NATURE MONCTON INFORMATION LINE, 18 September 2021 (Saturday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Transcript by: Catherine Clements
Info Line #: 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**Yvette Richard got some pleasant photos of 2 GREAT EGRETS that have been in the Saint John area of the Irving Nature Park boardwalk. Yvette comments they put on a beautiful ballet performance. She photographed 2, but there were at least 8 of them there. It was a special visit. Note the heads popping up of others above the tall grass. A very interesting photo was 2 Great Egrets in close proximity with a SNOWY EGRET coming in for a landing near them, to show both egret species in one frame.
Yvette also includes a photo of a WOOD DUCK as it was just coming out of the water at McManus Pond in Memramcook. The male Wood Ducks would appear to be moving from eclipse plumage back into breeding plumage.
**Jamie Burris got a nice photo of a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD that stopped by a blooming Calibrachoa plant on Thursday. There will not be many more photo ops like this in New Brunswick this season. Cathie Smith also had a late Ruby-throated Hummingbird to her feeder in Riverview on Friday. Keep those Hummingbird feeders up!
**Brian Stone spent time at one of his favourite nature sites behind Crandall University on Thursday. His day started with a 22° SOLAR HALO that persisted for several hours in the morning and into the afternoon. He walked the trails to see how nature was changing as fall approaches. Bird life seemed a bit sparse while he was there. But CABBAGE BUTTERFLIES and CLOUDED SULPHUR BUTTERFLIES were active. A STINK BUG posed on a leaf. Handle one of these and you’ll find out how they get their name! BAND-WINGED GRASSHOPPERS were present, doing their short flight flips but not making the crackling stridulation they do when the temperature is warmer. PAPER WASPS were active, working on the flowers. MEADOWHAWK DRAGONFLIES, which we see so commonly in September, were resting in open areas, waiting for a bit of warmth.
Velcro-like BURDOCK was at its clinging-to-clothing best. CANADA MAYFLOWER berries were ripe red, and INDIAN CUCMBER ROOT still had a few clinging blue-black berries. SPRUCE cones were very numerous, as they are in many areas, ready to welcome CROSSBILLS and PINE SISKINS. Mushrooms were very numerous in the woods, as so many are experiencing, and I will try to put handles on some of Brian’s mushroom photos to the level of confidence that a photo can give.
Brian also got a great photo of the 89% full MOON at 7:45 p.m. on Friday night. Galileo saw all of these craters and valleys with the optics of 1610. He felt that these were seas, and they still bear the names that he put on them, 400 years later. Imagine if he had the optics so freely available to us today!
Brian also got a photo of the Moon with the planet JUPITER in one corner of the frame.
nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier,
Nature Moncton
