NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
March 22, 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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Proofreading
courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
The live feed to the Peregrine Falcon
nest box camera can be accessed at https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Louise Nichols visited Port Elgin in the sunshine
on Wednesday to find that the lagoon is beginning to attract some duck
species. She saw half a dozen Bufflehead (male and female), a
small group of Ring-necked Ducks and a few American Black Ducks on the
lagoon. On the river, she spotted and photographed a group of scaup which
she believes to be Greater Scaup due to the more rounded head.
(Editor’s note: some female Greater Scaup, especially in
spring and summer, have a paler head with a distinct whitish ear patch. This
would only appear in some Greater Scaup females, but not Lesser Scaup females. Two of Louise’s photos
(arrowed) show this feature nicely.)
**Brian Coyle captured a video of a Beaver applying castor to a mound. Hence their Latin name, Castor canadensis.
(Editor’s note: this
video Brian has captured is one most of us would never see unless with a video
camera in the right place at the right time. Castor
is a substance produced in the anal glands of the beaver that has an odor not unlike
a horse barn that is deposited in areas to mark territory. The beaver in Brian’s
video is doing exactly that at the start of the video. Take a close look at
Brian’s video for something most of us have never seen taking place.)
**The spring migration of waterfowl is getting underway.
Pat Gibbs photographed a flock of Common
Eider flying past
The Bend in the Petitcodiac River on
Thursday. There should be
flocks of scoter doing the same thing
anytime as they move to
northern summer breeding grounds.
(Editor’s note: they are already
seeing scoter flocks at the Point Lepreau Bird Observatory.
**It’s Friday in our day to get a
preview of what next week’s night sky may have in store for us courtesy of sky
guru Curt Nason. The total solar eclipse day is getting closer!
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024
March 23 – March 30
Although Orion and his two dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, are slipping into
the sunset, they are not the only pooches in the night sky. The small
constellation of Canes Venatici the Hunting Dogs is generally seen as a pair of
stars well below the handle of the Big Dipper. They assist their master,
Boötes, in chasing the celestial bears around the pole.
In one tale from mythology Boötes is Icarius, a vineyard owner who was taught
the art of winemaking by Bacchus. He introduced his shepherd neighbours to his
product, and when they awoke with a hangover the next morning they thought they
had been poisoned. In retaliation they killed Icarius and threw him in a ditch.
His dogs, Chara and Asterion, sensed something was wrong, and when they
eventually found their master they jumped into the ditch to die with him.
The brightest star in Canes Venatici is a double star called Cor Caroli, which
means the Heart of Charles. Edmond Halley coined this because it was said to
have shone brightly when Charles II returned to London after his defeat by
Cromwell. The other naked eye star in the constellation is Chara, from the
Greek word for joy. Halfway between Cor Caroli and Arcturus, the
brightest star in Boötes, you can see a fuzzy patch with binoculars. This is
the globular star cluster M3 from Messier’s catalogue. Galaxy M94 lies just
north of the midpoint between Cor Caroli and Chara; and the much-imaged
Whirlpool Galaxy is within the borders of Canes Venatici, despite being near
the handle of the Big Dipper.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:15 and sunset will occur at 7:36, giving
12 hours, 21 minutes of daylight (7:20 and 7:41 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 7:01 and set at 7:45, giving 12 hours, 44 minutes of
daylight (7:07 and 7:50 in Saint John).
The Moon is full and in penumbral eclipse very early on Monday morning.
Ambitious people might notice a subtle gray shade across the Moon between 3 and
4:30. Mercury will be at its evening best for the year this week, reaching
greatest elongation from the Sun on Sunday and setting 105 minutes after
sunset. By the end of the week Jupiter will be setting at 11 pm, and on
Thursday telescope users might get their last view of its Red Spot for several
months between 9 and 10 pm. Mars rises an hour before the Sun midweek, followed
by Saturn and Venus over the next 40 minutes, but they are difficult binocular
targets in bright morning twilight. Beginning midweek we have a two-week
opportunity to observe the subtle wedge of zodiacal light in the west about 90
minutes after sunset.
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.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
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