NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
August 17,
2023
To respond
by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .
Please
advise both the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com and the proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca 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
**Barb Curlew reports that it looked like a SHORT-BILLED
DOWITCHER convention in Waterside early in the morning on Aug 16. There were at least
20. When she checked in the afternoon, none were seen.
**Rheal
Vienneau collected some Black
Swallowtail Butterfly eggs from Marguerite Winsor’s garden and sends some
photos of the egg and a just hatched
caterpillar to show how very tiny it is at the moment beside a Canadian dime.
No
doubt it will get well fed at Rheal’s and grow very fast. This hatch is from a
second brood of the season.
Take
a look at the action as Rheal could catch it on the attached video link:
**Aldo Dorio
continues to see Black-bellied Plover at
Hay Island still with breeding plumage remnants.
He also
sends a photo of a Greater Yellowlegs from a frontal view in leg-deep
water where this species often likes to be.
**The use of
trail cameras allows some wonderful observations of nature without the animals
being aware they are being photographed. Some Black Bears apparently do
not agree with that line of thinking and seem to be the one species that are
very adept at showing their disapproval.
Many trail camera users have experienced this. However, a Black Bear took it all the way with Louise Nichols. Normally, she places a trail cam in the back part of their woods in Aulac, attaching the camera to a light tripod. When she went out to check the camera on Tuesday evening, the camera and tripod were gone! She thought first of someone stealing it, but this is not a location that would be easily accessed by anyone. After a few moments, Louise saw the tripod lying on the ground about 20 feet away. She also saw that the camera had been ripped off of it and she could still not see the camera anywhere. After some searching (she now suspected a bear), she followed the path animals frequently take in that spot and eventually spotted the trail cam lying on the ground. It was still working and contained 23 videos of the incident. The videos revealed that the bear knocked the camera down on Monday afternoon and spent some time knocking it around. Then the bear returned late Tuesday afternoon (not long before Louise went out there!), knocked the camera around some more, picked it up, at some point detached it from the tripod and carried it further off. The first two videos Louise sends show the initial contact between the bear and the trail cam on Monday. The third video shows footage of the moving trees as the bear carried the camera away on Tuesday. The footage may be chaotic, but these bits of the action can be seen at the attached links:
**The Wednesday evening Nature Moncton walk on August 16 was again a
special occasion, with 25 participants' eyes missing little. Many photographs
were taken, which will be shared in editions to come.
David Cannon was able to get a few out for today’s edition showing
Brian Stone among the incredible invasiveness of Phragmites grass on the
Riverview marsh, one of the stands of Purple
Loosestrife, and a Great Blue Heron that
remained in one spot all evening waiting for food to come to it instead of
expending its energy chasing its night snack!
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
.%20AUG%2015,%202023.%20%20RHEAL%20VIENNEAU.jpg)
