Nature Moncton Nature News: May 13 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, May 13, 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)

** Aldo Dorio got some photos of a PEREGRINE FALCON [Faucon pèlerin] at Hay Island. The photos show it on prey, which appears to be a RING-BILLED GULL [Goéland à bec cerclé], which looks large compared to the falcon, but the open wingspan is doing that. The windows on primaries one and two are consistent with a Ring-billed Gull, as is the leg colour and the slight view of the bill.

** Rhéal Viennneau had an FOY visit from a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW [Bruant à couronne blanche] to his Dieppe yard on Sunday. He was not able to capture a photo. White-crowned Sparrows usually follow the Fox Sparrows [Bruant fauve] on their migration to nest to the north of us.

** Doreen Rossiter also reports that she had her FOY White-crowned Sparrows arrive in her Alma yard on Sunday and comments that she always forgets just how brilliant those white head bands really are. She had 2 arrive.

Doreen also has had a male WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH [Sittelle à poitrine blanche] around her yard for a while, but a female arrived on Sunday. She has not seen them travelling together, but is on the watch. She also had her first RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD [Colibri à gorge rubis] arrival on Sunday and was surprised that it was a female.

** With ponds in her yard, Louise Nichols is in excellent position to monitor amphibian egg masses. A photo is attached of very rapidly developing tadpoles from an egg mass that looked very different a week ago. These tadpoles will be developing into froglets that will be heading to land this summer, not remaining as a tadpole for a full year, as some other amphibians do.

** The RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS [Colibri à gorge rubis] are moving nicely into the Miramichi area. Wayne Corcoran had his first male arrive on Sunday for a very long drink, as he commented.

I had my first male arrive on Saturday in Sillikers but it spent more time around the yard than at the feeder.

** The Salisbury Naturalists’ Club is having its May meeting on Tuesday night, May 14, when Jonathan Cormier, fur-bearing biologist with the New Brunswick Department of Fish & Wildlife, will give a presentation on Coyotes in New Brunswick. I heard him speak in Hampton. It’s an excellent presentation. This group meets at 7 o’clock at the Town Hall Parks and Recreation Room, across from the J.M.A. Armstrong High School in Salisbury.

** It’s that time of year when the cultivar Magnolia trees are sporting their strikingly large, beautiful blooms, ahead of their leaf-out. Bob and Sharon Blake have a STAR MAGNOLIA (Magnolia stellata) in their Second North River yard and it is now in full bloom. That famous one on Derby Street in Moncton may be doing the same.

** We are having one pair of EVENING GROBEAKS [Gros-bec errant] and one pair of ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS [Cardinal à poitrine rose] coming to our Miramichi feeders. I’m assuming that the Evening Grosbeaks are a pair that have left their winter flock to set up housekeeping. It’s nice to see both grosbeaks together, but they have not cooperated as a duo for a photo. We also have 20+ PURPLE FINCHES [Roselin pourpré], 10+ CHIPPING SPARROWS [Bruant familier], 10+ PINE SISKINS [Tarin des pins], as well as other regulars. The CHIPMUNKS [Suisse] have Pat well-trained to fetch shelled peanuts on demand.

Nelson Poirier, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton