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.
There's a lot of shaking going on this morning. Any day now!
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Becky Gillcash was at
the right place at the right time to watch the impressive display of a male ruffed
grouse for a female this past Saturday. She comments that it was truly
amazing to see and capture a video which can be viewed at the link below:
**Brian Coyle has a pair
of black-capped chickadees, excavating a foam lobster buoy that is
hanging in a tree in his backyard. It was previously excavated and used as a
nighttime burrow by a downy woodpecker a few winters ago. Both the male and
female chickadees take turns renovating the cavity and take great care to carry
the foam debris at least 10 feet away before releasing it, to protect the
secrecy of the nesting site. While the female (Brian believes) is inside the
cavity, the male will perch just a couple of feet away, uttering the
"cheese-burger" song very softly, while the female is constantly
using "baby talk", which sounds just like the fledglings begging for
food. Take a look at the action in the video below:
Upon arriving home from
work on Monday, Brian Coyle heard the song of a blue-headed vireo in his
backyard. It was constantly moving around, but Brian was finally able to get a
few photographs.
**Ray Gauvin photographed some close-ups of his resident northern cardinals. In all the years he has had them, he has yet to see a young one.
**Lisa Morris saw mushroom
clusters on the boulevard part of a city sidewalk. Lisa comments that they looked
like heaps of campfire marshmallows!
(Editor’s note: I suspect
these are mica cap mushrooms, but uncertain at this stage. If correct,
they are in the inky cap group and in a few days will expand and dissolve to
dark ink.)
**Jane LeBlanc was lucky
enough to do a photography workshop at Freeman Patterson's home on the Kingston
peninsula on Sunday. In pouring rain, she saw her first black and white
warbler, as well as a common yellowthroat. On Monday, checking out birding
spots near her home in St. Martins, she had a gray catbird, as well as a
distant Nashville warbler.
**John Inman was not able
to get a photo, but the peregrine falcon is back again this year,
hunting blue jays. It just took one in a neighbour's backyard, then it flew
through the backyard of his home and made a loop in the direction of Grindstone
Island. John wonders if a pair has a nest there.
John had a new white-crowned
sparrow and a flock of about 100 blue jays going by that dropped in to
quickly fuel up on their return journey. A small jumping spider also
cooperated for a photograph.
**Bob Blake in Second North
River had their first male ruby-throated hummingbird on Monday morning. It was
9 days later this year.
**On Monday afternoon,
Brian Stone joined Cathy Simon on a walk behind Crandall University to search
for early spring plant life and anything else the area might have to offer.
Several species of birds were seen and heard (by Cathy, mainly as Brian's eyes
and ears are not as young as they used to be), such as hermit thrush,
golden-crowned kinglet, ruby-crowned kinglet, and others, but none of these
managed to get photographed due to distance and dim lighting conditions. Two hoped-for
targets, an occupied bald eagle nest and a small patch of mayflower
(trailing arbutus), were successfully seen and photographed. False morel
mushrooms were present as well as a patch of tiny orange/brown mushrooms
and newly opening ferns. Honeysuckle was flowering, and a beaver
passed by in the largest pond at the end of the trails. Brian also includes
photos of a leech seen in a pond on Taylor Rd. in Second North River
from last week.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
