**Louise Nichols had a Flying Squirrel [Polatouche] visiting one of
her bird feeders on Friday night. It was especially interesting to
watch it make its glide across the yard to a tree when it was
accidentally interrupted. Always a special moment to see this unique
animal “flying”.
**Nice to hear of a NORTHERN GOSHAWK [Autour des palombes]. Paul
Langelaan was able to get a nice five-minute observation of this
raptor as it made a pass through his Second North River yard to perch
in a nearby tree for close-up perusal.
**Steve Marshall in the Harvey Corner area near Dave Christie's place
was surprised to see four SKUNKS [Mouffette] out and about on Friday
morning when he was driving to Riverside-Albert. The weather
conditions at the moment do not seem conducive for Skunks to be
travelling in this number, but they were indeed checking out the
landscape. As a coincidence, Brian Stone and I noted that
distinct scent while driving home on Friday night as well.
**Georges Brun had a BLUE JAY [Geai bleu] visit his urban forest yard
that left him wondering what was going on with the striped frontal
plumage. Hard to say for sure really what was going on, but it may be
the Blue Jay had just taken a bath to get the softer frontal feathers
lined up and not dried yet, or maybe even got into an oily substance.
Any other comments appreciated. Georges has also had a very close-up
encounter with a male RING-NECKED PHEASANT [Faisan de Colchide] in
his
urban forest backyard; they are getting very bold at the moment.
Georges also is noting a lot of Gulls [Goéland] along the river at
the
moment over the past seven to ten days that are dipping their heads
in
the water and lifting their wings. I wonder if there's any particular
fish movement in the river at the moment? It seems early for SMELTS
[Éperlan], but maybe not.
**Brian Stone and I made a pilgrimage to end up on Deer Island on
Friday. The trophy of the day was to be the TUFTED TITMOUSE [Mésange
bicolore] which gave lots of observations at the home of Colombe
Boudreau at civic number 1245 in Cummings Cove. My trophy was to see
the bird going about its day, but Brian's trophy, as could be
anticipated, was a photo. The bird
gave us lots of observation moments but was always in somewhat of a
hurry. Brian got photos, but not up to his demanding standards. A run
from Moncton to Deer Island gives so many distractions and so many
amazing spots that it's very hard to squeeze it all in between dawn
and dusk. There were many seabirds in the coves and harbours, and all
the winter species at the moment, including LONG-TAILED DUCKS
[Harelde
kakawi], BUFFLEHEAD [Petit Garrot], Grebes [Grèbe], GREAT CORMORANT
[Grand Cormoran], winter-plumaged Guillemots [Guillemot] and one in
complete summer breeding plumage already, Eiders [Eider], and lots
more. I was surprised at the number of SNOWSHOE HARE [Lièvre
d'Amérique] roadkills. I wonder if the breeding season has them
wandering on to roadways.
**I'm sorry the Tufted Titmouse and all stopped the delivery of this
week's Sky at a Glance yesterday. There was so much on Friday night's
sky show, but it'll still be there the first clear night.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
BLUE JAY.MAR 11 2015 GEORGES BRUN
RED-NECKED PHEASANT.MAR 11 2015 GEORGES BRUN
TUFTED TITMOUSE
. MAR. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
TUFTED TITMOUSE. MAR. 13, 2015. BRIAN STONE
