Nature Moncton Nature News: Nov 28 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

November 28, 2022

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**Catherine Hamilton in Anagance was pleased to look out her Petitcodiac window and see a Red-bellied Woodpecker at her feeder on Saturday. She has never seen one before. It stayed for a bit and then left but was back Sunday morning briefly. Catherine hopes it stays, which it probably will now that it's arrived at this time of year.

Catherine has been enjoying the return of the Evening Grosbeaks and the regular birds: Blue Jays, Red and White Breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, American Goldfinch, Hairy Woodpeckers, and a few Dark-eyed Juncos.

** Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins captured a photo of a flock of approximately 2 dozen Evening Grosbeaks in her maple tree. She also found an American Tree Sparrow among the juncos and chickadees in her yard.

**Sunday’s warm pleasant weather brought Luc Richard and Melvin Perez out to surf a great Petitcodiac River Tidal Bore with Georges Brun’s camera catching some great action photos. Melvin Perez has surfed the tidal bore up to an amazing one thousand times!

As they surfed up the river, kayakers floated down.

A gull was flying downriver, and it looked almost like a Great Blue Heron. Upon closer look, Georges saw a plastic bag hung on its body. This is the 3rd bird he has seen over the years sporting plastic bags or wrappers.

** The elusive Steller’s Sea Eagle continued to make the Bouctouche-Cormierville area its stopover destination on its East Coast tour on Sunday again to the delight of many for the brief appearances it allowed.

Brian Stone spent all day Sunday out in the Bouctouche area hoping for a close encounter with the addictively wonderful Steller's Sea Eagle but only managed some distant photos that he was still happy to get but not as satisfying as the recent close-up images seen on previous editions and on the internet sites. (Editor's note: Brian's photo of the Steller's Sea Eagle and adult Bald Eagle show the size of this large bird, to suggest it may be a female)

The weather was excellent, but sightings of the eagle were few and far between, being only two for the whole day. One large group of birders was in just the right spot on the wharf to experience close views and a pulse-quickening flyover which Brian witnessed, and photographed, from a disappointing distance. While standing around and waiting for the appearance of the eagle, Brian kept busy photographing other items of interest such as a large flight of Goldeneye Ducks and a pair of Sundogs that formed in some thin clouds beside the Sun.

As Brian arrived home in the dim twilight, he noticed one of his favourite non-bird rarities, a Fallstreak Cloud (aka Hole Punch Cloud) that he phone photographed in his driveway before going inside. The link below explains how this phenomenon occurs.

https://www.weather.gov/arx/why_fallstreaks