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.
The male and female take
turns incubating the eggs almost constantly now. The female is on the nest most
of the time, but the male always seems to be ready to give her short breaks to
leave the precious cargo.
Action may seem quiet, but
one can be assured that action within the developing embryo is proceeding at
full speed.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**On Saturday, Mark Pugh
spotted a barred owl in Irishtown Nature Park.
The owl offered lots of time for Dale to capture some images. When it was clear the owl seemed unconcerned
with their presence, Dale moved a bit closer and chose to film (using Mark’s
shoulder as a tripod). The barred owl
granted the spectators quite a show! The
spectacular videos are attached below, showing the owl arranging for its day.
(Editor’s note: note in
one section of the video that the owl turns its head a full 270°, a unique
ability owls have to monitor almost every position around them.)
**Brian Coyle shares 4 great video links from his trail cameras.
The first is a nice
daytime video of a bobcat, still wearing its winter coat. The second is
a daytime video of a mink that astonishingly stops still right in the
middle of the frame, and a daytime video of a beaver. Brian comments that
it's too bad the video didn't last a few more seconds, as you can hear the beaver just begin to vocalize as the video ends.
The fourth video captures
a pair of wood ducks going about their day.
(Editor’s note: Take note
of some of the spring background vocalizations. The video link of the wood
ducks clearly reveals the unique vocalization of the male wood duck at the end
of the video.)
**Anita and David Cannon took
a long walk along Parlee Beach in Shediac on Monday. They observed a lot of
dead crabs, as usual, perhaps one hundred, but they were surprised - and
disappointed - that perhaps a third of them are now the invasive green crab.
They are perhaps half the width, one-quarter the overall size of the native
crabs.
**Gart Bishop shares a couple of photos of a few spring bloomers in his backyard down by the Kennebecasis River near Sussex.
One photo shows the
blazing blooms of the early spring bloomer, bloodroot, while the other shows
the very small, easily missed female flower of the beaked hazel shrub.
**Brian Stone sends a few
photos taken over the last two days. At Salisbury, he visited the unequal
cellophane bee site and found they had dug their nesting holes and were
going in and out, sometimes into an already occupied hole, and were getting
expelled without hesitation.
In Mapleton Park, Brian
saw and photographed his first garter snake of the season, thanks to the
sharp eyes of his wife Annette. Also photographed were two of three ruby-crowned
kinglets that were seen, with one showing off a significant amount of
"ruby". Included in the photo lineup were palm warblers, cedar
waxwings still hunting insects around the pond, one of several eastern
phoebes, a very long-distance northern flicker, a pied-billed
grebe, a honeybee on willow catkins, and a well-used vireo nest.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
