Nature Moncton Nature News: July 9 2016

**Gordon Rattray joined the Botany Club field trip to Shea Lake near Plaster Rock on July 1st, and shares some of the photos of special flowering plants in this special area, to include BOGBEAN [Herbe à canards], ARETHUSA Orchid [Aréthuse bulbeuse], YELLOW LADY'S-SLIPPER Orchid [Cypripède jaune], SHOWY LADY'S-SLIPPER Orchid [Cypripède royal], SMALL ROUND-LEAVED ORCHID [Orchis à feuille ronde], and LAPLAND BUTTERCUP [Renoncule de Lapponie]. The latter two are classed as S1 in New Brunswick’s occurrence rating.

**A point not mentioned yesterday was the phone number at the Johnson’s Mills Nature Conservancy of Canada site. Call (506) 379-6347 any time for a recorded message or to speak to an interpreter.

**It may have been cool but the Butterflies must have been out at Hay Island on Thursday. Aldo Dorio got a photo of the butterflies NORTHERN PEARLY-EYE [Satyre perlé], a WHITE ADMIRAL [Amiral], and RED ADMIRAL [Vulcain]. He also came across a KILLDEER [Pluvier kildir] appearing to be faking injury to distract from a nest. He also got a photo of a YELLOW-STRIPED GRASSHOPPER [Criquet birayé].

**Brian Stone got a photo recently of a Bluet Damselfly [Agrion] with Mites [Acarien] on board. These Mites may or may not be a problem to the Damselfly. They may simply be hitchhiking to get to another place. That seems to be a common scenario with some Mite species which cannot fly. The technical term for the habit is phoresis, with the Mites being phoretic.

**We don’t seem to get many bird-feeding reports in summer. We usually keep only a few feeders up in town, as we are away a lot. The Moncton feeder always has HOUSE FINCH [Roselin familier] visiting. The House Finch is so urbanized it would be rarely seen at a feeder outside of a city or town. It is often confused with the PURPLE FINCH [Roselin pourpré] but is easy to differentiate when used to seeing them. The female House Finch lacks the white superciliary line over the eye of the female Purple Finch, and the male House Finch is very variable, but always with more brown striping on the flank and more brown areas of plumage. The House Finch has a more squared-off tail than the notched tail of the Purple Finch. The House Finch also stays in New Brunswick year-round.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton