Nature Moncton Nature News: June 9 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

June 9, 2023

To respond by e-mail, please address message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .

Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .

Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

** Michelle Tan, the communications and outreach specialist for the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance, was out taking some water samples in the Salisbury area on Wednesday and came across 3 young-of-the-year Red Foxes playing together and was able to photograph one with a very interested group of cattle nearby.

(Editor’s note: the juvenile Red Foxes have shed their juvenile pelage and nicely taken on the rich rufus of the adult.)

**Deana and Peter Gadd found a dry spell late Wednesday morning to visit Miramichi Marsh.

Last week, Peter finally saw a pair of Pied-billed Grebes, having felt sorry for the lonely male for the last month. Peter needed not to have wasted his sympathy. They were very surprised to see a family of 3 young swimming along with one parent (mother?). A little later, they saw a Pied-billed Grebe at the far end of the bigger pond, presumably Dad. In Peter’s experience, though, both parents look after the young.

A little later, he saw the mom catch some food for herself. The photos were out of focus, but she appeared to swallow a frog whole after giving it a good shake!

**Anita Cannon has noted the wet weather has brought out hundreds of slugs in her garden in the woods. Anita photographed 3 possibly different individuals that would appear to be all of the Arion genus with the suspicion that they may be actually variations of the Dusky Slug (Arion subfuscus). We very much stand to be corrected on the identity. Slug identification experts seem hard to come by!!

(Editor’s note: slugs may not be the most popular fauna that live with us but are important to the ecosystem as a significant food source for birds, snakes, amphibians, etc. They are essentially mollusks without a shell. Those obvious tentacles have sensitive eye spots at the tip to guide their travels.)

**Leon Gagnon has returned to his summer home at Wilson Point on Miscou Island. Like most Maritime residents, he was greeted by rain and fog this past week, unable to make many nature observations.

Leon did photograph (in the fog) an adult Bald Eagle that chose to perch on the summit of a high spruce tree to be quickly evicted and replaced by American Crows, as is often the case.

** Shannon Inman was in and about the Harvey area on Thursday photographing. She noted a Beaver was sitting on the bank across from the house on the downriver side of the dam in brackish salt water.

Shannon also noticed a Pileated Woodpecker enter a hole in a gravel pit. She waited for a photo, but it came out like a rocket, so there was no photo. The reason for a Pileated Woodpecker to go into a burrow in a gravel bank is unknown, as this would be a very unexpected place for Pileated Woodpecker to use as a nesting site.

Shannon also photographed a Four-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly, a duo of Calligraphic beetles, and a Syrphid Fly.

**Aldo Dorio spotted 6 adult Semipalmated Plovers at Hay Island on Thursday.

We seldom see this species in New Brunswick in the spring as they migrate via the central flyway to their nesting grounds in the North, and their return migration brings them along the Atlantic flyway. It is assumed that this small flock got off course and is en route to their northern breeding grounds.

Aldo also photographed a female Black Duck with her entourage of ducklings.

**Brian and Annette Stone drove to Salisbury in the poor weather on Thursday and found it just a bit too rainy to walk any trails, so they drove around the area for a while looking for anything of interest. On the usually productive Scott Rd., Brian noticed that a significant amount of logging had occurred recently. Many birds were still singing there, and they drove slowly along with the windows open, listening to the chorus. After turning around at the end of the road and heading back towards Salisbury, Annette suddenly called out that she saw a bird that she didn't recognize perched on a branch right beside the road. Brian got out of the car to check and soon was involved with a Black-billed Cuckoo photo shoot. Not a bad start to the day.

On the way back to Salisbury, Brian photographed one of several Bobolinks singing gloriously in an open field, along with some other avian subjects that will be added to a future edition. With the weather improving somewhat upon their arrival on the Highland Park trail, they decided to walk for a while and collect a few more photographs to complete the day. A Common Gallinule and American Coot came close enough to be good subjects, and a Virginia Rail crossed the path to get in on the action. A few Cedar Waxwings were confident enough to perch temptingly near the trail as they walked past, and a large family of Wood Ducks claimed the small side pond for themselves to hide from the hovering Bald Eagle that was looking for small snacks.

An interesting scenario that was witnessed by other birders before and after Brian did was the attempt by a Pied-billed Grebe parent to feed its chick a rather large fish that was soon found to be too big for the chick to swallow after multiple attempts and was then swallowed whole by the parent so it would not go to waste. That was one well-fed parent, but the chick looked fresh and healthy, so was getting its fair share of suitably sized fare.

**It’s Friday, and time to review what next week’s night sky may have in store for us to see courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason. Here’s hoping for a few clearer nights than we have had this week!

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2023, June 10 – June 17
It has been said that we live in a topsy-turvy world. We live on one! Earth’s polar axis is tilted to its orbital path around the Sun, leaning just over a quarter of the way from upright to horizontal. At our summer solstice, the north polar axis is tipped toward the Sun, and sunlight reaches us at a steep angle with concentrated warmth.

If you note the times of sunrise and sunset over the month, you might be surprised to discover the earliest sunrise and latest sunset do not occur on the solstice. Although the most amount of daylight occurs then, we get our earliest sunrise around June 16 and latest sunset around June 26. Earth’s tilt plays a role in that, as does the fact that its orbit is not circular. We are about five million kilometers closer to the Sun in early January than in early July. Four centuries ago, Johann Kepler showed that planets travel faster when they are nearer the Sun. Have you noticed that the time between the beginning of spring and fall is a week longer than between fall and spring?

We expect the Sun to reach its highest daily position in the sky, crossing the meridian, at midday (noon local standard time, accounting for distance from the center of our time zone). However, the Sun’s daily north-south movement over the seasons and Earth’s varying speed in orbit makes the Sun appear to reach the meridian ahead or behind schedule by as much as 16 minutes. Consequently, our 24-hour clock is based on an annual average noon called mean solar time. Sundial aficionados know they must account for these daily corrections to agree with the clock.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:28 am, and sunset will occur at 9:09 pm, giving 15 hours, and 41 minutes of daylight (5:36 am and 9:11 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday, the Sun will rise at 5:27 am and set at 9:12 pm, giving 15 hours, and 45 minutes of daylight (5:35 am and 9:14 pm in Saint John).

The Moon is at third quarter phase this Saturday, has a meet-up with Jupiter on Wednesday morning, and it is new next weekend. Brilliant Venus passes near the Beehive star cluster in Cancer early in the week, all the while edging closer to Mars. On Saturday, Saturn rises around 1:30 am, half an hour before moonrise and two hours before Jupiter. Mercury rises an hour before sunrise and could be bright enough to be seen with binoculars in twilight.

On Sunday evening at 8 pm, tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show via the Facebook page or YouTube channel of Astronomy by the Bay. The first RASC NB star party of the year occurs next Friday and Saturday at Kouchibouguac National Park. See the rascnb.ca website for details.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.