Nature Moncton Nature News: November 22 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

November 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

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 and proofreader Louise Nichols at 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 .

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Yolande LeBlanc in Memramcook did her first session of "Project Feeder Watch" this week.

Yolande had Ring-necked Pheasants, Mourning Doves, Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, American Crows, Black-capped Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, European Starling, a female Northern Cardinal, and one very drab Pine Warbler seemingly cleaning up bits of peanut butter.

On Thursday, there was a Bald Eagle cleaning up the remains of a road-killed raccoon. The crows were waiting for the leftovers after the eagle had done its recycling effort.

(Editor’s note: many may already participate in Project Feeder Watch but if not and if you would like to check out the citizen science project, click the link below:

https://feederwatch.org/

**Deana and Peter Gadd were checking out bird feeders at homes in Sunny Corner (near Miramichi)Thursday in preparation for the Sunny Corner Christmas Bird Count on December 14^th.

One home had several feeders with water bottles attached underneath. The homeowner said this innovation really helped to discourage the ‘greedy’ Blue Jays from monopolizing the feeder. The Blue Jays like to brace their tail against a solid surface when they feed. The empty water bottles make this very difficult and are an effective deterrent!

**Gart Bishop has been noting the squirrels have been busy in his little Apohauqui wood lot, collecting the Norway Spruce cones and placing them on top of a small brush pile.

(Editor’s note: note the very long slender cones of Norway Spruce in Gart’s photo to easily differentiate them from the female seed cones of our other native conifer trees.)

**Shannon Inman sends photographs of a mushroom she found growing on a maple branch, showing both top and bottom views. The underside shows the pore structure to make it a polypore species; however, deterioration seems to have set in. What we can see is suggestive of the Violet-toothed polypore or the Turkey Tail polypore.

**To hopefully start some exchange of ideas on birdfeeders folks find attractive to their patrons, Nelson Poirier shares a photo of a feeder made from a 2-foot section of a severely cankered Beech log. One-and-three-quarter-inch holes were drilled into the log which was hung with an eye bolt attached to a hanger and filled with homemade suet. The rough surface and suet are turning out to be very popular with woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches.

**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024 November 23 – November 30
The constellation of Taurus the Bull has completely cleared the eastern horizon by 6:30 pm this week. It is distinguished by two relatively close star clusters: the compact dipper-shaped Pleiades (M45) in the bull’s shoulder and the V-shaped Hyades that forms the bull’s face. The bright orange star Aldebaran anchors one side of the V, representing the bull’s fiery eye, but it is not actually part of the cluster as it is much closer. In mythology the Pleiades (aka the Seven Sisters) and the Hyades were half-sisters; daughters of Atlas, who obviously didn’t spend all his time holding up the sky.

Starting from the apex of the Hyades, extend each side of the V outward to a star. These stars are the tips of the bull’s horns. The upper star is Elnath, which forms one of the corners of Auriga the Charioteer although it is officially part of Taurus. The other horn star has a famous dim neighbour, which is about one degree away and slightly to the right of a line joining the horns. Called the Crab Nebula or M1 for being the first entry in Charles Messier’s 18th century catalogue, this little fuzzy patch is a gaseous supernova remnant. The supernova, a death-explosion of a giant star, was seen in daylight for three weeks in 1054. I have seen M1 in a transparent sky with binoculars but a telescope gives a better view. Jupiter will spend the winter between the long horns of Taurus, which is near the highest point of the ecliptic.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:31 and sunset will occur at 4:39, giving 9 hours, 8 minutes of daylight (7:33 and 4:47 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:40 and set at 4:35, giving 8 hours, 55 minutes of daylight (7:42 and 4:43 in Saint John). The Moon is at third quarter on the evening of November 22 and it doesn’t reach the new phase until the morning of December 1. This indicates that it spends the week near its farthest distance from Earth (apogee on Tuesday), during which its orbital speed is slowest. Around 6:30 Wednesday morning you might notice the bright star Spica very near the Moon, binoculars will help. Within a half hour the Moon will pass in front of it.

Mercury begins moving sunward, setting an hour after sunset this weekend and 40 minutes after sunset next Saturday. Brilliant Venus can be seen in the southwest soon after sunset, slowly gaining altitude nightly. Saturn is at its highest and best for observing by 7 pm, showing its rings nearly edge on. Jupiter rises half an hour after sunset, and telescope users might observe its Red Spot around 10 pm Monday and 7:40 pm Thursday. Now brighter than any star except Sirius, Mars is within a binocular view above the Beehive star cluster all week, and it is close enough to Earth to reveal features through a telescope.

Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.