Nature Moncton Nature News: August 16 2019

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, August 16, 2019 (Friday)

To view the photos mentioned in this edition go to http://nminfoline.blogspot.ca

Please advise editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any errors are noted in wording or photo labeling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check into the website at www.naturemoncton.com

Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Louise Nichols nicholsl@eastlink.ca

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

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com.

** Jack Perry reminds us of the normal late nesting behaviour of the AMERICAN GOLDFINCH [Chardonneret jaune]. We would be expected to see adults carrying food to nestlings at the moment. We have had no photos of adults carrying food as yet, but suspect there are lots out there doing so. We have a lot of American Goldfinch coming to sunflower chips at our own feeder, but not sure if they are carrying some away or foraging for themselves. They may prefer to feed their young wild seeds available at the moment.

** Aldo Dorio got photos of two different COMMON WOOD NYMPH BUTTERFLIES [Satyre des prés] at Hay Island on Thursday to nicely note the variation that occurs with the large eye spots on the upper hind wing. They are nectaring on Sea Lavender which is a very abundant plant on Hay Island. Aldo also got a photo of what appears to be a BLACK AND YELLOW MUD DAUBER. This non-aggressive wasp builds mud nests often under eaves where it lays an egg with some stashed insect prey for the larvae to feed on when it hatches, then to pupate for the winter.

** I have been noting a significant number of the day-flying moth, the GYPSY MOTH, in the last few days. They are very fast erratic flyers with only the males flying. They appear a beige colour when rapidly flying about. I’m attaching a photo of one from last year.

** I’m also seeing VICEROY BUTTERFLY [Vice roi] adults flying the past few days. They normally have a second brood in August. They can be easily confused with a MONARCH BUTTERFLY [Monarque] at first glance, but are more deep orange in colour, smaller than a Monarch, and their flight behaviour is more fluttery than the flap and glide flight behaviour of the Monarch butterfly.

** Pat and I tagged our first MONARCH BUTTERFLY [Monarque] adult of our own on Thursday and released it. There are several more chrysalids waiting to emerge, other caterpillars in the process of preparing their chrysalis and a few still chowing down on Common Milkweed in their large screened-in cage. It has been a rewarding experience, but I made lots of mistakes and learned from them. Thursday’s release was a male. One photo shows the dark pheromone spots and another photo shows the tag in place and ready to boogie.

** I’m also including a few photos of a HOUSE FINCH [Roselin familier] at our sunflower chip feeder. It often takes second looks to tell the female House Finch and female PURPLE FINCH [Roselin pourpré] apart. The House Finch has no white supercilium and the tail is more squared off at the apex compared to the clearly notched tail of the Purple Finch. There seems to be a bit of rouge colour in this bird that I don’t feel is photographic aberration, so I rather suspect this may be a young-of-the-year male that will molt to the male plumage by late fall.

** This week’s Sky-at-a-Glance is added to this edition, courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2019 August 17– August 24
The constellation Cepheus the King is quite large but it can be difficult to pick out. Around 9:30 pm, look northward for a group of five moderately bright stars in the shape of a house on its side and situated above the W-shape of Cassiopeia the Queen. The peak of the house is only about a fist-width to the right of Polaris, the North Star, and the constellation lies just below a line from Polaris to Deneb at the tail of Cygnus the Swan. A colourful star can be seen in binoculars or a scope just below the base of the house. Herschel’s Garnet Star, a red supergiant, is one of the most luminous stars known and is a thousand times wider than the Sun. If placed in the middle of our solar system it would stretch beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

Another famous star in Cepheus is Delta Cephei, which is situated near the bottom left of the house; it being the namesake of the Cepheid variable stars. Such giant stars pulsate with a regular period and subsequently dim and brighten consistently over that time. For example, Delta Cephei dims and brightens by a factor of two over about five days. Early in the 20th century, Harvard astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered that the intrinsic brightness of a Cepheid variable was proportional to its period and worked out a formula for this relationship. Using the 100-inch telescope on Mount Wilson in the 1920s, Edwin Hubble detected Cepheid variables in what was then called the Andromeda Nebula. Knowing the intrinsic brightness of these stars based on their periods, and how stars dim with distance, he determined the distance to these stars and proved that the nebula was actually a galaxy outside of the Milky Way.

In mythology, Cepheus and Cassiopeia were the rulers of Ethiopia. Poseidon had made a ferocious sea monster to ravage the land as punishment for Cassiopeia’s boasts of their daughter Andromeda’s beauty. To get rid of the monster, they chained Andromeda to the rocks at the seashore as a sacrifice to the monster. She was rescued by Perseus, whose namesake constellation is seen below Cassiopeia.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:20 am and sunset will occur at 8:25 pm, giving 14 hours, 5 minutes of daylight (6:27 am and 8:28 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:29 am and set at 8:12 pm, giving 13 hours, 43 minutes of daylight (6:35 am and 8:16 pm in Saint John).

The Moon is at third quarter on Friday, rising before midnight Thursday and setting at 2:25 the following afternoon. Jupiter is at its highest at sunset, followed by Saturn two hours later. Telescope users might see Jupiter’s Red Spot around 10 pm on Wednesday and 11:30 pm on Friday. Mercury rises about an hour before the Sun and is an easy binocular target in twilight. Venus and Mars are on vacation for a while.

There will be public observing at the ball field in St. George on Friday, August 23, with a cloud date of August 24. The annual RASC NB Fundy Stargaze will be held on August 30 and 31 at the Herring Cove campsite in Fundy National Park.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton