Nature Moncton Nature News: April 22 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

April 22, 2022 (Friday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**Today is last notice for the Nature Moncton field trip happening tomorrow starting at 10 AM at the White Rock Recreational Area. A contact cell number if anyone requires it tomorrow is 866-2752. Write up for the day is repeated below:

NATURE MONCTON FIELD TRIP TO WHITE ROCK RECREATION AREA

Date: Saturday April 23^rd

Time: 10:00

Guide: Gordon Rattray

The Nature Moncton excursion on April 23 will be to the White Rock Recreation Area in Hillsborough. This will be a walk going through mostly forested areas, both coniferous and deciduous, in this protected region. We will be looking at the signs of nature emerging from the winter season. The onus will be on the participants to point out evidence of revival and to assist in naming sightings. Spring revival will be most evident with bud and possible leaf generation of trees and shrubs. Lichens will be very easy to spot on trunks and stems. Depending on how the spring season advances, there could be some surprises.

The walk will be led by Gordon Rattray who has extensive knowledge of the recreation site. The walk will be of moderate difficulty and up to 4KM in length. Footwear is most important as places could be still wet from winter melt. Bring a lunch for a lunch break on the trail.

White Rock Recreation Area is 2 KM up the Golf Club Road in Hillsborough. Golf Club Road is a right turn off route 114 -- part way through Hillsborough. We will meet at the entrance to the Recreation Area at 10:00

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.

**Neighbours brought their children to Jane and Ed LeBlanc's yard in St. Martins after dark Wednesday night to see the Yellow-spotted Salamanders in their pond. There were dozens, but what surprised them was the number of Wood Frogs. At least 10, and lots were swimming 'united' with the singles singing for attention.

Riding their bikes this morning near home, the LeBlanc's noticed the Pitcher Plants starting to emerge in a nearby pond.

**Lynda LeClerc found a patch of Trailing Arbutus in full bloom on Thursday. This plant is often termed Mayflower but as some other plants get the common name Mayflower, we will stick with Trailing Arbutus.

The leaves of this species are evergreen and it is an early blooming plant. The blooms are also fragrant.

**Gordon Rattray took a walk on the Hillsborough Park path system on Thursday to check for birds. On Wednesday, he dropped in to one spot for a plant picture and noted several Palm Warblers, so he returned Thursday. One observation was that the Palm Warbler number was down to only one observed. Gordon did have a good trip because he found other birds: Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler and a special delight -- a Pine Warbler. In the park Gordon also observed Ruby-crowned Kinglets in several spots and many American Goldfinch. On a foot path, Gordon stopped to look at a small bird’s nest on a birch tree, about 1.5 meters up. The nest was about 10 cm wide. While looking at the nest, Gordon heard bees buzzing around and on investigation, they were above his head on willow blossoms. There were more than 100 bees making the noise. Along the creek that flows through the area is evidence of Beaver. A Song Sparrow was feeding at water level in a marshy spot. In the forest there were many woodpeckers drumming on the trees -- Downy, Hairy and Northern Flickers.

**We have been chatting about the use of man-made Cliff Swallow nests. This met with some success several years ago and Roger LeBlanc has taken up the torch to revive this project by arranging to have 20 of these artificial clay nests made and distributed. As mentioned yesterday, all nests available this year are spoken for.

On Wednesday, Roger erected 4 of these nests on the vinyl garage of Margaret Murray in Scotch Settlement. As the photos show, Roger attached the nests to a wooden board and attached the whole structure to the vinyl siding. Margaret had Cliff Swallows erect a few nests on each end of her garage last season. It is hoped they will return and take note of the prefab houses waiting for them.

As a just reward from Mother Nature (other than a couple of those tasty squares that Margaret Murray had prepared yum! yum!) Roger had a couple of Eastern Bluebirds checking his boxes on Wednesday in Notre Dame. By far the earliest he has ever seen them at his home site.

**It’s Friday already time to review what next week’s night sky will have in store for us courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2022 April 23 – April 30
When people see a telescope that doesn’t look like it came from a department store, they often ask how far you can see with it. The answer is difficult to explain and even more difficult to comprehend. Sometimes I just say “way far” and hope they don’t press for details.

This weekend the brightest object before sunrise will be the Moon and it is about 375,000 kilometres away, a little less than its average distance. The next brightest object is Venus, currently 140 million kilometres and receding. Mars is 250 million km away, Jupiter 860 million, and Saturn 1.5 billion km out there. Light travels at 300,000 km per second, so at 150 million km the Sun is a distance of 500 light seconds away. The Moon is a tad more than one light second away; Jupiter is 48 light minutes and Saturn about 84 light minutes.

The brightest star we see in the evening now is still Sirius, the closest star we can see from New Brunswick at 8.6 light years (ly). The next brightest is Arcturus and it is 37 ly or 350 trillion kilometres. Polaris, the North Star, is about 400 ly away; and Alnilam, the middle star of Orion’s belt, is 2000 light years. If you are under a dark sky well before morning twilight you might get a naked eye glimpse of the Andromeda Galaxy at a distance of 2.5 million light years. Binoculars will reveal galaxies even more distant, but at what point do these distances become incomprehensible and “way far” is a reasonable answer?

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:18 am and sunset will occur at 8:17 pm, giving 13 hours, 59 minutes of daylight (6:25 am and 8:20 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:07 am and set at 8:26 pm, giving 14 hours, 19 minutes of daylight (6:14 am and 8:29 pm in Saint John).

The Moon is at third quarter this Saturday and new next Saturday. On Monday morning it makes a squashed triangle with Saturn and Mars, and on Wednesday it makes a much tighter triangle with Venus and Jupiter. Over the week early risers can watch Mars increase its distance from Saturn by 50%. Unseen by us, Venus has an extremely close conjunction with Neptune Wednesday afternoon, but we can easily watch it close the gap with Jupiter by next weekend. At midday April 30, Venus will be a moon-width below Jupiter near the southwest. Mercury will be within a binocular view of the Pleiades from Tuesday on throughout the week, passing closely to the left of the dipper-shaped star cluster next Saturday, one day after its greatest elongation from the Sun.

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.