NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, January
10, 2020 (Sunday)
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)
** Noting the PIPING PLOVER [Pluvier
siffleur] upcoming
webinar mentioned on yesterday’s edition, John Massey reports that he acted as
a guardian to a Piping Plover nest at Saint-Anne in 2011. He used a long-distance zoom camera to record
the activity. In addition to the photo
John sends, take a look at the video link below, showing a female at the nest
laying an egg.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qoi9e3rb9rwjfg1/pipng%20plover%20laying%20%284%29.AVI?dl=0
**Andrew Darcy
was watching his Dieppe/Greater Lakeburn bird feeder on Saturday mid-afternoon,
when he noticed a large raptor come bombing into his neighbour's yard, causing
quite a commotion with the local birds. There are usually two dozen European Starling
and a dozen Mourning Doves that hang around the Pine trees and telephone wires.
The raptor pulled some amazing acrobatics and Andrew thought for sure he had
caught something. He quickly went out to see where the bird went and spotted an
adult male Northern Goshawk perched high in a poplar tree. According to Sibley,
the females are larger in size and have much coarser barring on their underside
(this individual had very fine grey barring present throughout). It did not
look like he had caught anything, but Andrew did see some feathers on his beak.
Possibly a lucky day for some bird! Andrew took some quick photos to document
the bird, but it was very wary and took off into the open field very soon after
he spotted it. Andrew comments he has not seen this species for quite some time
(only a few over the years in Ontario where he recently moved from) so was a
very pleasant surprise indeed.
**Ray Gauvin was finally able to get a photo of a WHITE-BREASTED
NUTHATCH that does quick grab-and-run visits to his Pointe-du Chene feeder
yard. It seems to travel with chickadees, and he suspects it to be a loner. Ray
is still hosting 4 PINE WARBLERS. Yes, that is indeed 4!
** I don’t think we can accumulate enough NORTHERN CARDINAL [Cardinal rouge] photos. Jane LeBlanc got a portrait shot of her resident male cardinal. The male and female continue to be present most days in her St. Martins feeder yard. A YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER [Paruline à croupion jaune] and a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW [Bruant à gorge blanche] also are regular patrons.
** Clarence Cormier is noting one of his 30+ AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS [Bruant hudsonien] is missing its tail, possibly a close call from a predator. Clarence notes it flies and functions normally and the replacement feathers are very probably already in process of being replaced or will be at the next molt.
** There have been several nice photos
of adult COMMON
EIDERS [Eider à duvet] recently. With this species we tend to see a lot of
immatures. The adult female is as
colourful as her male counterpart, but she has better camo, as Jean-Paul
LeBlanc’s photo from Saint-Édouard wharf on Saturday shows.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
