NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE March 30, 2021 (Tuesday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by Susan Richards susan_richards@rogers.com
Info Line #: 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**Fred and Susan Richards went on a walk along the
dyke bordering the Memramcook River at high tide on Monday in Taylor
Village. The full Moon from Sunday night
made the tide higher than normal making a lake instead at the Memramcook
River. They saw over 300 ducks and 2
dozen CANADA GEESE [Bernache du Canada]. The migrating
ducks seem to be coming fairly steadily now but too far out to identify but for
some Black Duck [Canard noir] nearer the shore and the Canada Geese walking
about.
They got a photograph of a MUSKRAT [Rat musqué] Lodge approximately 6 feet in diameter. Note a Muskrat lodge looks like a small BEAVER [Castor] lodge but constructed of grasses and cattails that may be available
cemented together with mud.
They also took note of a Birch tree felled by a
Beaver. Note the slant on the cut the
Beaver makes, that way so the tree will fall in the direction that it
wishes. It’s just called planning ahead!
They also came upon a group of the colourful lichen,
British Soldier Lichen (Cladonia cristatella).
This lichen grows on ground, wood or even bark at tree bases. Lichens are unique in the sense there is a
fungal and algal component that depend on each other to exist in a symbiotic
relationship.
**Daryl Doucet’s female EASTERN
TOWHEE [Tohi à flancs roux] continues
to be a daily regular patron to his Moncton feeder yard and fueling up
heartily. It will be interesting to
watch how long she continues to stay.
Daryl also had his first WHITE-THROATED
SPARROW [Bruant à gorge blanche] arrive to
his feeder area but un-co-operative for a photo.
**Brian Stone checked out the Beaver dam constructed
at Hall’s Creek on the Gorge Road last season.
It got washed away after the recent combined big melt and heavy rain. The red line on one of the photos is where it
used to be. Suspect the Beavers will be
back at it soon in some fashion.
**Aldo Dorio got a photo of a SONG SPARROW [Bruant hanteur] spreading the word of its arrival in Neguac on
Monday. The spring chorus will be
increasing in intensity every day as the spring concert gets in full
swing. Aldo also photographed a male COMMON GOLDENEYE [Garrot à oeil d'or] at Hay Island, commenting that Miramichi Bay is
opening quickly.
**Roger Leblanc comments that next days coming up will
be great for duck observations. Sea Duck
migration is on and many Sea ducks that over-wintered with us, that will be
leaving soon, are still here. He
comments he saw 14 of the 16 Pelagic Waterfowl, with KING EIDER [Eider à tête grise] and HARLEQUIN DUCK [Arlequin
plongeur] as the only exception, which would be much
less likely to see. The ‘puddle ducks ‘
are really starting to move in quickly, commenting that he saw 6 species just
over the past few days. It’s looking
good for the Nature Moncton event coming up, as announced next.
**A Head’s up to get on the calendar. There is a Nature Moncton combo of virtual
session and outdoor event on the Dabbling and Diving fresh water Ducks on April 8th
and April 10th. The write-up
is attached below:
NATURE MONCTON EVENT
WHAT’S THAT DUCK?: A WORKSHOP/OUTING ON DABBLING AND DIVING DUCKS
Workshop (Virtual):
Thurs. April 8th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Outing: Sat. April 10th (rain date: Sun.
Apr. 11th) from 10:00 into the afternoon. (**Bring a lunch)
Meeting Place for
Outing: Rte 114 and Steeves St.,
Hillsborough (meet at the lot in back of the post office, near the fighter jet
at the far end).
Presenter and Guide:
Roger Leblanc
Cost: $5:00 for members/$10.00 for non-members (to
be paid at the outing on April 10th)
With the arrival of spring, many bird species that have left us for more
moderate climes will be coming back. Amongst
the first to return, and certainly some of the most colorful, are ducks. Now some ducks, mostly sea ducks, have toughed
it out and stayed with us through winter, but their habits and behaviors are so
different that they justify a separate treatment. At this workshop/outing, we will concentrate
only on dabbling and diving ducks found on inland bodies of water. So what is the difference between dabbling and
diving? In this workshop we will learn the
answer to that question and how to tell them apart. Dressed in their spring finest, dabbling and
diving ducks have already started coming back to us. On arrival, they first congregate in bays,
waterways and impoundments before getting down to the arduous matter of
producing next year’s offspring. This makes
April the perfect time to learn to recognize them or simply brush up on your duck
ID skills. And if you are just getting
into “birdwatching,” ducks are a perfect place to start because they are big,
colourful, have a tendency to stay put long enough for one to study them and many
are jam-packed with identification-helping field marks. Still some, females in particular, can be
confusing. So to help you out with this,
Nature Moncton is offering this combination workshop and outing. With our own Roger
Leblanc, we will first have an online weekday evening workshop to study the 14 species
of dabbling or diving ducks that can be expected in the region now. We will
learn how to separate them by habitat, behavior, and field marks. Roger will
also share with us his experience-based “tools of the trade” for duck
identification. Then on the weekend we will head out to a couple of duck hot
spots in the Hillsborough region where ducks are findable in mixed groups at
this time of year. There, with Roger’s
help, we will work on using the knowledge learned in the workshop to ID them to
species. All in all, a great learning
and fun-filled experience that should help you better answer the question: “What’s
that duck?”
All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.
** Bring a scope if you have one, and binoculars. Roger will have an extra scope and binoculars
available if anyone needs them.
It’s going to
be wonderful to hopefully actually get outside together but respecting Covid
restrictions.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
