Nature Moncton Nature
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**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.
Everything seems quite
quiet in the nest box this morning, with incubation happening.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**David Rogers
photographed an adult male harlequin duck on Thursday off Harrisville Road
at the Industrial Park in Moncton in a flooded ditch across from Patterson
Equipment.
(Editor’s note: This is an
unexpected spot to find a harlequin duck. Possibly it was a resting spot on
migration.)
**A birding event is taking place tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, in Baie Verte with all details on the poster below:
**David Lilly got some
portrait-style photos of an eastern phoebe at the Gateway Wetlands in
Oromocto on Tuesday.
**Brian and Annette Stone
walked through the St-Anselme Rotary Park on Thursday afternoon, and Brian
photographed a male and female American wigeon keeping some mallard
ducks company in one of the large ponds. They heard a few birds, such as purple
finches and northern flickers, but the highlight of the day was when they heard
a pair of woodpeckers drumming to each other, and they went searching to find
them. When they got close, they realized that one of the two yellow-bellied
sapsucker woodpeckers was drumming on a sheet of metal in response to the
other's "message", and when they located them, it was a surprise to
find that one of the males was drumming on a trail sign right beside the trail
and was not concerned with walkers strolling past. This little woodpecker had
done some obvious damage to the paintwork on the sign, but was undamaged
himself and seemed content to keep up the much louder response to the
"other guy" high up in a nearby tree.
Brian made a short video, and if the volume is up, you can hear the first woodpecker drumming high up in the tree, followed quickly by the sharp rapping of the louder guy down on the trailside sign.
Brian also snuck a few photos of two mourning doves snuggling on his back deck through his kitchen window.
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 April 18 – April 25
When people see a telescope that doesn’t look like it came from a department
store, they often ask how far you can see with it. The answer is difficult to
explain and even more difficult to comprehend. Sometimes I just say “way far”
and hope they don’t press for details.
This weekend the brightest object in the evening sky is the Moon, near its
closest at about 362,000 kilometres (km). The next brightest object is Venus,
currently at 224 million km, while Uranus, possibly within a binocular view
lower left of the Pleiades, is 3 billion km away. Light travels at 300,000 km
per second, so at 150 million km the Sun is a distance of 500 light seconds
away. The Moon is a tad more than one light second away, Venus is 12.4 light
minutes, and Uranus nearly 3 light hours.
The brightest star we see in the evening now is still Sirius, the closest star
we can see from New Brunswick at 8.6 light years (ly). The next brightest is
Arcturus and it is 37 ly or 350 trillion kilometres. The Pleiades are about 440
ly away and Alnilam, the middle star of Orion’s belt, is 2000 light years. If
you are under a dark sky well before morning twilight you might get a naked eye
glimpse of the Andromeda Galaxy at a distance of 2.5 million light years.
Binoculars will reveal galaxies even more distant, but at what point do these
distances become incomprehensible and “way far” is a reasonable answer?
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:27 and sunset will occur at 8:10, giving
13 hours, 43 minutes of daylight (6:33 and 8:14 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:15 and set at 8:19, giving 14 hours, 4 minutes of
daylight (6:22 and 8:22 in Saint John).
The slim crescent Moon is to the right of Venus this Saturday, above the
Pleiades on Sunday, near Jupiter Wednesday, and it reaches first quarter on
Thursday. With next Saturday being the closest to the first quarter Moon
after Easter it becomes International Astronomy Day, and Astronomy Week runs
April 20-26. If you want to start the week with a tough binocular challenge, on
Monday try to see Mars, Saturn and Mercury rising due east in a span of eight
minutes about half an hour before sunrise. They form a line with dimmest
Mars upper left and brightest Mercury lower right. Early Wednesday morning is
the best time to catch some shooting stars of the Lyrid meteor shower emanating
from a point overhead.
Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and
Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
