Nature Moncton Nature News: Dec 28 2016

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE - December 28, 2016 (Wednesday)

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Edited by : Nelson Poirier nelson@nb.sympatico.ca
Transcript by : Catherine Johnson johnson2@xplornet.com
Info Line # : 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

**On Tuesday, Dave Christie spotted a male RUSTY BLACKBIRD on the trail between the Mary's Pt. beach and the interpretive centre, feeding in the wet area just below the bridge that crosses the trail. Dave saw a BLACKBIRD there on December 04th that suspected may be a RUSTY BLACKBIRD but light that day was not sufficient for a certain identification. He therefore feels this bird is potentially overwintering in that area.

Dave also comments his DICKCISSEL visitor continued to be a patron from late November to December 15, however has not been seen since December 15th when a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK made frequent visits for a few days.

Dave also comments that he has a reduction in attendance of AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS but suspects that will change as end to end snowstorms reappear.

**In a followup to a recent discussion on the dark morph RED FOXES, Brittany Crossman shares 3 photos she took on PEI over the past few weeks that nicely show 3 colour morphs of the red fox being the expected common red fox, a partial melanistic variant and a complete melanistic variant. The dark colour morphs are much more common on PEI then we would expect to see here in New Brunswick. Brittany took all three photos in the PEI Natural Park and comments on some days she would see all three morphs. Brittany spent time with some research folk with the University of PEI who are working on an urban fox project as well as studies of wild fox on PEI. Am labelling of the photos as based on some of their work.

**Brian Stone took a photo of a woolly bear caterpillar out on top of the snow crust recently. This caterpillar, which is the larval stage of the ISABELLA TIGER MOTH, overwinters as the larval caterpillar.

Brian also photographed a witches broom. There is little doubt from this particular specimen where the name "broom" came from.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton