NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, July 26, 2021
(Monday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by Fred Richards fredrichards@rogers.com
Info Line #: 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**Tomorrow night’s Tuesday outing
repeated at the end of this edition and up front tomorrow morning.
**Jane Leblanc got a nice photo of
an AMERICAN LADY butterfly in her St. Martins milkweed patch on
Saturday. The photo shows the more
squared off forewing tip and the orange bar in the forewing apex. The PAINTED
LADY would have less squared off forewing tip and the bar near the forewing
apex would be white for a few quick identity features between our two lady
butterflies along with other features.
Jane also had four MONARCH BUTTERFLIES and one WHITE ADMIRAL
BUTTERFLY in her MILKWEED patch on Saturday. Milkweed and SPREADING
DOGBANE are two very popular butterfly targets at the moment.
**Suzanne Rousseau in Sussex is
enjoying the results of planting SWAMP MILKWEED in her yard. Suzanne sends a photo of several very plump MONARCH
BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR passing out sizeable chunks of frass (poop)
suggesting that entering the pupa chrysalis stage may not be far away. Suzanne has had four chrysalides form. One emergent adult flew off on July 17.
** Chris Antle photographed the WHITE-SPOTTED
SAWYER BEETLE. This is a common wood boring beetle in New Brunswick, easily
recognized by its white spot at the base of the wings. Chris’s example is
probably a male as the antennae are longer than the body. Adults favour pine and spruce. The females
chew small niches into dead and dying trees. Their lifecycle ranges from 1 to 4
years. They do like burn over areas, attracted to the dead and dying trees. The
larvae can actually be heard chewing from the outside of an affected tree. The
chewing sound is quite audible if you stay quiet and listen. I recall one time,
tenting in a forest campground, and a neighbour said in the morning that he
hardly got any sleep the night from hearing some chewing sounds coming from a
nearby tree!
** Many mushrooms are enjoying the recent New Brunswick weather. Dale Gaskin reports he gathered 4 1/2 pounds of CHANTERELLE MUSHROOMS in an area approximately 12 by 12 feet, having never seen them so abundant and in one spot. Some have already hit the haute cuisine platter which Dale describes as an incredible flavour.
Dale also reports he has a family of
fledged EASTERN BLUEBIRDS and a family of BARN SWALLOWS yet to
fledge.
** Brian Stone sent in some photos
from a walk behind Crandall University on Friday, July 23rd. He got
some interesting wasps including a CARROT WASP in flight (Editors Note:
this is a small wasp which many of us are unfamiliar with but BugGuide confirmed
it), and a PAPER WASP (Editors Note: this wasp constructs open-celled
umbrella shaped nests). Brian got some images of flies, which were of the TAWNY-TAILED BEE FLY, a TACHINID FLY and also a TRI-COLOURED BUMBLEBEE,
a SONG SPARROW, a CLOUDED SULPHUR BUTTERFLY (Editors Note: nicely
showing the double ring on the hind wing
and three faint spots) and CLINTONIA BERRIES. Note in the fly photos how
the pollen grains are sticking to them to make them effective pollinators.
** On Saturday July 24th,
Brian went to Coates Mills to look for the EASTERN MEADOWLARKS that had
been there over the last weeks. He waited about 1 ½ hour before just 1 of the 5
showed up briefly, for just minutes, too far away for a nice photo. Assuming 3
of them are fledglings, he assumed the one he got the photo of to be one of
them. Brian then went to the Highland Park in Salisbury on the way home and got
photos of a family of AMERICAN WIGEONS and a few of the AMERICAN
COOTS still present. There were several WOOD DUCKS in the pond. Many of the Goldenrod plants
had large GOLDENROD GALLS on them which are produced by the GOLDENRED
GALL FLY laying eggs on goldenrod species with the larvae creating the protective
gall structure.
** I don’t recall a butterfly ever
coming to the hummingbird feeders for me, but probably others have. We had a FRITILLARY
BUTTERFLY, one of the larger ones, come to a hummingbird feeder and
appear to take nectar for almost two minutes, a missed photo op for sure.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
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