Nature Moncton Nature News: 2024-07-21

Saturday, 27 July 2024

July 27 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

July 27, 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 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 .

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

Heads-up on the Monarch blitz on today in the Moncton area.

Moncton and Dieppe: Monarchs & Cycles

Date: July 27th 2024 (Rain date: August 3rd)
Locations and times:
– 1 Foundry St. Milkweed Patch, Moncton (10:30)
– Place 1604, Dieppe (12:00)
– Surette St. Milkweed Patch, Dieppe (1:30)
(5 km one-way bicycle trip between stops)

Join us for a fun day of wildlife observation with other cyclers, as we celebrate Monarchs & Cycles during the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz! Nature NB, in collaboration with Mission Monarch, is excited to bring this event to you.

Cycling is optional as you can come to any event with a vehicle or by foot, but if you would like to experience all three stops, La Bikery has a number of rental bikes available at their Assomption St location.

Event Highlights:

1 – 10:30 – Moncton stop : Common Milkweed and Monarch Monitoring at the 1 Foundry St. patch: Help us count milkweed stems and monitor Monarch butterflies at all life stages.

2 – 12:00 – Picnic – Place 1604 stop, Dieppe (Bilingual) : Have a picnic with us, with the market nearby! With Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance and Nature NB, learn about native plant seeds and the ease of growing milkweed and other nectar plants in your garden. Discover the PWA’s rain garden projects.

3 – 1:30 – Final Stop (In French): Come check out with us the new garden near Surette Street installed by Les Ami(e)s de la Nature Sud-Est and monitor Monarch butterflies and milkweed.

We invite everyone to participate, whether you can attend all events or just one. Come be a part of this amazing initiative across our continent and help support Monarch conservation!

See you there!

**Aldo Dorio photographed what would appear to be part of a young-of-the-year family of Red Foxes at Hay Island on Friday.

**John Inman photographed one of his groundhogs looking for a drink but there was not much there as the Raccoons are in it all night. John finds a groundwater dish lets everyone get a drink when it is hot and dry.

John also photographed a different-looking fly standing upright approximating deerfly in size which turned out to be an interesting one. BugGuide has identified it as the Quadrate Snipe fly (Chrysopilus quadratus). It gets the snipe fly name due to its distinct mouth parts, which unfortunately do not show in the photo, that resemble the beak of the avian Snipe. The distinct shadow marks on the wing do show nicely. This fly feeds on plant juices and other small insects but not humans.

**On Friday Brian and Annette Stone visited Louise and Glen Nichols at their Aulac home.

While there, the excellent nature around their home tempted Brian to do a little photography and he shares photos he took of some of the collection of five plus Garter snakes that are renting their garden hoop house, a female Belted Kingfisher surveying the pond area from the roadside power lines, and one of the several Red Crossbills that are frequenting their yard picking grit from their driveway.

On their way to Aulac, Brian and Annette played tag with a huge storm cloud that hung over half the sky and soon after arriving, it dropped heavy rain for half an hour or so.

Earlier, on Brian's mailbox, a member of the Metallic Wood-boring Beetle family posed for a photo.

**It’s that time of year when we start to see seed clusters (samara) on ash and maple trees.

Nelson Poirier shares a photo of Red Ash samara recently noticed. There are several features that identify our three native ashes but a close look at the samara is one. With Red Ash, the wing of the samara goes halfway down the seed case, the wing encloses all the seed case with Black Ash, and the wing encloses only the tip of the seed case in White Ash.

As Red Ash and White Ash are dioecious, the pollen flowers and seed flowers appear on separate trees. Therefore, the seed clusters would appear only on female trees. Black ash will vary, being monoecious or dioecious.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton

RED CROSSBILL. JULY 26, 2024. BRIAN STONE

BELTED KINGFISHER (FEMALE). JULY 26, 2024. BRIAN STONE

GROUNDHOG. JULY 26, 2024. JOHN INMAN

RED FOX. JULY 26, 2024. ALDO DORIO

RED FOXES. JULY 26, 2024. ALDO DORIO

GARTER SNAKE. JULY 26, 2024. BRIAN STONE

QUATRATE SNIPE FLY. JULY 26, 2024. JOHN INMAN

METALLIC WOOD-BORING BEETLE. JULY 26, 2024. BRIAN STONE

RED ASH SAMARA. JULY 18, 2024. NELSON POIRIER

STORM CLOUD. JULY 26, 2024. BRIAN STONE

Friday, 26 July 2024

July 26 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

July 26, 2024

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 .

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**When Brian Stone and Nelson Poirier recently visited the St. George marsh, they encountered a bright orange marble-sized gall on Wild Cucumber they had not seen before. They were surprisingly numerous.

BugGuide has offered a suggestion that fits very well with what they saw.

BugGuide points out that some rusts (a fungus) can cause stem galls on plants. In this case, the cuplike structures on the surface of the gall release fungal spores to give the powder-like effect on the leaves below the galls. I suspect the mystery is now solved!

**The Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews is a very recommended site to visit, and one should allow lots of time to see the variety of exhibits so well displayed with interpreters to answer visitors' queries. The centre is home to two Harp Seals and one Harbour Seal, and 11 o’clock feeding time is not to be missed to have excellent observations of these sea mammals we don’t often get to see at such close range. There are several other live exhibits that allow close-up observations of fish that live in our coastal waters but again, we just don’t get an opportunity to see them close up in extremely well-done man-made habitat.

The visitors' centre is the public area, but the large non-public area houses an area of worldwide recognized research that is so crucial to the welfare of our sea-dwelling wildlife. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is a major research partner.

Brian Stone and Nelson Poirier visited the site recently and share some of the photographs of exhibits that capture some things visually, but so much more is shared by the interpreters.

Seahorses are a fish many of us have probably never seen. They are swimmers spending most of their time using their tail to hang onto algae. They do prefer warm tropical waters but can be found in the Bay of Fundy.

(Editor’s note: the editor was very fortunate some years ago to capture seahorses in a minnow trap at Bras d’Or Lake, Cape Breton, NS, and never saw them again until the Huntsman Marine Centre visit.)

**Friday has arrived already in this fast-moving summer and it's our day to preview 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 July 27 – August 3
After twilight look for orange Antares in the heart of Scorpius. High above the scorpion is a large house-shaped constellation called Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer. If your area isn’t light polluted you can see two lines of stars rising up and outward from the bottom of the house. The line on the right is Serpens Caput and the one on the left is Serpens Cauda. Together they comprise Serpens the Serpent, the only constellation that is in separate parts. Globular clusters contain many tens of thousands of stars and they orbit the centre of our galaxy, which is in the direction just above the spout of the Sagittarius Teapot asterism. Therefore, these clusters abound in the Sagittarius-Scorpius-Ophiuchus region of our sky and many can be seen in binoculars as fat, fuzzy stars.

Ophiuchus represents Asclepius from mythology, who became interested in the healing arts after killing a snake and watching another snake bring it back to life with a leaf. Asclepius brought many people back from the dead, including Orion after he was killed by the scorpion. Hades, god of the Underworld, complained to Zeus about a decrease in business so Zeus sent his pet eagle to kill Asclepius with a thunderbolt. The constellation of Aquila the Eagle is east of Serpens Cauda.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:56 and sunset will occur at 8:54, giving 14 hours, 58 minutes of daylight (6:03 and 8:57 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:04 and set at 8:45, giving 14 hours, 41 minutes of daylight (6:11 and 8:48 in Saint John).

The Moon is at third quarter just before midnight this Saturday. On Tuesday and Wednesday mornings it enhances the already scenic view of Mars and Jupiter among the stars clusters of Taurus. By midweek Venus and Mercury will be at the same altitude low in the west-northwest, setting about 40 minutes after sunset, with Mercury a fist-width left of much brighter Venus and Regulus between them. The South Delta Aquariid meteor shower peaks around midweek, with the radiant rising in late evening to the right of Saturn

On Sunday evening at 8 pm tune in to the final summer edition of the Sunday Night Astronomy Show via the Facebook page or YouTube channel of Astronomy by the Bay. It resumes in mid-September. The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre on August 3 at 7 pm.

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

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton

HARBOUR SEAL. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

HARP SEAL. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. ,BRIAN STONE

ATLANTIC COD. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

ATLANTIC SALMON. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

ATLANTIC STURGEON. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

GASPEREAU. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

MOON JELLY. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

SEAHORSE. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. NELSON POIRIER

STARFISH AKA SEASTAR. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

PLASTIC POLLUTION EXHIBIT. HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. NELSON POIRIER

HUNTSMAN MARINE SCIENCE CENTER. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

PLANT RUST GALL (CROSS SECTION). JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

PLANT RUST GALL. JULY 19, 2024. BRIAN STONE

Serpens 2024

Thursday, 25 July 2024

July 25 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

July 25, 2024

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 .

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Tuesday was another exciting day in New Brunswick when every bird nerd in the province headed at daybreak for a potential audience with a Wilson’s Plover that Denise Maillet had located on Monday at Cormierville marsh. It stayed in the area and I suspect everyone who made the journey was successful in seeing the bird, the first documented record of this species in New Brunswick. It was a scope view and some were able to get good photographs while some of us had to settle for documentary photos.

This was Jim Wilson’s 400^th New Brunswick species!! Congratulations Jim.

**Louise Nichols is noting a lot of butterfly activity in their yard with a good variety of species. She attaches some photos of what she has seen recently which includes a number of Monarch Butterflies (not in photo line-up). It seems like a good year.

On Wednesday afternoon, Louise visited the Chignecto Wildlife Area just over the NS border (the impoundments around the corner from the Amherst Migratory Bird Sanctuary) and she noticed some dragonfly activity near the water that caught her attention as the dragonflies were very colourful and did not seem familiar. Louise got some photos and was able to ID them when she got home as male Blue Dasher dragonflies. Their range is normally south of here, but it would seem that they are being seen more often in Nova Scotia and even New Brunswick, presumably expanding their range northward.

(Editor’s note: Louise’s photos of Blue Dasher dragonflies is a significant find. Gilles Belliveau, with a lot of experience with dragonflies, comments:

“There are not many known sites for them in NB but they have been found in the Fredericton area and at several sites in Charlotte County (including the St George Marsh), a site in the Midland area near Norton and there was one photographed in the Sackville Waterfowl Park last summer.

A few of the sightings date back 15-20+ years but most sightings seem to be within the past 5-7 years so they do seem to be expanding their range more in NB but it’s hard to know how long they’ve been at several of the new sites they’ve been found at in recent years because there are so few people looking for odes and reporting them.”

**Veronica Price is having a good year for Monarch butterflies in her yard. She recently got good photographs of a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar that appears to be in one of its later instars and definitely a potential candidate for its adult form to start the journey to Mexico.

**Brian Stone and Nelson Poirier visited the St. George marsh trail last Friday with a few items that haven’t been shared yet.

The bright red Alder Tongue gall (Taphrina alni) is a fungi that infects the female Alder catkins. They are green at first but in July turn bright red and in later season turn brown and persist on the catkins for much of the year.

White Water-lily was at its prime bloom.

Seabeach Sandwort and Sea Rocket (a delicious raw edible) were abundant at Black Beach.

A bright orange gall was numerous on Wild Cucumber; the identity of the maker continues to be a mystery to be solved!

**On Wednesday morning Brian Stone joined Nelson Poirier on a short trip to Cormierville marsh to view the extra rare Wilson's Plover. Thanks to a group of birders already there, they had their choice of scopes already lined up on the chubby little bird. Brian managed to get some less than satisfactory long-distance documentary photos to record the event but was still very happy just to have seen great views of the plover through the scopes.

On Wednesday evening Brian attended the Nature Moncton Wednesday Night Walk at Highland Park in Salisbury, ably led by David Miller and Lois Budd. Brian sends some photos to document some of the interesting subjects seen. There was a nice appearance of an adult Killdeer that strolled by close to the viewing platform at the same time as the group was viewing a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs that were foraging at the edge of the reeds.

Several duck families were noted and one photo combines an adult female American Wigeon duck with a couple of her ducklings beside a group of Northern Shoveler ducklings resting at the water's edge. Another Northern Shoveler family was out on the water in a relaxed group. At least two Muskrats were seen carrying food plants to their dens as Wood Ducks, Pied-billed Grebes, an American Coot, and other duck species populated the water around them.

Along the trail Eastern Kingbirds perched in trees, Bald Eagles flew by, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds nectared among the Jewelweed plants. Members of the group were excited to catch glimpses of small, fuzzy, black, Virginia Rail chicks scurrying among the reeds and Brian made sure his photos of them were out of focus just to be different.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton