Nature Moncton Nature News: June 10, 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, June 10, 2019 (Monday)

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Edited by Nelson Poirier, mail to:nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by David Christie, maryspt@mac.com

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

** Another Nature New Brunswick “Festival of Nature” weekend has now happened, blessed with awesome weather. We are very fortunate to have such great field trip leaders among our ranks, the great Nature New Brunswick staff and the host club, the newly formed St. Andrews Naturalists’ Club, to put it all together. All the logistics to organize it to the delight of 270 participants took a huge effort. A very big thank-you to Vanessa Roy McDougall, our Nature New Brunswick executive director, who so effectively coordinated her staff, board of directors and lots of volunteers to make it all happen. Brian Stone took several photos of the folks in action and instead of just picking a few out. Am adding them all as they really give the flavour of the weekend.

** Brian Donovan is getting some fascinating BLACK BEAR [Ours noir] footage at his trail-camera sites just north of Miramichi. He has been rewarded with bears at five 6-camera sites over the past seven days. A very interesting one appears to show a mother bear with three yearling cubs. These “teenagers” will probably be sent on their way, to fend for themselves around the first of July, when the female come into oestrus. These would be cubs born in 2018 and that over-wintered with their mother. Take a look at the action at the attached link: https://youtu.be/W3c3-jCa_WQ

** Frank Branch photographed a male EURASIAN WIGEON [Canard siffleur] at the Tracadie municipal lagoon on Sunday afternoon. This species seems to being seen more frequently recently. The males are very easy to spot, but there must be some females out there as well, but they are often difficult to distinguish from the female American Wigeon [Canard d’Amérique].

** We don’t often get to hear GROUNDHOGS [Marmotte commune] vocalizing. However, Dave Christie and his dog Max encountered that in an unusual habitat, at the tip of Mary’s Point at low tide. It appeared the Groundhog was foraging for something on the shore and went into the rocks for cover and to loudly vocalize to scare the intruders off, when Max got interested in its presence. Dave had a similar experience at the same place two or three years ago.

Dave has been experiencing a significant migration of BLUE JAYS [Geai bleu] since the middle of May. He had approximately 30 in his feeder yard on Friday, only 7 on Saturday, but 25 just flew in at 6:45 this morning. They appear to be stopping for a fuel-up and then continuing on their way. One of his peak days was May 23 when he saw a flock of 80 flying from Harvey across the dykelands to Hopewell Hill, closely followed by a flock of 40 that settled down around John Inman’s house, after which Dave found 50 in his own yard. On May 31, three flocks totalling about 215 jays flew eastward past his home.

** The LILACS [Lilas] are starting to bloom and that means CANADIAN TIGER SWALLOWTAILS [Papillon tigré du Canada] butterflies are on the wing. Jane LeBlanc reports seeing 3 or 4 in the St. Martins harbour area on Saturday afternoon, and a good number were seen at The Festival of Nature weekend in St. Andrews. On Saturday, she also photographed a NORTHERN SPRING AZURE butterfly [Azur printanier] nectaring on what appears to be a FORGET-ME-NOT [Myosotis] plant in bloom. In consultation with Jim Edsall, he advises “that all our azures are being called Northern Spring Azures, [Bellastrin lucia], until further studies are carried out.”

It appears late for butterflies to be getting started but these warm days that we are getting now must be providing some of the solar heating that they like.

** Yvette Richard took some photos of her TREE SWALLOW [Hirondelle bicolore] pair that were recently carrying nest material to the nest box and are now getting more serious about family planning with active copulation on Sunday. It seems that many Tree Swallows are later than usual, finalizing nesting intentions this year, no doubt due to the cool spring with insect fodder at a premium. That’s not the case now and it’s time to get down to business!

** Aldo Dorio photographed some of the extensive large rectilinear cavities that are made by PILEATED WOODPECKERS [Grand Pic]. They appear like fresh workings. Aldo photographed these in Tabusintac. .

** The Festival of Nature weekend had lots of great plants, bugs, birds and more. And when a big red bird, like a shiny red, 1958 Dodge parks beside you; that’s the ‘rare bird of the day’. Our tastes surely were quite extravagant back then!

The Salisbury Naturalists are meeting tomorrow night with a great venue. Will add this again tomorrow as today’s edition is a long one.

Tuesday, June 11th @ 7 pm

Salisbury Baptist Church

Guest speaker - Jim Wilson,

Topic The Magnificent Monarch

Special guest - Deborah Carr - author of "Sanctuary" The Life of Naturalist Mary Majka

Voluntary donations will be accepted for the Mary Majka Youth Scholarship fund.

Everyone welcome.

Nelson Poirier, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton