Nature Moncton Nature News: Oct 9 2018

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, October 09, 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)

** The Hummingbird coming to a feeder in Quispamsis has had review by a hummingbird expert and it was decided that it is a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD [Colibri à gorge rubis] and not a Black-chinned Hummingbird. The blogspot has been changed to reflect this reassessment. This scenario sure does show the potential importance of keeping a hummingbird feeder up and cared for well into November. It may have to be taken in during very cold nights, but another idea is to tape on one of those warming packets that we use for hands and feet warmers in winter. They last for several hours. It is the time of year for potential surprise species to show up as well as late straggler Ruby-throated Hummingbirds as happened this week.

Phil Riebel shares a photo of a SAND LANCE, a small elongated fish that is very numerous that we seldom see and is a major prey item for other species of fish. It is principally a bottom dweller and has the behavior of suddenly burying itself when in danger.

Brian Stone shares some nature photos from travels over the past few days. Included are two views of the AMERICAN COOT that has been residing at the Sackville Waterfowl Park, some WILSON’S SNIPE including one with an open wing view, PIED-BILLED GREBE with one being the colourful duckling. Some other photos captured during his travels were SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, CANADA JAY, mushrooms including the small PINWHEEL MARASMIUS, gathering some CHAGA mushroom off Yellow Birch, and the often large growth cluster of NORTHERN TOOTH which very much favours to grow from a wound in Sugar Maple.

** The Nature Moncton Activities committee has several activities lined up for October and November. They are attached today so folks can jot them on their calendars as they have not yet been placed on the Nature Moncton website as hoped they would be by now. The October meeting presenter is up, but the follow up field trip to that, which is attached below, is not up. Apologies to those who have been asking about the lineup of activities and hope to get the website delay problems corrected soon.

Nature Moncton October Meeting

Tuesday, October 16, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.

Mapleton Rotary Lodge (across from former Cabela’s)

New Brunswick’s Protected Natural Areas

Guest Speaker: Heather Loomer

New Brunswick’s Protected Natural Areas (PNAs) are designated sites, protected in perpetuity, for the conservation of New Brunswick’s diversity of flora and fauna and the natural spaces, habitats, and ecosystems on which they depend. Currently in New Brunswick there are 208 sites designated under PNA legislation protecting a total of 274,000 hectares of land and inland waters.

Heather Loomer is a biologist with the Protected Natural Areas Section of the Dept. Energy and Resource Development in Fredericton. Heather’s presentation will highlight a few of these sites, explaining why they are worthy of protecting and visiting.

Heather’s presentation will provide some special areas for folks to visit and what to look for that led to their protection.

All are welcome, Nature Moncton Member or not.

Nature Moncton Field trip to Caledonia Gorge

Saturday, October 20, 2018

Meeting place: Petro-Canada station on Hillsborough Road (Route 114) across from Point Park subdivision at 9:00 a.m.

Heather Loomer will be giving a presentation on Protected Natural Areas in New Brunswick to Nature Moncton at the Tuesday, October 16 monthly meeting. Heather will be specifically describing two Protected Natural Areas near Moncton, the Canaan Bog area and the Caledonia Gorge.

Nature Moncton will pay a visit to the Caledonia Gorge to discover why it is a special area to have made it a part of New Brunswick’s Protected Natural Areas into perpetuity.

The Caledonia Gorge was chosen for a fall visit due to the additional bonus of fall foliage while hopefully a visit to Canaan Bog PNA site can be arranged in the spring to discover its special features. The Caledonia Gorge is beautifully described at the attached site. Explore this site to expect what to see and experience on October 20.

https://newbrunswickcoveredbridges.blogspot.com/2015/10/crooked-creek-no-3.html

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.

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.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton