NATURE MONCTON NATURE INFORMATION LINE
Jan 14, 2022 (Friday)
To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .
Please
advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.
For more information on Nature Moncton, check the
website at www.naturemoncton.com
Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**Many of the waxwing reports coming in so far has been Cedar Waxwing. Krista Doyle photographed a group of Bohemian Waxwings at her Lewis Mountain home on Thursday. The distinct undertail Chestnut coverts of this species shows up very well in Krista’s photograph.
**Kathie Carter
advises that the Western Tanager did not survive the cold spell. She
made it through the storm and one day of freezing weather but did not show up
at all Wednesday. She took shelter in the neighbour’s huge ornamental
evergreen. When Kathie went out to top up the feeders around 2:00 pm Thursday there
were feathers blown across the lawn from one side to the other. Close
examination led her to believe they were from the tanager. There were fresh cat
tracks leading to and from the evergreen next door. No signs of struggle or blood. Kathie comments “I’ll miss seeing that bright yellow beak out
there”.
**Georges
Brun got a few nice action photos of a very healthy looking Red Fox making
those signature leaps as it hunted on the marsh across from Halls Creek. It’s a
good sign as there must be a Meadow Vole\Shrew presence that could keep a few
Short-eared Owls content as well.
**Suzanne and Yves Poussart drove between Shediac and Bouctouche on Thursday January 13. The only site where open water was available for birds was found under the bridge at the south end of Bouctouche. This location was the only site where birds were seen because all the other sites were completely covered with ice. Three species for a total of approximately 150 individuals were observed in equal proportions and photographed from the bridge:
COMMON GOLDENEYE (Garrot à œil d'or), BARROW'S GOLDENEYE (Garrot d'Islande) and COMMON MERGANSER (Grand Harle). Males and females of each of them were present. (Editors note: note the complete orange bill of the adult female Barrow’s Goldeneye).
It is quite striking to realize the impact of
the very cold days we experienced since the beginning of the week as
ice was essentially missing everywhere just 3 days before.
**For a few days,
Yvette Richard has a Sharp-shinned Hawk preying on her regular visitors.
On
Wednesday, it fed on a Rock Pigeon for over 3 hours and it
came back Thursday morning to finish off the
carcass. (Editors note: a pigeon is large prey for a Sharp-shinned Hawk so
assumedly this is the larger female)
On Friday afternoon,
it preyed on a Blue Jay.
The
Mourning Doves seem oblivious. Yvette assumes they are next on the prey list.
**Sterling Marsh
has not seen his male pheasant troupe in over a week, but a female did join
his regularly expected patrons on Thursday.
**Lois Budd
shares her birdfeeder action and feeders. Her homemade peanut butter log is a
popular destination and photographed a White-breasted Nuthatch enjoying it. She
also finds the hanging branches of white millet she purchases in bulk is
popular with sparrows. Pine Siskin have arrived and also her first European
Starling that she is hoping it doesn’t share the news of her site with its
friends.
** Jane LeBlanc
has had her PURPLE FINCH numbers increase as soon as there was snow on
the ground in her St. Martins yard. They join many MOURNING DOVES, Black-capped
Chickadees and BLUE JAYS.
**Daryl
Doucet photographed a duo of male Ring-necked Pheasants perched on his yard
fence ready to check out the menu in his feeder yard on Thursday afternoon.
They were also checking out frozen raspberries still clinging to vines.
**We routinely have House Finch as patrons to our Moncton feeder yard. A
pair briefly posed at the same feeder Thursday to show the plumage of the
genders. The female is relatively bland with the male showing more colour but
its plumage tends to vary somewhat.
**It’s Friday and time to review what we may be
able to look for in next week’s night sky courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason:
This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2022 January 15 – January 22
There is one river seen from New Brunswick that is completely ice-free all winter,
but we can only see it on clear nights. Eridanus the River, the fifth largest
constellation in area of the sky, has its head just off the foot of Orion near
Rigel. Even when it is at its highest in our sky, the river’s meandering path
takes it more than ten degrees below the horizon to where it terminates at
Achernar, the ninth brightest star.
In mythology the river is associated with Phaethon, a mortal son of Apollo.
Apollo drove the Sun, a golden chariot powered by mighty steeds, across the sky
by day. Phaethon was allowed to drive it one day but he couldn’t control the
steeds. They ran amok, scorching the sky (the Milky Way) and the Earth
(Sahara), until Zeus blasted Phaethon with a thunderbolt and he fell to his
death in the river. The asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which is the source of the
Geminid meteor shower in December, orbits from outside Mars to within the orbit
of Mercury and is one of the Apollo family of Earth-crossing asteroids. The
twisty constellation Eridanus was also considered to be the path of souls.
Although we can’t see Achernar without travelling to Florida, there is a
notable star in Eridanus that we can see from outside a city. Omicron-2
Eridani, also called 40 Eridani or Keid (circled on the map), has a famous
fictional and fascinating planet: Vulcan, the home of Spock. Did you know that
there was once believed to be a planet closer to the Sun than Mercury? It was
named Vulcan after the Roman god of fire, metalworking, and the forge.
Anomalies in Mercury’s orbit were thought to be due to an interior planet, and
some astronomers even claimed to have seen it crossing the Sun. The anomalies
of Mercury’s orbit were finally explained by some guy named Einstein in his
General Theory of Relativity. Coincidentally, regarding the god Vulcan, the constellation
Fornax the Furnace barely crests our horizon near Eridanus.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:57 am and sunset will occur at 5:00 pm,
giving 9 hours, 3 minutes of daylight (7:59 am and 5:07 pm in Saint John). Next
Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:52 am and set at 5:09 pm, giving 9 hours, 17
minutes of daylight (7:54 am and 5:17 pm in Saint John).
The smallest full Moon of the year, the Puny Moon, occurs on Monday. At
midweek Mercury sets around 5:50 pm, followed by Saturn at 6:15 and Jupiter at
8:00. Venus rises an hour before sunrise this Saturday, an hour behind Mars. By
spring the planetary action will have shifted to the morning sky.
On Sunday evening at 8 pm, tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show via the
Facebook page or YouTube channel of Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
