Nature Moncton Nature
News
LEFT-CLICKING ON PHOTOS ENLARGES THEM TO GET MORE DETAIL
October 26, 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 address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com, as well as proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca, if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.
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Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Brian
Coyle shares two trail camera videos. One is of a very dark,
"grizzled" coyote scent-marking on top of a deer scrape, before it
notices the camera and bolts.
The second
one is of a young white-tailed deer buck making a scrape. When the buck's head
is up in the branches, he is scent-marking with glands at the forehead before
he makes the scrape, then urinates on it.
Brian Coyle noticed
about one hundred horse mushrooms erupting from the soil of the sod farm
across his home. With all of the chemicals they use, he wouldn't eat them. But
on his own lawn, there were a few more. The gill colours range from pink to very
dark brown as they mature.
The spore
print was black.
Another
mushroom group he observed was the shaggy parasol in different stages of
development. If the spore print had been taken, it would have been white.
Both of the
mushroom species Brian has mentioned are excellent edibles, provided you are
certain of your identification.
**Lisa
Morris sends photographs of the work of a pileated woodpecker that is
demolishing a dead snag tree in search of delicious insects. In the
process, both insects and the woodpecker are recycling the tree.
**Susan
Richards reports Nature Moncton had an enjoyable walk under a mostly cloudy sky
to the Wrights' property, with trails offering views of bogs, woodland, and a
large blueberry field. Peter Wright explained that he is trying to
reintroduce the Acadian tree species.
Brian Stone
reports that on Sunday morning, 22 participants joined the Nature Moncton
outing at Peter and Janet Wright's property in Lower Coverdale. The Wrights
have a large woodlot, which they are managing to restore to a more natural
Acadian Forest —a considerable amount of effort, as you can imagine. The
weather was cloudy and cool, and the recently made trails were pleasant to walk
on, with beautiful scenery along the way. A female hairy woodpecker
was the star bird of the day as it went about its woodpecker business right
beside one trail at ground level in front of the group and then flew along with
the walkers for a bit. Some mushrooms were out, at last, and false
chanterelles, boletes, and other unknown varieties were observed. An
interesting couple of specimens seen were some orange peel fungus and
one small blob of tapioca slime mold (both identified by Brian's
phone, so it has to be correct ... ?). Brian Coyle identified some coyote
tracks for the group and gave some good information on how they were made
and how to identify features.
**Cathy
Simon is happy to share that a keen and enthusiastic group of birders enjoyed a
morning of sharing and learning at the bird feeder workshop. Topics
ranged from favourite feeder birds (and least favourite!), how
to manage gray squirrels and raccoons, the best feed to offer, whether squirrel buster
feeders actually work, and more. Participants were encouraged to contribute
their feeder observations to 2 citizen science projects: the Christmas Bird
Count and Project FeederWatch. The conversation and snacks were so good
that we forgot to take pictures of our time together!
**The
presentation on bats presented on Tuesday at the Nature Moncton meeting is now
available at the link below:
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
