Nature Moncton Nature News: Feb 22 2017

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, February 22, 2017 (Wednesday)

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

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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)
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**David Miller extends an invite to all Nature Moncton members to the monthly meeting of the Salisbury Naturalist's Club tonight, Wednesday night, at 7:00pm. to take place at the Salisbury Village Office building upstairs. The Village office is across from the JMA Armstrong High School. Kevin Craig will give a presentation on the black bear in NB entitled, A Bear for All Seasons. Kevin is a skillful speaker and a black bear expert on black bears in NB and is a very recommended presentation.

**Jamie Burris got some nice aerial photos of some BALD EAGLES floating in the sky over the Petitcodiac River. Note one photo shows birds at three different stages of development. Also note the colored tails of some of the adults to suggest they have been perching in the chocolate sediments of the river.

**Wendy Sullivan shares an updated photo of her FIELD SPARROW that has become a regular patron at her Riverview feeder yard, as well a photo of an AMERICAN TREE SPARROW that keeps it company.

**Jean Paul Leblanc reports the pair of CANADA GEESE continue to over winter at the Boutouche lagoon. If this is a pair they surly will have a jump on spring nesting.

**Aldo Dorio shares some photos he took at Burnt Church on Tuesday of female GOLDENEYE noting the complete orange bill oh this species in breeding plumage as well a photo of a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER.

**Brian Stone, Danny Sullivan and I made a pilgrimage to the River Hebert area of NS for a very fortunate audience with the GYRFALCON found there recently.
Many thanks to Kathleen Spicer, Jason Gallant and Carmella Melanson for all forming forces to all get incredible observations of this special visitor. The scope gave perfect observations on the clear day and some wonderful zoomed in photos were captured. Carmella got some incredible flight shots to show its opened wings and once where it went after a RINGED-NECKED PHEASANT. It also made several runs on MUSKRAT but didn't actually take any while we were there.
A dark morph ROUGHED-LEGGED HAWK made an appearance just as we arrived to sure make heart beats fast when we first started searching the area. The number of SNOW BUNTINGS noted over the day was significant we estimated at 300.
We couldn't a revisit the Bass River area to recheck on the RED-HEADED WOODPECKER over wintering there. It was much closer to adult plumage then the immature plumage we saw approximately a month ago. A BROWN CREEPER was at the same location that completely stole the show to watch this special bird forage and capture some photos which proved a challenge on its busy day.
A stop by the Trantramar Marsh, when it was really too late to be doing so, did net one SNOWY OWL very high on a pylon on on the High Marsh Road as darkness closed a day to remember.

**All appreciation to Alain Clavette for his presentation to Nature Moncton on Tuesday Evening. Alain gave an excellent talk on pelagic birds giving many fascinating insights on these remarkable creatures of the sea. Not only did he share his wonderful photos that showed identification characteristics so well, he added other details for each species that reveal how unique many of these birds are. Many thanks to Alain for taking the group on a trip out on the Bay of Fundy for the evening and helping better understand this group of birds that we are so seldom able to see.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton