Nature Moncton Nature News: March 17 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

March 17, 2024

Nature Moncton members as well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond are invited to share their photos and descriptions of recent nature sightings to build a fresh (almost) daily edition of Nature News

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

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Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**A double bill Nature Moncton March meeting is scheduled for this coming Tuesday, March 19. All details at the end of this edition.

**Louise Nichols has been noting a large population of tadpoles in their small pond in the back of their Aulac house since the ice thawed. These are fairly large tadpoles -- several inches in length. There is much scurrying about every time she approaches the pond. Louise also took a couple of photos of insects emerging in the warm sun of Saturday afternoon. She includes one photo of a Winter Firefly and one of a Dark Fishing spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus).

**John Inman reports a number of Song Sparrows have arrived to his Harvey yard in the last few days and quickly took up singing. Purple Finch and American Goldfinch are sharing feeders, and a nicely marked young Red-winged Blackbird posed for a photo, with adults singing.

On Saturday afternoon another big wave of blackbirds arrived to replace the ones that left, mostly Common Grackles this time and a nice photo was taken of a bright White-throated Sparrow and a Fox Sparrow greeting one another.

Shannon Inman photographed a well-camouflaged Woodcock earlier in the week along with a Common Goldeneye in the Shepody River. She also noted the Rhubarb nicely emerging earlier in the week.

**Andrew Darcy points out that the popular documentary ‘500 Days in the Wild’ about a Canadian woman who travels the entire TransCanada Trail in 6 years is also available on Prime video for those who subscribe to it.

**Norbert Dupuis sends a photo of a male Dark-eyed Junco nicely showing it in its grey business suit and a Song Sparrow that shows the heavy barring of the species.

**Pat Gibbs photographed a Crow picking the wood on a dead birch even though there were peanuts in the shell less than 10 feet away (foraging on bugs or gathering nesting materials perhaps?) Also Pat has two hen and one male Ring-neck Pheasant, and those pesky Rock Pigeons gobbling up most of the seed she puts out. Pat has seen three male Ring-necked Pheasants in her yard at various times since Christmas but only one recently.

If anyone has any sure tips for keeping pigeons away, short of putting her yard under glass or a giant net, she would be glad for any advice; chasing them doesn't work and only scares the others, dispersing the feed sites widely doesn't seem to work, putting the seed deep under the evergreens doesn't work, using only tube feeders doesn't work. Does anything?

(Editor’s note: a dog has been a big help for the editor to put the run to too many pigeons to keep neighbours at rest!)

**We received some interesting commentaries back on the Harp seal photos that Pierre Vautour had photographed in the Bouctouche area recently.

Don McAlpine comments

“Harp Seals move into the Gulf and off NFL during the fall, where they depend on stable ice conditions for breeding. There is a breeding area off the Magdalen Islands, which is where this seal probably came from. Now is about the time some females would be leaving weaned pups behind, so this may be a dispersing female that got a bit off course. While there isn’t any sealing going on now, and Harp Seal populations are doing well, numbers remain below pre-exploitation levels. I suspect that recruitment will drop in the years ahead as the sea ice becomes less extensive with climate warming.”

Jack Terhune comments:

“I think it is likely that a number of seals will have remained in the Gulf of St. Lawrence when they should have headed north-west back to the Front. It is possible that when the normal whelping time occurred (March 1 to 4 when 75% of the pups are usually delivered) they had to give birth either in the water or on unsuitable shore ice or perhaps even beaches and ledges. The seals that whelped in these locations would have a high perceived risk of predation and may abandon their pups. Any ice that was present may have been unstable and would not have permitted proper nursing. The sighting of a number of dead pups is unusual and reflects a high mortality rate in the pups born in that area.

In early March 1969 (my first year on the ice) there was no ice in the central Gulf but a small patch in the Northumberland Strait. Many seals hauled out on it and gave birth, but the ice had a small area overall and was surrounded by sealing ships that were waiting for the season to open. It looked like it would be a 100% harvest and my colleagues from the University of Guelph along with the Fisheries officers that were there, sent a recommendation "up the line" to have the hunt postponed. That evening Minister Romeo Leblanc got up in the House of Commons and announced a delay in the opening of the sealing season. A week later, in mid-March, some freshwater ice from the St. Lawrence River arrived near the Magdalen Islands, and a large number of seals hauled out and gave birth. Unfortunately, this year I doubt that any suitable ice has arrived or formed in the Gulf.”

**Brian Stone walked in Mill Creek Park in Riverview on Saturday but didn't see any wildlife to photograph. He decided to check out some of the trails at the back of the park that led into more wild areas, and he ended up at a large beaver pond and dam. The weather was excellent, and the walk was pleasant. Brian photographed some lichen and fungus along the way as well as a living witches' broom high in an evergreen tree.

**Ian Winter captured a photo of the elusive Steller’s Sea Eagle that has been wandering about Eastern Canada for almost two years now at the Robin Hood Bay landfill in St. John’s Newfoundland. Where will it show up next??

** Nature Moncton March meeting has a double bill feature night coming up this Tuesday night March 19.

The first portion will be an excellent refresher on the amphibians about to join us sooner than we realize. The write-up for the first session is below and this presentation will be virtual:

MARCH MONTHLY MEETING PRESENTATION

Topic: Amphibians and Turtles in New Brunswick

Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 7:00 PM

Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge

Presenter: Shaylyn Wallace

Shaylyn Wallace has lots of experience with amphibians and turtles. She completed a BSc in Environment and Natural Resources at UNB in 2017, focusing her 4^th-year project on the Hyla Park Nature Preserve, specifically on Gray Treefrog Surveys. In 2020, she completed her MSc, which included research on the impacts of agriculture on Wood Turtles.

Shaylyn’s presentation for Nature Moncton will help you learn about amphibian and turtle species in New Brunswick and how to identify them. She will go through the species we have in the province, as well as look-a-like species. She will demonstrate what they sound like, which habitat types you can find them in, and what you can do to help these semi-aquatic creatures.

Don’t miss this chance to find out more about these fascinating critters that live in our woods and wetlands.

This will be an in-person presentation at the Rotary Lodge with a Zoom link for those who want to join in from home.

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89214168888?pwd=bEIvZzlieXFUbGZTVUhiV0pJVWdJQT09

After the break, join us for "Tick Tock." Nelson Poirier will give an important presentation on the increasing risk of the Black-legged Tick in New Brunswick. He will show us how to distinguish it from other nonproblem ticks, what to do if bitten by one, and how to prevent that from happening in the first place. He will also talk about some very useful new techniques that have been developed to help us with prevention, identification, and treatment. Nelson will have some preserved specimens and removal instruments on hand to demonstrate.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton