Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 22 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, Oct. 22, 2018 (Monday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier <nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com>

Transcript by: David Christie <maryspt@mac.com>

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

** Dale Gaskin comments that he is still seeing EASTERN BLUEBIRDS [Merlebleu de l’Est] very busy checking out nest boxes around his Dawson Settlement Road home, apparently scouting real estate for next spring. They also watched a similar scenario at a neighbour’s home on Friday.

** Jean-Paul and Stella LeBlanc had a sharply dressed WHITE-THROATED SPARROW [Bruant à gorge blanche] coming to their Bouctouche feeder yard for the past four days. Most White-throated Sparrows will be migrating south but some will overwinter with us, especially around feeders.

** Aldo Dorio captured a photo of a juvenile DUNLIN [Bécasseau variable] moulting into basic winter plumage at Hay Island on Sunday. A second bird in the photo is missing some parts that help to identify it but it does appear to be a WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER [Bécasseau à croupion blanc], with pronounced white supercilium and a long primary projection of wing past tail tip. Both these species can stay with us late into the fall season. Aldo also got a much sharper photo of a HORNED LARK [Alouette hausse-col] on Sunday at the same site.

** The Nature Moncton visit to Caledonia Gorge turned out to be a very rewarding experience with many special moments on a spectacular fall day, with lots of fellowship on Sunday. The day started off watching some raptors and ravens circling on thermals over the gorge. Yves Poussart got some nice photos of a RED-TAILED HAWK that nice show the patagial bars, dark lines that appear on the leading edge of the wing that are a feature of this hawk both in juvenile and adults. The naturalists’ pace of the road to the covered bridge provided lots of opportunities to study the many discoveries that 15 sets of eyes can spot. There were many photo ops that will be dribbled out over the next days.

One of the day’s goals was reaching the surprisingly intact covered bridge over Crooked Creek. Many participants commented that return visits to this special area of New Brunswick will be included in other seasons. A big thank you to Roger LeBlanc and Brian Stone for their advance scouting of the area to make Sunday’s visit special for all participants.

One of Brian’s photos shows the rather unappealing CHAGA MUSHROOM [Chaga] that has become in demand for folks interested in herbal medicine. It appears most commonly on YELLOW BIRCH [Bouleau jaune] trees, a species that is abundant in Caledonia Gorge. However, only the one Chaga specimen was seen. I suspect that much of it has been harvested from this readily accessible area.

Little did the participants of our visit to the gorge on Sunday know that three other Nature Moncton naturalists were there as well, but looking down from the sky. At a recent Eat-local event hosted at Dolma Foods, three members, Dave Cannon and Sue and Fred Richards won a raffle for a plane ride over Fundy National Park, Sussex and Shediac, but also over the Caledonia Gorge. David sends a few photos he took from the plane when they went over the gorge on Sunday.

** It’s now time to concentrate on two upcoming Nature Moncton activities. The next one will be a group visit to the Atlantic Wildlife Institute next Sunday, Oct. 28. This will be a shorter afternoon tour that will be very easy to bring along children and grandchildren to see wildlife rehabilitation up close. It will be very helpful to register with Louise Nichols at <nicholsl@eastlink.ca>. The write-up is attached below.

Tour of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute

Date: October 28^th

Time of Tour: 1:00 pm

Most of us are aware of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute in Cookville, NB and the work they do rehabilitating injured or sick wildlife. In addition to their rehabilitation work, the Institute contributes to our awareness of environmental problems and issues as well as providing education about wildlife to kids and other members of the community. So if you’d like to see some wildlife up close, and even some – skunks come to mind – that you’d rather not see, come join us for a 1 to 2 hour tour of their facilities beginning at 1:00 pm on Sunday October 28^th. People in the Moncton area can meet for carpooling in the Champlain Place parking lot behind the Burger King at 12:00 noon. For people who wish to join the group in the Sackville area, we will meet there at the Sackville Tourist Information Centre on Mallard Drive (by the Sackville Waterfowl Park) at 12:30.

Please register for the tour with Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

Individual donations to the Atlantic Wildlife Institute would be appreciated. All are welcome to join the group, Nature Moncton member or not.

The second upcoming event, on Wednesday evening, Nov. 7, will introduce us to the very rapidly becoming popular Internet site for naturalist use: iNaturalist. Using this site can very quickly give identification for photos of items in the outdoors of which we’re unsure of the identity. The write-up implies the use of a smart phone. However, many like myself, will be using iNaturalist from a laptop at home, not a cell phone. For those who have not registered, due to the comment in the write-up, bring your laptop and all can be done very easily from that device if the participant chooses. As numbers may have to be limited, register with Louise Nichols at <nicholsl@eastlink.ca> as soon as possible. The write-up is below.

Nature Moncton evening presentation

Introduction and Navigating iNaturalist: An exciting tool for documenting and understanding nature

November 7 (Wednesday) at 7:00 PM, 2018

Sobey’s Community Room, 1160 Finley Boulevard, Riverview.

Presenter: Sean Blaney

The iNaturalist internet site ( www.inaturalist.ca ) is a remarkable tool that allows naturalists to share photographic records of wild species, to have their images and identifications reviewed by experts worldwide, and to contribute to a global dataset that scientists are increasingly relying upon. To date there have been 770,000 Canadian records of 17,000+ species submitted by 20,000+ observers. The site even has an artificial intelligence system that offers species identifications automatically.

Sean Blaney from the Atlantic Data Centre in Sackville is very familiar with iNaturalist and will show participants what iNaturalist has to offer and how to use it effectively.

Prior to the workshop, participants should sign up for an account at www.iNaturalist.ca. If they use a smart phone as their primary camera, participants should install the iNaturalist.ca app on their phone so that they can use their phone to instantly upload nature images to the iNaturalist database. This can be done equally as easy on a laptop or pad if participants plan to use iNaturalist that way.

If interested, participants can bring a small number of nature images (insects, plants, fungi, birds, whatever) to demonstrate uploading and identifying records.

Please register with Nature Moncton Activities Committee chairperson Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca as numbers may have to be limited depending upon interest.

As always all are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

Nelson Poirier

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton