Nature Moncton Nature News: Aug 22 2020

NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, 22 August 2020 (Saturday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Transcript by: Catherine Clements Info Line #: 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)

**Carmella Melanson came up with an idea that many of us may want to try. With this very hot and dry summer we are having, last week Carmella set up a hose to water young trees on their property. What she didn’t expect were all the birds that would come to the water to drink and bathe. They had a total of 14 species come to the hose, including 5 Warbler species (YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER [Paruline à croupion jaune], AMERICAN REDSTART [Paruline flamboyante], CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER [Paruline à flancs marron], YELLOW WARBLER [Paruline jaune], and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT [Paruline masquée]). A few days later, she put out the hose again, and this time turned it upwards to get a spray of water, and what a beautiful sight it was, when hummingbirds kept coming to the spray of water and flying through it. It was a sight to behold. She took pictures of all 14 species, and attaches 6 photos that show some of them cooling off, such as NORTHERN FLICKER [Pic flamboyant], a female RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD [Carouge à epaulettes], CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER [Paruline à flancs marron], YELLOW WARBLER [Paruline jaune], AMERICAN REDSTART [Paruline flamboyante], and RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD [Colibri à gorge rubis]. What a show!

**Louise Nichols had a pleasant raptor visit their woods on their Aulac property on Friday. A juvenile BROAD-WINGED HAWK [Petite Buse] stayed for a while to give Louise some great photos.

**I was surprised while fishing in the Fundy area to get tangled in a clump of seaweed I had seen only once before, so I sent some photos to Dr Thierry Chopin, a professor of Marine Biology at UNBSJ. It turned out to be Codium fragile, and he replied with a very interesting commentary which I’m paraphrasing below. The strands were approximately pencil thickness.

“It is indeed Codium. People seem to agree that it is Codium fragile in this region.

It came from New England (in the 1970’s - 1980’s, I believe) most probably from around Boston and by ballast water.It has been coming north, not showing its passport at the border (!), and moving into Canada.

My understanding is that so far, it had not moved too much within the Bay of Fundy, but went from NB Fundy, to NS Fundy, moved around Atlantic NS, Cape Breton, and PEI (I believe mostly north shore).

So, it is quite intriguing that it is in Lockhart Lake. I can see from Google Earth the connection to the sea, but how did Codium end up in that lake?

I am not sure how much influence from the sea there is, but that is quite a long trip to establish itself in such a new habitat!

I have seen it near St. Andrews, also in a quite remote marine-linked habitat, Sam Orr Pond, but that does not seem to be such a trip to/from the sea.

It is an invasive species; however, it does not seem to have taken over the shore.

It is sometimes called the “oyster thief”, as it can attach to oysters and when it photosynthesizes it can accumulate bubbles of oxygen in its spongy texture. If there are enough bubbles, it can lift the organism that will drift with the current and be moved somewhere else, hence “thief” as it can displace little oysters. Some oyster farmers in Nova Scotia complained about that.

Also interesting is that you have to realize that one organism is just one big cell. So, it is a syphonous organization and a macroscopic unicellular alga.”

Dr. Thierry Chopin

** I was also surprised to find a flowering plant pop up in front of our doorstep that looked like a Lobelia [Lobélie] but did not key out well in the wildflower guides. Gart Bishop took a look at it and agrees it’s a Lobelia, and probably the cultivar GARDEN LOBELIA [Lobélie érine], which was not intentionally planted there. I’m attaching a photo, as the blooms are typical of the wild lobelias, to be a clue to identifying them in the wild.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier,

Nature Moncton