Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 28 2016

** Brian Stone and Danny Sullivan visited the Dobson trail Thursday afternoon to note many mushrooms still fruiting and some past their prime. They noticed a lot of the evergreen plant, CREEPING SNOWBERRY. This plant has a small white berry that is edible with a very pleasant flavour. They also found a bird's nest that was approximately 7 feet up a sapling with a heavy component of Old Man's Beard Lichen that is suspected to be a CEDAR WAXWING [Jaseur d'Amérique] nest. A photo of it is shown from under and from the inside when the sapling was bent over. They re-checked a suspected spider nest photographed last week to find a powdery mass in it that is more suggestive of it having been a fungi, possibly one of the slime molds. So that photo is reattached today.

** Aldo Dorio photographed SANDERLINGS [Bécasseau sanderling] and a DUNLIN [Bécasseau variable] on the coastline of Hay Island on Thursday, and also a pair of male HOODED MERGANSERS [Harle couronné] seemingly doing a synchronized swim at Tabusintac.

** Out in the deep woods area off Pine Glen Rd. on Thursday, while I was sitting quietly for a few hours, it was a pleasant moment to have a few GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS [Roitelet à couronne dorée] come up close to see what the stranger in their territory was, and I also watched a BROWN CREEPER [Grimpereau brun] go from tree to tree, starting at the bottom and spiralling up as it gleaned for insect life as Brown Creepers ritually do. I noticed it seemed to favour Hemlock trees. Two or three GRAY JAYS [Mésangeai du Canada] did a stake out as well, possibly hoping a sandwich may appear. As many have recently reported, I also noticed a flock of about 20 AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d'Amérique] in an open area where Huckleberries were still clinging to their branches. A photo is attached of the Brown Creeper, but it was constantly on the move in the poor light.

** This week's Sky-at-a-Glance is added to this transcription, courtesy of Curt Nason.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, October 29 – November 5
Venus is attracting attention in the southwest as night settles in,
bright and low enough that you don’t have to look up. When planets and
bright stars are low they can catch the eyes of people who seldom pay
any attention to the sky. In some cases these folks spend much of their
time in a city where the night sky is blocked by buildings and washed
out by light pollution. When they do see something bright that doesn’t
move like an airplane, the idea of it being a star or planet doesn’t
enter their mind. This is the source of some, or perhaps many, UFO reports.

In the early evening, in addition to Venus, we now have Arcturus low in
the northwest and Capella low in the northeast, the second and fourth
brightest stars seen from New Brunswick. Fomalhaut holds the bright-star
position in the southeast but it isn’t quite so eye-grabbing. When
bright stars are low they can play tricks on our eyes, and I have
personal experience with this from my much younger years. At low
altitudes starlight shines through a thicker layer of our atmosphere,
enhancing twinkling and even making the stars appear to move back and
forth, like they are hovering. Some of that motion is generated by our
brain. Have you ever seen a satellite look like it was weaving among the
stars rather than following a straight line? Optical illusion. Twinkling
is more noticeable with bright stars, and the atmosphere acts like a
prism to make them flash different colours. Watch them some evening this
week. They aren’t alien tourists, they are stars treating us with tricks.

This Week in the Solar System

Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:56 am and sunset will occur at
6:09 pm, giving 10 hours, 13 minutes of daylight (8:00 am and 6:15 pm in
Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 8:06 am and set at 5:59
pm, giving 9 hours, 53 minutes of daylight (8:10 am and 6:06 pm in Saint
John).

The new Moon occurs on Sunday and on Wednesday the crescent makes a
pretty triangle with Saturn below and Venus to the lower left. Look for
Antares below Saturn, lining up with the planet and the Moon. The very
early Beatles called themselves Johnny and the Moondogs for a brief
time, so here they are: John is the Moon, Venus is Paul, George is in
their shadows as Antares, and of course Saturn is Ringo. Having passed
Saturn, Venus now begins to chase Mars into midwinter. Mercury is
currently out of sight and Jupiter has the morning sky to itself.

The Saint John Astronomy Club (RASC NB) meets at the Rockwood Park
Interpretation Centre in Saint John on October 29 at 7 pm. Join RASC NB
at Moncton High School on November 5 for a series of astronomy talks
beginning at 11 am, including one in the afternoon by world-famous
amateur astronomer David Levy. He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,
which crashed into Jupiter in 1994.

Questions? Contact me at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton