NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, August 3, 2021 (Tuesday)
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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)
**It’s
Tuesday and Nature Moncton’s Tuesday Night outing is on tonight at the
Irishtown Nature Park. All details
attached below:
Nature Moncton Walk Write-up for Tuesday, August 3, 2021
This week’s Tuesday night Nature
Moncton outing tonight will be walking through the forest trails at the Irishtown
Nature Park.
Meet at the Upper parking lot at
6:30. To reach the Upper lot, turn into the main entrance off of the Irishtown
Road and proceed straight forward for 200 meters.
We will look for mushrooms and
plants, birds in the woods and out on the water, and overlook the entire lake
before continuing along the shore and returning back.
The walk is anticipated to be about 4
kilometers, half of it over tree rooted paths and perhaps damp/wet terrain.
The leaders will include Fred
Richards, David Cannon and Gordon Rattray.
**Leigh
Eaton’s RING-NECKED PHEASANT count is staying steady with approximately 12
juveniles and 2 adults regularly visiting his feeders. It seems as if there are two broods as
several of his visitors have been noticeably smaller birds. It would appear
that there are no COYOTES, FOXES or other predators in the area as the
count remains consistent. The adults
visiting are just starting to regrow their tail feathers as they have been
missing for the last several days.
Leigh also got photos of very plump BEAKED
HAZELNUT clusters. The shrubs are on
a power line near his north-west Moncton home.
**Sterling
Marsh visited the Arthur Street lagoon in Memramcook on Sunday afternoon. A male WOOD DUCK was hanging out with RING
BILLED GULLS. A male RUDDY DUCK with
his wedgewood blue bill and a female RING-NECKED DUCK were also photographed.
**Bev
Schneider also reports a bumper crop of CHANTERELLE MUSHROOMS at the
moment. The cooler, moist weather is causing mushrooms to feel good about the
fall conditions. I also gathered one nice feed of HORSE MUSHROOMS on
Sunday which is normally early for this species.
**Leon
Gagnon shares some action from Miscou. He noted BALD EAGLES passing over Wilson
Point from July 26 to Aug. 2. A WOOD DUCK in eclipse plumage was noted at the
Grand Plain marsh area and GREATER YELLOWLEGS getting the shorebird parade
started at Malbaie lagoon. Also great to see a male NORTHERN CARDINAL on Miscou
**Brian
Stone catches up on some nature outings over the past days. Some images are
from his visit to the Upham and Hampton areas, the Fundy Parkway Trail, and the
Irving Nature Park in Saint John.
On Tuesday he was at the Hampton
lagoons and took pictures of a GREAT BLUE HERON, a TURKEY VULTURE,
and a BALD EAGLE in flight. Several DUCKLINGS were present in the
pond beside the lagoon along with a GREEN-WINGED TEAL DUCK and a COMMON
GOLDENEYE DUCK. On land a GREY SQUIRREL was munching on a mushroom
and some interesting fungus was suspected to be JELLY BABY mushroom (LEOTIA
LUBRICA),
On Wednesday Brian photographed
two plants, HAREBELL and EYEBRIGHT at the Fundy Parkway Trail, An
AMERICAN EMERALD DRAGONFLY, and an interesting spider, a male MARBLED
ORBWEAVER, in his sister's garage.
On Thursday Brian sends a few
more images from the Sussex Bluff Trail including a CANADA DARNER DRAGONFLY,
a female BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER, and another BALD EAGLE in
flight.
On Friday Brian visited the pond
beside the Hampton lagoon again in the rain to see if the Green Heron would be
more cooperative for a picture but had to settle for a close image of a GREAT
BLUE HERON and the COMMON GOLDENEYE standing on a branch to preen
plus a distant picture of a BELTED KINGFISHER perched on a snag.
On Saturday Brian photographed a RED-WINGED
BLACKBIRD family and a bright male PURPLE FINCH in his sister's yard
at Upham and then headed to Saint John to walk in the Irving Nature Park. In
the park Brian found a female MONARCH BUTTERFLY nectaring on milkweed. A
GREY SQUIRREL keeping hikers’ company along the trail and stopped to
enjoy a mushroom. The INDIAN PIPE plant was plentiful (Editor’s note:
this plant is parasitic on other plant’s roots not producing its own food and
this no green chlorophyll) and one large patch of SLIME MOLD was noted.
On Sunday Brian was back in
Moncton and visited Erroll Mitchell's home hoping to see the American Bitterns
that sometimes come to his yard but had to settle for other interesting items
instead. Around the ponds below Erroll's yard Brian photographed several plants
including SNEEZEWORT and some varieties of pond wildlife. Some yet to be
identified fish were plentiful along with snails and tadpoles in the water.
Some tadpoles were showing new legs sprouting and some of the GREEN FROGS
still had tail stubs hanging on.
A WATER SCORPION insect
swam past and came out of the water briefly for a closer photo (Editor’s note:
note the many mites attached to the scorpion which are probably just hitchhikers
(phoretic) as their way of dispersing). Many COMMON WHITETAIL DRAGONFLIES
were buzzing about the area. An interesting sight was a large cluster of tiny
larvae or worms of some type that were coating some of the rocks in the pond
overflow streams. These are not yet identified as to species.
**Mac
Wilmot’s grandson Andy Stultz took a unique cloudscape photo on the western shore
of Hudson Bay through a scope over a compass repeater on the bridge of the
icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. The
place is called Chesterfield Inlet (Inuktitut name means place with few houses)
and is the oldest Community in Nunavut.
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
