Nature Moncton Nature
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**Maureen Girvan’s
sister, who lives in Rollin Hills, BCS, Mexico, photographed a very
large, beautiful moth measuring approximately 10 cm on Monday, suspected to be the giant Indian silkworm moth.
They are in the
midst of hurricane season, and this one showed up after heavy rain.
**Brian and
Annette Stone took advantage of the break in the weather on Monday and walked
around the ponds at Highland Park in Salisbury. The ponds still had water in
them, which was a nice change from this time last year when they were almost
completely dry.
One of the two great egrets was seen
still present and foraging along the edge of the pond, but only visible from
the far side, so too far for decent photography. At least four great blue
herons were present in widely separated sections of the ponds, and a nice
lineup of wood ducks were resting on a pipe in the small side pond. A
pair of hooded mergansers were diving for snacks at one spot, and Brian
photographed a large group of yellowlegs in the middle of the first pond
that included one smaller bird that was clearly different. Brian's picture
of the day was a perched merlin falcon that was taking a rest from
hunting in the area and gave Brian a disdainful glance before flying on
its way.
**Nelson
Poirier and Fin hiked the Maple Trail behind the Catholic Church in Stilesville
on Monday afternoon.
This is a sugar
maple forest with a heavy canopy and a rich, nutrient-rich forest floor.
Several interesting observations were made.
One quite
prominent forest floor evergreen was Canada yew, aka ground hemlock. It is a
low, spreading evergreen coniferous shrub native to moist forest floors of
eastern and central North America. It is reported as popular forage for the white-tailed
deer but it seemed relatively prolific and undisturbed. The underside of the
needles is pale yellow to help distinguish it. It has been used extensively for
medicinal purposes.
The shrub hobblebush
had an abundant crop of berries, some of which were turning to the mature deep
blue colour. Hobblebush thrives best in a forest with a heavy, dark canopy and
was starting to show its naked winter buds, which will remain as such until
next spring.
Both red baneberry
and white baneberry were in fruit. The white baneberry is usually white, whereas
the red baneberry very occasionally has white fruit to fool naturalists. They
can readily be distinguished by the thick pedicel of the true white baneberry
versus the thin pedicel of the true red baneberry. They cannot be
distinguished by leaves.
Christmas
Fern was a very predominant fern, showing its characteristic "Christmas stocking" on the leaflets. The top part of the fertile fronds was showing spore
production on the underside.
There were
many mushrooms, as expected, and several destroying angels were noted, some of
which had pale yellow on the cap, which occurs as they age in some
individuals.
Grass-leaved goldenrod and zigzag goldenrod were the two goldenrod species encountered.
Canada mayflower
was showing its
berries maturing to red with leaves still green.
The leaves
of false Solomon's seal had signed off for the season, but its red
terminal cluster of berries was colourful.
The sporophyte of sensitive fern was developing in time for Halloween. It has been reported that witches use this to cast a spell on Nature Moncton naturalists who don’t wear their nametags!
Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
