NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, February
25, 2021 (Thursday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Brian Stone bjpstone@gmail.com
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** Rhonda and Paul Langelaan have
approximately 40 SNOW BUNTINGS [Bruant des neiges] coming to their Second North
River yard to enjoy spread cracked corn. Note in the photos that the much more
near fluorescent white has appeared in the Snow Buntings compared to the much
more drab brown that they were as they arrived in late fall.
** Rheal Vienneau sends some excellent
photos of some tracks/trail of an animal that passed through an area in his
Dieppe yard where he feeds pheasants. The tracks are approximately 1x1 inch and
with a 7 inch stride. Rheal suspects a possible domestic cat and the
measurements do meet that criteria and some of the prints do indeed appear to
be feline being round, some slightly offset, and a rounded ‘C” shape between
the front pads and the hind pad. However … some prints do show a claw mark
which possibly is not real as there should be more showing if it’s not feline.
Some of the front pads are oval like a feline pad should be but some do seem to
be extended. There are also some drag marks with some tracks and the feline
would not normally do that in shallow snow and there also seems to be a tail
drag which is inconsistent with feline. Possibly something is being dragged
along to confuse the issue. With that verbose commentary it probably was a
domestic cat out of default!
** Jane Leblanc photographed a male NORTHERN
CARDINAL [Cardinal rouge] that she is fairly sure is different from the one that
she photographed a few days ago. It still has the grey-ish tones in the plumage
that she wondered about but more of it and this one is a lot less flighty than
the other one and gave Jane more photo ops but still through the window. Jane
will have us looking a lot closer at cardinals to detect plumage differences
that may let us identify individuals and know if we may be getting different
individuals moving about.
** Wendy Sullivan, Elaine Gallant and
Louise Nichols went for a walk along the Petitcodiac River trail east of
Chateau Moncton on Wednesday. They saw a large number of MALLARD DUCKS [Canard
colvert] with a few AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS [Canard noir] along the trail. They
estimated there were approximately 500 Mallards. One photo shows a single male RING-NECKED
PHEASANT [Faisan de Colchide] among them. Another photo shows an American Black
Duck with a bit of an obvious bulge in its upper chest which may be just a very
full crop or possibly an impacted crop. The American Black Duck nicely shows
the paleness of the face and neck compared to the body and the dark,
purple/blue speculum.
** Brian Stone drove through Johnson’s Mills and on into Sackville on Wednesday searching for interesting photo targets but saw very little in the way of wildlife until he hit the HORNED LARK [Alouette hausse-col] convention on the Folkins Dr. /Donald Harper Rd. corner north of Sackville. A large group was flying back and forth a ways off the road but a smaller group of about 15 to 20 were content to forage near the side of the road and give Brian the chance get pleasant photos.
Three LAPLAND LONGSPURS [Bruant lapon] were in that small group to add variety and challenge to the photographic efforts. The plumage variation seems to be showing in Brian's photos of this species and would appear they may be starting to start to take on breeding plumage..
One immature RED-TALED HAWK was noted perched at the top
of a tree earlier along the way that decided to frustrate Brian by flying a few
circles overhead at a speed that Brian could not follow with his camera. No curses were uttered though as occasionally
photographers deserve a bit of harassment in return by their subjects.
** The New Brunswick Environmental
Network provides a list of some events due to take place each month. The March
list is now available and is attached. Many may already have it but I am
posting it below for those who may not. These events are webinars due to the
Covid-19 epidemic we are in. Many of them have more details and you can
register for them simply by clicking on
the event that is listed below.
I would draw attention to the webinars
…
March 3rd on “Where Have All the
Eiders Gone”
March 9th on “Miscou Island
… an Island in Transition”
March 10th on “Wildlife
Photography Basics”
March 11th on “Miscou”
March 24th on “The Life and
Times of Owls in New Brunswick”
To register for these simply click, or
in some cases Ctrl click, to open the event notice and register if you wish.
The same applies for most of the other events listed.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
