Nature Moncton Nature News: Aug 31 2016

**Mike Britton got a photo of a fresh MUSTARD WHITE BUTTERFLY suggesting it to be from a second brood as the mustard white butterfly is one of the early butterflies we see in the spring.

Mike also got a photo of a SANDERLING group that certainly got a few of us taking second looks. They seemed darker than the sanderling groups we are starting to see now, they are often much lighter plumaged in basic winter plumage. Note the dark patch in the fold of the wing, typical of sanderling, the boldness of the white stripe in the wing and the black leading edge. The black and white spotting pattern indicates juveniles which may have lead to the identification challenges of this nice photo.

**Shorebird presence is picking up at the Sackville Waterfowl Park. Louise Nichols visited there on Tuesday to find up to 200 shorebirds, very predominantly YELLOWLEGS but some PECTORAL SANDPIPERS and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS among them, of which Louise got photos.

Louise also found the GREAT EGRET still at the White Birch Ducks Unlimited impoundment basically in the same spot she has been seeing it.

**Pat and I took some grandkids to the Butterfly World at Magnetic Hill on Tuesday, a spot always very interesting to adults as well as children. It was the chrysalis rearing box that really caught my attention. Am adding some photos of the section to show some butterflies emerging as well as some chrysalises stacked up for waiting emergence and to fly out of the enclosure.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton