NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
August 22, 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
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Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.
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Proofreading
courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Maureen
Girvan visited the Dieppe marsh trail on Thursday to find there was no water at
all. She could walk on the dry mud all the way across. There was only a small
amount of water where the Virginia rails were enjoyed by the Wednesday Nature
Moncton walkers a few weeks ago. There were three green-winged teal too far for a
photo. Two juvenile least sandpipers
were quite close. A viceroy butterfly did a fly pass.
(Editor’s
note: Maureen’s photos show the dramatic effect of the recent drought conditions
on the mud flats normally so popular for shorebirds to forage.)
(Editor’s
note: This large moth is now on its mating mission, and we will potentially see
its large, beautiful caterpillar over the next few months.)
**Shannon
Inman photographed an osprey surveying its surroundings, as well as a monarch
butterfly caterpillar, which happens to be one of the six monarch
caterpillars she observed on one milkweed plant.
Shannon
also photographed an adult chocolate prominent moth day resting on
the building at her workplace.
**Katie
Girvan photographed a white-marked tussock moth caterpillar recently.
The tussock moth caterpillars seem to be very much in evidence at the moment.
The
white-marked tussock moth typically forages on broad-leaved trees and shrubs, with
a relatively broad menu choice.
**A striped
skunk was seen searching for insects in Cathy Simon's backyard in Lutes
Mountain.
From now
on and into the fall is a great time for some wildlife species to be seeking
out those fattening grubs in the soil.
**This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2025 August 23 – August 30
From late summer into autumn, the Greek tale of Perseus and Andromeda plays out
on the eastern stage of the night sky each evening. Princess Andromeda, the
daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, is chained to the rocky coast of Ethiopia
as a sacrifice to a vicious sea monster, portrayed by the constellation Cetus
the Whale. Our hero Perseus, on his way home aboard Pegasus after beheading
Medusa, rescues the princess and wins her unchained hand in matrimony.
The constellation Andromeda consists of two lines of stars stretching toward
Perseus from a common point. That point is the bright star Alpheratz, which is
officially Andromeda’s head but it also forms one corner of the Great Square of
Pegasus. The bottom line of stars is more prominent, containing the orange star
Mirach and ending with Almach, which resolves as a pretty double star in a
small scope.
The highlight of the constellation is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest
spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. A telescope is not required to see this. It
looks great in binoculars, and in a rural area on a cloudless night you can see
it with the naked eye as a smudge of light. Place Mirach at the bottom of your
binocular view and perhaps raise it a bit to see a slightly dimmer star in the
upper line of Andromeda. Continue up about the same distance to another star
and find the fuzzy expanse of the Andromeda Galaxy nearby. A small telescope
will show two other galaxies, M32 and M110, in the same field of view. M31 is
2.5 million light years distant and heading our way. We will have a spectacular
starry sky in four billion years, so keep breathing.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:28 and sunset will occur at 8:13, giving
13 hours, 45 minutes of daylight (6:35 and 8:17 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:37 and set at 8:00, giving 13 hours, 23 minutes of
daylight (6:43 and 8:04 in Saint John).
The new
Moon occurs this Saturday,
providing dark skies for the Fundy Star Party. Its crescent is between Mars and
Spica in Tuesday evening twilight and below Spica the following evening. Around
5:30 am this weekend Jupiter and Mercury stretch across 25 degrees of the
eastern sky with Venus between them, and by next weekend that stretches to over
30 degrees with Venus midway. Although Mercury is moving sunward it is also
getting brighter. Uranus will be a binocular field below the Pleiades high in
the southeast at that time. Saturn rises by 9 pm next weekend with Neptune less
than half a binocular field above it. Orange Mars can be seen low in the west
with binoculars around 9 pm, and if you can pick it out you have a good start
toward completing an all-planet night.
The RASC
NB star party at Fundy National Park takes place this Friday and Saturday,
August 22-23. See the rascnb website for details. There will be public
observing at Dutch Point Park in Hampton on the evening of August 29.
Questions?
Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
