NATURE
MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, Sept. 22, 2020 (Tuesday)
Please advise editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any errors are noted in wording or photo labeling.
For more information on Nature Moncton, check into the website at www.naturemoncton.com
Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Susan Richards susan_richards@rogers.com
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
To respond by e-mail, please address
your message to the information line editor nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com.
**Aldo Dorio got a few documentary
photos of a young-of-the-year HERMIT THRUSH [Grive solitaire].
There is some heavy spotting on the breast that would be characteristic
of a juvenile thrush. Compare it to the
breast of the juvenile robins that we are seeing at the moment, and don’t
forget the AMERICAN
ROBIN [Merle d'Amérique]
is a Thrush. Aldo also got a photo of a
juvenile BLACK-BELLIED
PLOVER [Pluvier argenté]. The honker of a bill makes pondering an AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
[Pluvier bronzé] easy to
eliminate; the bill of the American Golden Plover is smaller and less bulky.
**I paid a visit to the South Cains River Road burn-over that occurred in June of 2020 on Monday. What an amazing habitat is created by a burn-over! The area is alive with a unique community of critters. The area is teeming with woodpeckers and found them very active and fast moving and seeming to favour the very high parts of some very tall trees to make binocular views great but, photos very challenging from their fast movement, height in the trees and branch bombing. BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERS [Pic à dos noir] predominate but with lots of HAIRY WOODPECKER [Pic chevelu] and DOWNY WOODPECKER [Pic mineur] as well. I did see one juvenile YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER [Pic maculé] that was starting to molt in a bit of red but still very predominantly in juvenile plumage. It was near a tree ridden with sap holes, but hard to comprehend sap being present in the burned tree. It may have been there from June drill holes but seemed like it was still around it but did not actually see it at it. A few NORTHERN FLICKER [Pic flamboyant] were noted but no Pileated Woodpeckers.
The burnt trees were
heavily infested with wood boring insects and the larval grubs have the attention of all the
woodpeckers – that must be a supreme feast.
Standing quiet, you can clearly hear the assumed adult beetles chewing
the interior of the trees. Turn up your
volume and click on the link below to hear them chewing. This is real. There is no artifact noise as the area was
silent except for the beetles and
woodpeckers.
Accumulations
of what I assume is sawdust or possible frass (poop) is evident at the base of
some trees and under the loose bark when pulled back. I assume the numerous larval grubs are contributing
to this sawdust looking material as well.
With Pam
Watters directions, the unusual mushrooms that Phil Riebel got great photos of
for the September 15th edition were very readily found, as were
other mushrooms that I came upon that are being worked on. The special CRUSTLIKE CUP MUSHROOMS (Rhizina undulata) are very specific to
such a forest burn-over habitat. They are said to appear the year after a burn but these individuals did not read the literature! The NB Museum herbarium have no collections of this fungus but they soon will.
This burn-over site consists of three main sites,
one of which I was not aware of when I first visited over a week ago. The whole burn-over area is fairly extensive. I will never look at a
burn-over site with the same eyes again; there is so much there to hear and
see. I am looking forward to revisiting
it next Spring to see what may be there then.
There has to be a chance of an American Three-toed Woodpecker there but
would be like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack among the hoards of woodpeckers present.
nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER SAP HOLES. SEPT 21, 2020. NELSON POIRIER
