NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, May
27, 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)
** Over the past week Fred and Lynn Dube have had a BARRED OWL [Chouette rayée] visit their back yard for a late night snack. Unfortunately it’s snacking on their pet pond fish. The pond has been there for almost 10 years and this has never happened before. The other night when Fred saw the owl he thought it was great to have this visitor until he saw it swoop down and take a fish. They had some problems with green water in the pond recently and so are unable to see the bottom. They hadn’t been seeing as many fish but thought it was because of the green water and not that they had a takeout service for their owl buddy. Fred sends a photo of the owl sitting on top of the pergola waiting for its takeout order to be ready.
This would seem to be an unusual learned behavior and shows the foraging variety of the Barred Owl. It is difficult to get a photo of the actual take of a fish but they have seen it several times. There are overnight lights on the pergola that tend to bring the fish to the top of the water and I assume that it goes Osprey style to grab its fresh fish snack. I suspect that this is an unusual scenario.
** Jamie Burris shares some recent
photos from his yard and local stops. He had a beautiful male PURPLE FINCH
[Roselin pourpré] stop by to say hello, and a pair of AISIAN MULTICOLOURED LADY
BEETLES mating in his Plum Tree. (Editor’s note: Most Lady Beetle species mate
over the next month, lay eggs, and die. The larvae that hatch are in most cases
avid aphid eaters that will mature into adults over the summer.)
On a recent trip to Hillsborough Jamie
and Karen observed a flock of BOBOLINKS [Goglu des prés] feeding in the grass.
While in Sackville last week he had to
stop for a MOOSE [Orignal] crossing the road.
On Wednesday he had 2 male EASTERN BLUEBIRDS
[Merlebleu de l'Est] visit the park behind their house. The Eastern Bluebird
reports coming in are really rewarding.
** Jane Leblanc reports that RHODORA is
blooming everywhere in the St. Martins area at the moment. The colourful blooms
of this bushy plant set forth before the leaves come on to add a lot of spring
colour to roadsides and waste areas.
Jane also comments she was hearing and seeing
a male AMERICAN REDSTART [Paruline flamboyante] on her property on Tuesday.
Their vocalization can vary somewhat and it is sometimes hard to bird by ear
with certainty with the American Redstart.
** Yvette Richard captured a pleasant
photo of a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD [Moqueur polyglotte] at Cocagne Cape on
Tuesday. Reports of this species have seemed so sporadic for years with never
any real buildup in numbers even as this species is non-migratory.
** In follow up to Louise Nichols
observations of water levels suddenly rising and falling on a windy day at a
site on her Aulac property, Connie Colpitts comments that on a windy day when
the atmospheric pressure is low or high the same thing will happen with the
water in a toilet bowl. An interesting comparison. There is probably a name for
this phenomenon that is a plausible explanation.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
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