Nature Moncton Nature News: April 19 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

April 19, 2022 (Tuesday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**Tonight, Tuesday night is the Nature Moncton April meeting starting at 7 o’clock. Join the virtual meeting at 6:50 PM with the link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86309429728?pwd=R2dRZkxscnA2MEdBd2lWcUxiWTBlQT09

The complete write-up is below:

NATURE MONCTON APRIL MEETING

April 19^th, 2022 at 7:00 PM

Virtual Meeting

Leach’s Storm Petrel in Atlantic Canada: Status, Research, and Conservation

Presenter: Laura McFarlane Tranquilla

Leach’s Storm Petrels are robin-sized, dusky-grey seabirds that spend nearly all their lives far out to sea, coming to offshore colonies during the summer months to lay eggs and raise chicks. This seabird has a global distribution, occurring in both Pacific and Atlantic oceans; and we can be proud that the world’s largest colony, at ~2 million pairs, is in Atlantic Canada, on Newfoundland’s Baccalieu Island. However, despite being one of the most common seabirds in the North Atlantic, Leach’s storm petrel populations are in trouble. Declines on Baccalieu Island (estimated ~ 42% decline, from 3.4 to 1.9 million pairs over 29 years) and at other colonies in the North Atlantic have caused the species to be listed in 2016 on the IUCN red list as “vulnerable” , and as “threatened” in 2019 with COSEWIC (2020). The trouble is, though the species faces a number of threats, there is no single threat that stands out to explain this dramatic decline. This talk outlines the biology of Leach’s Storm Petrels, the conservation threats they face, and ongoing efforts in Atlantic Canada to study and monitor this interesting seabird.

Join at the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86309429728?pwd=R2dRZkxscnA2MEdBd2lWcUxiWTBlQT09

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

**Sybil Wentzell had a real treat first thing Monday morning to see her first warbler of the season, a Palm Warbler, flitting about in the evergreens on her property in Harvey, Albert County. Sybil captured a pleasant photo.

Sybil also shares some new activity from the weekend at her site which seemed filled with drama. Northern Flickers filled the skies and roadsides. She had never seen a large flock of flickers flying before and it was astounding to see them everywhere in that area and later that day all along the road to Alma. At first sight, through her window, she thought they were robins but no, they were all flickers and just kept streaming in, passing over her yard and then spreading out and into the fields along Mary’s Point Road and beyond.

Her photos of the flickers depict dueling behavior between two males while a female remained motionless nearby, watching every move. When the ruckus was over, they all resumed their foraging. (Editor’s note: rather sounds like hunger and refueling overtook the need to establish territory).

On another post nearby a male Belted Kingfisher was calling and the female came in, knocking him off the fencepost.

Sybil didn’t have any more sightings of the Palm Warbler throughout the day since her sighting early Monday that morning.

A few Brown-headed Cowbirds have been showing up with the blackbirds. Sybil includes a photo of a female.

**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins has several egg masses in her yard pond and suspects they are Wood Frog eggs.

**Monday’s sunshine brought out the bees to Susan Richard’s flowering shrub. It is an English plant, called February Daphne, and it will bloom in February in England but not until mid-April at the earliest here in NB. The smell of the flowers was very strong in the hot sun and no wind in their south-facing garden in Taylor Village.

Susan had Pussy Willow branches in the house (in a vase of water with Forsythia for show). Pussy willows are put in an empty vase and they do not grow further than white puff pussy willows. After they kept growing, Susan stuck them in the front garden also in the sun and the insects found them. A lot of buzzing activity was happening in that spot while the sun was shining brightly.

In the Ducks Unlimited pond, the Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs have come to life. Such a ruckus in the early evening!

Their pond has thawed, and one Canada Goose appears as though it is the watch-goose over 2 pair of American Wigeons. The ducks look like they are happy to have the goose to warn them of dangers.

**Anna Tucker took advantage of Monday’s sunshine to walk Moncton’s Riverfront Trail. The pheasants were very active with the cocks starting to display their brilliant colour. Anna enjoyed the many singing Song Sparrows.

**Aldo Dorio photographed a small flock of Snow Buntings still at Hay Island. One would think they would have departed by now, but then again there appears to be lots of snow still at Hay Island.

Aldo also captured a photograph of a pair of Greater Yellow Legs that stopped over at Hay Island on route to their northerly breeding grounds.

**Fred Dube and Nelson Poirier did a spring clean out of 5 Tree Swallow nest boxes that Roger LeBlanc had helped some young naturalists erect last spring near Mapleton Park.

None had been taken by Tree Swallows. Two had been taken by Black-capped chickadees. One appeared successful while the other had 3 unhatched eggs. It gave an opportunity to photograph the nest with eggs. The Black-capped Chickadee nest is usually constructed with shredded moss with a fluff rim. The photo shows the white non-glossy eggs finely flecked with red.

Two of the boxes contained Paper Wasp (Polistes sp) nests. The Paper Wasp nest is approximately toonie sized, open celled, umbrella shaped, and attached with a strong stalk. The Paper Wasp is not as aggressive as other Vespidae wasps.

**Nelson Poirier had female Brown-headed Cowbirds arrive on Monday to join their male counterparts. Their very conservative plumage compared to the males makes them sometimes unrecognized. There appeared to be very active mating rituals in progress. The males did an open wing display while the females tended to hold their tails upright almost wren style.

**Nelson Poirier met up with a cooperative Muskrat on Monday that allowed a photograph that nicely shows that laterally flattened long tail that acts as such an effective rudder when swimming.

**Recently, Nelson Poirier photographed a tree hosting a growth of Parmelia Lichen and Kendra Driscoll pointed out a Liverwort species was also in the photo (red arrow).

Lynn Dube was able to relocate the same tree and get close-ups of the liverwort as well as one of the Camouflage Lichens. The liverwort turns out to be one of the Scalewort species of the Frullania genus and I'm paraphrasing Kendra Driscoll’s comments below:

“That is definitely a liverwort, probably a species of Frullania (Scalewort), which are a common sight on trees. Unlike lichens, liverworts and mosses are tiny plants that lack the vascular tissue that lets ferns, conifers and flowering plants grow tall. This article may be of interest (available in English and French I believe): https://canadianmuseumofnature.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/moss-and-lichen-wait-whats-the-difference/

The olive-coloured lichen is Melanohalea, a genus of "Camouflage Lichen" that typically has fruiting bodies like the ones shown in the photograph.”

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton