NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, August 12, 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)
** Jane Leblanc visited the Johnson’s
Mills Shorebird Reserve site on Wednesday. Folks at the Interpretive Center
estimated that there were approximately 8,000 SANDPIPERS there at that moment with some leaving soon but hoping
that more are yet to arrive.
** Dan Hicks left a list of interesting
trees to visit in the Moncton area on yesterday’s edition. Dan advises to
remove Ironwood from that list on Alma St. He did a drive by of that site on
Wednesday and they have died for some unknown reason.
** The TURKEY VULTURE surely has expanded into Canada. Leon Gagnon, a
summer resident of Miscou Island who lives in Quebec, sends a note that an
informant from Port Daniel in Gaspésie, Baie des Chaleurs in Quebec, observed
approximately 60 Turkey Vultures gathering there on August 08. He also sends a
video that can be seen at the link below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ukmwahpp198jis/video0000001.mp4?dl=0
** Brian Stone also visited the
Johnson’s Mills area on Wednesday for the second day in a row. On Tuesday he
just missed the large group of about 8,000 SANDPIPERS
by about an hour and had to settle for a few infrequent smaller groups of just
a few hundred so he returned on Wednesday 2 hours earlier (in relation to the
high tide time) and was rewarded with the larger group that he had missed the
day before. As the incoming tide pushed the birds up onto the beach area a PEREGRINE FALCON flew in to hunt for
lunch which is the same thing that happened the day before and scared the birds
up the coast to a new location.
It would seem that an arrival time of one and
a half to two hours before high tide is the best scenario to be sure of seeing
the sandpipers gathering and flying in formation as the falcon likely waits
until the sandpipers are congregating on the beach near high tide in order to
increase its chances of grabbing a bird. Brian shares a few images from his
second visit. Brian also sends photos of a NORTHERN
HARRIER HAWK and an EASTERN KINGBIRD
that he spotted on his way to Johnson’s Mills in the Memramcook area.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
