** Marlene Hickman comments on observations of a flock of about 30
BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS [Jaseur boréal] along the Salisbury Road on Tuesday. The
bright sun highlighted their beautiful colours, even in flight. Marlene says she
wasn’t aware of these beautiful birds in New Brunswick previous to last winter,
but they seem to be everywhere this winter and last.
** To update on Jim Wilson's SWAMP MILKWEED [Asclépiade incarnata]
initiative. The Swamp Milkweed seedlings that were given out at last year’s
Festival of Nature were from Jim, and the COMMON MILKWEED [Herbe à coton]
seedlings were courtesy of Kathy White, who lives near Fredericton. Jim has
actually built a machine to extract the Swamp Milkweed seeds from the pods and
the fluff, and suggests that he will likely make an effort to collect Common
Milkweed seeds this coming fall. There is a significant amount of Common
Milkweed growing wild in parts of New Brunswick but Swamp Milkweed is not nearly
as common, as it is not invasive, and is ideal for home yard planting to
attract MONARCH [Monarque] butterflies. Jim has offered to get some packets of
Swamp Milkweed seed to be available with easy instructions at the Nature Moncton
meeting on March 15. It may be interesting to note an incident from last summer.
John Foster and Jane Aikman have Swamp Milkweed growing in their yard in
Moncton, and BLACK SWALLOWTAILS [Papillon de céleri] were nectaring on it last
summer.
** Brian Stone and I visited the Tantramar Marsh on Tuesday. A surprise
was the sheer lack of raptor action. We did not see a single ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK
[Buse pattue] while travelling the Anderson Marsh Road, High Marsh Road, and the
Goose Lake Road to Midgic. They had to be there somewhere but sure weren’t out
hunting. A few BALD EAGLES [Pygargue à tête blanche] were seen. Julie Pellerin
and Richard Léger had just observed two NORTHERN HARRIERS [Busard Saint-Martin]
but we did not see them either.
A flock of SNOW BUNTINGS [Bruant des neiges] was very much about. They were
acting differently from what we had seen before this winter. They were in the
tilled fields of remaining stubble of corn, and were creeping low among the
stalks, using the camouflage to full advantage. Their colours are
brightening.
A BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tête blanche] flight photo suggests it to be one
just into its first adult year, with remnants of dark brown on the tail and
head.
We visited the SKUNK CABBAGE [Tabac du diable / Chou puant] patch along
Route 960 and found many plants emerging, many up to 8 inches in height, but
none were open yet and they didn’t seem to be melting the remnant snow around
them, for some reason.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
BALD EAGLE. MAR. 08, 2016. BRIAN STONE
SNOW BUNTING 01. MAR. 08, 2016. BRIAN STONE
