Nature Moncton Nature News: June 25 2017

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, June 25, 2017 (for Sunday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelson@nb.sympatico.ca
Transcript by: David Christie maryspt@mac.com
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

** Alma White had the good fortune to have the beautiful silkworm moth, the LUNA [Papillon lune], perch outside her window in Moncton on Saturday and to capture a nice photo of this gem.

** Gordon Rattray has a pair of EASTERN PHOEBES [Moucherolle phébi] lingering around his barn in Albert Mines, no doubt nesting at an as yet unnoticed location. He got nice photos of them, but still photos don’t show the constant flicking up and down of the tail. Gordon also captured a photo of a HARRIS’ CHECKERSPOT [Damier de Harris] butterfly visiting his yard. On Saturday, he also photographed two other butterflies in his yard, a NORTHERN CRESCENT [Croissant perlé] and a VICEROY [Vice-roi]. The Viceroy can be easily mistaken for a MONARCH [Monarque] butterfly. Note the dark band across the hind wing, which the Monarch does not have. The Viceroy is also smaller but that can be hard to judge when flying by.

** Brian Stone visited Mapleton Park on Saturday and noted some interesting items. He observed a hollow tree with a large large pile of sawdust at its base and what appeared to be CARPENTER ANTS [Fourmi charpentière] producing it. He also photographed the dragonflies, COMMON WHITE-TAIL [La lydienne], and DOT-TAILED WHITE-FACE [Leucorrhine mouchetée]. The latter nicely shows the lone yellow spot on S7 and the white face. He also got a nice fresh EBONY JEWELWING [Caloptéryx bistré], one of our larger damselflies, HOBOMOK SKIPPER [Hespérie hobomok] butterfly nicely showing the orange patch on the wing and the arrangement of the row of bars on the hind wing. A group of SNAILS [escargots] were noted grazing on BLUE-FLAG IRIS [Iris versicolore] and as Brian usually does, he found a COMMON GARTER SNAKE [Couleuvre rayée] to pick up and have a chat with.

** I have been surprised by some of the mushrooms appearing the past few days. I spotted a nice group of four large HORSE MUSHROOMS [Agaric des jachères] (Agaricus arvensis) on Saturday afternoon in a mulched flower bed. Note the slight blush of yellow on the white caps and that the underside gills are clear pink when fresh, although not well shown in the photo. This mushroom produces a black spore print and is a choice edible.

On my neighbour’s mulched flowerbed, I also noticed a group of mushrooms of good size that I did not recognize. Unfortunately my neighbour picked them and put them in his garbage before I could get a photo. I salvaged some to get a spore print and sent samples to Amanda Bremner at the New Brunswick Museum for help in identification. I see that a lot more are popping up in my neighbour’s flowerbed and he said he would not be so quick to remove them before I get a crack at them.

nelson@nb.sympatico.ca
Nelson Poirier,