Nature Moncton Nature
News
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Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Several of us on the
recent pelagic adventure wondered about the identification of the huge
jellyfish encountered.
A consult with Huntsman
Marine provided an answer that it was indeed a very large lion's mane jelly. Their interesting response is quoted below:
“That appears to be a
lion’s mane jelly (Cyanea capillata). This species can vary in colour
(yellow, orange-brown, pinkish, red, dark brown) and size (being the largest
jelly in the world they can grow up to 2.4 meters across, though this large
size is rare). It is often said in field guides that the colour and size vary
geographically. There are some observations on the iNaturalist
forum that look similar to the one that was photographed. Our taxonomy research
team has a project on iNaturalist, Fundy Shore Sealife Seekers.”
(Editor’s note: this was
by far the largest jelly that most of us have ever seen and must have been
interesting cuisine for the nearby ocean sunfish. That photo is reattached
today.)
**Tony Diamond shares an
interesting comment on the razor bill duo in one of the photos which is
reattached today, and I am quoting Tony’s comments below:
“A quick comment on the razorbill
'family' photo by Deanna Fenwick. Normally Dad takes Junior to sea and oversees
Junior's development to full size (I don't know how long this takes) while Mum
takes off elsewhere. So, a normal razorbill 'family' at sea is just Dad and
Junior.”
**Caroline Arsenault
contacted Phil Reibel regarding the ID of the dolphin photo he had
submitted. It is actually a common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and
not an Atlantic white-sided dolphin.
This is a much more
interesting sighting for the Bay of Fundy.
Phil reviewed his photos
and his research also confirms Caroline's ID.
Common dolphins are much
less routinely encountered in the Bay of Fundy.
(Editor’s note: that photo
is reattached below today.)
**Jim Wilson, Durlan
Ingersoll, and Jennifer Keith compiled a day list of the birds, mammals, and
fish tallied during the recent pelagic trip. The list can be reviewed at the
link below:
** The Petitcodiac
Watershed Alliance is experimenting with a floating island of native plants
in Irishtown Nature Park Lake to test its ability to improve water quality and reduce harmful algal blooms.
Grant Ramsey was in the
park on Wednesday and took a photo of the floating island, as well as the
explanatory signage.
Grant also got photographs
of what appears to be the destroying angel mushroom. It is unusual for
the species to grow in groups, but the general appearance is very suggestive of
that species. This is our most toxic mushroom in New Brunswick and can cause
serious liver and kidney damage that can lead to death in humans if consumed.
**Jane LeBlanc sends more
photos from British Columbia. The turkey vulture was taken at the Island
Raptors center, where she got much closer to birds than normal. The other two
photos were taken on a whale-watching tour.
**On Sunday, Brian Stone
excitedly went to the Sackville Wetlands section of the Sackville Waterfowl
Park in Sackville, across the highway from the main section of the park, to try
and relocate a rare dragonfly that was seen there and reported by Louise
Nichols the day before. After about an hour's wait, he was finally granted an
audience with a couple of male eastern pondhawk dragonflies that seemed
to be chasing each other around and occasionally landing on a viewing
platform for a photo. While Brian was waiting between pondhawk visitations he
was gifted with an appearance by a male widow skimmer dragonfly that was
every bit as rare as the pondhawk (Brian assumes). That was the limit of his
dragonfly luck, though, and no other special visitors showed up.
While Brian was waiting on the viewing platform, an interesting display by
a pair of regular dragonflies happened as a male twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly and a male meadowhawk
dragonfly flew around together, landing and perching together regularly in
between flights as though they were buddies just hanging out for the day. A
bouncy spotted sandpiper occupied the viewing platform for a bit and
entertained with its bobbing actions, and a couple of great blue herons
foraged along the waterline. A young pied-billed grebe was caught napping.
A group of male and female red-winged blackbirds joined some common
grackles pecking at something or other on the path.
At Memramcook, on the way home, Brian chased down a black swallowtail butterfly for a photo and took a couple of photos of ring-billed gulls at the lagoon there.
**Brian and Annette Stone
joined 11 other participants on the Nature Moncton Wednesday Night Walk at the
Haute du Ruisseau Park in Memramcook Wednesday evening. The mosquitoes were
pesky, and they encouraged the walkers to walk quickly, but several items along
the trail were interesting enough to cause them to stop and suffer the little
critters while they investigated and studied them.
Many mushrooms and
other types of fungus were present in a variety of types, but one of special
interest was a deadly destroying angel mushroom that was closely
examined to help with identification in the future. At a viewing platform, a solitary
sandpiper was foraging on the far side of a large beaver dam, and a large orb
weaver spider was seen just hanging around. Brian's car window hosted a hickory
tussock moth caterpillar for a brief moment at the start of the event.
**Maureen Girvan also got
an excellent photographs of the destroying angel mushroom that show the
very large bulbous base enclosed in a sac (at ground level or below) that is an
excellent ID feature when the species is just emerging.
**On Wednesday morning,
Brian Stone noticed half a dozen juvenile American robins foraging in
his yard and on his back deck. While he was watching the robins, he noticed two birds that were smaller, lighter, and faster that were also visiting the yard
and deck that turned out to be a pair of veerys -- interesting
visitors to a Mountain Rd. backyard. Also a couple cedar waxwings
were checking out the wild plants in the uncultivated planters on the side of
the back deck, and cardinals, gray catbirds, flickers, and a juvenile sparrow
of some type were in the yard as well.
**Brian Stone has one
flower pot at home that is regularly growing a crop of flower pot parasol
mushrooms. He took some photos to share of the soft and fluffy yellow
mushrooms that are growing quite a bit better than his actual plants in the
pot. Grow what you know, I guess.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
