Nature Moncton Nature News
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** This week’s Nature
Moncton Wednesday evening walk is scheduled for tomorrow night, June 22, with
details below. A delicious, much-needed rain is forecast for Wednesday. If the
walk has to be rescheduled, the activities committee will post that Wednesday morning.
**Nature Moncton Wednesday Walk Night
Date: Wednesday, July 22nd,
2026, at 6:30 PM
Where: Mill Creek Nature Park
Meeting Place: Bridgedale
entrance, parking lot P3 on the park map (turn right at the green Mill Creek
sign on Bridgedale Blvd. coming from Gunningsville Blvd. This parking lot is
located before the Runneymeade entrance.)
Leader: Jessica
Belanger-Mainville
Description: Mill Creek Nature
Park is a 330-acre nature park that is rich in biodiversity due to its varied
habitats, ranging from wetlands to mixed forests. In addition to its nature
attractions, the park has a long, interesting military history – the land was
used as a naval radio station during World War II and was mostly staffed and
run by women. The park’s most well-known feature, the reservoir, was built to
provide an emergency water supply on the naval base. The reservoir outlook is
part of Fundy Biosphere’s 50 Amazing Places due to its breathtaking views.
This walk will take place on
well-maintained gravel trails, and participants are expected to see and hear a
good diversity of birds!
Bug spray and protective
clothing are recommended. All are welcome, Nature Moncton members or not. If
you are a member, don’t forget to wear your name tag!
** We haven't heard
from John Inman much lately as he has been under the weather for a bit, but he is getting back in harness with some good news. He has had a lot of monarch
butterflies passing through his yard over the last 3 weeks and shares a photo from the window. He also shares photos of a snipe fly and 2 of the 8 young raccoons tussling until mom broke it up.
**Brian Coyle was
delighted to get a short video of a Wilson's snipe and its chick. As
Brian was checking on this camera, he flushed a Wilson's Snipe over and over,
and now suspects that its chick was nearby and it was attempting to lure him away.
** Monarch butterflies
appear to be popping up everywhere all of a sudden.
Suzanne Rousseau in Sussex
had her first Monarch butterfly this year, and she doesn’t seem to have
any milkweed beetles this year. She had a lot last year. Suzanne disposed of the beetles in a container with Dawn dish soap, which took care of the problem
quickly.
**Louise Nichols comments,
“That fledgling makes me think of northern parula.” The markings surely make
that suggestion a rule-out (photo reattached).
**On Tuesday morning Deana
and Peter Gadd visited the Little Sheephouse Falls trail, about 50 km
from their Miramichi home, 17 km along the gravel Fraser Burchill Road. They
had hoped for birds such as black-backed woodpeckers and Canada jays, but they
were not seen or heard. The walk was a very pleasant one through the shaded
woods. The moss-covered ground was quite dramatic at times. A white-winged
crossbill was heard. They were struck, however, by the long old man’s beard
lichen, which they discovered was Methuselah’s beard lichen (Usnea
longissma) said to be the longest lichen in the world.
(Editor’s note: Little
Sheephouse Falls is featured in Nicholas Guitard’s book ‘Waterfalls of New
Brunswick’.)
**Pat Gibbs' cherry tree was
buried under an avalanche of European starlings Monday afternoon, all fighting
for a spot. Most of them were juveniles with the soft brown/grey plumage,
but there were also a few adults there as well who couldn't resist grabbing a
few cherries.
Pat laments that if those cedar
waxwings don't hurry up and come back, there won't be any cherries left if
Monday was any indication.
**Lynda Leclerc comments that lots of feeding activity
and sounds are coming from their Nature Moncton nest box. Lynda and Gilles Leclerc
will soon be Empty Nesters.
The nestling in the farthest box stuck
its face out! Lynda Leclerc hopes to see the explosion of her black-capped chickadee
family. The last time she got to see that was many years ago when five fledglings seemed to come out all at once, landing on the screen of their
gazebo and on various plants in the gardens surrounding the nest box.
**Jane and Ed LeBlanc
spent some time in the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Monday. Many birds were
seen, but not many photographed. The birds Jane wanted to see, the
pied-billed grebes, were there. One mother and chick were very close to
the boardwalk, giving excellent looks. Others were further away, but Jane got a
few distant photographs. Other ducks seen were American wigeons.
Jane also mentions she now
has six very hungry monarch butterfly caterpillars which she is feeding in her
enclosure. The female monarch butterfly is seen daily.
**Brian Stone had a photo
session with a pair of northern mockingbirds in Dieppe on Monday
afternoon. The birds appeared to be patrolling and guarding a small green space
on a city street as if it was a nesting spot and were loudly and
physically scaring other birds away, and trying to scare people and their
dogs away, but no active nest was able to be located.
(Editor’s note: the birds
showed the dramatic white flashes on the wing, similar to a willet, when they
were flying about. It is a bit surprising the northern mockingbird population has
never made a notable increase. The literature says they readily nest twice in a
season and those that we do have stay year-round.)
**On route back from the
northern mockingbird show, Nelson Poirier stopped at Château Moncton to see the
tidal bore arrive. It was not a big bore as it is in between big moon
phases, but very pleasant to watch on a sunny afternoon. Some people from away were
there and were very impressed. Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have on
our doorsteps!
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
