Nature Moncton Nature
News
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**Passing by Salisbury
Sunday afternoon, Deana and Peter Gadd were fortunate to encounter a break in
the rainy weather, so they dropped in to Highland Park. They encountered the
previously reported great egret, which seemed to be having a
disagreement with a great blue heron. A territorial skirmish, no doubt.
Along with the usual birds
often seen in the area, they stumbled upon a group of five juvenile
rose-breasted grosbeaks perched on bare tree branches, seemingly with not a
care in the world!
** The moisture levels and
cool nights have been excellent for mushroom emergence this season.
·
Shannon Inman
sends photos of some that she has seen around her home. There does seem to be a
lot of boletes in the mix this year, and many boletes are not easy to identify
with confidence.
Some mushroom photos can
be hard to identify unless they are modestly fresh, with a top view photo, an underside photo, and a side view included (which means three photos of the same mushroom!). Even then, identification can still be a challenge.
Not all mushrooms are
challenging to identify as many exhibit good distinguishing features. The spore
print is not helpful with the boletes
but can be very helpful with many others.
Be ready for mushrooms
popping up everywhere this week!
**Brian Stone and Cathy
Simon walked the trails at Hillsborough on Saturday morning and enjoyed
excellent weather and bearable mosquito numbers. Brian noticed that most of the
large pond on the Wetlands trail was hidden from sight by a large growth of
cattails, so most of the duck life could not be seen. Brian managed to
photograph a double-crested cormorant on the pond and see several small groups
of mallard ducks. Cathy spotted a white-tailed deer bounding through the
very tall grasses far out in a field, and Brian somehow managed to miss every
bound with his camera and only caught a single image of its head as it began a
leap. Small groups of sandpipers and yellowlegs were seen
down along the shore of the river, and at the water treatment lagoons, some spotted
sandpipers were hanging out with other yellowlegs and a few ducks and
gulls.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
