NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Jan 28, 2022 (Friday)
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Edited by:
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**Lois Budd had some interesting patrons to her Salisbury area feeder yard on Thursday and captured nice photos of them enjoying her menu. Welcome patrons included White-breasted Nuthatch, Ruffed Grouse, Evening Grosbeaks, and Pine Siskin.
**Brian
Coyle checked some of his trail cameras on Thursday. He encountered many tracks\trails
in the fresh snow, but many were hard to identify in the fluffy snow. He did
come across a set of trails that is very suggestive of a Weasel bounding
to capture shrew/vole prey showing the trails of both overlapping.
Brian
also captured some of his yard feeder birds. Pine Siskin seem to be
coming to feeders more frequently than they have been. A Brown Creeper was
working a tree aside his home but as usual, quite elusive to get a photo.
**After
the owl presentation last week, Tom Roussel shares 2 owl photos he captured in
the St. Basile area. The Northern
Saw-whet Owl was taken in November 2021. If it is a male and if it decides
to overwinter there, it will surely have a head start on establishing a nesting
territory this spring.
Tom’s
other photo of a Great-horned Owl was taken in April, 2021 which very likely
had a nest in its territory at that time.
**Gordon
Rattray shared a photo of the Dark-eyed Junco in yesterday’s edition
that made us wonder if it might be one of the western subspecies. Gordon got
several more photos when it returned on Thursday, and it would appear it is the
‘Oregon Dark-eyed Junco subspecies that breed in the Western North
America. These subspecies rarely appear in Eastern Canada. The opinion of
experienced birders has been sought and all point out a hard identification is
tricky as most of us just don’t get the opportunity to see these subspecies and
the variation in their plumage also complicates that. It has been suggested
this may be a female because of the rather muted coloration and some brown on
the nape.
Am
including several of Gordon’s excellent photos to peruse as we just do not often
get a chance to peruse these subspecies in the East.
Richard
Blacquiere’s quip of the ‘genetic soup’ involved here is too good not to share!
**I
had a Sharp-shinned Hawk lift all the yard patrons on Thursday. It seemed large so
assume it was a female. It was an immature bird and perched for a few minutes to
provide a photo op after all the other birds left and it went hungry. It showed
the yellow eye of immaturity and the brownish plumage. The blend of breast
streaking suggested it to be approaching maturity. The white tip of the tail
was narrow unlike the Cooper’s Hawk. A faint white supercillium was also
evident. The tail photo is documentary but does show identification features.
**It’s Friday and time to review what clear evenings may reveal in
the night sky courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2022 January 29 – February 5
The
constellation Hydra is the largest of the 88 and it represents a female water
snake. I mention the gender because there is a male water snake constellation,
Hydrus, in the southern hemisphere. A small trapezoid of stars, located about
halfway below a line between Procyon in Canis Minor and Regulus in Leo,
represents the snake’s head. To its lower left is a solitary bright star called
Alphard, the heart of the snake. The rest of the constellation is a long
serpentine string of fainter stars that stretches to Virgo. It takes about
eight hours for the entire constellation to rise. Two other constellations,
Corvus the Crow and Crater the Cup, are sitting on Hydra’s back.
In mythology, Hercules had to kill the multiheaded Hydra as the second of his
famous labours. Knowing the creature could only be killed by severing all of
the heads, and that two would grow in where one was severed, he placed a tree
stump in a fire. When he cut off a head he cauterized the wound with the
glowing stump to prevent the regrowth. When Hera saw that Hercules might win
she sent a crab to distract him, but he easily stomped it dead. That explains
the presence of the dim constellation Cancer the Crab just above the head of
Hydra. Hera despised Hercules because he was the illegitimate son (one of many)
of her husband Zeus. When the Hydra was slain, Hercules dipped his arrows in
the Hydra’s poisonous blood for later use.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:45 am and sunset will occur at 5:19 pm,
giving 9 hours, 34 minutes of daylight (7:48 am and 5:27 pm in Saint John).
Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:36 am and set at 5:30 pm, giving 9 hours,
54 minutes of daylight (7:39 am and 5:37 pm in Saint John).
The waning crescent Moon is near Mars and Venus this weekend. It is new on
Tuesday and the next day the slim crescent is seen near Jupiter after sunset.
Saturn is in conjunction with the Sun on Friday, and by midweek Mercury will be
rising an hour before sunrise.
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
