** Georges Brun spotted a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS [Harle couronné] at
the bend of the Petitcodiac River on Sunday. In one photo, the male appears to
be displaying to the female. Georges also got a distant photo of one of the
PEREGRINE FALCONS [Faucon pèlerin] perched on a big “A” logo at Assomption
Place. Dale Gaskin saw it perched on the eastern-facing logo at 11:15 on Sunday
morning. Georges has also noted more DARK-EYED JUNCOS [Junco ardoisé] around his
urban forest lot recently.
** Louise Nichols came across a flying insect on a snowmobile trail near
her Sackville home, with well over a metre of snow on the ground. It landed on a
post long enough for a quick photo to show that it was a WINTER STONEFLY [perle
d'hiver?] which can be expected now on top of the snow on sunny days.
** Louise Richard reports that their NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD [Moqueur
polyglotte] continues to visit several times a day to feast on fresh purple
grapes they put out for it. They often hear it chirping in the morning, seeming
to let them know that it’s still around. Louise says that she could even hear it
above a snow-blower one day, which did not seem to alarm it at all. They had a
Mockingbird that acted similarly last year which turned out to be a male that
very robustly vocalized as spring came on.
** Brian Stone reports that spring critters were showing up around his
home on Sunday. He had three SPIDERS [araignées], two MILLIPEDES [diplopodes],
one HOUSE FLY [mouche domestique], a MOTH [papillon nocturne](which is still
being studied for identification), and a large BLACK ANT [fourmi noir] that
joined him in the shower. —— recent sunset and Moom photos ere shared.
** Marlene Hickman comments that the BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS [Jaseur boréal]
coming to her yard have taken a real fancy to over-ripe bananas. I have read
that these can be attractive to Bohemian Waxwings. My own troop gobbled down
five bananas that were over-ripe that I had frozen for the occasion, so it’s
safe to say that the literature is correct.
** A bit more information about the CEDAR WAXWINGS [Jaseur d’Amérique]
that Linda Banks had in her Riverview yard on January 20-21, foraging on
flowering crab tree fruit. She reports there were a number of waxwings there
those days but they only concentrated on getting photos of two individuals,
which were indeed Cedar Waxwings, but they were unsure about the make-up of the
rest of the flock.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
