Nature Moncton Nature News: Feb 23 2017

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, February 23, 2017 ( Thursday )

To view the photos mentioned in this edition go to http://nminfoline.blogspot.ca

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelson@nb.sympatico.ca . Please advise if any errors are noted in wording or photo labeling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .

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

Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com

Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

** David Miller heard a group of Crows making a fuss in a block of woods east of the Salisbury treatment plant lagoon on Wednesday morning and snowshoed over to check it out to find that a GREAT HORNED OWL [Grand-duc d'Amérique] was the object of their attention.

** The Nova Scotia GYRFALCON [Faucon gerfaut] has given great observations of this awesome bird to a lot of folks. Brian Coates, a former member of Nature Moncton in the 1990's and now living in Britain, shares some photos of a Gyrfalcon that visited Riverview two winters in succession in 1991 and 1992. It very much enjoyed the post behind the Riverview fire station at the time, now the Chocolate River Station, and would perch and hunt from there. Many birders had special moments with this bird (assumed to be the same bird returned). The pictures show the plumage to be the same as the River Hebert area bird.

** Larry Sherrard came across the winter den of a PORCUPINE [Porc-épic d'Amerique] in Lower Coverdale recently. The typical cashew nut sized and shaped scat is present, and the trail into the den shows the reddish stain of Porcupine urine. Porcupines have a tendency to urinate as they walk along wherever they wish and the urine contains the chemical porphyrin that gives it the reddish color, looking like blood but not.

** Susan Richards photographed what appears to be Weasel activity in fresh snow. The trail leading away at the top of a photo is most typical of a Weasel trail, but what it was up to in the center only the animal knows for sure. It was probably on the hunt for something under the snow.

** Aldo Dorio got another photo of a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER [Harle huppé], and another with a goldeneye in front of it that would appear to be a first winter Barrow’s Goldeneye by the very blunt forehead if the photo is showing it correctly but lacking the adult plumage features.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton