NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Feb 7, 2022 (Monday)
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Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**Bob and Sharon Blake report they also have a lone American Robin enjoying Mountain Ash berries in their Second North River Yard.
They also saw 100’s of Snow Buntings Sunday
morning on Wheaton Settlement Rd. at Wesselius’ farm, flocks like the sandpipers
at Mary’s Point and awesome to see.
There
is a lot of perfect habitat in the Wheaton settlement area for Snow Buntings to
forage.
**Yves Poussart also observed several
groups of AMERICAN ROBINS (Merles d'Amérique) visiting
his garden during the past few days and took advantage of Sunday's nice weather to get photos of them.
Most of them seemed very interested to
get fruit still present in a Crabapple tree. They were equally attracted
to the fruit fallen under the tree. It surely was a good treat to them.
**Brian Stone managed to get his car shoveled out on Sunday and headed to Dorchester to, hopefully, have an audience with the rare Varied Thrush that has been patronizing a feeder yard there. In an unusual turn of events, he was successful and managed to get several nice photos of the special visitor. (Editors note: this bird was attacked by a raptor shortly after Brian departed. A few waiting admirers quickly intervened and it appeared the bird successfully escaped)
A few other birds were present, and Brian photographed an American Goldfinch, a male Downy Woodpecker, an American Robin, and a few low flying Iceland Gulls.
On his way back home Brian stopped in at Sackville and saw
a Red-tailed Hawk and a Horned Lark near the marsh.
**We
had been enjoying a male Pileated Woodpecker coming daily to feed on a suet mulligan
he was choosing over other blends present. I have a starling live trap that snaps
and scares the hordes of starlings that sometimes arrive. It was out on one of
Woody’s visits. He got too near and it snapped giving him quite a scare. It
made him very wary for 3 days but pleased to say he came back on Sunday,
checked the suet selection carefully and settled back in comfortably to his
favourite blend, visiting several times over the day. Am glad to say he forgave the error!
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
