Nature Moncton Nature News: April 29, 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, April 29, 2019 (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)

** Rick Elliott and Barb Curlew had a FIELD SPARROW [Bruant des champs] drop by their Waterside feeder yard on Sunday. This is an uncommon sparrow in New Brunswick. Note the pink bill, two white wing bars, white eye-ring, and pink legs that are signature field marks of this sparrow.

John Inman had a male Scarlet Tanager drop by his 225 Mary's Point yard on Sunday. Dave Christie suggested fruit might be of most interest to encourage it to drop by feeders 

Dave had a Northern Flicker taking sunflower seed for an extended period at his Mary's Point feeder yard.

** Brian Donovan’s trail camera captured a BLACK BEAR [Ours noir] that came to his bait station of mackerel in a suet cage. It took the cage and all. I suspect this bear is very recently out of hibernation, as of Monday, April 22, and pleased to find such welcome fare in exchange for a photo. Brian got this photo north of Miramichi city.

** Another PINE WARBLER [Paruline des pins] at a suet feeder. Marguerite Winsor had a bright male drop by her Salisbury feeder on Sunday and got a series of nice photos, including its white under-tail covert area. The two white wing-bars clearly show as does the faint eye-ring and large, for a warbler, bill.

Anita and David Cannon returned to the Irishtown Nature Park on Sunday afternoon, and while the bird count was down from Friday, it included approximately 30 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, an equal number of mergansers (mostly Red-breasted with two pairs of Common), a number of Black Scoters, and two Osprey. The cormorants were diving for shiners, and returned to the surface most times with a live one to swallow. David is attaching a photo of the new pavilion with its binocular stand (and six mergansers swimming at its base), a double-crested cormorant, a male Red-breasted Merganser, and a female Red-breasted Merganser. The Red-breasted Mergansers will soon depart for salt water and scoters will soon be heading north to breed so what the Cannons saw today will soon change. Note the clear whispy dark crest of the breeding plumage Double-crested Cormorant. It would appear the lake at the park has an abundant supply of forage fish to attract these fish connoisseurs.

** We don’t often get the opportunity to see shrews [musaraignes]. However, they are a common New Brunswick mammal. They are an insectivore but do not pass up foraging on bird seed in winter around our feeders, but being nocturnal and secretive, we often only see their paths in the snow as it melts. Phil Riebel shares a photo he got some years ago of one out in the open to show nicely what they look like so we can recognize them when we get the opportunity for a brief audience. We have several shrew species in New Brunswick. All have the same general profile, but tail length in one is very short (12% of body length) to make it a SHORT-TAILED SHREW [Grande Musaraigne].

** Peter Gadd got some interesting goldeneye photos, a few days ago at the Newcastle water treatment plant. He spotted one male goldeneye [garrot] with the facial marks not well-defined and rounded yet displaying and acting very male. It is assumed to be a first-year male. In another photo it is shown with what is assumed to be a first-year female Common Goldeneye, as that bird is not showing any orange on the bill of breeding plumage and no evidence of a half-moon facial mark. These immature genders can be difficult to pick out in all sea duck species, and of course are not in the higher numbers that the adults are.

** Aldo Dorio got a nice photo of an EASTERN PHOEBE [Moucherolle phébi] on Sunday in Néguac. Note the lack of white wing-bars and the lack of eye-ring, in contrast to Empidonax flycatchers. Note the dark bill, not bicolored as it is in Empidonax flycatchers. The dark crown and head area is also an ID clue, as is the almost constantly flicking tail. It is generally expected to be one of the first of our flycatchers to return.

** SAVANNAH SPARROWS [Bruant des prés] are starting to show up nicely in feeder yards. They usually disperse quickly from feeder yards as spring goes on. Clarence Cormier had 4 come by his site on Sunday and continues to have unexpectedly high numbers of AM. TREE SPARROWS [Bruant hudsonien], at 19 individuals on Sunday, many more than the SONG SPARROWS [Bruant chanteur] that held at 5. These ratios should soon change.

** Brian Stone is back in the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, area for a few days, and the LAKE FLIES, a Chironomid [chironome] species are swarming just as they were a few weeks ago when he was there.

Nelson Poirier, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton