Nature Moncton Nature News: March 16 2025

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

March 16, 2025

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

nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**As a heads up to mark off the date, the write-up for a Nature Moncton visit to a sugar camp operation to be followed up by a visit to the Mill Creek Nature Park in Riverview scheduled for next Saturday, March 22, is at the end of this message.

**The March Nature Moncton meeting will take place this coming Tuesday night with a presentation on Ticks in New Brunswick. The write-up for that is also at the end of this message and will be upfront on Tuesday.

**Deana and Peter Gadd’s special guest for this past winter has until recently been keeping a quiet, low-key existence for the three months of its stay. A half-decent photograph was difficult to take as it rarely came out of the shadows, and feeding episodes were very brief. Now that spring is in the air, the rusty blackbird is out and about a good deal more, often in nearby tree tops or on the ground out in the open, no doubt anxious to re-unite with its fellows. There have been a couple of opportunities with better light to photograph the female, which should be now, according to David Sibley's field guide, making some subtle changes into her breeding plumage.

(Editor’s note: many of us feel the plumage of the rusty blackbird is more striking in their winter non-breeding plumage with genders usually easily identified. Peter’s photos clearly show that the head pattern is quite distinctive in the female with the rusty crown and prominent pale supercillium, with the supercillium less prominent and darker in the male. The tertial feathers and wing coverts are attractively edged with rust tones in the nonbreeding plumage of both genders; these rust tones wear off by spring, producing the darker breeding plumage.

The population of the rusty blackbird has declined very significantly.)

**John Inman notes it did not take long after the red-winged blackbirds' arrival for them to start vocalizing and showing their brilliant epaulettes, no doubt to impress females when they arrive.

**On Friday, Brian Stone visited the trails off the Walker Rd. near Sackville with hopes of relocating Louise Nichols' boreal chickadee that she found there the day before. He joined three other birders there (Judy Cairns, Dale Pugh, and Marbeth Wilson) and searched for a couple hours but had no luck finding it. The group did have luck finding both red crossbills and white-winged crossbills, as well as red-breasted nuthatches and the plentiful black-capped chickadees.

On Saturday, Brian drove to the Haute-du-Ruisseau park in Memramcook to check the trails but found them still too icy to walk. He did find the open field with picnic tables near the park entrance to be clear enough to stroll through and was surprised to see that the nice apple trees in the center of the field had been chewed down by beavers. He followed the short trail down to Breau Creek, where there is a very nice viewing platform, and was lucky enough to catch sight of a mink bounding along the frozen creek. The mink ran around a bend in the creek and vanished but soon reappeared and walked to the middle of the creek and sat down to begin a staring contest with Brian. After about three minutes, the mink gave up and headed over to the creek bank and then moved out of sight for good.

Also seen were a pair of evening grosbeaks, a couple dark-eyed juncos, and some interesting cloud formations. A four-image panorama of the Breau Creek viewing platform turned out a bit wonky but shows the area that the mink was patrolling when it was spotted.

**Nature Moncton Maple Sugar Camp Outing

Saturday March 22, at 11:00 AM

Meeting Place: 6 Dewey Rd., Turtle Creek

When the sap starts flowing in the maple sugar bush, spring is on its way! To celebrate, Nature Moncton has arranged a guided tour of the Moncton Maple Sugar Camp. This site belongs to the City of Moncton but is currently being run by the Fundy Biosphere. The tour covers how maple products are made, and participants will be able to get maple candy poured on the snow ($2.00 each) and maple products will be available for purchase. Please note the price list that is included below.

The Moncton Maple Sugar Camp has a small demonstration tapping site, but we will not be allowed to walk in the actual sugar bush as it is a restricted site. They would like to know how many are coming, so if you plan to join, please email Fred Richards at fred.j.richards@gmail.com or text him at 506-334-0100. Please indicate if you would like Maple Candy on the snow at $2.00 each. The visit at the sugar camp will take a little more than an hour. Afterward, participants can participate in a walk on Mill Creek Nature Park trail in Riverview. We will meet at the Mill Creek Nature Park (Runneymeade parking lot) after the Maple Sugar Camp tour. All are welcome, Nature Moncton Member or not.

Below are the recommendations sent to us by the sugar camp:

This is an outdoor event, so visitors need to dress accordingly (a portion of the time will be spent in the building, but it is small and unheated).
For washrooms, we have one porta potty.
Any group over about 20-25 will be split into two groups to rotate due to space in the building (group total maximum is about 60)
Each tour takes 20-30 minutes (if groups need to split, the other group can have maple taffy while waiting)
Whether we have our evaporator running is dependent on the weather.
The sugar woods where we collect sap are not on the same site as the sugar camp building; the woods are on a property that feeds the Moncton water supply. So, with the limitations to keep the supply safe, we transport the sap off-site to make the sugar camp accessible to the public. We will have some trees tapped right by the building for demo purposes, but the tour does not involve walking through the sugar woods.
We have Wi-Fi, but cell service is limited.
We do have the ability to take cash, e-transfers, and card transactions.

**NATURE MONCTON MARCH MEETING

TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2025, 7:00 PM MAPLETON LODGE

TICKS IN NB AND HOW TO LIVE WITH THEM

PRESENTER: NELSON POIRIER

Ticks have been with us for a very long time in New Brunswick but have not a human problem. That has changed dramatically in recent years having one species being the number one vector of arthropod-carrying disease organisms in the US and very rapidly moving into Canada. The Black-legged Tick has become a major health concern in NS and is moving rapidly into NB.

There is only one species of tick, the Black-legged tick, that is a significant vector of several organisms capable of producing very serious disease in humans when they choose humans for their blood meal.

The Black-legged tick is not about to leave us, instead becoming very much more abundant. It is very important to learn how to live with this tick and that means learning how to distinguish it from other nonproblem ticks, what to do if we experience a tick bite, and how to prevent that from happening in the first place.

With this increased presence of the Black-legged Tick, some very useful techniques have been developed to identify this tick, reliable tests to know if a tick is carrying a disease organism, how to treat it if it does, and the best preventative measures to prevent us from being a tick meal.

Nelson Poirier will give a presentation to bring naturalists up to speed on this subject and will have preserved specimens and removal instruments to demonstrate.

This presentation will be given live at the Mapleton Lodge, and folks can join virtually at the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82387173384?pwd=4hJFOVwBy9ZL8AoueFmud7oevgXBe6.1

As always, anyone is welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.AA

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton