Nature Moncton Nature News: Sept 17 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, Sep. 17, 2018 (Monday)

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

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

Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: David Christie maryspt@mac.com

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

** The Nature Moncton September meeting is tomorrow night, Tuesday, Sept. 18 at the Mapleton Rotary Lodge, at 7 o’clock. The write-up is repeated at the end of this message.

** Jennifer McCabe found clumps of the mushroom SCALY PHOLIOTA [Pholiote écailleuse] growing on an apple tree in her yard, and got photos. The mushrooms will grow a fair bit larger and open up more. This is not considered an edible, as it causes gastric upset in some people. The spore print would be dark brown.

** More from Brian Stone and I’s visit to Kejimkujik National Park and some of his photos. We have five common puffball mushrooms, the COMMON PUFFBALL [], GEM-STUDDED PUFFBALL [Vesse-de-loup gemmé], PEAR-SHAPED PUFFBALL [Vesse-de-loup piriforme], GIANT PUFFBALL [Vesse-de-loup géante], and PIGSKIN POISON PUFFBALL [Scéroderme vulgaire]. The first four have a white, homogeneous interior, when in the fresh state, and are considered edible. The fifth one, the Pigskin Poison Puffball, has a tough, marked outer skin as in a photo Brian took recently. When the interior is cut, 90% of this species specimens will be dark gray to black when cut across. It is considered toxic and not an edible.

The abundance of Hemlock trees in Keji Park make it a great spot for the BROWN CREEPER [Grimpereau brun], of which Brian got a photo of this hard-to-get-to-stay-still species. Both WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH [Sittelle à poitrine blanche] and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH [Sittelle à poitrine rousse] are present in the park to enjoy the same old park.

WHITE-TAILED DEER [Cerf de Virginie] are very comfortable at the park, and a few does and fawns were spotted, fawns still very spotted.

The relatively common caterpillar of the AMERICAN DAGGER MOTH [Acronicte d’Amérique] was observed. Shawn Cormier also got an American Dagger Moth in his Moncton yard, pointing out that the hairs or setae can irritate human flesh, if handled, which is the case for several of the hairy caterpillars.

Brian got a photo of a BLANDING’S TURTLE [Tortue de Blanding] in Keji Park, on the last day of his stay, thanks to the sharp spotting of his sister, Carol Shea. This is the only Maritime site where this species of turtle is present, and it is very protected by park staff. Brian suspected that the individual he photographed was sunning itself on a floating loon nest platform. It was larger than any Painted Turtle or Wood Turtle that Brian has seen.

Keji Park is not known for sandpipers at the main park, but Brian did get photos of a SOLITARY SANDPIPER [Chevalier solitaire] that dropped by, and a young-of-the-year SPOTTED SANDPIPER [Chevalier grivelé] that was probably a resident there.

MEADOW BEAUTY [Rhexie de Virginie] and GOLDEN PERT [Gratiole dorée] are two rare flowering plants in Maritime Canada, but found in notable abundance at Keji Park. Meadow Beauty was going into its seed-pod stage with a few blooming flowers remaining, but Golden Pert was in full bloom. Golden Pert has been found in a few New Bruswick sites in recent years. WATER PENNYWORT [Hydrocotyle à ombelle] is another plant that is common at Keji but rare elsewhere in the Maritimes.

We came across an ICHNEUMON WASP that was relatively easy to identify to species by the noticable white sections on its antennae and colourful reddish abdomen.

Brian also got a photo of the immature land stage of the Eastern Newt called the Red Eft. This stage emerges from the water where it is born to spend usually 3 years on land before returning to the water as an adult to procreate.

Nature Moncton September Meeting
How Marshes Became Dykelands
Date: September 18, 2018
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Mapleton Park Rotary Lodge (across from Cabela’s)
Speaker: Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc

As naturalists and bird watchers, we roam over many wild places. And in our quests we often find ourselves in or near the very rich-in-biodiversity salt marshes of the region. But many of the most accessible marshes having now been converted to dykelands, have you ever asked yourself why and how that happened? The presentation offered at Nature Moncton’s September meeting will focus on this subject. The talk given by well- renowned historian Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc, who has had a long and illustrious career with the Université de Moncton and Environment Canada, will help us understand better these very special places. Without people realizing it, much of the Bay of Fundy's polders or dykeland in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia offers some of the best farmland in the world which has been achieved thanks to the « aboiteaux ». This technology, which originated in North America with French settlers nearly four hundred years ago, has evolved very little over the centuries. Considered among the first major civil engineering works on this continent, the aboiteau system allowed the Acadian people to prosper until the middle of the eighteenth century and it is thanks to this technology that the agricultural regions of the Bay of Fundy flourished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This presentation will address issues such as the origin of the aboiteau system as well as its operation, with illustrations from yesterday and today that will illuminate for us the complexity of a device designed to cope with the most powerful tides in the world. As naturalists, knowledge of nature is always something we strive for and this presentation should help us understand much better an important part of the natural world that surrounds us. Don’t miss it!

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton