NATURE
MONCTON NATURE INFORMATION LINE, Oct. 9, 2021 (Saturday)
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Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Info Line
# 506-384-6397 (384-NEWS)
**Jane LeBlanc advises the Vaughn Creek
Bridge (the one you drive through to get to the caves at St. Martins) is
being demolished. A bailey bridge continues to be used to get around it. It is
supposed to be replaced with a two-lane covered bridge, which will be raised
for climate change, and can handle transport trucks and buses, and is supposed
to be finished by next summer.
Jane
comments “sad to see history being lost” and sends a photo of work in progress.
Jane also
got a photo of a Garter Snake enjoying the warmth of an asphalt roadway.
Jane pushed it off the road as a line of traffic was not about to accommodate
its warm repose.
**Gordon
Rattray got nice photos of our only toxic puffball mushroom, the Pigskin
Poison Puffball. It is an easy one to identify with its thick warty skin
and almost always dark grey to black when cut in cross-section when fresh as
Gordon’s photo shows.
Gordon also
got photos of the Common Looper Moth. Note the near fluorescent white
‘stigma’ in one open wing view that is a signature mark on loopers with the
stigma differing in shape with the different looper species. It also has a
characteristic stance when perched quietly that does not show in the photos as
it is on a mission.
**Gabriel Gallant
came across several giant-sized mushrooms in a forested area near his Ste.
Marie-de-Kent home. I suspect from the photos these are the Swollen-Stalked Cat
(Catathelasma ventricosa). We don’t see these very often but this year many
uncommon species are appearing. It has buff-coloured gills that descend the
stem, white spore print, has an unpleasant taste when sampled raw but is
classed as a good edible when cooked. Its large size is striking!
As a
distant memory, my daughter and I attended a mushroom course given by Hal Hinds
in St. Andrews ‘many’ years ago and Hal cooked and served us this mushroom
which was delicious. All these comments are made suspecting the ID from the
photos to be correct.
**Brian
Stone got a nice photo of the waxing crescent moon at 9% on Friday
night. It will be at its first-quarter phase October 13.
Nelson
Poirier
Nature
Moncton
