Nature Moncton Nature
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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.
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 so she can leave the precious cargo.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Louise Nichols noted
some yellow-spotted salamander egg masses in the small pond behind their
house in Aulac.
Normally, wood
frogs would also lay eggs in this pond, but Louise has not seen or heard any wood
frogs there this year.
(Editor’s note: It is not
unusual for the eggs of this salamander to take on the milky white colouration that Louise’s photo
shows. The eggs themselves will often take on a green colour due to a symbiotic
relationship with algae, where oxygen is supplied to the embryo.)
**In Miramichi, Peter and Deana
Gadd had a busy day at their bird feeders, hosting 22 species altogether. Some
wintering birds are still hanging about, such as redpolls and American tree
sparrows. Other species were possibly finishing up their summer northward
migration. Thirty-six days after the first visit by a male red-winged blackbird,
a female paid a visit. They were treated on Wednesday evening with a visit by a
pine warbler that enjoyed a snack of peanuts. A fox sparrow worked
hard earlier in the day to find buried food, scratching vigorously on the
ground. Pine siskins have finally arrived, and a brown-headed cowbird held its
own amongst the larger common grackles and male red-winged blackbirds. While
feeders were being restocked, a red squirrel took advantage of an
unattended jug of sunflower seeds and helped itself! The grey squirrels and chipmunks
were not so opportunistic.
**Tree swallows are often noted checking potential bird boxes; then they return
to nest a week or so later. It would seem from what folks are seeing that the actual nesting is now taking place.
Cynthia Doucet has been
spending the last week in Quinan, NS, where she watched tree swallows inspect
the houses available around her parents’ home.
**While walking along the
trail at Wilson Marsh on Wednesday at the Dutchill Dr. end, Brian and Annette
Stone turned a corner and entered the wet, swampy area of the trail where the
tree swallows were congregating to view the large numbers of swallows and
hopefully get some interesting photos. As the ponds came into sight, they heard
a loud wind rushing sound and suddenly saw what would have been a large dust
devil on land, but was a water devil over water, which is a rotating
column of air, a spinning vortex, caused by atmospheric conditions. This
vortex hit a clump of trees and grasses out in the pond and sucked water,
debris, and a small flock of ducks up into the air in a very mini version of a
tornado. Brian immediately opened the phone to the video app and started
recording, but by then the best was over, and the video shows the water being
strongly swirled in a circular motion, and the fading sound of the vortex as it
passed them and moved out into the marsh to dissipate.
**On Tuesday, Brian and
Annette Stone had a short walk in Mapleton Park and found several interesting
birds not far from the Gorge Rd. entrance. Their first encounter
was with four eastern phoebes that were flitting about beside the
trail, and a dozen or more evening grosbeaks at a home feeder. Further
along, around the main pond, a couple of dozen cedar waxwings were
hawking insects from the trees and were oblivious to walkers who stopped to
view their activity and take a few photos. A lone male ring-necked duck
was sharing the pond with a few mallard ducks. Some honey bees were taking
advantage of the blooming coltsfoot flowers, and a daphne shrub
was blooming as well.
(Editor’s note: The daphne
shrub is a very early blooming, very fragrant non-native cultivar plant that
often produces brightly coloured berries. Its popularity as a cultivar has decreased
due to the toxic compounds in its fruit, leaves, and bark.)
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
