Nature Moncton Nature News: May 7 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, May 07, 2019 (Tuesday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: bjpstone@gmail.com

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

** David Christie came across some amphibian activity that surprised him a bit on Monday. He stopped at Gray Brook Marsh at approximately 4:30 pm to hear a surprising din of AMERICAN TOAD [Crapaud d'Amérique] vocalizations, seemingly nonstop on the north side of the marsh. The 20° temperature must have really got them going on their summer mission. Surprisingly David heard no Spring Peeper, Wood Frog, or Leopard frog vocalizations but the American Toads surely commanded the chorus line.

** Annette Stone was walking in the Irishtown Nature Park on Monday to come across a quite small GARTER SNAKE [Couleuvre rayée], the first that she had seen this year. There have been no reports to the line of snakes so far this year … it’s time. Usually my Red-bellied Snakes are active under set out black boot mats but none have been seen yet.

** Aldo Dorio got a photo of an OSPREY [Balbuzard pêcheur] at Hay Island on Monday enjoying what appears to be a nice sized flounder. One photo shows it hovering as the Osprey typically does to eye its prey and then make that spectacular, accurate pinpoint dive. Aldo also captured a photo of a female PILEATED WOODPECKER [Grand pic] on a utility pole at Neguac. It nicely shows how woodpeckers are able to cling to the side of structures using their four claws and the tail as a prop for stability.

** Wayne Corcoran, on Route 118 near Quarryville, had a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER [Paruline à croupion jaune] pay a visit to his suet feeder on Sunday evening. Suet feeders must be a very welcome item to fuel up at after migration with insect fodder just starting to become more prevalent.

** When Jan Tingly was on Vancouver Island on March 28^th she was taken by the bright, yellow, large, flower-like structures growing in wet wood areas. This is the WESTERN SKUNK CABBAGE that looks very different from our Eastern Skunk Cabbage here in New Brunswick but shares some behavioural similarities. While our Eastern Skunk Cabbage has the lobster shell coloured spathe, the Western Skunk Cabbage has a bright yellow spathe. As the spathe opens the spadix of foul smelling flowers appears, similar to our eastern Skunk Cabbage. The Western Skunk Cabbage also gets colorful names like Swamp Lantern and Yellow Skunk Cabbage.

** Brian Stone stopped by Brookfield, N.S. on his way home from Dartmouth on Monday to see if he could locate a GLOSSY IBIS [Ibis falcinelle] reported to be there and was rewarded to find it and get great photos of it happily foraging on the marsh there. Brian also stopped at the Sackville Waterfowl Park and after a lot of sleuthing, and with the help of three other observers there, was able to locate the COMMON GALLINULE [Gallinule poule-d'eau] that has been present there for the past few days to get some beautiful photos of this very handsome and uncommon bird to our area.

Some other bonus observations at the Sackville Waterfowl Park were a PALM WARBLER [Paruline à couronne rousse], a male and female YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER [Paruline à croupion jaune] to give a nice photo comparison of the two genders, a SAVANNAH SPARROW [Bruant des prés] and a TREE SWALLOW [Hirondelle bicolore].

** A few years ago I tried a Mason Bee house from Vesey’s. It did attract some Mason Bees but they did not seem to emerge the following spring. After a Nature New Brunswick workshop on the construction of Mason Bee houses where a wooden structure with 5/16^th holes was recommended I got interested in trying this type out. Julie Singleton in Taymouth was having great luck with this type of nest house but pointed out that the entrance holes have to be at least 5½ plus inches deep or only males will be propagated. With the 5-6 inch holes, the front two or three are all male and the back ones are female. Using Julie’s building technique that she had taken from published papers the bees came on, however the potential for some of them becoming woodpecker feeders was a challenge that was resolved by Julie and Robert with hardware cloth fronts.

I came across a new type of Mason Bee nest structure on the market and tried it. It seemed like a great idea and it was filled the first year. After talking with the company in Caledon, Ont. that produced them the owner agreed to provide us with nests at the wholesale price which ended up being half price. Many of these went to Nature Moncton members after a member’s night presentation on Mason Bee experiences. This spring I have seven of the new units up and the bees are going right to them, filling the nest holes which will be capped by small stickers that the manufacturer provides as soon as the holes are filled with nests to protect them until hatching time next spring. They have holes of 5/16^th inch and ¼ inch and both seem to be used equally.

The website of the company making these nests is at http://www.pollenbeenest.com . A lot of research at universities went into the development of these houses and so I cannot recommend them highly enough. The company also has a cleaner set up which they suggest using every three years to clean them out to reduce disease and parasite build up. As of May 07 our yard is buzzing with Mason Bees that are doing their thing performing their important pollination role for early appearing plants; however their whole mission will be complete after 2 to 3 weeks. I apologize for the length of this treatise, but I wanted to share the experience and hopefully give the bees a hand as we are doing with the Swallow Box project.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton