NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Feb 2, 2022 (Wednesday)
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Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**We don’t often get nice photographs of the Northern Goshawk. Frank Branch in Paquetville has had one checking out his bird feeder yard daily since January 23. It is a juvenile bird and seems only interested in Mourning Doves, but Frank points out that it has not been particularly successful with them even though approximately 50 Mourning Doves are regulars. Being a juvenile still honing its skills may be a factor.
Frank’s
photos very nicely show the prominent pale supercilium (arrowed) of this
species at all ages and one photo shows the streaked under tail coverts
(arrowed) that would not be seen in the juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk or Cooper’s
Hawk.
**Brian
Coyle did a check of some of his trail cameras on Tuesday. He noted Red
Fox trails and got photos to illustrate. There seemed to be a pair moving
about together which would be expected as it is mating time now for the Red Fox.
Brian also heard a Great
Horned Owl calling not 30 feet from him but was not able to catch sight of
it. He has been hearing one calling lately near his home at night, usually just
before dawn, but never in the middle of the day.
On his snowshoe hike, Brian came
upon a flock of approximately 30 American Robins feeding on wild apples.
**John
Inman reports he has one more mouth to
feed at his Harvey feeder yard and the birds are not impressed!
John had a Bobcat
settle into the feeder area and seemingly get comfortable.
This is
very likely a young-of-the-year animal. It is that time of year when the mother
cat that has kept her kits with her since birth in the spring has come into
estrus as mating time to repeat the cycle has arrived. The young-of-the-year
kits are very abruptly advised to head out on their own. Not having mother's
helping hand to forage, hunger sets in and we are more apt to see them looking
for food during the day and less wary of humans.
**Jane
LeBlanc in St. Martins doesn't have Mountain Ash trees in her yard, so in the
fall, she picks some berries and puts them in her freezer for weather like
this. A few weeks ago, she hung some berries on another shrub, hoping to
attract Bohemian Waxwings, but Tuesday, a lone American Robin showed up
instead. It certainly enjoyed the berries.
Also, when Ed and Jane took a walk to
look at the marsh at high tide today, they saw a kayaker.
When the tide is high, and it's a new
moon, there is lots of water to kayak, but since he was carrying the kayak,
they assumed ice chunks had moved and prevented him from returning the same way
he went in.
**Brian Stone drove through
Johnson's Mills and the Tantramar Marsh on Tuesday in very nice weather and
managed to get some decent photos and some not so decent photos (Brian’s
words). At Johnson's Mills Brian photographed some Snow Buntings that
were feeding in the yard of a house and perching on its roof to relax. An American Tree Sparrow was feeding beside them, but his photo turned out blurry so
not a great help to show features. There were also several groups of American Robins in the area but only a few stragglers got photographed. A female Hairy Woodpecker was hanging out in the shrubbery beside the road.
At the Tantramar Marsh Brian
found a group of about 30 Horned Larks in their usual area at the
intersection of Donald Harper Rd. and Folkins Dr. (Editor’s note: note the
black tail with white outer feathers(arrowed) that can make this species conspicuous
in-flight).
Along the High Marsh Rd., Brian saw 2 Rough-legged Hawks, an immature Red-tailed Hawk and 3 Bald Eagles perching on poles, towers, and trees.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
