seas made it difficult to do accurate counts. The first flocks that went by that were close enough were WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS [Macreuse brune], that totalled approximately 50 in each flock. It seemed like LONG-TAILED DUCK [Harelde kakawi] day! Ron does not usually see many of this species at that site, but several small flocks passed by, with approximately 125 that did set down close to the point, with a total count of 205 Long-tailed Ducks.

Ron’s Scoter count was 375 (including the White-winged Scoters just mentioned), with a mixture of BLACK SCOTERS [Macreuse noire] and SURF SCOTERS [Macreuse à front blanc]. Approximately 180 COMMON EIDER [Eider à duvet] were counted. Ron considered this very, very low numbers, with several species not seen, such as Double-crested Cormorants, Canada Geese, Red-throated Loons, Common Loons, and Ron comments he often sees Brant off of the point.

The New Horton’s church site was a bust, with the only possible migrants being 3 TURKEY VULTURES [Urubu à tête rouge] rocketing past in the high winds. The resident NORTHERN HARRIERS [Busard des marais] and BALD EAGLES [Pygargue à tête blanche] were present near the church. The species count for the day near that area was 43.

** Daryl Doucet had his first MALE BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD [Vacher à tête brune] arrive to his Moncton feeder yard Monday. It is expected for the first Brown-headed Cowbirds to arrive after the other Blackbirds first arrive, and the males usually arrive ahead of the females. Daryl also reports that his sister in Berry Mills had an albinistic AMERICAN ROBIN [Merle d'Amérique] arrive to her yard that looked very similar to the one Brian and Annette Stone photographed in the Gorge Road area recently, so it just may have been the same bird.

Daryl also shared a landscape photo from a blueberry field, showing Collier Mountain, Albert County, looking north, towards Zackie and Sweet Mountains.

Brian Coyle continues to enjoy his flock of Cedar Waxwings around his home cleaning up the Highbush Cranberry remnants but was surprised to see them gleaning Bittersweet Nightshade berries in a ditch by his home. This berry has some toxicity to mammals but suspect not to birds as have had reports of other bird species foraging on this berry as well.

** The moon was 98% full on Monday Night and Brian Stone took the opportunity to get a skyscape photo of it and a full-screen view, in case of cloud cover on Tuesday night when it is scheduled to be 100% full. In the full-screen view, you can see the many craters that Galileo saw in 1610 thinking they were seas and named them. The incredible advances in technology since Galileo viewed the moon with his home-made primitive equipment!

** Jane LeBlanc got a photo of a MALE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD [Carouge à épaulettes] that would appear to just be going into breeding plumage.

** We were at our Little Southwest Miramichi camp last evening and at least two NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWLS were actively tooting from very different directions. There actually seemed like more but one may have been moving. We usually only hear one each spring. I wonder if this species may be having a good year.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton