Nature Moncton Nature News: April 27, 2016

**Wendy Sullivan got to see the BLACK-THROATED SPARROW in Aulac on Tuesday morning. Wendy was lucky enough to get a photo of it with a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW and a photo of it solo. Wendy got these photos just before 7am on Tuesday. Bev Schnider got there just after 3pm and saw the black-throated sparrow quickly to also get a nice photo. The bird was still there as of Wednesday morning

**George Sinclair reports seeing a LYNX on the highway between FNP boundary and the four lane highway last Thursday afternoon. He thought it was a small deer at first due to the very long legs of the lynx. A few days later he noted 6 SNOWSHOE HARE in the same area, so could well be the attraction to the lynx. The lynx is not common in southeastern NB.

**Don McPhail found 2 CASPIAN TERNS at the Rothesay lagoon on Tuesday. Richard Blaquiere was there at 5pm and got some documentary photos. Richard comments that CASPIAN TERNS never seem to linger very long in that area.

**Brian Stone got a photo of a nice solar halo at noon on Tuesday. Brian shows 2 photos taken minutes apart that show the quick change in the hazy cloud around it.

**Bob Blake comments he now has 30+ PURPLE FINCH coming to his Second North River feeder yard, really going through black-oiled sunflower seed with many male and now female RED WINGED BLACKBIRDS.

**Brian Stone's sister Nancy, captured a photo of a male MERLIN on prey, she thought was a MOURNING DOVE. This seems like big prey for a MERLIN however I saw a MERLIN take a NORTHERN FLICKER last Sunday.

**Louise Nichols gave me an object last week that appeared to be an empty moth cocoon. It measured 2.5 cm long X 1.5cm wide. A consult with Jim Edsall suggested to be the empty cocoon of a POLYPHEMUS MOTH. This is probably a year old specimen that stayed in tact as the adult would have emerged approximately June 2015. A photo is attached.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton