NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, December
11, 2020 (Friday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Louise Nichols nicholsl@eastlink.ca
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** It’s time to prepare for Nature
Moncton’s Members’ Night on January 19th, 2021. Fred Richards hopes to line up 4 or 5 folks
to give approximate 15-minute presentations on any special nature experience
they’ve had in 2020 to share with the group.
It will be virtual, and Fred will do a dry run with presenters ahead of
time, so start preparing something now.
Advise Fred Richards at fredrichards@rogers.com, so he can line up this
special meeting of diversity of interests.
** Pat Gibbs had a duo of AMERICAN CROWS [Corneille
d'Amérique] arrive in
her yard on Wednesday. Both had white on
their backs, but it really showed up when they opened their wings, and Pat got
a photo. Sibley shows this feature in his
guide, referring to it “individuals with various white wing-patches. They’re rare but regular.” Two birds side by side showing this would
suggest these are siblings, and there may be a recessive heritable gene
involved.
** This is getting hard to believe, but
Peter Gadd’s NORTHERN
CARDINAL [Cardinal rouge] flock has
now swollen from 6 to 9 at his Miramichi feeder yard. There are 5 males and 4 females, and many
appear throughout the day. This would
seem unprecedented for this area.
Peter’s RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER [Pic à ventre roux] continues to be a patron but is now
preferring sunflower seeds over the peanut menu it first chose.
** Brian Coyle
is noticing a flock of approximately 100 Common Redpolls hanging out at the
area of the Winery on the Ammon Rd. for the last week, feeding on the various
weeds. It appears that there may be a very light coloured one in the flock as
in Brian's photos.
** Daryl Doucet’s female NORTHERN CARDINAL
[Cardinal rouge] came to
nice attention for a pleasant photo on Thursday morning. Daryl has a pair as regular patrons to his
Moncton feeder yard. Daryl also got a
nice portrait of an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW [Bruant hudsonien], nicely showing the contrasting
colours of the mandibles and the breast spot.
A PINE
SISKIN [Tarin des pins] also
posed. We have been seeing a lot of this
species this season. It could get
congested when the COMMON REDPOLLS [Sizerin flammé] start arriving at feeders.
** Leigh Eaton reports they have been
visited regularly by a family of RING-NECKED PHEASANTS [Faisan de
Colchide] totalling
8 with the adult male, adult female, and 6 juveniles. The young have been an equal mix of male and
female, making viewing the brood’s fairly rapid change from young chicks quite
interesting. On Thursday they had a
total of 5 to their backyard, all beautiful adult males with not even one
female. Surprisingly, there was no
apparent conflict; however, mating season may change that harmony.
** After Georges Brun’s find of SHORT-EARED OWLS [Hibou
des marais] on the
marsh between Riverview and Moncton, I made a late afternoon hike across the
marsh in hopes of an audience. Trucking
across the marsh, not using the trails, got challenging with some wet and cold potholes,
and I thought it may not be worth it, until 4:15 PM and dusk came on when the
owls suddenly appeared and were very rapidly cavorting about like big
moths. There are at least 3 there as I
did see 3 at once. It was a treat to
watch them and hear them vocalize frequently.
No photo as I was too busy taking in the action, but Georges got some
for yesterday’s edition and I expect there will be more to come.
**Georges
Brun was also on the watch for the SHORT-EARED owls from terra firma aside
Chateau Moncton Thursday at 4:20 PM and again saw them perform on schedule.
Surprising, he spotted an erect mammal out in the marsh with the owls moving
very slowly seemingly with what appeared to be optics. Am leaving it up to
experienced naturalists to identify the mammal not native to the marsh habitat
Georges photographed!!!
** It’s Friday and time to review next
week’s Sky-at-a-Glace, courtesy of sky-guru Curt Nason.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2020
December 12 – December 19
Evening stargazing can be tricky this time of year with all the festive lights,
especially if you have a neighbourhood Griswald. If you happen to be out, try
identifying a few constellations. In the northeast there is pentagonal Auriga
the Charioteer, with bright Capella the Goat Star at one corner. To the right
is the V-shaped face of Taurus the Bull, with the dipper-like star cluster of
the Pleiades marking its shoulder. Orion and Gemini follow below Taurus and
Auriga. Above Auriga is Perseus, seemingly standing on the bull’s back. It is
here a patient stargazer can watch a marvel of the night sky.
In mythology, Perseus beheaded Medusa and used her snaky head to seek revenge
on tormentors by turning them to stone. The second brightest star in the
constellation Perseus represents the evil eye of Medusa and it is called Algol,
the ghoul or demon. There is a reason for this name. Every three days, minus
about three hours, this star slowly dims by a factor of three and regains
brightness over several hours. Algol is an eclipsing binary, two stars
orbiting each other closely and aligned to our line of sight. When the smaller,
dimmer star passes in front of the brighter one we can see their combined-light
diminish and recover. By comparing it with nearby stars of similar brightness
you might notice Algol dimming and getting brighter. Our next convenient
evening opportunity to watch this is on New Year’s Eve, when Algol is dimmest
around 8 pm.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:52 am and sunset will occur at 4:33 pm,
giving 8 hours, 41 minutes of daylight (7:54 am and 4:41 pm in Saint
John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:57 am and set at 4:35 pm,
giving 8 hours, 38 minutes of daylight (7:59 am and 4:43 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is new on Monday and it makes a scenic pass below Jupiter and Saturn
on Wednesday. Jupiter has moved to within one degree of Saturn, putting them
within a low to medium magnification view of most telescopes as they move
toward an exceptionally close conjunction on December 21. Mars remains close
enough all month to offer views of its surface features in a telescope and high
enough in early evening for higher magnification observing. Having crossed the
constellation border into Libra in late November, Venus moves into Scorpius
this week where it has a close conjunction with Graffias in the scorpion’s left
claw on Friday morning. The reliable Geminid meteor shower peaks from Sunday
evening to Monday morning. Moonlight will not be a problem but the weather
could be a Meteor Grinch. Take advantage of any clearing from Friday evening to
Tuesday morning and spend some time looking for shooting stars. Dress warmly
and look up.
With astronomy meetings and outreach activities on hold, you can watch the
local Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm, and view archived shows, on YouTube
at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAEHfOWyL-kNH7dBVHK8spg
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
