Nature Moncton Nature News: Nov 14 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

November 14, 2022

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**The Nature Moncton meeting on schedule for tomorrow night Tuesday, November 15. All details at the end of this edition and up front tomorrow.

** Despite the gray sky on Sunday afternoon, Yves and Suzanne Poussart visited the Shediac area to look for interesting situations to observe. At the Pointe-du-Chêne wharf, Yves has been able to get some photos of 3 species, including COMMON EIDER (male), HARLEQUIN DUCK (1st winter male) and RED-THROATHED LOON (Juvenile).

Two of the included photos show the Eider just after it had surfaced with a crab lunch. Near the bridge at the South Cove, a group of 8 HOODED MERGANSERS (males and females) were actively diving to feed. On the way back, several hundred CANADA GEESE were resting behind the new Homarus Center while large groups of COMMON EIDER were flying over.

**Flocks of Bohemian Waxwings are starting to show up in New Brunswick.

Aldo Dorio photographed a flock of 20 at Hay Island on Sunday. They were polishing off a crop of Winterberry Holly, which is a large shrub there. A flock of 20 could easily deplete that bush quite quickly. The Mountain Ash crop is not as abundant this year as it sometimes is which could be quite a disappointment for Bohemian Waxwings and Pine Grosbeaks. Hopefully they will find enough clinging crab apples and other fruit to keep these winter nomads with us.

**John Inman’s Northern Cardinal ‘flock’ has risen to 5! It includes one adult male with the other 4 female and juvenile young-of-the-year birds. One of John’s juvenile photos shows the dark bill of the juvenile taking on its red coloration which is to be expected at this time of year.

John also had a new Dickcissel arrive, this one much more conservatively dressed than the first one that dropped by several days ago.

Also, a second Fox Sparrow dropped by, this one much more colourful than the last one.

John also photographed a few Horse Mushrooms. This species of mushroom starts off as button style and usually quickly starts to open to show the pink gills that darken after a few days. If conditions are right, it will expand and flatten to dinnerplate size. The yellow blush on the cap that sometimes occurs shows in one of John’s photos. (Editor’s note: this is my favourite edible wild mushroom which I dry to potato chip consistency in a dehydrator, then run them through a coffee grinder to add a wonderful flavour to whatever it is put with. The crop has not been good this year but I have found some nice patches this past week).

Shannon Inman got some nice photographs of freshly emerged uncommonly seen Smooth Earthstar Mushrooms. The earthstar mushrooms are in the puffball family.

Shannon was closely watched by a Barred Owl as she photographed the mushroom patch which got photographed as well.

**After more perusal of the Peterson nest guide, Yolande LeBlanc in Memramcook suspects the small 2 ½ in. bowl nest she found in her yard meets the criteria of an American Redstart nest. The second one was strongly suggestive of Cedar Waxwing and the third a Robin’s nest. These 3 species shared a Japanese Maple tree well camouflaged until leaf fall.

The photo of the suspected American Redstart nest in and out of situ is reattached today.

**Last week, it was predicted that a Grey Squirrel (appropriately nicknamed Grasshopper) would soon get Jamie Burris trained to allow it to snack from the kitchen table. Prediction came true!

Take a look at the attached video link as proof:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/172e24f154ih9cr/grasshopper.MP4?dl=0

**Lisa Morris photographed a Hairy Woodpecker investigating what goodies may lurk in a knothole.

**Brian Stone drove around the Salisbury area on Sunday searching for interesting photo subjects but only managed a photo of a perched Bald Eagle (Editor’s note: giving the photographer a bit of an evil eye) on the Scott Rd. before heading for home. He scanned the large flock of Canada Geese in the field on the Coverdale Rd. near the Turtle Creek Rd. for the celebrity geese rarities being seen there regularly but had no luck locating any.

**The November Nature Moncton monthly meeting is happening this coming Tuesday night at 7:00 PM (tomorrow) and all are welcome to join in at the link below, or join us in person in the Rotary Pavilion at Mapleton Park.

Plants have come into their winter siesta and the leaves have mostly fallen; however, lichens continue at their prime ready to be admired. We have many lichen species in New Brunswick, but Kendra Driscoll will help us to call the common ones by their first name and tell us just what makes this community in Mother Nature tick. All details of the meeting below:

** Nature Moncton November Meeting

November 15, 2022, at 7:00 PM

Subject: Getting to Know Common Lichens

Speaker: Kendra Driscoll - New Brunswick Museum

Moncton Rotary Lodge

Lichens are a fascinating community in Mother Nature’s world, and they are with us to enjoy all year long.

Kendra Driscoll, Curatorial and Research Technician for Botany and Mycology at the New Brunswick Museum, is a specialist in lichens and has helped us appreciate lichen photos submitted to Nature News, always with nice-to-know commentary.

Kendra will tailor her presentation to amateur lichen appreciation by introducing 10 of the most commonly encountered species with some identification features of each to help us enjoy our outdoor experiences all the more by being able to call several by name.

Expect Kendra’s contagious enthusiasm to get us all looking a bit more closely at something that cooperatively will stay still to be checked out and does not have to be stalked to look at!

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

This presentation will be delivered virtually at the Zoom link below and will be broadcast on a screen for those who gather at Mapleton Park:

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton