August 12, 2022 (Friday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**All the great photos of Monarch Butterfly successes continue and are appreciated. Be aware of the short time we have them with us and the importance of the adults that appear at this end of their journey as these freshly minted adults will be filing flight plans for Mexico for the winter.
Chris Antle released 4 adult Monarch Butterflies on Friday. She has a large crop of chrysalides in her potting shed. It is not her usual practice, but her milkweeds are heavily predated by the Milkweed Beetles. They go through a lot of leaves. Chris comments she is lucky to have nearby fields of Common Milkweed to bring to the table.
**Louise Nichols was watching the pollinators on their Swamp Milkweed on Thursday to notice a small wasp that seemed to have its leg stuck in a milkweed flower and struggled for awhile before breaking free. Louise took a video of the event which you can find at the link below. After, she noticed the same thing happening to other wasps on the milkweed plant -- they would get their legs stuck and would have to struggle. Finally, she saw a dead wasp on one of the flowers whose legs appeared to be stuck and it apparently was not able to get free. Louise was curious as to why this danger would present itself to pollinators of milkweed, so she Googled it and found that this is a common phenomenon. The pollen on milkweed is a sticky ball called a pollinium. Insects on the milkweed will slip their legs in the flower and pull the pollinium out. When the insect lands on another flower, the same leg will slip in and leave the pollinium there, achieving pollination. However, some insects are too small and not strong enough to pull out the pollinium and may get stuck in the flower. Apparently, it is not uncommon to find dead insects on milkweed flowers that have gotten stuck in this way. If you are interested in learning more about this, just Google "milkweed pollinia".
Take a look at the action in the attached video Louise captured.
A very interesting bit of information and thank you Louise for researching it and sharing.
**Pat Gibbs watched a Blue Jay that appears to be
a young-of-the-year bird still trying to convince a parent to feed it, but the
parent appears to be thinking “it’s time to go out on your own”.
Note the young-of-the-year bird with more grey down
remaining in the rump area and patchy blue in the mantle area.
The adults appeared to behave normally, pecking at
the seeds Pat scatters on the ground.
The young one never attempted to peck at any of the
seeds, but simply lowered its body, spread its wings and opened its mouth. It would
remain like that for several minutes, then straighten and repeat the action
again and again. Finally, both birds flew up to the dead birch and perched
there.
We can expect to see a lot of this activity this
time of year even though the young-of-the-year may be the same size as the
adult bird.
**John Inman sends some photos of activity in his
Harvey, Albert County yard.
John photographed a Sharp-shinned Hawk that dropped by
for lunch. He also photographed a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird that appears to be in molt by
the obvious new pin feathers in the head area, assuming this to be a adult male
and not a young-of-the-year bird. John’s hummingbird feeders are very active at this
time with all the young-of-the-year birds out and getting fueled up for their
journey south next month. No doubt many of the adult males have already left or
are about to.
John also got a photo of a young-of-the-year Blue
Jay in molt still showing the pin feathers in its head area yet to burst out, to
give it a baldheaded look.
**Yolande LeBlanc reports it appears like
the second batch of young-of-the-year Northern Cardinals are out of the nest at
her Memramcook site. She saw one at a time on Friday. (Editor’s note: how
rewarding can it get having 2 broods of Northern Cardinals arrive in her yard!)
There are families of sparrows feeding
beside a yard outbuilding. Yolande counted 14 at one point, just in that spot.
There are White-throated, Song, and Chipping sparrows with possibly other
sparrow species. They all look almost the same. Yolande is watching for a Lark Sparrow
that she has had in previous years.
**Aldo Dorio is starting to notice more shorebirds arriving
at Hay Island. He photographed Semipalmated Sandpiper and Black-bellied Plover
with remnant breeding plumage, and a Willet which is resident at Hay Island.
**Gremlins swallowed up David Cannon’s
report on Wednesday
evening's Nature Moncton Walk so it is attached belatedly today.
It began
with something a bit different - an inside tour of the one-room Tankville
School, first opened in 1868. Hosts Shirley and Al Baglole of the Elmwood North
Community Association gave an excellent accounting of both the history and the
restoration of this historical site... Shirley was a student beginning at age
5, and Al was a key member of the restoration team in the late 1990s. They both
had numerous stories to share.
A very sincere thank you to Shirley and Al for
sharing their evening with the group.
David sends another photo of the 'mature student group' and yes, this picture does include Brian Stone who is
normally behind the camera!
Following the inside presentations, 12 Nature
Moncton members enjoyed a warm evening walking the Vince's Walk trail to the
artesian well at the end of it. Several members tried the cold, clear water
flowing from it.
Proceeding from there, they continued down
Malcolm's Way, which includes a 600-meter boardwalk. A highlight was a MERLIN that
perched nicely for the group. Perhaps due to last week's hot weather, the
MOSQUITOES were surprisingly absent, but Tuesday's rain plus another 48 hours
should ensure there are plenty there for those who missed them Wednesday night!
At the end of the boardwalk was the Cathedral,
comprising a number of 80 foot tall RED PINES planted by Boy Scouts in the
1940s. At that point, walk leader David Cannon had run out of (often
not-quite-correct) factoids and the group returned to the schoolhouse. While
not a long walk, the outing was enjoyed by all.
**Anita Cannon has been taking note of Sun
reflections on spiderwebs and photographing them. A very pleasant sample is
included today.
Nelson Poirier
Nature
Moncton
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