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
** All
appreciation to Marbeth Wilson for guiding the Nature Moncton Wednesday walk
this week in the Pointe-du-Chêne area. There were many
highlights, but the floating tern colony on the floating/fixed platform just
offshore at Railway Avenue got lots of attention, with 50+ pairs of terns
feeding young very vocally and keeping any suspected predators at bay. This project of the
Shediac Bay Watershed Group has been in place for several years. Some
years there have been well over 100 nests.
Elaine Gallant has followed this nesting platform
closely over the years and will give a short history of it tomorrow.
Jessica
Belanger-Mainville and Marbeth Wilson captured several photos from the outing
of the common tern colony and other sightings which are posted below:
**Following
a report from Shawn O’Reilly Tuesday of a little blue heron, Peter and Deana Gadd paid a visit to
Miramichi Marsh on Wednesday morning. They were pleased to find that a little
blue heron had decided to spend the night and was found in exactly the
same spot, on the rail of a small floating wharf at the
Ducks Unlimited Canada sanctuary. This is not the first occasion for this
species to visit Miramichi Marsh. Two summers ago, a juvenile (virtually all
white) spent about 3 weeks in the ponds.
Many of the
usual birds were also in the area Wednesday, but another surprise was the
presence of a lesser yellowlegs, presumably on its southward
migration.
A staff
member from DUC was mowing the trails around the ponds in preparation for a
marsh walk planned for this coming Saturday by Birds Canada and DUC at
10:00 a.m.
**Greg
Rogers comments that for Anne and Leo Mahoney's nest in yesterday’s blog
post, he and Hudson are 90% confident that it is a song sparrow nest, as
they have them in their own yard often and the eggs/nest are very similar.
Brian Stone checked
the nest on Wednesday, and all the eggs are hatched. He saw an adult song
sparrow attending the nest.
(Editor’s
note: the song sparrow can be very social, nesting with humans nearby. The
editor once watched a song sparrow build a nest and raise a family in the midst of the
Canadian Tire gardening section amongst many human onlookers.)
**Jane
LeBlanc was trying to get a photo of the two monarch butterflies in her yard when
she looked down and FINALLY saw her first monarch caterpillar of the year. She
suspects she may have more, but with close to 100 plants, they are hard to
find.
She also had
a Canadian tiger swallowtail and a white admiral butterfly, but it was too
darn hot to stand and try to take photos!
**Sam LeGresley shares photos of an interesting plant he photographed in Moncton. It is a member of the geranium family. and commonly called northern cranesbill. It is fairly easily recognized by its lavender flowers, its long, straight style seed with a ‘beak’, and characteristically large leaf shown in Sam’s photos.
The unusual
characteristic about this plant is that the seed will not germinate unless
exposed to extreme heat consistent with a forest fire. The seed can lie in wait
for a very long time until these conditions are met and then can become very
numerous. We had several burn-overs in New Brunswick last year, so this may be
a plant to watch for.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
