Nature Moncton Nature
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**John Inman photographed
a male northern flicker, a chipping sparrow in non-breeding plumage,
a lupine plant head in bloom, and a winter moth on the window at his home.
(Editor’s note: a chipping
sparrow in nonbreeding plumage in New Brunswick in the off-season can be easily
confused with some other sparrows. The dark eyeline continuing right to the bill from the eye is a feature unique to the chipping
sparrow and helps with ID.
It is also very late in
the season to see a lupine flower head in full bloom.)
**With the very mild night
on Thursday night, Gabriel Gallant heard 2-3 spring peepers calling from a
swampy area near his home in Sainte Marie de Kent when he stepped outside
around 4:30 am.
(Editor’s note: Spring
peepers go to water only in the spring to breed. During the rest of the season,
they are landlubbers, and some individuals will be heard vocalizing in trees or
almost anywhere. It sounds very different when one individual vocalizes
versus the spring chorus of hundreds in breeding groups.)
**More flying squirrel
comments:
Bob Blake feeds peanut
butter and sunflower seeds to flying squirrels nightly. They have had as many
as five at a time; he's not sure how many there are now. They are always waiting nearby
for their treat; Bob has been buzzed over the head many times as they glide in
and land right at the peanut butter.
** This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 November 7 – November 14
I like to observe the sky at least once every day that I can, even if it is
just for a few minutes. Often that entails observing the Sun through filtered
telescopes and sketching the sunspots and prominences in my logbook. At night
if I don’t feel like taking out a telescope I grab binoculars to perhaps see a
comet or Mercury, or more often I tour the brighter star clusters. The
mid-autumn constellations are home to many star clusters within easy reach of
binoculars.
I usually start with the best open cluster, the Pleiades (M45) in the shoulder
of Taurus the Bull, and focus the binos on its stars. The large V-shaped Hyades
cluster, catalogued as Melotte 25, is nearby forming the face of the bull. It
is anchored by orange Aldebaran at one corner, but that star is not really part
of the cluster because it is less than half the distance to the others. The brightest
star in nearby Perseus, Mirfak, is part of a group of stars called Melotte 20
that resembles a miniature version of the constellation Draco in binoculars.
Perseus also holds the star cluster M34, which appears as a fuzzy patch in
binos due to its distance. Between Perseus and Cassiopeia is a scenic Double
Cluster (Melotte 13/14). Follow a string of stars from there to a large, dimmer
cluster called Stock 2 or the Strongman Cluster.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:08 and sunset will occur at 4:56,
giving 9 hours, 48 minutes of daylight (7:11 and 5:03 in Saint John). Next
Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:18 and set at 4:48, giving 9 hours, 30 minutes
of daylight (7:21 and 4:55 in Saint John).
The slim crescent Moon makes a close grouping with Venus and Spica this
Saturday morning and it is new on Monday. Mars really puts the moves on
Jupiter this week, decreasing their separation by more than half as both edge
toward Regulus in Leo. Venus is just to the right of Spica in Virgo this
weekend, rising before 5 am, and by next weekend it will be above Spica. Late
in the week Mercury rises before 6 about two binocular widths to the lower left
of Venus. Saturn is at its best for telescope observing in the
mid-evening. The North Taurid meteor shower peaks this Thursday, adding a
few extra shootings stars that morning and Friday.
The Saint John Astronomy Club meets this Saturday at 7 pm. Tune in to the
Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the Facebook page or YouTube site of
Astronomy by the Bay. The Fredericton Astronomy Club meets in the UNB
Forestry-Earth Sciences building on Tuesday at 7 pm.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
