Nature Moncton Nature News: June 20 2020

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, SATURDAY JUNE 20, 2020

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Catherine Johnson johnson2@xplornet.com

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

**The SONG SPARROWS continue to raise their young in Jamie and Karen Burris's Riverview backyard. There are 3 fledglings that they have counted. They seem to like to feed in the grapevines and their strawberry bed which is good because they get rid of some pesky insects for them.

Jamie got a great series of photos of the song sparrow family in action.

A PURPLE FINCH stopped by for a drink from their little watering cup and saucer and a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD was seen feeding on their Solomon's Seal plant.

Jamie also got a photo of an Arctic skipper, one of the more brightly marked skippers. Note the spatulate style club at the end of the antennae, typical of all skippers.

**Louise Nichols had some nice finds in the bog on their Aulac property on Friday. The orchid dragon's mouth aka arethusa was in its beautiful bloom, the almost equally striking bloom of bog buckbean was in prime bloom along with chokeberry. Sundew that was not in bloom but it's sticky filaments erect waiting for an unsuspecting insect to get stuck and digested, Labrador tea was in full bloom and cotton grass, a sedge, flashing its puffy bloom. Bog laurel was also in bloom showing its filaments that can also snap over an unsuspecting insect and become plant food.

Bogs sure can be places where many specific plants make their chosen habitat to live.

Louise also got an excellent photo of a brown elfin butterfly. We have six elfin species in NB and appear in early season so it is nice to get a photo of one in such nice condition on June 19, which is getting near the end of their flight period. These are small butterflies and usually on the move making such a photo a value added bonus.

Jim Edsall confirmed the elfin species as some look quite similar to the untrained eye.

**Gordon Rattray got several more photos from the White Rock area that Nature Moncton is heading out to today.

An interesting photo of a bee fly. This fly’s larvae are parasitoids on solitairy bee species, inserting their eggs into the nest of solitairy bee species for the larvae to feed on the solitairy bee larvae. Note the two wings (diptera) to identity it as a fly, not a bee. An American toad posed as well and a very cooperative Hobomock skipper butterfly, Northern-cresent butterfly and dreamy dusky-wing skipper were also flying, and a young-of-the-year groundhog made a slow road crossing.

Gordon Rattray's photo of the western-tailed blue butterfly yesterday generated interest. Opinions felt confident on the identification and John Klymko points out it is a significant range extension of this species spread with the newest record being Bouctouche and only a handful of records from the southern half of NB. Timing is good as John points out the Butterfly Atlas Book is nearing completion.

**Clifford Twist explored a bog located by going to the end of Trites Rd., in Riverview and following the power line there approximately 1/2 a mile to the right. He heard an unfamiliar bird and recorded it to get home to and was able to match it up to LINCOLN'S SPARROW, a first for Clifford and a sparrow that is often hard to get to see. They do like bogs.

Another bog loving species, the PALM WARBLER was seen feeding young and Clifford noted one carrying a dragonfly, no doubt a prize prey.

Following the comments on OSPREY/BALD EAGLE interactions of yesterday, Clifford comments on an osprey nest that has been at that area for sometime but now not used. A few years ago he found 2 well developed killed osprey nestlings on the ground under the nest but not certain of the cause however, the ospreys apparently decided it not an appropriate area place to be nesting.

**Brian Stone again got lots of action in and around his active pond which has dried down due to the hot weather to get the SPOTTED SANDPIPER, SONG SPARROWS, BLOW FLIES and other wildlife foraging on the amphibians that have succumbed to the dried conditions.

He was able to get several butterflies with the added bonus of getting from the top and undersides views to show the surprising contrast. The cryptic undersides of a mourning cloak butterfly surely shows how they are able to fold up against a similar background and survive the winter in the adult stage with help of their anti-freezing mechanisms.

Other butterflies included Harris Checker-spot, Northern crescent, several viceroys, white admiral, Canadian tiger swallowtails, Northern azure, common ringlets and long-dash skipper nicely showing the hind-wing bars going parallel to the wing edge.

An ALDER FLYCATCHER shows a nice example of an Empidonax flycatcher identified by vocalization.

Also sandspurrey was in full bloom.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton