Nature Moncton Nature News: February 27 2015

** Brian Stone captured photos of a SOLAR HALO that Brian comments stayed around most of the day on Thursday. Also, Brian got a photo of one SUN DOG that stayed around very briefly the same day. On Thursday, Brian came across a very seriously foraging male PILEATED WOODPECKER [Grand pic] at Mapleton Park that worked completely oblivious to all admirers who happened to be on the park's trail to see the show.

** Snow conditions must be ideal at the moment for RUFFED GROUSE [Gélinotte huppée] to dive into the snow as a winter strategy. Brian Coyle came across 5 entrance holes of Grouse and noted that most of them had a slight depression in the snow approximately a foot ahead of the entrance hole. He had 5 Grouse flush from the snow in front of him, waiting until he was a few feet away from them before bursting straight up into the air. He did get photos of the sites, but the burst-out was far too sudden and fast to get a photo of them. Brian also came across a mass of AMERICAN CROW [Corneille d'Amérique] feathers on top of the snow but no sign of the carcass. He assumed a Great-horned Owl or other raptor may have taken the Crow as prey.

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca.