Nature Moncton Nature
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well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond, are invited to share their
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Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
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.
It may look quiet on the nest, but those eggs under incubation are going at full speed in embryo development.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Brian Coyle photographed
a beaver scent-marking castoreum, an oily odoriferous
substance from anal glands, for the purpose of claiming territory and advising
who was there. A few photos were extracted from Brian’s video that show the castor
glands protruding.
In the past, castoreum collected
from these glands of beaver pelts was used for an amazing number of purposes, such as perfumes, flavourings, medicines, etc. Both the male and
female beaver deposit castoreum. Some have described it as having a vanilla
scent.
Brian’s video and the
extracted photo to show the glands are below, as well as a video of a mink
that made a brief appearance at the beaver pond.
**Jane LeBlanc was
enjoying a slightly warmer day on Saturday and noticed several black-capped
chickadees enjoying a bath in her backyard pond. She also had two yellow-rumped
warblers, several purple finches and a white-throated sparrow,
among others. Later, walking her dog, she saw a small flock of Bohemian
waxwings. The light was poor, so the photo is documentary.
(Editor’s note: The
Bohemian waxwings are moving out at the moment, being replaced by cedar
waxwings.)
**On Saturday, Brian Stone
visited Memramcook and the Tantramar Marsh, took a variety of photos, and had a
minor adventure. At the Memramcook lagoon, Brian saw a large number of ring-necked
ducks and smaller numbers of other species such as lesser scaup, northern
pintail ducks, gadwall ducks, and northern shovelers. A male ring-necked
pheasant shared the road with Brian on his way into the lagoon and stepped
off into the grass on the side after asserting his dominance and forcing Brian
to stop his car. Other photos include some white-tailed deer feeding in
a field and a water strider floating in a small pond.
At the Tantramar Marsh,
Brian was driving slowly along the rough, bumpy High Marsh Rd. when he spotted
a dark figure at the edge of the trees across a field. Sure that he had
discovered Bigfoot, Brian slammed on the brakes and scrambled to get his
camera up and focused! It turned out though to be only a black bear that fled
into the trees before the camera's shutter could be opened. Brian was close in
his assessment of the animal though, as bears also have big feet.
Further along the
road, Brian spotted a large porcupine grazing on plants in a field, not
far from the edge of the road. He stopped and got out of the car for a photo,
but the porcupine was partially hidden in the tall grass, and so he clambered
across the ditch and up into the field and slowly approached the porcupine
until he had a clear view. The porcupine kept eating unconcernedly ... for
about 5 seconds. Then it looked up quickly and focused on Brian, and began to
run at him (hackles up!). Brian realized his mistake and ran back towards the
car, glancing back at what he assumed would be a slowly approaching, waddling,
chubby critter, but the little speedster was actually gaining on him!
Now, whether this was an
exceptionally fast and fit porcupine, or maybe Brian is a bit too old and slow
to be racing animals in nature, we will never know for sure. But just in case, Brian will stay in the car the next time this opportunity to be outperformed by
a cute little forest creature comes along. Not to worry, though, Brian made it
safely to the car, and the porcupine gave up the chase and toddled slowly
(deceptively) across the road and into another field to see if the grass was
greener there.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
