NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, June 21, 2021 (Monday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by Fred Richards susan_richards@rogers.com
Info Line #: 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**Mother Nature can sure change plans quickly. With the strong possibility of the
tropical storm coming through late Monday and Tuesday, the first regular Nature
Moncton evening outings is postponed until Thursday June 24, 2021 at 6:30. We will run the announcement again on
Wednesday and Thursday.
**The cultivar Hascap Berry has become popular with their tasty
fruit. The Cedar Waxwings have gone on
the alert and have arrived at Lois Budd’s Hascap crop to enjoy it with Lois. Lois comments the waxwing’s buzzing
vocalization serenade is so pleasant that she is leaving some to share with
them. Lois sent some photos of the Hascap bushes and blue berries that I
suspect many of us are unfamiliar with.
**Groundhogs are commonly seen in rural areas but it was a bit of a
surprise for my next-door neighbor in the midst of an urban subdivision to see
a Groundhog in their backyard appearing to come from under the shed, with very
little exposed area to get underneath.
The animal did not seem to show concern about humans near and was easily
photographed with a cellphone. This
animal is either very street smart or lucky to cross a number of streets to get
to where it was seen. Sunday was the first day they saw it. There is no garden or any apparent forage
opportunities in the yard. It is getting
quite common for White-tailed Deer and Red Fox to adapt to urban areas and
people, and wonder if Groundhogs are doing the same thing.
**Maybe we should include the MALLARD DUCK as another adapting urbanite.
Kathy Breaton who tunes in from Kitchener, Ontario had a female mallard stroll
across her very urban yard this morning as many folks are seeing in recent
years and not infrequently nesting in yards and public places very successfully.
**Brian Stone walked the roads and
trails behind Crandall University on Sunday to find many things to photograph.
Several types of butterflies were present and 6 of those were photographed
going about their business. A pair of VICEROY BUTTERFLIES were caught in a
mating embrace, 2 COMMON RINGLET BUTTERFLIES showed both the presence and
absence of the "ring", a LITTLE WOOD-SATYR BUTTERFLY proved difficult
to shoot clearly, a NORTHERN CRESCENT BUTTERFLY perched nicely on a stem of
grass, and a fresh-looking WHITE ADMIRAL BUTTERFLY was intensely focused on
some animal scat.
A good variety of flies were busy
in the area including a female EUROPEAN DRONE FLY and a ROBBER FLY. A CUTWORM
WASP was investigating the side of the Gorge Rd. near the University and a male
COMMON WHITETAIL DRAGONFLY perched for a bit near the larger pond. The big
puddles on the road/trails were completely dry now, and even the larger pond
was much lower than at the same time last year. Brian fears that the abundant
pond life might be in for a difficult year. (Editor’s note: the forecast for a
tropical depression remnants may come to the rescue)
Plant life imaged were LUPINS
gone to seed, LITTLE EVENING PRIMROSE aka SMALL SUNDROPS, FLEABANE, HONEYSUCKLE,
SPEEDWELL (Editor note: note the characteristic one smaller petal of the 4 in
the speedwell family), and some small Spruce Trees were heavily laden with new
cones. Brian managed to look up from scanning the ground and low plant life
long enough to get a nice photo of a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW that seemed to be
curious as to why someone with a large camera was pointing it towards the
ground so often.
**I was in my natal neighborhood of Scotch Settlement-MacDougall
Settlement on Saturday and
pleasantly surprised to note that 3 old neighbours had a pair of EASTERN
BLUEBIRDS nesting on their property and two of them had small developing
colonies of CLIFF SWALLOWS.
Margaret
Murray and Jim Johnson are Nature Moncton members and Jim’s brother Winston has
a pair of nesting bluebirds. If there are that many bluebirds in this small
area, I wonder how many there really are about the province. I suspect the real number is as high as they
have been in a long time. There have
been many other actual reports of nesting pairs of Eastern Bluebirds this
season.
But,
am wondering where are all those Northern Cardinals, that were around all
winter in many areas of New Brunswick that had few nesting pairs.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
