NATURE MONCTON NATURE INFORMATION LINE
Jan 6, 2022 (Thursday)
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Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**Dale Halfpenny’s sister
Sue Pugsley saw a bird a week ago in South Athol, Nova Scotia and did not recognize
it. It was scratching in the leaves underneath the apple trees. She saw it
again Tuesday and got a photo she sent to Dale who recognized it as a Brown Thrasher. They share a photo in
today’s photo lineup.
There
have been occasional nesting records of the Brown Thrasher in New Brunswick. It
also occasionally shows up somewhere in New Brunswick in winter and sometimes
is a welcome guest at winter feeder yards.
**Leigh Eaton has regular visits from Ring-necked Pheasants including 6 females
and 2 males. He also has several Red Squirrels which apparently don’t wish to
share his food offerings with the pheasants peacefully. Check out the
attached link to see the action:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ulfbhy3vzdczjzy/Confrontation%20.mov?dl=0
**Magda and
Grant Ramsey got a photo of a Ruffed Grouse perched among the winter clinging berries
of a Highbush Cranberry shrub near their cottage in Brown’s yard at the head of
the Richibucto River. It appears to be considering adding a little variety to
its winter bud diet with a few fruit.
**Brian
Stone went down to Mapleton Park to check on the duck population and look for
interesting strays. He saw a large group of mainly MALLARD DUCKS with a
scattering of AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS among them. Also present were at
least 4 HYBRID MALLARD DUCKS showing varying plumage. (Editors note:
there is a lot of interesting details in these duck photos. In the Black Duck,
the genders are very similar with purple speculum bordered with black and the neck/facial
area paler than the body. The bill of the Black Duck genders do differ with the
male a bright yellow and the female greenish yellow.
In the
female Mallard Duck, note the dark saddle of the orange bill while the male
bill is bright yellow. The blue speculum is bordered in white in both genders.
In noting the
variable hybrid, a variable amount of green remains in the head area, the
facial/neck area is paler than the body as it is the case in the Black Duck,
the curled tail coverts of the male Mallard Duck is retained in most hybrid
crosses)
While
watching the ducks, a fearless male DOWNY WOODPECKER foraged on small
branches close by. (Editors note: note the small black bilateral spots on each
side of the Downy Woodpecker's white bordered tail which is not present in the
Hairy Woodpecker).
Nothing more interesting was visible while Brian was there.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
