Nature Moncton Nature News: July 4 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

July 4, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Susan Richards will lead the Wednesday evening, July 5th Nature Moncton walk starting at 7 p.m. All details are at the end of this edition today and upfront tomorrow, Wednesday morning.

**Brian Stone photographed an Osprey flying over Wilson Marsh with prey recently.

Alyre Chiasson was consulted, and he suspected the prey to be a Brown Bullhead noting the plumpish body, particularly the rounded pectoral fins, the colour, and the small eyes. It also fits the environment of Wilson Marsh as well.

**The Bald-faced Hornet is one of our more aggressive wasp species and one to be given lots of respect near its basketball-sized nest (when completed) or food source.

John Inman photographed an individual on the other side of a windowpane and comments Shannon Inman can attest to its painful stings, having had one individual deliver them to her repeatedly.

**As mentioned in yesterday’s edition, with overnight temperatures increasing, many moths are being seen more regularly. There are many hundreds of different species of moths in New Brunswick, making moth identification somewhat of a challenge.

Joanne Savage has taken on the moth identification challenge and has been able to get photographs and identify many New Brunswick moths.

Joanne has identified two species Nelson Poirier recently photographed, the Mottled Euchlaena moth and the Finned-willow Prominent moth, which are featured in this edition.

Nelson had several others visit on Monday evening, including the large Modest Sphinx and Blinded Sphinx moths, as well as the Virginia Ctenucha, aka Smokey Moth.

The Virginia Ctenucha is a very common medium-sized day flying moth showing a completely orange head and fluorescent blue abdomen.

Maureen Girvan also photographed a Pale Beauty Moth, a medium-size moth with just a hint of a green background.

** Susan Richards will lead the Wednesday, July 5th Nature Moncton walk starting at 7 p.m. It will be in Beaumont, PAST St. Anne's Chapel. Park in the parking lot, up to the left, at the 'Road closed' sign. The walk is on a gravel roadway through Acadian coastal forest. The first stop will be at the Beaumont Quarry where, in the late 1800s, the quarry produced grindstones and pulp stones and more, which were taken by water to Dorchester, down the Petitcodiac River and into the United States. The group will continue to Fort Folly Point, which is the mouth of the Petitcodiac and Memramcook Rivers. Down along the shore near the point are ice caves. The distance is 1.6 K from the parking lot to the point. The birds they heard while scouting were Swainson's Thrush, Northern Parula warbler, American Redstart, and a loud Crow and an equally loud Raven. The flora observed were ferns, Twinflower (Linnaea borealis), and Bunchberry, to name just a few.

The road to the walk has a few potholes, but it is backroads New Brunswick.

The map is the head of the photo lineup.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton