NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
August 14, 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
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
**Jane
LeBlanc has had 'donations' of monarch butterfly caterpillars by people
in St. Martins who know she is raising them. She now has four new caterpillars,
from almost ready to form a chrysalis to one much smaller than her baby
finger, almost not visible to the eye.
**Anita
and David Cannon have a very colourful American toad they have admired
over the past three weeks. Anita took another photo of him on Wednesday, and one can
see why they admire its colours.
They
also have both paper wasp nests and a mud wasp in their poolside
cabana. There may be a dozen different paper wasp nest sites, but just the one mud
wasp site- at least that they have found.
(Editor’s
note: the paper wasp is a nonaggressive wasp that often builds their
umbrella-shaped nests on human structures. Their housekeeping mission is
pleasant to watch and harmless to humans unless nest removal is attempted.
The
mud nest is suspected to be that of one of our mud dauber wasp species. They
are a solitary nonaggressive wasp that builds a mud cell nest, deposits an egg
with a cache of paralyzed spiders, then seals the nest to head off on other
ventures.)
**Three
Nature Moncton members attended a guided field trip given by CPAWS
(Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) and the Nature Conservancy of Canada at
the Johnson’s Mills Interpretation Centre and beach area on Tuesday. The guides
were excellent ambassadors for CPAWS and NCC and provided interesting insights
about these organizations, including information about the sandpipers and their protection that we
don’t often hear. They pointed out that the comparatively few semipalmated
plovers were often the first to edge to the shoreline as the tide moved in. One
photo showing them is shared.
**The male spongy moth (gypsy moth) is at the
moment very commonly seen during the day on its mating mission, which will last
a few weeks. It is easy to mistake it for a butterfly at first glance. It is small
to medium in size, and if it stays still long enough for close viewing, the bipectinate antennae
(a comb-like structure on both sides of each segment resembling a double-sided
comb) are a signature feature. The females are flightless.
The showy caterpillar, which we will soon see, has a
voracious appetite and, in numbers, can be damaging to the foliage of many tree
species.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
