Nature Moncton Nature
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**Judy Cairns captured excellent photos of the male painted bunting that is very contentedly
visiting a feeder in the Tormentine area
at the moment.
The painted bunting breeding
range is far to the south of us in the mid-southern US, with a southeast US
coastal population. It is a rare visitor to New Brunswick in the fall, winter, and spring. The female dresses more conservatively than her gaudy mate, being
bright green above with paler yellow-green below and is beautiful in her own right.
**The Moncton Christmas
Bird Count took place on Saturday.
Extreme wind conditions were present,
which seasoned participants commented made it the most challenging of any
Christmas Bird Count they could recall. Walking on marshes and open areas was
particularly challenging, yet watching bald eagles effortlessly floating above made some of us wonder if it was as windy at their level, which I'm sure it
was. These conditions obviously had a lot of birds taking shelter, which means the low numbers counted were not reflective of what was actually there.
That being said, some
rewarding observations were made.
Iceland gull numbers
reached 500+, Bohemian waxwings reached 278, and pine grosbeaks reached
25. It was interesting to note that white-breasted nuthatch tallied 24, with
more to come from the feeder counts, which suggests a population of this
species may be becoming more urban. The bald eagle numbers were the lowest in
recent years, tallying 40; however, it was rewarding to have Moncton’s peregrine
falcon pair spotted on the big A logo of Assumption Place. The spotting of a
ruby-crowned kinglet was a specialty of the day.
The numbers of some
species will definitely increase when Susan Atkinson’s birdfeeder reports are
tallied.
The tally up at the
Tankville School was a very pleasant session of comradeship with delicious
homemade chicken fricot and chili.
A big thank you to Susan
Atkinson, Irene and Mitch Doucet for their culinary contributions, and
especially to Mitch Doucet for organizing the whole count effort as well as a
very organized tally up.
**Georges Brun was able to
photograph the peregrine falcon pair at the location just mentioned.
Georges was not able to
spot a short-eared owl on count day, but had seen two and possibly a third
individual three or four days prior.
**Brian Stone shares some
photos from the Moncton Christmas Bird Count on Saturday. Several groups
covered 10 zones covering a circle around Moncton and counted birds seen for
the record. In his zone, Brian Stone photographed bohemian waxwings, pine
grosbeaks, a single common redpoll, hairy woodpeckers, a
white-breasted nuthatch, black-capped chickadees, bald eagles,
a house finch, and a female pileated woodpecker doing her best to
take down a power pole. A non-bird photo of oyster mushrooms was also
created.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
