September 22 2-26

 

Nature Moncton Nature News

 

Clicking on the photos enlarges them for closer observation. Please note that clicking on any photo enlarges it full screen and then clicking on the black area on either side of the photo brings one right back to the main page.

 

 

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

 

 

 

**The missed presentation from Josh Christiansen on amphibians last week is rescheduled for tonight, Tuesday evening, September 22, with the write-up below.

If folks coming to the meeting can again find some fresh mushrooms, place them in a paper bag and store in the fridge for shroom chatter during the second part of the meeting after the main presentation.

 

****SEPTEMBER MEETING PRESENTATION

 

Stressful Cityscapes or Pockets of Paradise? How Forest Retention May Buffer the Impact of Urbanization on Salamanders

Date: September 22, 2026  7:00 PM

Place: Rotary Pavilion, Mapleton Park

Presenter: Joshua Christiansen

 

Urbanization is one of the greatest challenges facing our world’s wildlife. As New Brunswick’s urban centers continue to grow, it is important we understand how our growth impacts the wildlife we share our backyards with. MSc graduate Joshua Christiansen investigated the influence of urbanization on the behavioural and thermal ecology of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In this talk, Joshua will discuss his findings on the influence, or lack thereof, of urbanization on this species’ behaviour and thermoregulation and what this means for amphibian conservation in our urban centers.

Joshua Christiansen is a Research Associate in the RBG Labs at Mount Allison University. He holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Regina and an MSc degree in Biology from Mount Allison University. Joshua studied bats in his undergrad years but made the big switch to herpetofauna for his master’s where he studied the behaviour and thermal ecology of Eastern Red-backed Salamanders in urban and non-urban forests. He is now working on a field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of Atlantic Canada.

 

Don’t miss the chance to learn more about these mysterious inhabitants of our urban yards.

 

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

 

**Jane LeBlanc had to go whale watching for work on Monday (she is a guide for cruise ship guests), and they had a banner day from St. Andrews with “Cruisin' with the whales." They saw harbour porpoises, minke, humpback and finback whales. Most unusual!

HARBOUR PORPOISES. SEPT. 21, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

MINKE WHALE. SEPT. 21, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

HUMPBACK WHALES. SEPT. 21, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

FINBACK WHALE. SEPT. 21, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

 

**Shannon Inman photographed two of our prime blooming fall flowers which are so welcome to seasonal nectar/pollen seekers along the road: a goldenrod species and butter-and-eggs toadflax.

BUTTER-AND-EGGS TOADFLAX. SEPT 21, 2026. SHANNON INMAN

GOLDENROD. SEPT 21, 2026. SHANNON INMAN

In their Harvey yard, John Inman photographed a distant Baltimore oriole, a white-banded potter wasp, and one of the two resident sharp-shinned hawks mantling a blue jay prey.

BALTIMORE ORIOLE, SEPT 21, 2026. JOHN INMAN

WHITE-BANDED POTTER WASP. SEPT 21, 2026. JOHN INMAN

SHARP-SHINNED HAWK MANTLING PREY. SEPT 21, 2026. JOHN INMAN

 

Top of FormBottom of Formnelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

September 21 2026

 

Nature Moncton Nature News

 

Clicking on the photos enlarges them for closer observation. Please note that clicking on any photo enlarges it full screen and then clicking on the black area on either side of the photo brings one right back to the main page.

 

 

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

 

 

 

**The missed presentation from Josh Christiansen on amphibians last week is rescheduled for tomorrow night Tuesday evening, September 22, with the write-up at the end of this message.

If folks coming to the meeting can find some fresh mushrooms in the next few days, place them in a paper bag and in the fridge for shroom chatter during the second part of the meeting after the main presentation, as was done last week.

 

**Fred Dube was traveling down Three Brooks Road in Pictou on Sunday and saw a leucistic Canada Goose among a field of Canada Geese.

(Editor’s note: Fred's photo reminds us all that it is a very important time of year to look closely at every Canada goose flock for an unexpected species.)

 

CANADA GOOSE (LEUCISTIC). SEPTEMBER 20, 2026.  FRED DUBE

CANADA GOOSE (LEUCISTIC). SEPTEMBER 20, 2026. FRED DUBE

 

**Jane LeBlanc has had several warblers go through her St. Martins yard lately, including a male northern parula. She also had some regulars back, including a red-breasted nuthatch. A Sunday visitor was a hermit thrush. She also has a witch hazel shrub which is in flower. Also, six monarch chrysalises are left to hatch.

(Editor’s note: witch hazel is a shrub that blooms late in the season, even into December.)

NORTHERN PARULA (MALE). SEPT. 18, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

HERMIT THRUSH. SEPT. 20, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. SEPT. 18, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

WITCH HAZEL. SEPT. 20, 2026. JANE LEBLANC

 

**Ted Sears in St. Martins is another who still has monarch butterfly caterpillars and chrysalises in their maturing cycle. One of Ted’s photos shows a caterpillar in the J position, indicating a chrysalis is about to form.

Ted comments that it may be getting late, but Mother Nature will decide, and the fact that development continues is a positive sign.

