Nature Moncton Nature News: May 15 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, May 15, 2019 (Wednesday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Judy Marsh marshj@nbnet.nb.ca

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

**Richard Perron shares some photos of the fern Common Polypody taken on the Cocagne River trip last Saturday. This is an evergreen fern staying green all winter. One photo shows two fruitdots that were formed last summer but persisted through the winter. It grows in mats not clumps and likes rocky wooded habitat. Richard also got a photo of Two-leaved Toothwort aka Crinklewort that is an early spring woodland plant.

**Jane LeBlanc photographed a moose as it walked across Main Street in Saint Martins on Tuesday morning. Note the area on the shoulder and rump that is often worn off from winter tick infestation is starting to grow in as the ticks would have now fallen off as part of their life cycle.

Kevin Balmer got some spectacular photos of Northern Shoveler, both female and male, in flight at Bell Marsh on Tuesday to show field marks beautifully in flight. Note the blue patch on the wing anterior to the speculum that shows so clearly.

**Clarence Cormier comments that he still has two AMERICAN TREE SPARROW [Bruant hudsonien] in attendance having not yet filed flight plans north. Clarence says this is as he expects as from his records often May 17 is the last day of their appearance and also a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD [Colibri à gorge rubis] arrival for Clarence on Tuesday is again, from past records, right on schedule for his site.

**Roger LeBlanc is on that New Brunswick birding mecca of Grand Manan this week and gives a heads up to folks heading there. They have been there since Sunday and although Tuesday was cold and wet they had tallied 85 species to that point, that included 14 Warblers species, 1 BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER [Gobemoucheron gris-bleu] on Whitehead and one SNOWY EGRET [Aigrette neigeuse] at Seal Cove. Roger expects after this rain things will start happening any day as often happens at this unique location. They will be there until this weekend and are hoping for 100-110 species of birds by then.

**Many thanks to all the kind birthday wishes yesterday. It made for a special day and I feel 75 years younger!

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton