NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
March
28, 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
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**Brian Stone shares an excellent screenshot of exactly what times to look for the partial solar eclipse tomorrow morning (Saturday) starting at the convenient time 7:04 AM. The photo of the screenshot is small but click on the link below the photo and it will appear full-screen. This illustration will augment Curt Nason’s sky at a glance comments. Remember as Curt mentioned, eclipse glasses are necessary to view the eclipse tomorrow.
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/canada/moncton?iso=20250329
** Brian Coyle was
able to make it out to a trail camera recently, which is pointing at a river
otter latrine. Brian has had this location for nearly two years now and has
discovered that it is also a magnet for a wide range of other animals. In the video
link below, the otter is scent marking and then does the otter ‘dance’ aka
‘poop dance’! An interesting capture.
**Richard Blacquiere
observed the turkey vultures were slow leaving for work on the cool, damp Thursday morning at the Hampton lagoon.
In the 9:30 AM photo,
about 20 are still lined up on or in front of the sewage lagoon fence. There
were probably another 15 still perched in the nearby big spruce trees where
they roost at night. The vultures in
Hampton are nearly back to their summer population.
**Jane LeBlanc was
surprised to see a ruffed grouse wandering around on the ground in her
yard. They are normally up in the birch tree. She had to take her dog out (an
Irish Setter), so she made sure it was on a leash. However, the dog was so
intent on chasing red squirrels that it missed the grouse in the corner of the
yard.
**Lynn and Fred Dube
had a visit at midday Thursday from a white-tailed deer that enjoyed some
of their garden shrubs. No need for pruning this year. It was a young animal
and seemed to favour yew and euonymous bushes.
**Norbert Dupuis photographed the interaction between some of his Memramcook yard patrons during the recent snowfall, including evening grosbeaks, a song sparrow, and a male northern cardinal.
**David Lilly shares
a few photos of his recent snowstorm visitors, including dark-eyed juncos, a male purple finch, and a black-capped chickadee.
(Editor’s note: note
the white tail underside of the dark-eyed junco that we don’t often get to
see.)
**Brian Stone sends
some photos he took over the last several days at a couple of different
locations. At
Highland Park in Salisbury, Brian photographed cedar waxwings from a
group of about eight birds, and a pair of hooded mergansers that were having
good success catching brown bullhead fish prey; Brian noted one of three male northern cardinals that were
calling and answering to each other, and one of the newly arrived male red-winged
blackbirds.
At Mapleton Park
Brian photographed a small group of Canada geese, a hybrid mallard
duck, a tiny winter stonefly walking across the snow, a basketball
sized stick nest, and a red squirrel that was collecting nest
material from one nest and carrying it up to a different, larger nest high in a
nearby tree. Back at home, Brian photographed a mourning dove and an American
robin in his backyard through his foggy kitchen window.
(Editor's note: one of Brian's photos of the red squirrel shows attached ticks. Squirrel ticks are a one-host tick that do not attach to any other species.)
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**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2025 March 29 –
April 5
The constellation Coma Berenices, or Berenice’s Hair, is midway up in the
eastern sky at 10 pm this week, between the tail of Leo the Lion and
kite-shaped Boötes. It is the only constellation with a mythological tale based
on a real person. In the fourth century BCE, King Ptolemy Soter of Egypt went
to war against Assyria. His worried wife Berenice made a vow to the goddess
Aphrodite that she would sacrifice her beautiful locks if he returned safely.
He did return and she kept her vow against his wishes. When he visited the
temple the next day he discovered the hair had been stolen, and he threatened
to kill the temple priests. The court astronomer claimed that Zeus had taken
the hair and placed it in the sky for all to admire, and that night he showed
Ptolemy a cluster of stars.
That was the Coma Star Cluster, also called Melotte 111, which can be seen with
the naked eye in rural areas and it fills the field of view in binoculars. At
one time it was considered to be the tuft of Leo’s tail. The area of sky
encompassed by Coma Berenices and its surrounding constellations is called the
Realm of the Galaxies. The galactic North Pole lies within this constellation,
perpendicular to the dusty disc of our Milky Way Galaxy. When we look in this
direction the paucity of interstellar dust allows us to see deeper into space
and observe other galaxies tens of millions of light years away.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:04 and sunset will occur at 7:44, giving
12 hours, 40 minutes of daylight (7:09 and 7:48 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:50 and set at 7:53, giving 13 hours, 3 minutes of
daylight (6:56 and 7:57 in Saint John). When the Sun rises this Saturday it will be smiling at us
in a deep eclipse that lasts for another hour. Dig out the eclipse glasses that
you saved last year and make sure they are not punctured or deeply scratched
before using them.
The Moon is new in
this Saturday and it is at first quarter next Friday. Along the way it is near the Pleiades on Tuesday,
Jupiter on Wednesday and Mars next Saturday, and with it being in perigee this
weekend we can expect extreme tides for a few days. Jupiter is high in the west at 9 pm, hanging above the V-shaped Hyades cluster. By the
end of the week Mars will almost make a straight line with the Gemini Twins,
Pollux and Castor. Venus rises an hour before sunrise this weekend, and by next
weekend Mercury will precede the Sun by 40 minutes. We will have to wait
another week or so for dimmer Saturn
The Saint John
Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre at 7 pm on
April 5. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube
channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
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