Nature Moncton Nature
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**On Friday afternoon,
Brian Stone and Cathy Simon took in the fresh air at the Tankville School trail
in Irishtown. Not many birds showed themselves, but a male hairy woodpecker
and a male downy woodpecker were spotted, along with a red-breasted
nuthatch and a camera-shy brown creeper.
An attempt to view the
grouping of planets visible on the horizon at sunset was foiled by a small but
scenic layer of early-evening clouds.
(Editor's note: Brian also photographed a fungal growth performing its valuable function of recycling a dead tree. The identity of the fungus is difficult to provide due to the structural alterations that winter has created.)
**Anna Tucker has been reporting a group of pine grosbeaks that had been coming regularly for over a
week to landscaped shrubs in the courtyard of the Church Court apartment
complex in Moncton.
Nelson Poirier checked it
out twice in an effort to find out what was attracting the birds. Nelson was
not able to see the birds present, but found evidence in the snow of their
activity. Nelson found that the shrubs there that the birds were attracted to
were Japanese yew, but could find no berries that he would assume were the
attraction. A short chat with one of the tenants passing by said that there
were many berries on the bushes a few weeks ago, which answered the question of
what the pine grosbeaks were attracted to, and they obviously consumed all the fruit.
It was interesting to note
that this non-native shrub produces berries attractive to pine grosbeaks. A
literature search stated that the berries of this plant are very attractive to
birds. The seed of yew berries is toxic to people but obviously not to birds.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
