NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, December
18, 2020 (Friday)
To respond by e-mail, please address
your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .
Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any
errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.
For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .
Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Louise Nichols nicholsl@eastlink.ca
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**Daryl Doucet’s female EASTERN TOWHEE
arrived at his Moncton Feeder yard with his NORTERN CARDINALS at dawn this
morning for the second day of Count Week and Daryl will be watching close for
them on CBC count day tomorrow Saturday.
** Jane LeBlanc has had a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER
[Paruline à croupion jaune] visiting
her Saint Martins feeder yard the last few days. It is either an immature bird or a female, or
possibly both. The yellow rump, yellow
side patches, white throat and split white eye ring show well.
** Mac Wilmot has come up with a novel
way to slow down BLUE JAYS [Geai bleu] from pillaging his feeders. The cap is an inverted hanging pot with
loosely suspended sticks. He did the
same with his suet cage. It does not
seem to stop the woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and finches, but Blue Jays
just don’t appreciate Mac’s handiwork.
Take a look at the attached link.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pw3xo7xcjp4qr9x/IMG-1051.MOV?dl=0
** Jules Cormier has had his popular
Memramcook feeder site set up for a few weeks now, and he is getting lots of
patrons with 19 species tallied so far with an excellent diversity of all the
regulars. Jules comments some PINE GROSBEAKS [Durbec des
sapins] have been
coming as well as EVENING GROSBEAKS [Gros-bec errant], and also two WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH [Sittelle
à poitrine blanche]. A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK [Épervier brun]
is monitoring the activity.
** Cathie Smith in Riverview reports
her feeders are very active with a pleasant diversity of expectant regulars,
including three RING-NECKED PHEASANTS [Faisan de Colchide], but the patrons that have Cathie most
delighted are a pair of NORTHERN CARDINALS [Cardinal rouge].
** Brian Stone visited Mapleton Park on
Thursday, the first visit in a long while, to find several changes. The trails have been nicely updated, and a BEAVER [Castor] family – possibly from the Gorge Rd.
dam site have moved into the park. There
is a lodge constructed with lots of recently fallen trees. The Beaver lodge always has a vent area at
the top to allow excess heat to exhaust, and Brian noted the vent opening area
and the accumulated frost around it, very likely from the heated air
exiting. On very cool days, it can look
like smoke coming out of the lodge.
Brian also noted holes in the ice near the lodge and he photographed
other interesting formations of ice the past few days has produced.
** As all of us birders know, some days
are boom and some are bust. Thursday for
me was a boom. I revisited the burn-over
area on the South Cain’s River Rd., rte. 118, near Blackville. The BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERS [Pic à dos
noir] are very
much still there and very active, and easier to spot with fewer leaves although
most were burned away in the summer anyway.
I am adding lots of photos to show the work sites of the woodpeckers and
examples of both genders with one photo of a male giving a nice nod to show its
yellow crown patch. The road into the
site is not plowed, but hard snow-packed.
** I’ve had the opportunity to spend
time in the past few days with Wayne Corcoran and Romeo Doucette. Both feed CANADA JAYS [Mésangeai du Canada].
They both use meet fat scraps in suet feeders and the saw dust from a
butcher shop, and I was really surprised to see how Canada Jays, woodpeckers,
nuthatches, and chickadees are so attracted to it. It is sure going to become a part of my own
winter offerings at my own home. Am
including several photos of Wayne and Romeo’s feeders. What a great way to recycle meat trimmings
with suet connoisseurs in winter. I also
noted a flock of approximately 25 COMMON REDPOLLS [Sizerin flammé] harvesting Gray Birch catkins and
several on the ground below taking the fallen seeds.
** It’s Friday and time to review the
next week’s Sky-at-a-Glace, courtesy of sky-guru Curt Nason. Lots to look for in next week’s longer
evenings with planet views and the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction on December 21st.
This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2020 December 19 – December 26
The planets orbit at different speeds according to their distance from the Sun.
One closer to the Sun has a shorter distance to travel and also does so at a
greater speed. Therefore, it is not very rare to see one planet catch up to and
pass near another in the sky. This event is called a conjunction, specifically
when they have the same celestial coordinate called right ascension. This also
applies when a planet is seen near a star, is passed by the Moon, or moves
behind the Sun. The inner planets, Mercury and Venus, also pass between us and
the Sun. This is called inferior conjunction, and to avoid confusion they are
said to be at superior conjunction when passing behind the Sun.
Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Sun in nearly 12 and 30 years, respectively, meeting
up in conjunction every 20 years. This weekend Jupiter edges toward Saturn for
an especially rare winter solstice conjunction. It is not the timing that makes
this exceptional, but their apparent nearness. On Sunday Jupiter is just below
Saturn, and on Monday they are in conjunction; one-fifth the width of the Moon
apart or 12 times the width of Jupiter as seen through a telescope. This is
their closest conjunction in four centuries and the closest in eight centuries
that they have been far enough from the Sun to be seen easily, although by
sunset here they will have separated slightly and appear as close as their
morning conjunction in 1563 (see Bob King’s excellent article on the Sky &
Telescope website). If you get a chance to see this event, bear in mind
they are really 730 million kilometres apart, with Saturn twice as far from the
Sun as Jupiter.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:57 am and sunset will occur at 4:35 pm,
giving 8 hours, 38 minutes of daylight (7:59 am and 4:43 pm in Saint
John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 8:00 am and set at 4:39 pm,
giving 8 hours, 39 minutes of daylight (8:02 am and 4:47 pm in Saint
John). The Sun reaches its most southerly position, over the Tropic of Capricorn
although it is within the borders of the constellation Sagittarius the Archer,
at 6:02 am on Monday, marking the beginning of winter in the northern
hemisphere.
The Moon is at first quarter on Monday and it passes a binocular width below
Mars on Wednesday. Also on Monday, Jupiter appears about one-fifth the width of
the Moon from Saturn. Check them out by 5:30 - 6 pm because they set around 7
pm. Reddish Mars remains brighter than all of the stars except Sirius, leading
similarly coloured Aldebaran and Betelgeuse across the sky. Venus rises two
hours before sunrise this weekend, slowly heading sunward, while Mercury is at
superior conjunction on Sunday. The Ursid meteor shower peaks from Tuesday
evening to Wednesday morning, with shooting stars seeming to emanate from the
bowl of the Little Dipper in the north.
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