MONARCH BUTTERFLY CATERPILLARS AND CHRYSALIS. SEPT 20, 2026. TED SEARS

MONARCH BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR IN J POSITION. SEPT 20, 2026. TED SEARS

**David Lilly shared several mushroom photos which were great photos but it's hard to confirm species without knowing more ID features; however, David's photo of a red-belted polypore is a nice example of this common shelf mushroom in its early stage, still developing its "red belt. 

 

RED-BELTED POLYPORE. SEPT 28, 2026. DAVID LILLY

**Last week Brian Stone was in Fundy National Park for 5 days and he sends some photos of the life he encountered. Besides the dozens of different types of fungus on display he photographed a few park inhabitants such as one of the several turkey vultures that were circling slowly over his cabin, some beavers that were active in the early morning at the Caribou Plain trail (one photo showing a beaver doing some maintenance work on the right side of its lodge), a selection of adult and tiny new American toads, a downy woodpecker and a black-throated green warbler, a few of the many Canada geese busy dabbling for snacks, a small salamander that was hiding under a large rotting mushroom (suspected to be a juvenile red-backed salamander), and a large resident orb weaver spider hanging outside the cabin window. 

Brian photographed many mushrooms in Fundy National Park, but as always, photos can be difficult to confirm without knowing more features.

(Editor’s note: Brian’s photo of the pungent cort shows the very cobwebby partial veil of the cortinarius group perfectly. As the partial veil breaks away in the corts, it leaves a ring on the stalk to help identify this group of mushrooms, which tend to appear in the later season, which has arrived.)

RED-BACKED SALAMANDER (JUVENILE SUSPECTED). SEPT. 17, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

ORB WEAVER SPIDER. SEPT. 16, 2026. BRIAN STONE

BEAVER. SEPT. 15, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

BEAVER. SEPT. 15, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

AMERICAN TOAD. SEPT. 17, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

TURKEY VULTURE. SEPT. 14, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

PUNGENT CORT MUSHROOM. SEPT. 18, 2026. BRIAN STONE

PUNGENT CORT MUSHROOM. SEPT. 18, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

GEM-STUDDED PUFFBALL MUSHROOM. SEPT. 18, 2026. BRIAN STONE 

BLUE CHEESE POLYPORE (SUSPECTED) SEPT. 18, 2026. BRIAN STONE

 

**SEPTEMBER MEETING PRESENTATION

 

Stressful Cityscapes or Pockets of Paradise? How Forest Retention May Buffer the Impact of Urbanization on Salamanders

Date: September 22, 2026

Place: Rotary Pavilion, Mapleton Park

Presenter: Joshua Christiansen

 

Urbanization is one of the greatest challenges facing our world’s wildlife. As New Brunswick’s urban centers continue to grow, it is important we understand how our growth impacts the wildlife we share our backyards with. MSc graduate Joshua Christiansen investigated the influence of urbanization on the behavioural and thermal ecology of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In this talk, Joshua will discuss his findings on the influence, or lack thereof, of urbanization on this species’ behaviour and thermoregulation and what this means for amphibian conservation in our urban centers.

Joshua Christiansen is a Research Associate in the RBG Labs at Mount Allison University. He holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Regina and an MSc degree in Biology from Mount Allison University. Joshua studied bats in his undergrad years but made the big switch to herpetofauna for his master’s where he studied the behaviour and thermal ecology of Eastern Red-backed Salamanders in urban and non-urban forests. He is now working on a field guide to the amphibians and reptiles of Atlantic Canada.

 

Don’t miss the chance to learn more about these mysterious inhabitants of our urban yards.

 

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

 

 

 

 

Top of FormBottom of Formnelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton

 

 

 

 

 

  

September 19 2026

 

 

Nature Moncton Nature News

 

Clicking on the photos enlarges them for closer observation. Please note that clicking on any photo enlarges it full screen and then clicking on the black area on either side of the photo brings one right back to the main page.

 

 

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

 

 

 

**There are no new reports this morning, but hopefully our regular reporters will have lots to share from the weekend.

 

**Nelson Poirier took note of the wild raisin berries now ripening to their dark blue coloration from their pink immature stage, showing a blend of both at the moment.

WILD RAISIN BERRIES. SEPT 17, 2026. NELSON POIRIER

Nelson also noted an open section of highway wildlife fencing where it was easy to see the graduation in weave size from bottom to top. The bottom layers are much smaller to help prevent wildlife such as porcupines, raccoons, beavers, and animals of that size from getting onto the highway.

 

WILDLIFE FENCING. SEPT 17, 2026. NELSON POIRIER

A heads-up: the meeting canceled last Tuesday evening with Josh Christiansen is rescheduled for Tuesday evening, September 22, with all details repeated on Sunday morning.

With the abundance of mushrooms this year, the activities committee is lining up an outdoor foray to be announced for later this coming week.

 

Nature news will not be published on Sunday, September 20, due to another commitment, but send reports for a fresh report on Monday morning.

 

Top of FormBottom of Formnelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 18 2026

 

Nature Moncton Nature News

 

Clicking on the photos enlarges them for closer observation. Please note that clicking on any photo enlarges it full screen and then clicking on the black area on either side of the photo brings one right back to the main page.

