Nature Moncton Nature News: March 8 2016

** Wendy Sullivan, Anne Marsch, Elaine Gallant and Louise Nichols did a round of the Moncton Memramcook Sackville and Tantramar Marsh area on Monday to find nice rewards. They noted a flock of approximately 150 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS [Jaseur boréal] near the Moncton Press Club on Assumption Blvd, BALD EAGLES [Pygargue à tote blanche] in Memramcook and on the marsh there, with nice action on the Tantramar seeing NORTHERN HARRIER [Busard Saint-Martin], ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS [Buse pattue] , and the GOLDEN EAGLE [Aigle royal] was the big prize. It was at a distance but Wendy did get a flight photo. They also saw a few SKUNKS [Moufette] out during the day. On February 28, Wendy got a photo of an adult BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tote blanche] on the Demoiselle Creek Bald Eagle nest.

** Georges Brun shares some interesting photos of the activity around the Petitcodiac River - an AMERICAN CROW [Corneille d’Amérique] pair is constructing a nest along the Petitcodiac River walking trail just behind the Shoppers Drug Mart across from the Sears location. A Crow is flying in with nesting material in one photo. Georges noted a pair of ROCK PIGEONS [Pigeon biset] with a misplaced egg on the top carrier of the McMonagle Bridge on Main St. Georges notes the ice banks along the river and creeks have deep perforations and certainly should not be walked on at the moment.

** Roger LeBlanc leaves some nice suggestions for local birding - they have been processing smelt at the fish processing site at the southern end of the new Cocagne Bridge, which is attracting very large numbers of GULLS. It’s a great place to be able to park and appreciate the many gulls in their various year class plumages, but he also points out open water is appearing around sites like the St. Thomas Wharf where EIDER numbers are building and other species soon to appear for sure. He also visited the Bouctouche Lagoon to note a striking pair of BARROW'S GOLDENEYE [Garrot d’Islande] staying separate from the larger group of ducks appearing to be spring bonding and allowing great photo ops in full breeding plumage. Roger suggests this could be happening at Cape Brûlé Lagoon as well.

** Louise Richard points out a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD [Moqueur polyglotte] is back in the tree next door to her on Jones Lake where one has appeared for the last years. We still have not seen one around our nearby feeder yard which has been dropping by for the past 3 years; hopefully they’re still around just finding lots of natural fruit available this winter.

** A comment from Dave Christie that he makes on the Golden Eagle photo sent out yesterday. The faded whitish feathers on the body were a point that really made us question the identity of this bird at first. Dave points out that those areas of paler features are quite typical of sub-adult Golden Eagles. He felt they were faded older feathers about to be molted. A great point to bear in mind when separating sub-adult Golden Eagles and Bald Eagles.

** Brian Stone did a round of the western end of Mapleton Park and back along Briardale Drive on Monday. There were a small group of approximately 30 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS [Jaseur boréal] accompanied by several AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d’Amérique]. It’s spring ! It’s going to be a toss up what Robins are new and which ones have been here all winter at this point. Brian came across a small nest with spider silk as a building material; Vireos use spiderweb but it does not seem to be their pendulant style of nest design, but the size is right. He also saw a lone RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD [Carouge à épaulettes].

** Louise Nicols came across an online nature resource site she found fascinating as an amazing resource as to just how much information is available on the web and shares that url below for naturalists to check on their own.

http://blog.nature.org/science/2016/02/25/7-resources-for-natural-history-nerds/

** Sally Jackson comments she was pleased to have a DOWNY WOODPECKER [Pic mineur] happily working on an upside down suet feeder meant to deter Starlings. There’s a lot of versions of these on the market. I have one called the Suet Palace that Veseys and their dealers market that I have found surprisingly effective.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca
Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton