NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, July 2, 2021 (Friday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Louise Nichols nicholsl@eastlink.ca
Info Line # 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
** There certainly is a lot of
attention to the STELLER’S SEA-EAGLE at Gillis Island on the Restigouche
River in spite of the foul weather. Jane
LeBlanc sends a photo of one that she took at the Winnipeg Zoo in 2017.
** The NORTHERN CARDINAL nesting
scenario at Yolande LeBlanc’s Memramcook site is getting even more
interesting. They saw a second fledgling
on Thursday that appears notably more advanced than the one first seen on
Wednesday. They suspected there were two
pairs nesting in the area, and that seems to be playing out as one seems to fly
always to the east and the other, across the road to the west. The two males appear not to get along. All very, very good news. Hopefully, we will start to get more Northern
Cardinal reports from other areas soon that should result from the many
Northern Cardinals that seemed to overwinter in the northern New Brunswick area
to southeastern New Brunswick.
** Donna Crossland adds additional
comments of interest on the BEECH LEAF-MINING WEEVIL in Nova
Scotia. Scroll back to yesterday’s
edition and note Donna’s additional comments.
** Fred Dubé got some moth photos to
share. One is of a striking SAINT
LAWRENCE TIGER MOTH, a medium to large moth, especially when it opens it
wings to show the contrasting colourful hind wing, and Fred also captured the
bright red on the legs. A SCALLOP
MOTH also posed less cooperatively.
** Brian Stone took an interesting
video of a pool of fresh water at Highland Park in Salisbury. I asked Alyre Chiasson for comments, and his
comments are too good not to share. I’m
quoting Alyre’s response below but check out the link to Brian’s video below
first.
Quoting “I
think these are large tadpoles, I have seen some huge ones this year, doing
breach breathing. With the warmer temperatures, there is less oxygen available
in the water and the gills simply cannot extract enough. The tadpoles charge up
to the surface with enough speed to break the water tension and gulp a bubble
of air. The lungs are already formed by this stage. They expel the used air
from the lungs into the mouth. The two air sources mix. The lower floor of the
mouth is raised which forces the air into the lungs. The volume of air in the
mouth is usually greater than that of the lungs and the excess is expelled as a
burp. The smaller tadpoles that cannot break the surface tension to breach rise
to the surface and do bubble sucking. They exert enough of a vacuum force that the
surface tension dips inward, and the tadpoles snap off the resulting bubble of
air. The remaining process is the same
as above. Both are quite a neat as an adaptation to environments with low
oxygen, that makes it unsuitable for fish predators to survive in. Only
high-speed cameras have made this discovery possible.
Alyre Chiasson” End of quote
** Brian also got photos of a PIED-BILLED
GREBE and family feeding on what appears to be tadpoles and/or small
fish. They were taken at Highland Park
in Salisbury. Pied-billed Grebe chicks
are very strikingly marked compared to the adults and surely make for photo eye
candy.
** Brian shares a number of items that
got attention on Tuesday’s Nature Moncton hike that includes a SAVANNAH
SPARROW feeding very intently in the mud, TREE SWALLOWS (editor’s
note: it was noted there was no Nature Moncton nest boxes erected there which
will be addressed), the measured flight pattern of a few GREAT BLUE HERONS,
some great photos of a PECK’S SKIPPER that cooperated nicely, some very
ominous thunder clouds that did briefly challenge the outing to go to a rainbow
and some interesting sun rays, some great photos of a RED-BELTED BUMBLEBEE,
a LINDEN TREE(BASSWOOD) with its unique yet-to-open flowers on a blade-shaped
base, JOE PYE WEED, BIRDS-FOOT TREE FOIL, RABBIT’S FOOT CLOVER,
BLACK MEDIC (Editors note: that has similarities to the more abundant
Hop Clover), and STAGHORN SUMAC near bloom.
** Wednesday night was a big night for
moths at my moth light. One was the VIRGINIA
CTENUCHA, a medium-sized moth that we will start seeing frequently
day-flying and looking/acting very much like a butterfly. Its orange head area, fluorescent blue behind
the head area, and white narrow rim on the wing edges identify it. The ORANGE-COLLARED SCAPE MOTH has
similarities but not as common.
** It is Friday and time to review the
next week’s Sky-at-a-Glace, courtesy of sky-guru Curt Nason, and the chance to
see three planets in the evening if you stay up until 11:00 PM.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2021
July 3 – July 10
With the Milky Way becoming prominent on summer evenings, binocular stargazing
is a great way to pass the time. From Cygnus heading south the Milky Way is
split by the Great Rift, a region where the starlight between us and the centre
of our galaxy is blocked by vast dust clouds. The western side of the Milky Way
runs through parts of Lyra and Ophiuchus to Scorpius, and the eastern side runs
through Aquila and Scutum to Sagittarius.
A good place to start observing is with orange Antares in Scorpius. Check out
the colour of this supergiant star and pick out the globular cluster M4 in the
same field of view to its right. East of Scorpius is the Teapot asterism that
makes up much of Sagittarius the Archer. If you extend the two stars at the top
of the Teapot’s spout to the right you will find M6, the aptly named Butterfly
Cluster. To its lower left is a large star cluster called M7 or Ptolemy’s
Cluster. To the right of M7 is a pair of bright stars, Shaula and Lesath, which
marks the stinger of Scorpius. They have been nicknamed the Cat’s Eyes.
About a binocular-field width above the Teapot’s spout you will find a fuzzy
patch with a small cluster of stars in or near it. The fuzzy patch is a cloud
of dust and gas called M8, the Lagoon Nebula, where stars are forming.
Radiation from hot young stars makes the gas glow, and it can be seen with the
naked eye in rural areas. A telescope will reveal dark dust lanes in the nebula
that suggest its lagoon name. The cluster of stars is called NGC 6530, where
NGC stands for New General Catalogue. Just above M8 is a smaller cloud, M20 or
the Trifid Nebula, and the nearby star cluster M21.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:33 am and sunset will occur at 9:13 pm,
giving 15 hours, 40 minutes of daylight (5:41 am and 9:15 pm in Saint
John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:38 am and set at 9:10 pm,
giving 15 hours, 32 minutes of daylight (5:46 am and 9:12 pm in Saint
John). At 7:27 pm on Monday the Earth will be at aphelion, its greatest
distance from the Sun for the year.
The slim waning crescent Moon passes to the left of Mercury Thursday morning,
and it is new the following evening. Mercury is at its greatest elongation from
the Sun and Monday, and it brightens over the week. Venus can be seen shortly
after sunset low in the northwest, sitting on the western edge of the Beehive
star cluster this Saturday. Mars pops into view later five degrees to the upper
left of Venus. Saturn rises before 11 pm in the upper middle of Capricornus,
followed by Jupiter 50 minutes later in western Aquarius.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
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