Nature Moncton Nature News: April 11 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, April 11, 2018 ( Wednesday )

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

Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com

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

** Gordon Rattray visited the Grey Brook Marsh pond at Hillsborough on Tuesday to find the expected AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS [Canard noir], MALLARD [Canard colvert] ducks and CANADA GEESE [Bernaches du Canada] however there were five HOODED MERGANSERS [Harle couronné] and five WOOD DUCKS [Canard branchu] as well. Gordon also noted a few PINE SISKINS [Tarin des pins] in an unexpected spot. They seemed to be walking in the water at the shore line appearing to forage on or in the algae suggesting an odd behavior for this species.

** A TURKEY VULTURE [Urubu à tête rouge] that was originally tagged in Florida has been returning to the Hampton lagoon area for the past four years as of April 10, 2018. On Tuesday evening Richard Blacquiere spotted a right winged tagged Turkey Vulture at the Hampton lagoon and was able to get a documentary photo of the bird to show the letters "HTP" on the tag to confirm that it was the same bird. This bird was hatched in 2012 and was banded on February 03 in 2013 near Key West, Florida, to make its way from Florida to Hampton for a first appearance in April of 2014. Last year it arrived to Hampton, and was confirmed, on February 17 but this year the confirmed return date was not until April 10.

** Doreen Rossiter spotted her first TURKEY VULTURE [Urubu à tête rouge] in her Alma area on Sunday, April 08. The first ones she spotted last year were on April 07. She still has an abundance of SONG SPARROWS [Bruant chanteur] and AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS [Bruant hudsonien] and a lot of AMERICAN GOLDFINCH [Chardonneret jaune] that have been present all winter but she is now noting the bright yellow spotting that is appearing on the males. On Sunday, Doreen had a small flock of mixed gender PURPLE FINCHES [Roselin pourpré] arrive, however she has not seen them since. They seemed to just fuel up and move on.

** Georges Brun notes that the upper ponds of Jones Lake between Mount Royal Blvd and Milner Rd. are now open, with the lower end of Jones Lake towards Main St. still being iced in as of Tuesday. Georges photographed COMMON MERGANSERS [Grand Harle] and a GREAT BLUE HERON [Grand Héron] in the upper, ice free section on Tuesday.

** Nature N.B. is sponsoring a special evening presentation in Riverside-Albert next Monday night, April 16, from 6 to 8 pm, at 9 Bicentennial Dr. in Riverside-Albert. These are very interesting sessions that involve a short presentation and then a chance to circulate around several tables to see the projects that are going on in the area. I attended a similar one in Sackville last fall and found it very informative about what is happening locally. There is a lot of information packed into a few hours that is rewarding to go home with.

** Ice-out in many rivers can be a dramatic event happening very suddenly and can sometimes lead to huge ice jams. In the Little South-west Miramichi in front of our camp the break up began very suddenly at approximately 5:00 pm on April 16 in 2017 and I was able to capture a video of the start of it. Take a look at the video at the attached link. If it does not open immediately for you with a click then copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser and hit enter. By the present temperatures I suspect that ice-out could be somewhat later this spring at that location.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s6jao26up7dqgu4/LITTLE%20SOUTHWEST%20MIRAMICHI%20AT%20SILLIKERS%20AT%205%20PM.APRIL16%2C2017.NELSON%20POIRIER.MOV?dl=0

** Brian Stone and I visited the Norton Shore Rd. on April 09 to find few waterfowl on the Kennebecasis River there. We were obviously late for the big movement of Scaup there as Joanne Savage shares a return comment that approximately three weeks ago she and her group spotted five thousand plus birds, mostly Scaup and some Goldeneye, in that area. This movement has obviously come and gone.