NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, December
31, 2020 (Thursday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** Brian Coyle has a styrofoam fishing buoy in his yard and a DOWNY WOODPECKER [Pic mineur] has made very wise use of it as a night roost. It excavated a cavity in the styrofoam and Brian notes that it seems to appear just like clockwork at 4:30 pm to the cavity and tucks in for the night and he sometimes sees it leave at dawn. What an ideal place to have a warm night roost!
** Georges Brun has spent a lot of time
monitoring life around the Petitcodiac River, but Wednesday was the first time that
he has seen HORNED LARKS [Alouette hausse-col]. They were at the Bend near
Chateau Moncton and he saw 9 in flight thinking that they were probably redpolls
at first but then got some great close ups to see what they really were. Note
in the flock photo one bird is banked to show that signature, black undertail.
** Daryl Doucet’s EASTERN TOWHEE [Tohi
à flancs roux] continues to be a regular daily patron at his Moncton feeder but
it makes sure to get branch bombed when photographed.
** Gordon Rattray got some really nice
photos of both genders of GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET [Roitelet à couronne dorée] at
the White Rock Recreational Area on Wednesday. One photo shows very clearly the
red stripe down the middle of the yellow crown in the male, a great photo
angle. The female’s crown is completely yellow. Gordon, like several others,
got a photo of the pleasant show the recent full Moon has put on. He took it
across the Petitcodiac River from Weldon.
** Jane Leblanc had an AMERICAN TREE
SPARROW [Bruant hudsonien] pose for a photo in her St. Martins yard on
Wednesday. Its bright yellow lower mandible got branch bombed. It happens to be
in Jane’s still blooming Witch Hazel shrub, as noted by the yellow blooming
flowers. Jane’s female NORTHERN CARDINAL [Cardinal rouge] patron also flashed its
beautiful red bill and crest for her on Wednesday morning. Jane also got a
photo of the full Moon setting at 7:57 am on Wednesday morning over the St.
Martins marsh.
** The up and down unseasonable weather
has surely changed ice conditions in some areas. Aldo Dorio sends some photos
of piled ice pieces on the coastline of Hay Island that came to shore after the
heavy warm rain that dislodged some frozen surfaces after several cold days
before. The Miramichi River was frozen over and the warm rain caused the ice to
break up just as it would in spring in a torrent of ice cakes and broken down
shoreline trees.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
