Nature Moncton Nature
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The camera on the peregrine
falcon nest box on the summit of Assumption Place is now live. When
checking the link to watch the activity, scroll down to the first large image,
which shows what is happening in real time.
All is outwardly quiet in
the nest box this morning, but that could be a very different scenario in a few
days!
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Nature Moncton Warbler
day is on for tomorrow, Saturday. Details below:
**Nature
Moncton Warbler Hike
Hillsborough, NB
May 16, 9:00 AM. Gather in
Kiwanis parking lot on Mill Street.
Leader for the walk will be Gordon Rattray of Nature
Moncton.
**On Tuesday and Wednesday this
week, Gordon Rattray surveyed the areas that the warbler event will use on
Saturday, and he reports that there are birds in the region. Overnight on
Tuesday, there was an influx of yellow-rumped warblers. The birds that Gordon was able to photograph included, black
and white warbler, yellow warbler, northern parula, ovenbird, palm
warbler, yellow-rumped warbler. Gordon also saw savannah sparrow, gray
catbird, tree swallow and bobolink.
At home, Gordon was visited by a female Baltimore oriole and a
white-crowned sparrow. Gordon is very hopeful of a good number of birds
for Saturday, especially with the great forecast.
**Ted Sears shares his
photos of the two great birds coming to the same yard in St. Martins: a male
summer tanager and a male indigo bunting. It is not very often that
we have two such special visitors coming to the same yard!
**Jane LeBlanc in St.
Martins hears ovenbirds all the time, but rarely sees them. Thursday
morning, an ovenbird sounded very close to the yard, so Jane pished and out it came!!
Later, back at her
neighbour's, the summer tanager was still there, along with several
birders from all over. While they were there, they saw their first American
redstart of the year.
**Aldo Dorio photographed
a lesser yellowlegs and a least sandpiper at Hay Island on
Thursday. Assumedly, they are part of the advanced guard migrating north.
**Between Harvey and around the corner at Lars Larsen marsh Shannon Inman estimated over 500 blue jays! She took a partial photo of one flock.
Shannon also spotted whirligig beetles and a gray comma butterfly.
**David Lilly visited the Gateway
Wetland Trail in Oromocto, which is a short loop that circles a wetland (photographing several bird species.) The
trail is never far away from a road. A covered bridge crosses some open water
near a beaver hut. Another long bridge crosses the wet ground along one side of
the wetland. There are many wetland plant species and animals that call the park
their home, making it an interesting place to explore.
David comments that on his
walks there, he is never disappointed. On Thursday, there were soras calling,
but he never saw them.
**Gordon Rattray was able to get
a distant shot of his resident eastern phoebe family. They are on the
nest. This is the 5th year for a nest in the eave of a gazebo.
**On Thursday, Brian Stone drove
out to Cormierville to view the two snowy owls that have been seen there
for the last three or four days. One was resting on top of a tall pole in a
field, but the other was perched on a swallow nest box beside the main road and
seemed to pay no attention to the passing traffic and occasional birder.
**This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 May 16 – May 23
By 10 pm the zigzag constellation of Draco the Dragon is halfway up the
northeastern sky to the right of the Little Dipper. Draco’s tail is a line of
stars between the Big and Little Dippers. One of those stars is Thuban, which
lies between the bowl of the Little Dipper and the middle of the Big Dipper’s
handle. About 5000 years ago, when the Egyptian pyramids were built, Thuban was
the North Star and entrances to the pyramids were designed with a descending
passageway aligned to this star. Coincidentally, the inner two stars of
the Big Dipper’s bowl point to Thuban, just as the outer pair points toward
Polaris, the current North Star.
From the tail, Draco arcs around the bowl of the Little Dipper and then curves
back toward Hercules, with its head being a quadrilateral of stars by the
strongman’s foot. The two brightest stars in Draco’s head, Eltanin and
Rastaban, are its eyes. They are the brightest and third brightest of the
constellation. The faintest of the four is a treat in binoculars, showing
matching white stars that resemble headlights or cat eyes. In mythology, the
dragon was one of the Titans, rivals of the Olympians. In one of their battles,
Athena slung the dragon high into the northern sky. Writhing to right itself,
it struck against the northern sky and froze in that position.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:45 and sunset will occur at 8:46, giving
15 hours, 1 minute of daylight (5:53 and 8:48 in Saint John). Next Saturday the
Sun will rise at 5:38 and set at 8:54, giving 15 hours, 16 minutes of daylight
(5:46 and 8:56 in Saint John).
The Moon is new and near perigee on Saturday so expect extreme tides early
in the week. On its way to first quarter next Saturday the waxing crescent is
very close to Venus on Monday evening, nearing Jupiter on Tuesday, lining up
with the Gemini stars Pollux and Castor on Wednesday, and by Friday it leads
Regulus toward the western horizon. On Sunday telescope and maybe binocular
users might see Jupiter’s moon Europa emerge from the planet’s shadow at 9:50
pm followed by Io three minutes later. This weekend Saturn is rising 95 minutes
before sunrise, followed by Mars half an hour later. If you need an excuse for
a party, Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun next Friday.
The Kouchibouguac Star Party is this weekend, May 15-16. See the RASC NB
website for details. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the
YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
