Nature Moncton Nature
News
Clicking on the photos enlarges them for closer observation.
Nature Moncton members, as
well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond, are invited to share their
photos and descriptions of recent nature sightings to build a fresh (almost)
daily edition of Nature News.
If you would like to share
observations/photos with Nature News, contact the editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Please advise the editor
at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com, as well as proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca, if any errors are noted in wording or photo
labelling.
Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Sam LeGresley found a
structure attached under the blade of a sensitive fern in Parc Haut Du Ruisseau
in Memramcook next to Breau Creek recently, but so far our consultants cannot
put a handle on it.
Any comments from readers
would be appreciated to know who the proprietor is.
**Joe Foster saw and
photographed a one-eyed sphinx moth early Thursday morning at the
Maplewood Golf and Country Club in Irishtown. He estimated it was approximately
4 inches wide. Joe’s photo nicely shows the moth with open spread wings to show
its distinctive eye spots to ward off predators and “photographers”!
**Jane and Ed LeBlanc
visited family at a lake near St. Martins and tried to get photos of the
resident loons from a canoe. The common loons escaped them, but driving home,
they found a beaver in the water, and Jane got photos right from the
truck. At home, they found a casualty...a male black-throated blue
warbler had hit their window. Jane got great photos while it got its bearings
and finally flew off.
**Christine Lever shares
an article she recently encountered that many naturalists may want to take note
of. The link is below her explanation.
It’s from The Guardian
regarding the loss, over 50 years, of birds in the UK. You can listen to the
difference, and it’s startling and immensely sad. Of course, this is happening
globally, with each generation growing up with a lower baseline of what it was
like a generation or two before them. The losses are accepted as the norm.
Christine feels
naturalists might be interested in reading about and hearing the difference over the
last 50 years. On a positive note, the Merlin app seems to be doing a good
job of getting people interested in birds. However, unless there’s a
concerted effort in change, we will continue to lose not just birds, but many,
many other wild species. We will be far poorer without realizing how rich we all should
be.
(Editor’s note: Appreciation to
Jessica, who is one of the members of the activities committee that chooses the
sites for the Wednesday evening walks.)
** Susan Richards comments with her photograph: “This nature-loving group enjoyed a walk with 22 species of birds recorded at Wilson Marsh on July 1. The wind kept the bugs away, and the conversation on birds and plants and the life in the marsh was informative and well received. Thank you, Brian Stone.
**Brian Stone sends a few photos from earlier in the week from various areas around Moncton during his fresh air excursions. At Wilson Marsh, he found his first bronze copper butterflies of the season and a female twelve-spotted skimmer dragonfly while birdwatching during previously reported outings. Later, on some ATV trails behind Irishtown Park, he walked through wet, messy terrain a bit off the trails and found a few items of interest to photograph. In one area, he noticed a large number of Harris's checkerspot butterflies along with a few Peck's skippers, long dash skippers, a white admiral butterfly, and some northern crescent butterflies. Some dragonflies seen require further identification before posting. Other items seen were grass pink bog orchids, twinflower plant, and fly agaric mushrooms. It was hot, damp, muddy, and many biting insects ... good conditions for birding.
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 July 4 – July 11
Galaxies are favourite targets for amateur astronomers and many are visible
with just binoculars. Two are seen easily with the naked eye in the southern
hemisphere: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Andromeda Galaxy is a
naked-eye blur for rural New Brunswickers and it looks majestic in binoculars,
but there is one galaxy that is spectacular from a reasonably dark location
regardless of your observing equipment and that is our home galaxy.
The Milky Way is at least 110,000 light years across, and although it is
composed of perhaps 400 billion stars we can distinguish only about 4000
unaided as individual stars from a rural area. The Sun is 27,000 light years
from the galactic core, within a spur between the inner Sagittarius and outer
Perseus spiral arms. When we look above the spout of the Sagittarius Teapot
asterism we are looking toward the galactic core, but vast clouds of dust hide
the stars between the spiral arm and the core. South of the head of Cygnus the
Swan we see the Milky Way split in two by the Great Rift, one of those dust
clouds.
Star formation occurs in clouds of gas and dust within the spiral arms and some
can be seen as bright patches with binoculars. Just above the spout of the
Teapot is M8, the Lagoon Nebula; and a hint of M20, the Trifid Nebula, can be
seen in the same field of view above. Scanning to the upper left up the Milky
Way you encounter M17, the Swan (or Omega) Nebula; and star clusters M16 in the
Eagle Nebula and M11, the Wild Duck Cluster. A tour of the Milky Way under a
dark sky can keep a binocular stargazer engaged for an evening.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:33 and sunset will occur at 9:13, giving
15 hours, 40 minutes of daylight (5:41 and 9:14 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 5:39 and set at 9:09, giving 15 hours, 30 minutes of
daylight (5:47 and 9:11 in Saint John). Earth is at aphelion, its farthest
distance from the Sun, on Monday afternoon.
The Moon is at third quarter and above Saturn on Tuesday, and it visits
the Pleiades and Mars next Saturday. This Saturday morning Mars is a third of a
moon-width below Uranus. Venus is within a binocular view of Regulus all
week, passing just above that star on Thursday. Jupiter is low in the northwest
in evening twilight, while Mercury is too close to the Sun for observing.
The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre
this Saturday at 7 pm.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
