Nature Moncton Nature News: Dec 12 2016

** It looks like the weather this week will give us a break on Tuesday night. The December MEETING OF NATURE MONCTON will take place Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m., at the Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge, across from Cabela’s. It will be a special presentation on what is happening and has happened over the past six years on the Petitcodiac River. It will come as a double bill, with three presenters: Edmund Redfield with data for six years on fish populations, no doubt with some surprises; Tim Robinson will update what has happened with re-introducing the gene banked-endangered inner Bay of Fundy salmon, from unique rearing facilities; and Christine McLaughlin from the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance will show what has been done to make many culverts fish passable. This program has been a while in the planning and will have a lot of new information to share about the river at our doorsteps. A complete write-up is attached below.

NATURE MONCTON DECEMBER MEETING

Tuesday, December 13 at 7:00 PM

Guest speakers: Edmund Redfield, Tim Robinson, and Christine McLaughlan

Place: MAPLETON PARK ROTARY LODGE (across from Cabela’s)

Title: The Petitcodiac River..What is happening now

The December 13 meeting will consist of a “double bill” presentation on the Petitcodiac River where there has been some very intense and interesting activity happening in the past five years that many of us may not be aware of.

Edmund Redfield and Tim Robinson will give a presentation in the first part of the evening on the Fish recovery project on the Petitcodiac River.

Edmund Redfield and his assistants from Fort Folly First Nation and Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance have maintained a live fish trap at the head of tide for seven years from May to November and have recorded every fish they have seen. They now have seven years of records that are very revealing as to what changes have occurred.

Tim Robinson is manager of the FFHR (Fort Folly Habitat Recovery) program and has been a long standing member of the Planning Group and Recovery ‎Team for the endangered iBoF (Inner Bay of Fundy) Atlantic salmon population. FFHR is leading efforts to restore this iconic species within the Petitcodiac watershed - in part, through the 'Fundy Salmon Recovery' project approach which sees remnant wild juvenile iBoF salmon raised to adulthood at the first ever dedicated marine wild Atlantic salmon conservation grow out site located off the coast of Grand Manan.

After the break that will feature morsels appropriate for the Christmas season, Christine McLauchlan, Executive Director of the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance, will present their success in 2016 with a particular focus on culvert assessment and remediation work. The PWA had an extremely busy summer with a record staff of 14 focused on projects such as water quality, storm water management, aquatic habitat connectivity, wood turtle monitoring, river restoration, education, community engagement, and river cleanups. Culverts were chosen as the topic of focus for this talk because the cost-benefit ratio is extremely high, and to date over 105 KM of upstream habitat has been restored in the Petitcodiac River watershed. The PWA is also engaging other organizations to add this high-impact work to their rosters for 2017-2018 and these efforts too will be discussed.

** The RAPTOR SURVEY OF THE TANTRAMAR AREA took place on Sunday, and I am copying Louise Nichols’ report on it below. They also saw a COYOTE [Coyote] running across an open field, and Matt, Ben, and I saw two RED FOXES [Renard roux] that were quite unconcerned about us. What a difference from the Coyote. We did our part of the survey on the Goose Lake Road and only saw two ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS [Buse pattue] and 2 NORTHERN HARRIERS [Busard Saint-Martin]. However, over towards Pointe-de-Bute there were many more of those two species and of RED-TAILED HAWK [Buse à queue rousse], as well as lots on our way out the Coles Island Road towards the former CBC site.

A few of Matt, Ben, and my observations are attached. One Rough-legged Hawk showed its tail well enough to show the bars on the white area above the black tail band, to suggest it as an adult male. All of the Red-tailed Hawks we saw appeared to be juveniles. Another photo of a very pale, light morph Rough-legged Hawk shows the variability of this raptor species.

Ten birders (+ Matt and Ben) participated in the hawk count today under the guidance of Roger Leblanc. We divided into 5 teams, 2 teams covering High Marsh Rd., one on Goose Lake Rd., one doing the loop from Anderson Marsh Rd. to Folkins Dr. and one at Ft. Beausejour. Each team surveyed for about 30 minutes and then gathered together to tally results. Overall, the counts this morning were not as high as have been reported lately from various people who have been out there. What was notable this morning was the lack of BALD EAGLES (with only one reported) and the high number (still) of NORTHERN HARRIERS, including several males. The totals from all areas for the 30 minute count are as follows: NORTHERN HARRIER/BUSARD SAINT-MARTIN: 15; ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK/BUSE PATTUE: 13; RED-TAILED HAWK/BUSE À QUEUE ROUSSE: 8; and BALD EAGLE/PYGARGUE À TÊTE BLANCHE: 1. Roger suggested that we do more counts like this as the winter progresses.

** A portion of Clarence Cormier’s message on Sunday was missed. Attached is a second photo that Clarence got of the immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK [Autour des palombes] that had taken a SNOWSHOE HARE [Lièvre d'Amérique] as prey. Clarence reports that his AMERICAN TREE SPARROW [Bruant hudsonien] troop is now up to 20, and a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD [Moqueur polyglotte] dropped by his Grand-Digue feeders for a quick observation. Mockingbirds tend to stick to feeding territories in winter, so one is in that area.

** Dave Christie reports that a COMMON RAVEN [Grand Corbeau] has taken to using his Mary's Point feeder yard, prodding about as if it were a pheasant. However, the potential excitement for Dave and Nick McPhee on Sunday happened when they were checking the Nature Trust preserve at Cape Enrage. A distant eagle soaring over Barn Marsh Creek got their attention. They thought at first that it was an immature Bald Eagle but on further observation, before it disappeared on them, its dark wing linings and golden nape area suggested the possibility of a GOLDEN EAGLE [Aigle royal]. Dave will be watching that area very closely for a chance to study it better.

** Dale Gaskin reports that he came across a lone TURKEY VULTURE [Urubu à tête rouge] that was easy to recognize as it flew over the Scoudouc exit of the Trans-Canada Highway on Sunday.

** WILD TURKEYS [Dindon ] are very well-established in southern Ontario. Brian Stone sure experienced that on Sunday when he came across a flock of well over a hundred in the Perth area. The true Wild Turkey is said to have a very cinnamon-brown tail band, a feature evident in the photo of the two birds alone. Brian also shows a panoramic view at the following DropBox site: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tx686z3ocu8l0bj/Turkey%20Shoot.jpg?dl=0

** On a tip about a different bird at a feeder on Salisbury Road, from Connie Colpitts via Dwayne Biggar, I was able to drop by the home of Al and Norma MacKinnon at 1046 Salisbury Road and found a BALTIMORE ORIOLE [Oriole de Baltimore] on Sunday afternoon. It was favouring a suet block, from which it was knocking pieces to the ground and harvesting. It favoured ground feeding while I visited but the MacKinnons’ said its main interest was the suet block. It is also visiting the feeders of Beth Maillet across the road. It was a bit of a coincidence, as out Baltimore Oriole is still a regular visitor as well. I wonder how the oncoming snowstorm will treat them this week.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton