Nature Moncton Nature News: 2016-05-29

Saturday 4 June 2016

June 4 2016

**Mike Britton was lucky to capture a photo of a cooperative SWAINSON'S THRUSH [Grive à dos olive] at the Jacquet River Gorge while on a Festival of Nature trip. These Thrushes are seldom this cooperative for a photo. Mike also got a TENNESSEE WARBLER [Paruline obscure] bursting into spring song at the same site.

**Yet more EASTERN BLUEBIRDS [Merlebleu de l'Est]: Doreen Rossiter was pleased to have a pair of Eastern Bluebirds arrive to her Alma yard early Friday morning and immediately very seriously go in and out of a TREE SWALLOW [Hirondelle bicolore] box, very much looking like they will set up housekeeping.

Chuck Prince uses a trail camera at strategic spots to capture wildlife photos. He captured a nice photo of a COW MOOSE followed by her calf, a salt lick that had attracted four Black Bears,and another of a Black Bear checking over a tree. Some interesting things can happen when the camera is there and you are not!

**John Filliter and Cletie Wall visited the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Friday to get photos of an AMERICAN WIGEON [Canard d'Amérique] pair together and a solo male, as well as one of the active MUSKRATS [Rat musqué] swimming in the ponds. Between Sackville and Shemogue they spotted three Guinea Fowl [Pintade] roadside, very likely on day parole from a local farm, and they very much appreciated the abundant RHODORA [Rhododendron du Canada] in bloom at the moment.

**Aldo Dorio’s EASTERN BLUEBIRDS [Merlebleu de l'Est] are apparently settling the contest with a TREE SWALLOW [Hirondelle bicolore] for a house and moved in. Aldo also photographed a CABBAGE BUTTERFLY [Piéride du chou], which are becoming quite common at the moment.

**Brian Stone and I went out to check a nest in the driveway of Dianne and Guy Bastarache in Cocagne. It turned out to be a SONG SPARROW [Bruant chanteur] with nestlings that had obviously very recently hatched. The nest was on the ground in a mass of decorative plants in a high-traffic area aside two driveways, and the parents were very busy trucking groceries to the nestlings. We also visited Escuminac Point. It was quite cool and quiet to what this area often is, and suspect a bit early for the real spurt of activity. Several expected WARBLERS [Paruline] were about, OSPREY [Balbuzard pêcheur] and NORTHERN HARRIER [Busard Saint-Martin]. Bog plants were mostly yet to emerge. We checked out a reliable report of a WHIP-POOR-WILL [Engoulevent bois-pourri] in Miramichi but did not hear it, but left at 9 p.m. and it may well have not been calling yet, if still present.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton

AMERICAN WIGEON (MALE).JUNE 3, 2016.JOHN FILLITER

AMERICAN WIGEON (PAIR).JUNE 3, 2016.JOHN FILLITER

BLACK BEAR.MAY 18, 2016.CHARLES PRINCE

BLACK BEARS TO SALT BLOCK.JUNE 1, 2016.CHARLES PRINCE

CABBAGE WHITE BUTTERLY.JUNE 2, 2016.ALDO DORIO

COMMON YELLOWTHROAT WARBLER. JUNE 03, 2016. BRIAN STONE

EASTERN BLUEBIRD.JUNE 3, 2016.ALDO DORIO

GUINEA FOWL.JUNE 3, 2016.JOHN FILLITER

MOOSE (COW AND CALF).MAY 28, 2016.CHARLES PRINCE

MUSKRAT.JUNE 3, 2016.JOHN FILLITER

NASHVILLE WARBLER ( FEMALE ). JUNE 03, 2016. BRIAN STONE

RHODORA (CLOSE UP).JUNE 3, 2016.JOHN FILLITER

RHODORA. JUNE 03, 2016. BRIAN STONE

RHODORA.JUNE 3, 2016.JOHN FILLITER

SONG SPARROW FEEDING YOUNG. JUNE 03, 2016. BRIAN STONE

SONG SPARROW NESTLINGS. JUNE 03, 2016. BRIAN STONE

SWAINSON'S THRUSH.MAY 28, 2016.MIKE BRITTON

TENNESSEE WARBLER.MAY 28, 2016.MIKE BRITTON

Friday 3 June 2016

June 3 2016

** Jean Renton corrects the number of chicks of the hen TURKEY photographed yesterday to eight, not six. It will be interesting to watch these chicks develop.

