Nature Moncton Nature News: Dec 4 2021

NATURE MONCTON NATURE INFORMATION LINE

Dec 4, 2021 (Saturday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**John Inman got a photograph of a female Rusty Blackbird that arrived at his Mary’s Point Road feeder yard on Friday. John still has a few Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles staying on.

With the decline in numbers of the Rusty Blackbird, winter visitors are always special.

**Continuing the discussion of yesterday on the hawk Elaine Gallant photographed at the bluff near Parlee Beach from Thursday. I had mistakenly not noticed Elaine had 3 more excellent photos of that hawk that clearly identify it as a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. The photos are all attached today nicely showing some of the Cooper’s Hawk ID features.

Note the fine streaks on the breast with the streaking reduced or absent on the belly, rounded tail apex and the white tail tip is much broader than the similar Sharp-shinned Hawk with the undertail coverts entirely white. Some juveniles may show a pale eyebrow (supercilium) which Elaine’s photo does. The yellow eye indicates immaturity with the adult being red.

The Cooper’s Hawk often perches on telephone poles and other structure, unlike the Sharp-shinned Hawk, which makes for better photographic subjects.

*Brian Stone visited the Hampton lagoons on Friday to find two of them frozen over and the main one open with just a few ducks present. Alongside a handful of MALLARD DUCKS was a small group of AMERICAN WIGEON DUCKS. Among these regulars was one pair of BUFFLEHEAD DUCKS. Heading back to his sister's place along the Titusville Rd., he noticed one PIEBALD WHITE-TAILED DEER feeding with several other normally coloured deer in a distant field.

Brian also got up at 5:00 am today (Saturday) to try and locate Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) in the constellation of Bootes. He managed to find it in binoculars, just barely, but as he set up his camera for an attempt to photograph it a band of clouds moved across the area as frequently happens and he had to be satisfied with his first, not so good, image. Good enough for now. He will keep trying on every clear morning now.