 

 

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

 

 

 **Edmund Redfield and his Fort Folly group have not been able to monitor fish traps in the Petitcodiac River this past season due to funding cuts, but have been able to operate the monitoring nets the past few days. On Thursday, they had 12 striped bass, one gaspereau, 18 suckers, 5 perch, and 7 tomcod. The gaspereau was young-of-the-year. The striped bass were a mix: 8 young-of-the-year (8.8 cm to 10.7 cm), 3 two-year-olds (20.5 cm to 22.6 cm), and one three-plus-year-old (37.7 cm), whose photo is attached.

STRIPED BASS. SEPT 17, 2026. EDMUND REDFIELD

 

**Leon Gagnon is making the most of his last week on Miscou Island by doing some birdwatching.

Dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows, and northern flickers have arrived in large numbers over the past few days.

 Several warblers are still present: black-and-white, Blackpoll Warbler, and for the past two weeks, yellow-rumped warblers have been observed by the dozens every day.

 Bald eagles have been observed daily for about ten days.

 On Wednesday, he got photographs of a yellow-bellied flycatcher and an olive-sided flycatcher. (Unfortunately, those photos did not attach to Leon’s message.)

He also went to the Miscou Lighthouse to try to spot pelagic birds, scanning the sea with his PowerShot camera set at 120x magnification. He photographed some birds from very far away, making them difficult to identify.

 

** Great white sharks are becoming much more common off the Atlantic coast.

Nelson Poirier attended a very informative session sponsored by Nature Saint John on Thursday night. Dr. Chris Harvey-Clark, a veterinarian who has spent most of his practice career working with sharks in general, and specifically great white sharks on the Atlantic coast, delivered the presentation.

Chris shared more information that can never be put into a paragraph but I will share a few take-home thoughts.

After the movie Jaws was produced many years ago, attitudes toward this shark were very negative, and a hunting campaign ensued that brought them close to extinction. An act was passed to stop the slaughter and attempts to reintroduce them were begun. That reintroduction was very slow, as it takes many years for a new population to mature and produce young. However, that time is now approaching, and the species is gradually recovering.

Human encounters are indeed rare, even though one occurred this week off the Gaspé.

This shark seeks out grey seals, which have become overly abundant along the Atlantic coast and have negatively affected other species such as Atlantic cod and Atlantic salmon. Warming waters off the Atlantic coast are also a positive factor for the great white shark.

The value of the great white shark in the natural diversity of marine wildlife was emphasized, and why that is the case.

 

 

**Pat Gibbs was surprised to see a red squirrel eating a good chunk of moss recently. She never knew they did that, and any comments from readers would be appreciated. 

(Editor’s note: Some reports might seem a little bizarre, but they are sometimes intriguing, and readers are able to contribute to interpretation.)

 

RED SQUIRREL EATING MOSS. SEPT 16, 2026. PAT GIBBS

RED SQUIRREL EATING MOSS. SEPT 16, 2026. PAT GIBBS

 

**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 September 19 – September 26 
This is a good time of year to double your sky observing time. For the next several weeks, before we return to Standard Time, the sky is dark and the stars are blazing when most people are up to start their day, and it is not bitterly cold or snowbound. Orion and his dogs are prominent to the south, with Taurus, Auriga and Gemini arching over them. Sirius, Rigel, Procyon and Betelgeuse are the first, seventh, eighth and tenth brightest stars in the night sky.

In early evening you can see the 4th, 5th and 6th brightest stars. Look for yellow Arcturus sinking to the west, blue-white Vega overhead and Capella in Auriga rising in the northeast. Capella is our brightest circumpolar star; it never sets for most or all of New Brunswick. Later, notice the positions of the circumpolar Big Dipper, Little Dipper and Cassiopeia. The next morning go outside and see how they have changed. Sometimes it is nice to have a little assurance that the world keeps right on turning.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:02 and sunset will occur at 7:22, giving 12 hours, 20 minutes of daylight (7:07 and 7:27 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:11 and set at 7:08, giving 11 hours, 57 minutes of daylight (7:16 and 7:13 in Saint John). The Sun crosses the equator at 9:05 pm Tuesday, heading south to start the autumnal season.

The Moon is in the waxing gibbous phase all week, culminating with the full Harvest Moon next Saturday. Whereas the ecliptic makes a shallow angle with the horizon in evening this time of year, the Moon and planets are low after sunset. Mercury has a meet-up with Spica late in the week as it heads toward Venus, with both planets setting barely a half hour after sunset next weekend. Binoculars and an elevated view of a clear southwestern horizon are needed to see them. Saturn rises around 8 pm this weekend, becoming a prime evening target in telescopes. Mars lines up with Castor and Pollux in the morning sky over the week, moving toward a beautiful conjunction with Jupiter in mid-November. Try observing Jupiter with binoculars; how many of its four big moons can you see?

The RASC NB Fall Star Fest takes place September 18-19 at Kouchibouguac National Park. Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the Facebook page or YouTube site of Astronomy by the Bay.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.

 

 

Autumn morning 2026

 

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Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton