Nature Moncton Nature News: March 8 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

March 8, 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

To respond by e-mail, please address your 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 .

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Doreen Rossiter reported noticing two Bald Eagles flying around on Wednesday and watched them nestle into the top of a spruce tree with two tops, located between her place and the bay.

On Thursday crows were making a ruckus outside. When she looked, the crows were harassing two eagles in the same place as they were the day before. The eagles were still there two hours later. She didn't see them arrive or leave.

On Thursday afternoon about 1:00 pm, Doreen had a visit from a Field Sparrow at her feeders.

**Nature NB will be sponsoring a webinar that folks may want to put on their calendar. Details are below with Zoom connection:

"Decoding the 'Wall of Green': Become Plant-Aware with Simple Clues from Nature"

Monday, March 11 at 7pm

Via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85013655453

**After noting the photograph in yesterday’s edition of the goose showing a knob structure on the head, Frank Branch shares photos he took on October 21, 2014, at Wishart Point near Neguac of a Canada Goose with a similar structure.

Any comments on this would be appreciated.

**The Common Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) was introduced to North America many years ago but turned out to be an invasive plant that carried the fungus Black Stem Rust which severely affected wheat. Unsuccessful attempts were made to completely remove it and replace it with Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) that was not a host of Black Stem Rust but turned out to be very invasive as well.

Nelson Poirier submits photos of Japanese Barberry that is quite commonly found in the Riverside-Albert area. Its red berries tend to cling during the winter. One can distinguish it from Common Barberry by the presence of a single brutal thorn whereas the Common Barberry has three thorns in a group.

**Join the Canadian Parks and Wildness Society – New Brunswick Chapter, and the New Brunswick Environmental Network for ‘Protect the Bay of Fundy’, the final event in our Marine Conservation Learning Session series.

This webinar is for anyone who loves the Bay of Fundy and wants to learn more about:

The plants and animals that call the Bay home,
The benefits of and need for more protection in the ocean,
Marine conservation opportunities in the Bay,
And how YOU can help the important coastal and ocean habitats you care about.

French interpretation will be available!

All are welcome to this FREE event!

Everyone is invited to join in the conversation – whether you work in the environment sector or have no previous knowledge about ocean protection, this webinar is for anyone who wants to learn more about helping the ocean.

Wednesday, March 20^th from 2:00 - 3:30 pm

2:00-2:45 – Presentation by CPAWS NB about the current state of marine conservation in the Bay of Fundy
2:45-3:30 – Q&A

For more information and registration see:

https://nben.ca/en/get-involved/events/all-events/870-cpaws-webinar.html

**It’s Friday and a day to check out what next week’s night sky may have in store for us courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason:

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024 March 9 – March 16
I regard Leo the Lion as the signature constellation of spring, and it is not difficult to picture a lion in its distinctive pair of asterisms. A backwards question mark or a sickle represents its chest and mane, anchored by the bright star Regulus at its heart or front leg. To the east a triangle of stars forms the back leg and tail. Originally, a faint naked-eye cluster of stars represented a tuft at the end of the tail, but that now makes the tresses of the constellation Coma Berenices.

In mythology the lion was a vicious creature that resided in the mountains of Nemea. Its hide was impenetrable to spears or arrows; the only thing sharp enough to penetrate the lion’s hide was its claws. The first of Hercules’s twelve labours was to kill this creature, which the legendary strongman did by strangulation. He then used the claws to cut off the lion’s hide for use as a shield. A friend of mine sees this constellation as a mouse, with the triangle as its head and the sickle as its tail. However, legends are not made by having a muscular demigod battle a mouse.

Amateur astronomers often point their telescopes at Leo for two trios of galaxies; one under the belly and the other by the back leg. Each trio can fit within the view through a wide-field telescope eyepiece. Five of the six galaxies are listed in the Messier catalogue of fuzzy objects that could be mistaken for comets.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:42 and sunset will occur at 6:17, giving 11 hours, 35 minutes of daylight (6:46 and 6:22 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:28 and set at 7:27, giving 11 hours, 59 minutes of daylight (7:33 and 7:32 in Saint John). Daylight Time begins at 2:00 am this Sunday, moving timepieces ahead one hour and causing grumpiness in the morning for a few days.

The Moon is new and at perigee this Sunday morning, resulting in extreme tides early in the week. On Monday the slim crescent appears a fist-width above and slightly left of Mercury. It passes Jupiter Wednesday and sits below the Pleiades star cluster on Thursday. The steep angle of the ecliptic places Mercury higher in the sky for better viewing over the month. On Thursday a telescope might reveal Jupiter’s moon Ganymede passing behind the planet at 9:04. The shallow angle of the ecliptic in the morning sky makes it very difficult to see Mars, Venus and Saturn in bright twilight.

The Fredericton Astronomy Club meets in the UNB Forestry-Earth Sciences building at 7 pm on Tuesday. 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.