Nature Moncton Nature News: April 19 2016

** The Nature Moncton April meeting that has been announced the past few days is on tonight at 7:00 at the Mapleton Rotary Pavilion across from Cabela's with an expected action-packed meeting with Mac Dunfield from Duck's Unlimited as presenter followed by sightings of nature activity from the last month and chatter on them, other activities of interest from Nature Moncton to come, what's happening in the area and more.

** Georges Brun saw a pair of HARLEQUIN DUCKS [Arlequin plongeur] on Sunday morning in the Petitcodiac River at the mouth of Hall's Creek. They shared their rock for about 20 minutes, then gradually moved up Hall's Creek as the tide rose. It seems surprising to hear of this duck species at that location. Georges also noted a few MALLARD [Canard colvert] males in seasonal combat. One ended up with quite a gash across its head. The SMELTS are coming up the Petitcodiac River system at the moment, and Georges watched a few gulls at the mouth of Hall's Creek that felt the same smelt was the best haute-cuisine of the day and ended up in a major battle. A BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tête blanche] sat on a rock nearby waiting for its potential opportunity. Georges also found the moon just too good of a show not to catch some of the nicely seen many craters.

** Julie Singleton reported the first appearance of MASON BEES around her Mason Bee houses in Taymouth, near Fredericton on Sunday. Hopefully all those boxes made at the Nature Moncton workshop on Saturday are up, or soon will be, to accommodate patrons. Julie shares a photo of a Mason Bee from Sunday that will give a chance for folks to know what to expect. They're dark in colour, about the size of a small house fly. Julie and her neighbours have had Mason Bee houses up attracting the bees regularly. Adults will be emerging from the mud nests in the holes over the next weeks, and new nests will be built. Note the one and a half inch hardware cloth over the face of the house in Julie's photo. She installed that two inches from the front of the holes as Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers were invading the Mason Bee nest. This wire mesh seemed to stop the problem.

** Jamie Burris captured some nice photos of a WOOD FROG [Grenouille des bois] in a pond near Dawson Settlement on Monday, a frog that we can expect to hear a lot from over the next weeks. HOODED MERGANSER [Harle couronné] were on the pond as well.

** Louise Nichols shares some of the action she enjoyed on a visit to the Point Lepreau Observatory of some birds we seldom get to see. A female KING EIDER [Eider à tête grise] has been lingering around the point of the observatory for a time now. Louise got photos of it along with a pair of HARLEQUIN DUCKS [Arlequin plongeur]. It is a much more likely spot to see Harlequin Ducks than where Georges Brun saw the species on Sunday in the Petitcodiac River at Hall's Creek. Louise also got a HORNED GREBE [Grèbe esclavon] in breeding plumage. We get to see this species often offshore in the winter plumage, but the window to see them in breeding plumage before they leave is short. A lone SNOW BUNTING [Plectrophane des neiges] posed near the observatory.

** Dave Christie reports that Monday seemed to be AMERICAN KESTREL [Crécerelle d'Amérique] arrival day in his area. Dave comments he had often in past years spotted the first Kestrel at the end of March or early April, but this year the first one he spotted was one that went zipping by his home on Monday, seemingly in migration. A little later in the day as he drove to Riverside Albert, he spotted three Kestrels on utility wires in the four kms between Harvey and Riverside Albert. Also a female NORTHERN HARRIER [Busard Saint-Martin] was hunting in the fields around his home on Monday. Dave was also listening for amphibian vocalization in the evenings and Monday was the first he heard from his yard pond where two SPRING PEEPERS [Rainette crucifère] and one WOOD FROG [Grenouille des bois] announced themselves. This happens to be a 6-foot deep pond, so shallower ponds would probably be active earlier.

** Brian Stone got an excellent photo of a lunar halo Monday night that surrounded the moon to include the planet Jupiter that was in conjunction at the time.

** A heads up for the next Nature Moncton field trip which is scheduled for this coming Saturday, April 23rd, to check out all the new arrivals coming to lower Albert County. This will be an all-day outing starting at 8:00 a.m. and led by Norm Belliveau who knows the hot spots in this area so well. Norm has led this outing before and it has always turned out to be a special spring renewal event not to miss. More details will be at tonight’s and coming out later in the week as to meeting sites.

My first female Brown-headed Cowbird of the season dropped by our feeder yard on Monday and posed for a photo to show how conservatively dressed the female is compared to her male counterpart. I often get messages as to what bird species this is in the spring as it is so plain and dissimilar from the male.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton