Nature Moncton Nature
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**It’s that
time of year when the heat arrives that we hear the large fly-like cicadas emitting their buzz-saw vocalizations from high in the trees, often pine trees.
Anne Richard
got a close-up photo of what appears to be the dog-day cicada in Onslow
Mountain, NS. Anne was lucky to get a close-up photo as the cicadas emerge from
grubs in the ground and very promptly head for high in the trees to sound off
their mating audio. Our most common cicadas are the dog-day cicada and Say’s
cicada and they can be differentiated by their vocalization as well as their body markings.
**Peter and
Deana Gadd visited Pokeshaw Rock and Grand Anse on Friday (in northern NB). The Rock is a well-known
spot for a handful of razorbills and black guillemots, not to
mention many hundreds of double-crested cormorants. Deana’s keen eyes,
with the help of a spotting scope, were able to pick out a visiting peregrine falcon perched on a narrow ledge on the Rock.
They then
moved along to Grand Anse where a well-established breeding colony of black-legged
kittiwakes can be seen on and around a rocky cliff at this time of year.
By late July, the young have all fledged, so no nesting birds were seen.
However, a very large flock of the kittiwakes left the rocky cliff and flew out
to join an equally large gathering of gulls offshore. Looking closely at this
large floating flock, Peter and Deana found that almost all the members seemed to be about the same size,
and photographs seem to indicate they were black-legged kittiwakes. Juveniles
can be picked out by zooming in on one of the photos. Black-legged kittiwakes
are known to gather in large flocks in the water when small fish (sardines) are
present. Eventually, after being disturbed by a passing boat, most of the birds
flew to the area of the rocky cliff from where about half of them had flown
from earlier. Peter and Deana are convinced that the flock was made up almost entirely
of black-legged kittiwakes and easily numbered 400 to 500. As they were watching
from the top of a cliff themselves, a peregrine falcon flew by at eye level
three times, doing some reconnaissance. Perhaps this was the same bird they had seen
earlier on the Pokeshaw Rock, just a few kilometres away.
**Jane
LeBlanc shares cell phone photos of her yard, including her milkweed plants,
some of her captive monarch butterfly caterpillars, and, as of today,
the first caterpillar in the hanging J position, the signal which means a
chrysalis is soon to form.
** Rheal
Vienneau had a giant hawkmoth ( no identification given) nectaring on his garden flowers for over an hour
at dusk on Thursday night. Rheal sees some here every year at about the same
time.
He also has
several monarch butterflies now continually around his flowers and milkweed in company
of a few ruby-throated hummingbirds.
** Brian
Stone photographed a pink water lily at Wilson Marsh that gave us an
identification challenge. After consulting with Gart Bishop, we learned there may be a good
reason. I’m quoting Gart’s response, which may solve the challenge of the
photos that are reattached today.
Quoting Gart:
“The pink water lily is not a native plant to New Brunswick. I am not sure for
certain which species it is, as there is no key at my disposal within the genus
Nymphaea. The state of Maine lists Nymphaea tuberosa - a pink water lily,
(tuberous water lily) as occurring in eastern Maine, but only native in western
Maine. The Atlantic Canada Conservation
Data Centre does not list any pink water lilies.
So I feel
confident saying the photos are of an introduced species that someone has
brought into Wilson Marsh.”
**Brian
Stone went back to Wilson Marsh on Friday once again in search of the recently
reported halloween pennant dragonfly that Jean-Guy Goguen found there
last Tuesday. It was his third time looking for it, and he was rewarded by
finally finding it, and at least three others! Yay! At the same spot, he also
found several male blue dasher dragonflies and one more male widow
skimmer dragonfly. Both are relatively new species to the area. Some of the
more regular residents photographed were a twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly,
a nice red meadowhawk dragonfly, a four-spotted skimmer dragonfly,
and a pair of common green darner dragonflies in the process of
making more green darners.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