** Aldo Dorio photographed a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD [Moqueur polyglotte] in Tracadie on Thursday. There was no mate apparent, but it was intent on putting an AMERICAN CROW [Corneille d'Amérique] out of its territory. There hasn't seemed to be many reports of Mockingbirds this spring. It should have been an excellent winter for a Mockingbird.

** Pat puts out a selection of very decorative bird houses by the front picture window each year, and a family of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES [Mésange à tête noire] have taken one again this year. The houses are sure not what one would expect birds to go for as they are in front of a large picture window with two dogs looking out frequently and sidewalk traffic and street traffic on the other side. The hole openings are indeed the proper size at 1 1/4 inch and shavings were put in. Over a month ago we saw the Chickadee pair busy taking out shavings, and the last few days there has been constant traffic of parents going with beaks stuffed with small caterpillars, so a clutch of nestlings are no doubt growing very fast inside. It may seem like an odd place to set up housekeeping, but in fact it's probably very safe. The inexpensive decorative houses usually have a one-season lifespan!

** There have been some changes to the Nature Moncton Sparrow workshop and field trip combo set for June 11th. The revised write-up and changes are attached to today's transcript.

Workshop and Field Trip with Roger Leblanc

Saturday June 11, 2016

It’s a fact that when you are starting out in birding there are some groups of birds that are harder than others to wrap your mind or binoculars around. Some beginners don’t even want to talk about flycatchers or gulls. And it’s true that some birds could drive you to get interested in plants! But there is a much easier group of birds that still gives people a lot of problems. The sparrows or LBJs (for “little brown jobs”) are birds that are relatively easy to find, don’t tend to hide that much, show fairly good field marks, and have recognizable songs. But still, identifying them will give most people a hard time at first. Why? Well as the LBJ nickname suggests they don’t have a lot of colors, they are relatively close to each other in size and there are a fair number of species to pick from.

But don’t despair -- help is on the way. Nature Moncton is offering a hands-on workshop on sparrows. Starting with a short one-hour indoor refresher on the sparrows of NB we will then head outdoors to the Riverview Marsh and beyond where we will concentrate on sparrows to try to put in practice what you have learned inside. The objective will be to find in the field as many as we can of the 7 or 8 species that can be found fairly easily in the region at this time of the year. Our own Roger Leblanc will lead this workshop / outing and will share with us the tricks of the trade that he has honed over the years for putting names on the pesky LBJ’S. Things like song, habitat, behavior and head pattern will be pointed out and studied in the hope that the LBJs will become ETCs (easy to call).

And in addition to sparrows, there are always many more other birds, including lots of waterfowl, on the marsh – so we may be surprised by other interesting species!

Saturday June 11, 8:00 to 9:00 (workshop); 9:30 to 12:00 (field)

**Workshop will be held in Community room at the Riverview Sobey’s, 1160 Findlay Blvd., Riverview

Registration with Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca or phone Louise at 939-5054.

Cost of workshop/field trip is $8 payable at the door . All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

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

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, June 4 – June 11
With a new Moon this weekend it is a good time to take binoculars to a
rural area and search for some fuzzy Messier objects. It is late evening
before it really gets dark so you might as well greet the midnight hour.
Below Saturn is the bright orange star Antares at the heart of Scorpius.
The large globular cluster called M4 is within a bino field to its right
but you will have better luck if you keep the star out of the view. A
fainter globular cluster, M80, is about halfway between Antares and the
upper star of the arc of three that makes the scorpion’s claws.

East of Scorpius is the Teapot asterism of Sagittarius. Follow the two
stars at the top of the spout an equal distance to the right for the
pretty open cluster M6, the Butterfly Cluster. Can you see the butterfly
in this group of stars? From here, follow the angle of the Teapot’s
spout down to M7, another open cluster. Open, or galactic, clusters form
within the same vast cloud of gas and dust, and eventually radiation
from the new stars clears the remaining dust to leave a family of stars.

To see one of these stellar nursery clouds, go from the bottom star of
the spout through the midpoint of the top of the spout, and extend that
an equal distance to M8, the Lagoon Nebula. You can see this as a hazy
patch with the naked eye. Just above M8 is a smaller and fainter cloud
called M20, the Trifid Nebula, and the nearby open cluster M21. You are
scanning through the Milky Way here, so if you have the time you can
kill a couple of hours binocular-touring through our galaxy.

This Week in the Solar System

Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:30 am and sunset will occur at
9:06 pm, giving 15 hours, 36 minutes of daylight (5:38 am and 9:08 pm in
Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:28 am and set at 9:10
pm, giving 15 hours, 42 minutes of daylight (5:36 am and 9:12 pm in
Saint John).

The Moon is new at midnight Saturday evening. By the end of the week it
will yield great views of its craters in a spotting scope. Jupiter, Mars
and Saturn are above the horizon at sunset and high enough for good
observing by 11 pm. See if you can catch the volcanic moon Io emerging
from Jupiter’s shadow around 9:50 pm on Wednesday. If you like to watch
the International Space Station (ISS) this week gives lots of
opportunities. The extended twilight hours near summer solstice allows
night owls to see three or four passes from late evening to early
morning. At an altitude of 400 kilometres it orbits the earth in an hour
and a half. Visit the Heavens-Above Web site for information on when and
where to look.

The Saint John Astronomy Club meets at the Rockwood Park Interpretation
Centre this Saturday at 7 pm. All are welcome to attend at no charge.

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

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton

BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE FEEDING YOUNG.JUNE 2, 2016.NELSON POIRIER,

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD.JUNE 2, 2016..ALDO DORIO

PAT'S NESTBOX CLUSTER.JUNE 2, 2016.NELSON POIRIER

Sco_Sag Messiers

Thursday 2 June 2016

June 2 2016

** Some nice photos of the hen WILD TURKEY [Dinde sauvage] and her chicks that have been around Jean Renton's camp, near Coles Island, are attached. She suggests that the clutch number is six.

** Roger Leblanc was at the Riverview Marsh, scouting for the soon to be announced field trip there, when he put his scope on the Peregrine Falcon nest at the summit of Assumption Place to see what he suspected to be a female PEREGRINE FALCON [Faucon pèlerin] sitting on the nest incubating eggs. So it looks like things are going on schedule there.

** Eric Wilson points out an easy way to find the trail mentioned recently as being an excellent, close walking trail is to use the Moncton water tower as the point where the trail can be accessed on the street Twin Oaks Drive. The Ryan Rd. side is just down from Rural Estates Drive. Eric comments that a pair of GRAY CATBIRDS [Moqueur chat] are very active on the trail.

** Ray Gauvin was struck by the reflections from an eight inch solar ball sitting in his yard flower bed to create an interesting photo, which he shares.

** Georges Brun noticed fifty plus SWALLOWS on the clothes line at Winston Jones' Upper Coverdale farm on Wednesday, and lots of Swallows flying over the eastern big pond next to the Trans Aqua treatment plant in Riverview. He spotted a row of six GREAT BLUE HERONS [Grand Héron] across from the walking bridge over Hall's Creek on Wednesday evening, to create a soldierly line up.

** Brian and Annette Stone checked out the Crowley Farm Rd. BALD EAGLE [Pygargue à tête blanche] nest to find very noticeable development of the two eaglets, having lost the white down to brown feathering and becoming very active. They visited the Aboujagane River bridge area on Route 133 to see the Osprey activity there, plus a WILLET [Chevalier semipalmé] and MOON JELLIES, but no sign of the recently seen Harlequin Ducks there.

A visit by them to the Sackville Waterfowl Park gave great photos of a SWAMP SPARROW [Bruant des marais], SORA [Marouette de Caroline] Rail, PIED-BILLED GREBE [Grèbe à bec bigarré], YELLOW WARBLER [Paruline jaune], and a RING-NECKED DUCK [Fuligule à collier] pair.

** Nature Moncton will have a combined workshop and outing on Saturday morning, June 11, that is looking very interesting and timely. The complete write up is attached below.

Be Happy for Sparrows

Workshop and Field Trip with Roger Leblanc

Saturday June 11, 2016

It’s a fact that when you are starting out in birding there are some groups of birds that are harder than others to wrap you mind or binoculars around. Some beginners don’t even want to talk about flycatchers or gulls. And it’s true that some birds could drive you to get interested in plants! But there is a much easier group of birds that still gives people a lot of problems. The sparrows or LBJs (for “little brown jobs”) are birds that are relatively easy to find, don’t tend to hide that much, show fairly good field marks, and have recognizable songs. But still, identifying them will give most people a hard time at first. Why? Well as the LBJ nickname suggests they don’t have a lot of colors, they are relatively close to each other in size and there are a fair number of species to pick from.

But don’t despair -- help is on the way. Nature Moncton is offering a hands-on workshop on sparrows. Starting with a short one-hour indoor refresher on the sparrows of NB we will then head outdoors to the Riverview Marsh where we will concentrate on sparrows to try to put in practice what you have learned inside. The objective will be to find in the field as many as we can of the 7 or 8 species that can be found fairly easily in the region at this time of the year. Our own Roger Leblanc will lead this workshop / outing and will share with us the tricks of the trade that he has honed over the years for putting names on the pesky LBJ’S. Things like song, habitat, behavior and head pattern will be pointed out and studied in the hope that the LBJs will become ETCs (easy to call).

And in addition to sparrows, there are always many more other birds, including lots of waterfowl, on the marsh – so we may be surprised by other interesting species!

Saturday June 11, 8:00 to 9:00 (workshop); 9:30 to 12:00 (field)

**Workshop will be held in Community room at the Riverview Sobey’s, 1160 Findlay Blvd., Riverview

Registration with Judi Berry-Steeves at jbsteeve@nbnet.nb.ca or phone Judi at 387-4778.

Cost of workshop/field trip is $8 payable at the door . All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton

BALD EAGLE EAGLET. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

BALD EAGLES NEST 01. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER.JUNE 1, 2016..ALDO DORIO

GREAT BLUE HERON LINE-UP. JUNE 1 2016. GEORGES BRUN (1)

GREAT BLUE HERON 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

MOON JELLY. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

OSPREY. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

PIED-BILLED GREBE. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

REFLECTIONS FROM A YARD SILVER BALL.JUNE 1, 2016.RAY GAUVIN

RING-NECKED DUCKS (PAIR). JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

SORA 01. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

SWAMP SPARROW 01. JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

TURKEY AND CHICKS.MAY 29, 2016..JEAN RENTON

WILLET . JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

YELLOW WARBLER (MALE). JUNE 01, 2016. BRIAN STONE

Wednesday 1 June 2016

June 1 2016

**Jean-Paul and Stella Leblanc have had a pair of EASTERN BLUEBIRDS in their Bouctouche yard checking some of the nest boxes not occupied by TREE SWALLOWS, hoping they will set up housekeeping.

It surely is pleasing to hear all the reports of EASTERN BLUEBIRDS recently.

Jean-Paul and Stella also came across 2 WILLETS in a field of heavy grass in the Grand Digue area on Tuesday. This species are more commonly seen in shoreline areas. Photos are attached.

**An interesting observation from Mac Wilmont in Lower Coverdale. He recently had a MOOSE in his yard that appeared to have crossed the Petitcodiac River from the Saint Anselme area side. He followed some tracks to find a track that showed the moose had apparently crossed the river at full tide as the first track was at the edge. The moose obviously knew what it was doing to avoid the sticky mud flats of low tide.

**Aldo Dorio got more photos of a BLACK BELLIED PLOVER in non adult plumage. Dave Christie feels these are year old birds. Apparently some of the young males will develop a nearly adult alternate plumage but the majority will be quite patchy as well all young females.

He also got a photo of a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER.

Aldo has an EASTERN BLUEBIRD pair and a TREE SWALLOW that have their eye on the same nest box in his Neguac yard. A photo shows them appearing to try to stare each other down.

**A detailed write up on the BioBlitz at Fundy National Park termed, "Ten Days in June" is added as an attachment. It looks very interesting. Take a moment to open the attachment and review it.

**Some additional comments on the SANDHILL CRANE photos distributed yesterday. Gilles Belliveau suggests this would not be a first year bird as they do not take on the red on the head until the second or third year and the amount of red on the head does suggest this bird is an adult or nearly so. The rusty plumage is not reliable as an age indicator as it's not uncommon in adults depending on where they have been foraging and stage of molt.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton