Nature Moncton Nature
News
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**A very special thank you
to Gwen Clark from Birds Canada for giving a very interesting
presentation to Nature Moncton on Tuesday night on marshlands and wetlands, elaborating on the
very significant role they play as homes to a variety of wildlife and also the role
they play in human welfare.
Gwen also explained how we, as naturalists, can play a role as citizen scientists to monitor and care for
the health of wetlands.
This excellent
presentation was recorded and will be available in a few days for those who
missed it or want to hear it again.
**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.
The male and female take
turns incubating the eggs almost constantly now. The female is on the nest most
of the time, but the male always seems to be ready to give her short breaks allowing her to leave the precious cargo.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Nature Moncton was
represented at two events on the weekend. Fred Richards attended an event
on Saturday, April 18th, at Saint-Anselme Park in Dieppe. Les
Ami.e.s de la Nature du sud-est du N-B set up a display table and a workshop
featuring the making of bee hotels. Fred helped with the assembly of the
bee hotels, and the event was well-organized and well-attended. The
families that came and made one of the hotels appeared to have a good
time.
The second event was held
on Sunday, April 19th at Resurgo Place in Moncton as part of their
Discovery Labs Series. Les Ami.e.s members, Marc Lanteigne and Richard
Perron joined Marbeth Wilson and Fred and Sue Richards to meet visitors to
Resurgo and talk about our clubs and show them some things of interest.
There were scats, skulls, and tracks on display (borrowed from Atlantic
Wildlife Institute) and a display of nests brought by Les Ami.e.s.
Some photos are attached.
**Georges Brun saved a few
screenshots of the peregrine falcons as they went about their day on
April 16. A song sparrow pair has returned to the Landing by
Château Moncton as they have every year for some time.
**Jane LeBlanc was sitting
in her yard trying to photograph a fresh-looking white-throated sparrow
when something else caught her eye. It was a palm warbler, something she
doesn't ever see in her yard.
**Yvette Richard
photographed an albinistic/leucistic American robin looking very sharp with its
white adornments.
**John Inman updates daily
arrivals at his Harvey feeder yard to include an evening grosbeak, a few
more yellow-rump warblers, several savannah sparrows showing up, and loads of northern flickers going through.
**When Jessica
Belanger-Mainville heard the report of a pair of harlequin ducks on the
Petitcodiac River in Dieppe on Tuesday morning, she knew she had to go visit
them. She was able to see them; they were taking a nap. She took a few pictures
of the many American goldfinch in the nearby trees. After that, she
heard a report of a ruddy duck at Jones Lake in Moncton and decided to
go see it. She found it with the help of Marbeth Wilson. She also saw many ring-necked
ducks, a pair of wood ducks, a muskrat, a song sparrow,
a female black scoter, and a black-capped chickadee working in a
cavity to build its nest. It was a very birdy day!
**On Monday, Brian Stone
checked out two areas and found a bit more activity than he had over recent
weeks. At Highland Park he got photos of one of a pair of ospreys that
were fishing in the ponds, and that one eventually flew off with a fairly
large bullhead fish, maybe a catfish of some type. He noticed at least a hundred tree
swallows zipping around above the ponds searching for insect snacks. A pair
of blue-winged teals and a shiny, bright common grackle joined a
recently arrived pied-billed grebe in the photo lineup. Trout lily
leaves were up in large masses, waiting for their flowers to bloom in the
coming days.
At Brian's second stop on
the Taylor Rd. in Second North River, Brian was surrounded by the loud calls of
wood frogs in most of the ponds and got a few photos of several of them
in a mating group consisting of four frogs very closely huddled together. He made
a short video of their sounds to accompany the photos. The many coltsfoot
flowers lining the side of the road were being pollinated by small, wild
bees that Brian suspects were a variety of mining bee.
Before leaving the house
for his Monday outings, Brian finally found out which of the several possible
culprits was tearing up his front lawn regularly and leaving a big mess
behind. A large and bold common raven was seen and photographed,
excavating chunks of lawn in search of whatever tasty morsels might lie below -- a handsome and intelligent bird just doing what it needed to get by, but oh, what a poor lawn service it supplied.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
