Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 2 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, October 02, 2018 (Tuesday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com

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

** Brian Coyle reports that he had an excellent day in woods near his Upper Mountain Rd. home checking his trail cameras and finding lots of WHITE-TAILED DEER [Cerf de Virginie] and COYOTE [Coyote] activity on the cameras. For bird activity he noted lots of WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS [Bruant à gorge blanche] and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS [Paruline à croupion jaune] busily foraging. In addition he noted hundreds of BUMBLEBEES [Bourdon] foraging pollen and nectar from waning Asters and Goldenrods. This same scenario was very much noted on the Nature Moncton Saturday field trip.

Brian also comments that mushrooms were fruiting with abandon and sends photos of the VEILED OYSTER MUSHROOM, CORAL MUSHROOM and an interesting photo of the GEM-STUDDED PUFFBALL that had recently matured and burst its spore load with another clump nearby that is freshly emerged.

** David Cannon’s cat became very curious about two WOOLY BEAR CATERPILLARS around his home on Monday. This is the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth which will overwinter as the caterpillar stage and not pupate until next spring to then emerge as a flying adult in June or July.

** Stella Leblanc came across the NETTED STINKHORN MUSHROOM in her Bouctouche yard on Monday. This mushroom bursts from an above ground, soft shelled, egg like structure as seen in one photo to shoot up an attractive netted structure that gets the name ”Stinkhorn” for a reason. The second photo shows some that have burst through but the veil structure was interrupted for some reason, possibly frost.

** The report from Debbie Batog in yesterday’s edition caught the attention of Ralph Eldridge who explains the scenario that Debbie experienced in this quote from Ralph …

“This is classic waterfowl attraction or tolling, and that behavior is the basis of one of our all Canadian dog breeds, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. The attraction is attributed to various things, but curiosity and close attention to a potential predator seems highly likely. Some species are more easily tolled, most notably our Black Ducks, Mallards, Common Eiders and Geese. Other listserv members may remember some incident or two when they had waterfowl follow them even without a dog as they walked a shoreline. There are certain rules that govern the strength of the attraction to dogs and, like decoying ducks, when everything works right it is fantastic to watch.”

** Brian Stone got two views of an unfamiliar spider on Saturday that none of us recognized. It has not been confirmed, but Brian did a BugGuide search to find that it strongly appears to be a Bowl and Doily Spider. Not confirmed, but seems highly suggestive. From recent reports there does seem to be a significant variety of spider species that we don’t often see.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton