Nature Moncton Nature News: Nov 2 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

November 2, 2022

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**It’s that special time of year to start perusing Canada Goose flocks looking at every one for an interesting tagalong.

Paul and Rhonda Langelaan did just that on Monday to find a Pink-footed Goose in a farm field of harvested corn on the Homestead Road in Second North River. It was among 500 geese at the time. They saw 1000 geese there the day before, so they went back on Monday because they wanted to check for any rarities. That's when they found the Pink-footed Goose and spread the word. It was smaller than the Canada Geese but the bright pink legs made it stand out when they were scoping it.

Rhonda captured a magnificent photo!

**On Tuesday morning Brian Stone heard the report on the birding chatline of a Pink-footed Goose in the Salisbury area and he grabbed his camera in the hope that it would hang around long enough for him to get there and get photos. In an unusual stroke of luck, he was successful and got a lot of photos of his first ever Pink-footed Goose. Brian includes a large panorama of the huge group of Canada Geese that the Pink-footed Goose was blending in to. In an interesting twist he found out after he got home that in some of his photos there was a Cackling Goose standing next to the Pink-footed Goose which was another first for him. (Editor's note: note the small size of the Cackling Goose in comparison to the Canada geese). Two lifers for the price of one, that's a good deal!

Brian also photographed some tagged Canada Geese, Golden-crowned Kinglet, a Hairy Woodpecker, and a Red-tailed Hawk (Editor’s note: note the signature patagial bar on the leading edge of the wing next to the body that shows well in Brian’s photo. This is a field mark specific to the Red-tailed Hawk).

Brian also photographed some late-season Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies mating as well as a Saltmarsh Caterpillar and the Woolly Bear Caterpillar. (Editor’s note: the Woolly Bear caterpillar, the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger moth, will overwinter as the larval caterpillar stage).

**Northern Cardinals, come on down!

Aldo Dorio photographed a female Northern Cardinal at the feeder yard of Isiae Comeau in Tabusintac on Tuesday. Aldo reports there were 3 of them present, all females!

Do we dare to dream? Last year at this time, we had numerous Northern Cardinal reports that seem to come in via the northeastern part of the province and although many seemed to move on in the spring, some stayed to produce a core of nesting individuals.

**The sudden onslaught of recent reports of Red-bellied Woodpeckers has been most interesting and hopefully this is a species more will enjoy as winter approaches.

Mac Milton was finally able to get a photo of the Red-bellied Woodpecker coming to his Lower Coverdale feeder yard. Mac points out getting a photograph was no easy feat and comments it was “like chasing a f..t in a keg of nails”! (Editor’s note: I'm including 3 excellent views to appreciate this beautiful woodpecker. Note the huge honker of a bill on this species).

**Fred Richards came across a rather surprising number of clumping mushrooms in an area of bark mulch in his Taylor Village yard. Alfredo Gusto at the New Brunswick Museum identified them to be in the species Gymnopus.

Some further sleuthing suggested it to be Gymnopus dryophilis with Russet Toughshank as the most used common name. The literature suggests the species is one of the weeds of the mushroom world which was rather surprising as we don’t see it commonly in New Brunswick. It is reported as edible but not worthwhile. It had a white spore print and flattened hollow stalks to help with identification. Photos are attached.

**Nelson Poirier was pleased to welcome a female Northern Cardinal to his Moncton feeder yard for the first time seen this season. She seemed comfortable and seemed to know just where to go to suggest earlier visits may have been missed.

** Bob Blake maintains daily weather statistics from his Second North River home to include morning lows, daily highs, and monthly precipitation. His table comparing November of 2021 with November of 2022 is shown below as Bob submitted it.

It is interesting to note that November 2022 was significantly warmer than November 2021 and the rainfall of November 2022 was double that of November 2021.

2021

2022

morning temperatures

daily highs and rainfall

morning temperatures

daily highs and rainfall

+16-1 day

+15-1

+14-2

+12-1

+11-1

+10-6