Nature Moncton Nature News: Nov 18 2016

NATURE MONCTON'S NATURE LINE, November 18, 2016 (Friday)

Please advise editor at nelson@nb.sympatico.ca if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check into the website at www.naturemoncton.com

Edited by : Nelson Poirier nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Transcript by: Louise Nichols nicholsl@eastlink.ca

Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

** Thanks to Fundy National Park interpreter, Denis Doucet, Carmella Melanson was with a group that had an amazing experience at the park last Monday watching BEAVER [Castor] at work. Carmella shares some nice photos of the action.

** PILEATED WOODPECKERS [Grand pic] are known for their taste for fruit in the fall. Clarence Cormier had a female Pileated Woodpecker join the up to 100 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS [Jaseur boréal] foraging on the same Mountain Ash crop. Clarence's EVENING GROSBEAK [Gros-bec errant] group arrived on schedule on Thursday, but to a completely different menu, not going to the feeder and water bath as they had been, but focusing instead on the seed samaras of Manitoba Maple. A few days ago, they were focused on the feeder and bird bath only.

** On PILEATED WOODPECKERS [Grand pic], I was in woods in back of Lower Coverdale on Thursday and heard Pileated Woodpeckers in the distance. A short recorded call brought them both in pronto to see who was in their space.

** Dave Christie comments on observations in his Mary's Point area on Wednesday and Thursday. He has two AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS [Bruant hudsonien] in his feeder yard and was surprised on Wednesday morning to hear one actively singing. He's used to hearing them sing in March or April, but does not ever recall hearing them sing in November. On Thursday morning, a flock of approximately 40 AMERICAN ROBINS [Merle d'Amérique] lit in Spruce Trees, seemingly for a migratory rest when they spotted an already mostly harvested Mountain Ash tree in his yard to suddenly drop down and glean it to the very last berry. On Thursday, he spotted a flock of approximately 100 CANADA GEESE [Bernache du Canada] resting on the high-tide flooded shoreline on the north side of the bay. He took photos to look for any tag-alongs and on checking them later, found 3 Geese in the group significantly smaller that made him wonder about Cackling Geese which he hopes to check out today with a scope.

** It was a special day on Thursday for the GRAY JAY [Mésangeai du Canada]. Gabriel Gallant shares a photo of a trio he captured in 2012 with a trail camera in a woods feeder area. They are often seen in groups of 3 in the winter as the adults usually allow one young of the year to travel with them. I was fortunate to see Gray Jays in the woods on Thursday and was reminded how special they are and I expect we'll be seeing them featured significantly in the future. I expect my Gray Jay carving original by Jim Edsall just went up in value somewhat on Thursday and may get an even more prominent spot on the mantle.

** Anna Tucker submits a few image observations she made on Thursday in the city. A flowering crab tree is flush with clinging fruit in Victoria Park which from recent Waxwing and Pine Grosbeak reports will look very welcome. Anna also comments on the seemingly abundant RING-NECKED PHEASANTS [Faisan de Colchide] on the Petitcodiac waterfront trail this year, possibly due to the mild winter last season. A male MALLARD [Canard colvert] posed off the trail to nicely show its white collar and rich brown chest of full breeding plumage.

** Judy Marsh comments on a surprise incident. She stopped by the Sackville Waterfowl Park tourist bureau craft shop to find a bright green t-shirt on the Acadian forest featuring the trees Stephen Clayden mentioned in the Nature Moncton presentation on Tuesday night. Sounds like a great stocking stuffer.

** Aldo Dorio captured a photo of a co-operative SANDERLING [Bécasseau sanderling] on the Hay Island coast line on Thursday, along with a tree-top GREAT BLUE HERON [Grand Héron] surveying the area.

** Brian Stone had a 3.5 cm long caterpillar motoring across his living room floor on Wednesday evening. It is the caterpillar stage of the LARGE YELLOW UNDERWING MOTH [Fiancée]. This was introduced to the Maritime region in approximately 1979 from Europe, and has now spread east and west. It overwinters in the larval caterpillar stage. It is one that can be seen moving about in winter thaws on ground beside snow banks and can saunter into garages and outbuildings. But this one chose the comfort of Brian's living room floor.

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

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, November 19 – November 26

Open clusters are groups of relatively young (usually less than 500 million years old) stars that formed from the same vast cloud of gas and dust. The Pleiades cluster is seen easily with the naked eye because it is fairly close at 440 light years distance (mind you, a light year is 9.5 trillion kilometres). Many others are ten times farther and require binoculars or a telescope to be seen at all, usually as a hazy patch with some individual stars. The winter sky is dominated by the outer spiral arms of our Milky Way galaxy, areas where open clusters abound.

The constellations of Auriga and Gemini are situated above Orion’s head. Within their boundaries are four open clusters that are included in Charles Messier’s 18th century catalogue of fuzzy objects that resemble comets but aren’t. They are within reach of most binoculars when the sky is clear and fairly dark. Look above the foot of Castor at the bottom right of Gemini for M35; a string of stars can lead you there. Next, move to the middle of the left side of pentagonal Auriga. M36 lies just inside the pentagon and M37 just outside, about a binocular width apart. Further inside, even closer to M36, is hazy M38 midway between the upper left and lower right stars of the pentagon. Sometimes I follow a string of stars curving down the side from M37 to a group of stars that resembles the Big Dipper.

Later in the evening when Canis Major is higher, look a little below Sirius for the open cluster M41. Sirius is the night sky’s brightest star and the closest naked-eye star we can see from New Brunswick. The three stars of Orion’s Belt point down toward Sirius. If you look below the belt at Orion’s sword with binoculars you will see a hazy patch called the Orion Nebula, which is number 42 in Messier’s catalogue. This nebula is one of those vast clouds where stars are forming. With M42 at the bottom of your binocular view, can you see the group of stars above that forms the Running Man?

This Week in the Solar System

Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:26 am and sunset will occur at 4:43 pm, giving 9 hours, 17 minutes of daylight (7:29 am and 4:50 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:36 am and set at 4:38 pm, giving 9 hours, 2 minutes of daylight (7:38 am and 4:45 pm in Saint John).

The Moon is at third quarter on Monday morning when it passes below Regulus, the brightest star in Leo the Lion. Next Friday morning it is lower left of Jupiter. Mercury passes within a binocular field below Saturn midweek, setting a half hour after sunset and a half hour before Saturn. It will be a full magnitude (2.5x) brighter than the ringed planet. This weekend Venus slides within a binocular field below the globular cluster M22 in Sagittarius. Mars resembles a solitary orange star within Capricornus and sets around 9:45 pm. Bright Jupiter stands a third of the way up in the southeastern sky an hour before sunrise.

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

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton