Nature Moncton Nature News: Dec 22 2016

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, December 22, 2016 ( Thursday )

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

Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com

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** John Massey has had a raptor cruising his Dieppe yard very seriously recently to the point that his clientele has decreased somewhat. He was able to get three photos of it on Wednesday. Three of us have been musing about its identity, but David Christie does feel it to be a COOPER'S HAWK [Épervier de Cooper], putting emphasis on the rounded tail tip ( the outer tail feathers shorter than the central ones ) in two photos. Also David feels the eye seems smaller in proportion to the head and is situated farther forward than would be on a Sharp-shinned Hawk. John Massey also commented that the bird struck him as being quite large. Another point that made me feel it is a Cooper's was the appearance of the breast streaking fading out as it goes down the undercarriage. Cooper's Hawks can sometimes be hard to be certain of in a photo so any comments on these photos to agree or disagree would be appreciated so we all can learn.

** John Filliter had eight RING-NECKED PHEASANTS [Faisan de Colchide] under his Cap Brule feeders on Monday. This group were all female birds and he shares a photo of one of them. John comments that they have seen three males, but they were dining separately from the females on Monday.

** Brian Stone and I went on a mission to Saint John on Wednesday for a potential audience with the COMMON SHELDUCKS. The tide was very low in the late morning when we arrived and we were able to look at lots of ducks, especially from the trail that leads south/west along Taylor's Island. The Shelducks were not seen at that time so we elected to check out Lancaster lagoon which was hosting a large flock of BUFFLEHEADS [Petit Garrot] and had a nice visit until we were asked to leave, but later the same individual came over and said it would be ok to visit if we came to the office and asked first.

We returned to Saints Rest Marsh at approximately 2:30 pm with the big reward at about 3:40 pm when the three Common Shelducks were spotted from the end of the boardwalk looking south/west. They flew to an area farther down the marsh where we were able to find them by walking down the Taylor's Island trail where we were joined by Frank Kelly. While we watched them they spent almost all their time out of the water which made them very easy to pick out. We got photos but they were at a distance and with light fading. Take note of their sometimes very erect posture, and they always stayed close together. We did get lots of photos but saw no evidence of leg bands or foot markers that we could detect, but distance and fading light could make that comment unreliable.

Note that in Brian's photos of the Buffleheads the Sun does reflect some of the bright head color of some males that are positioned at the right angle. Also some of the female appearing birds may actually be first year males, especially those where the white side head patch appears larger.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton