Nature Moncton Nature News: May 25 2016

**Paula Lansdale leaves a nice diversity of action from Alma. She has had 3 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS show up to her yard. 1 arrived 2 weeks ago, checked out swallow boxes and left. A pair came by this week and gave swallow boxes a good checkout but seemed to have departed. She had a BALTIMORE ORIOLE, suspecting it to be an immature male, that stayed 4 days enjoying orange sections.

Paula's brother on Forest Hill Dr. in Alma has a nesting pair of PILEATED WOODPECKERS, having made their nest in a 25 yr. old birch tree and he sees them busy coming and going. Her brother also had an INDIGO BUNTING come by his feeder yard on Monday. It visited twice during the day.

**Gordon Rattray got an excellent photo of the BALTIMORE ORIOLE that visited his Albert Mines yard on May 21. It fed at the hummingbird feeder turning its beak up to fresh orange sections. It stayed all day, spending a lot of time in a old apple tree, seeming to forage on buds.

On Tuesday Gordon visited the Hillsborough rail line to note AMERICAN REDSTARTS, YELLOW WARBLERS, CHESTNUT SIDED WARBLERS and a female WILSON'S WARBLER. Three white-tailed deer were enjoying a siesta there.

At Hopewell Cape Rocks a cooperative female MAGNOLIA WARBLER gave a nice photo and the MARSH BLUE VIOLET, our NB provincial emblem, was blooming nicely.

**Susan Richards photographed a male NORTHERN PARULA WARBLER singing with gusto in a spruce tree at the edge of the Memramcook River on Tuesday. She also came across a colourful BALTIMORE CHECKERSPOT butterfly caterpillar in a fen near their Memramcook home.

** Lyn and Fred Dube were gathering fiddleheads recently to note some WILD CUCUMBER seeds and seed case still attached from last fall that sometimes leave this netted enclosure appearance and they took a photo.

**Louise Richard had a neighbour bring her some black morel mushrooms she had found under a crab tree on her property in Bouctouche on Sunday. These are the delectable, edible real thing but are not a common find in NB unfortunately. This is the time of the year they appear usually in burned over areas, but not this case.

**Anna Tucker visited the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Tuesday to note the CANADA GOOSE families, blooming VIOLETS, RED-BERRIED ELDER in bloom and lots of very busy TREE SWALLOWS at that perennial tree swallow hot spot.

**Ina Freeman reports there is a BEAVER colony busy bringing down a stand of birch trees up the Coverdale Rd., just where the sidewalk ends, past Royal Court. Just look down over the bank to see the activity.

**Carmella Melanson and her husband recently visited that birding hotspot Point Pelee in Ontario and shares some great information for others who may make this birding pilgrimage. Carmella expresses it so nicely I'm going to take the liberty of adding Carmella's note to this transcription for folks to use now or save for potential future visits. Thank you Carmella.

“Many New Brunswick birders have made the trip to Point Pelee. My husband and I visited Point Pelee for the first time two weeks ago and would recommend anyone planning a trip there consider making a detour to Carden Alvar which is 1.5 hour (125 km) northeast of Toronto. There is a lot of plant, bird and wildlife diversity to be seen. We were fortunate to see a Blanding’s Turtle (Threatened species) as well a 5 Loggerhead Shrike. The Loggerhead Shrike nest there. There is a lot of information on the Internet on this area. I liked these two websites when preparing for our trip there:

http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/articles.cardenalvar

http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/where-we-work/ontario/our-work/carden_alvar_natural_area.html

Carmella Melanson”

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton