Nature Moncton Nature News: June 17 2017

NATURE MONCTON’S INFORMATION LINE – 17 June 2017 (Saturday)

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

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

Transcript by: Catherine Clements

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

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**As advised in yesterday’s edition, Mother Nature did not provide a favourable weather forecast for the Nature Moncton field trip to Cocagne Island this weekend. It has been rescheduled for next Saturday, June 24th, with a rain date of Sunday, June 25th. Some folks cancelled, due to the change, to leave some participant space available. If interested in those spaces, email Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca.

**Louise Richard reports seeing a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD [Moqueur polyglotte] on Friday evening on the right-hand side of the Shoppers Drug Mart at Vaughan Harvey Boulevard. There was a male in that territory last summer, often in the same tree, suggesting housekeeping somewhere nearby.

**A VEERY [Grive fauve] made a brief visit to our camp yard on Thursday, to allow two very quick photos. One was a back view; one was a front view. We hear the birds every evening, but very seldom see them.

**While sleuthing a cedar bog in Halcomb earlier in the week, I came across some very small mushrooms I’d never seen before. They had an oblong head on a very fragile translucent stem with a height of approximately 2 ½ inches. Amanda Bremner at the New Brunswick Museum identified them as one of two Mitrula species we have in New Brunswick, with no common name I could find. A photo is attached.

**On a visit to Escuminac Point on Thursday, the Nature Conservancy of Canada area had hundreds, if not thousands, of FOUR-SPOTTED SKIMMER Dragonflies [la Quadrimaculée] actively flying. This is one of the earlier dragonflies to emerge in the spring. Note the amber wash on the leading edge of the wings, the triangular black patch at the base of each wing, and the four small black spots at each node, to readily identify this species with that combo of field marks. It was a cool afternoon in the area. CHOKEBERRY [Aronia] was in full bloom, but other plants common to that site were not in bloom yet. Only two butterfly species were noted: one PAINTED LADY [Belle-Dame] and several CLOUDED SULPHUR [Coliade du trèfle] Butterflies. Rafts of hundreds of DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT [Cormoran à aigrettes] were offshore at the Point. It was quiet for this sometimes very active area, more so than warmer days. The road to the point is as rough as ever!

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton