Nature Moncton Nature
News
Clicking
on the photos enlarges them for closer observation.
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
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.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**The first
Wednesday evening walk of the season is on tonight!
**June 17 Wednesday Evening Walk
Location: Irishtown Nature Park
Start time:
6:30 PM
Hosts: Matt
Nguyen and Cynthia Doucet
Starting
Location: Parking Lot P2.
Directions:
Irishtown Nature Park is located north on Elmwood Drive. From TCH Route 2, Exit
459A onto Elmwood Drive (Route 115). Turn north and travel 1.6 km to the sign
for the park on your right, and a main parking lot. Continue on the short
access road past the first parking lot and find the second P2 lot. Gather near the board posting the park map.
Description:
Irishtown Nature Park provides woodland trails, and is a favourite spot for
birders and botanists. Our walk will take us along the Hawk footpath, the
Bouctouche Line, and the Scout footpath, for about 2 km. The footpaths are
sometimes uneven, a mix of gravel and dirt. The Bouctouche Line is part of the
Reservoir dam system, and is narrow but smooth.
Bug spray
and protective clothing are recommended. Don’t forget to wear your name tag
too!
All are
welcome, Nature Moncton members or not.
**The Nature Moncton BBQ on Tuesday night was enjoyed by all and everyone had lots of good food. Many nice photo slideshows were shown, displaying the efforts of some of Nature Moncton's excellent photographers.
**On Sunday morning, Brian
Stone joined Cathy Simon on her marsh monitoring outing at Wilson Marsh. Brian
did his best to help with the monitoring, but Cathy did the work and spotted
most of the species recorded, which came to a total of 41. The first species
noted was a Virginia rail that cooperated nicely by coming right out on
the path beside them without any enticement to do so. It came out, went back
in, and came out again over and over for a 15 minute time period and
one time it had some type of food item that it swallowed while they watched. An
exciting sighting was a large bird perched in a tree at the far side of the
first pond. Cathy said it was a heron, but Brian said no, it's a bittern. Then
it flew and passed overhead for some high vertical photos and ... Cathy was
right, green heron! Sometimes Brian is happy to be wrong.
Another special sighting
was a pair of otters in the pond near the gazebo. Cathy spotted them
first and got excited when they turned out not to be muskrats. A kingfisher
posed nicely on a nest box and hovered nearby for a bit. The Canada geese
families calmly herded their growing goslings away from the passing marsh
monitors and kept them mostly together in large groups. Tree swallows
were nesting in some of the remaining dead tree stumps that survived the
winter, and swamp sparrows were perching close enough for a few photos. More
marsh wrens were calling than Brian ever remembers hearing, and
occasionally one would pop up into view but so briefly that no photos were
taken.
Some of the other species
photographed were gray catbird, immature common grackle, northern
flicker, Baltimore oriole, cedar waxwing, hairy woodpecker,
a couple of the many pied-billed grebes, and one of the large numbers of
northern yellow warblers.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
