Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 29 2016

**We normally have only two windows of opportunity to have FOX SPARROWS [Bruant fauve] drop by our feeder yards, being on their migration to the north of us in the spring, and as they migrate south in the fall. Lois Budd had one drop by her feeder yard near Salisbury on Wednesday for a brief refuelling visit. This specimen appears to have some albinism showing up in the tail with a lack of pigment in some feathers.

**Jamie Burris captured a nice photo of a BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tête blanche] surveying its surroundings from a dead WHITE PINE [Pin blanc] tree in Stoney Creek on Friday.

**Leon Gagnon is a summer resident at Wilson’s Point on Miscou Island. He shares some photographs of activity around his summer home and Miscou. He had a pair of EASTERN KINGBIRDS [Tyran tritri] arrive on May 31st. He saw a COMMON NIGHTHAWK [Engoulevent d'Amérique] for the first time in his area, to photograph it and also the insects it was hawking, which turned out to be reproductive ANTS [Fourmi] in their flying stage. Leon points out BALD EAGLES [Pygargue à tête blanche] are now common in his area as of five years ago, and will see adults and juveniles almost every day in August and September. He has seen an OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER [Moucherolle à côtés olive] regularly the last few summers around a bog near Wilson’s Point and assumes it is nesting. The Olive-sided Flycatcher is a species that is seen in declining numbers. Another interesting observation is three individual COMMON REDPOLLS [Sizerin flammé] on August 31st in the Lake Frye area of Miscou. This is the first time that he has seen Redpolls in Miscou during the summer. It would be interesting to know if these birds could have potentially bred in New Brunswick. He has heard other reports of Redpolls in the Ecoumene Gardens area this past summer, which I understand is in Saint-Damien, Quebec.

**Aldo Dorio is noting AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d'Amérique] very much enjoying the abundant crop of WINTERBERRY HOLLY [Houx verticillé] at Hay Island at the moment. The Winterberry Holly that we often see right now, as the leaves fall to see the clinging red berries, seems to be not particularly abundant this year, but there is lots at Hay Island. Also, Aldo got a photo of a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER [Pluvier argenté] in basic plumage and a DUNLIN [Bécasseau variable] on the Hay Island coastline, both of which are shorebirds that often tarry late in New Brunswick before migrating.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton