NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
April 29,
2022 (Friday)
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Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins had a Chipping Sparrow in
her yard briefly on Thursday. She got a documentary photo through a window.
(Editors note: note the black eye line in Jane’s photo that goes right through
the eye to the bill which is sometimes a helpful feature to note in sparrow
identification).
**The American Robin and the Northern Cardinal
are two species notorious for the males pecking at their reflection on
windowpanes. Margaret Hachey has had a Song Sparrow relentlessly pecking
at its reflection in windowpanes of her home. She has tried many of the usual methods to
discourage the obvious competitive male, but it simply finds another window or
one on a neighbour’s home. It would seem unusual for a Song Sparrow to engage
in this activity. Margaret is hoping it soon finds a mate or else is successful
in sending competitors out of his territory.
**Brian Stone went for a walk in the dreary drizzle at Mapleton Park to check on the Nature Moncton nest boxes that were recently installed around the ponds. He did not see any birds using the boxes yet but for the first half an hour that he was around the ponds there was a group of 20+ Tree Swallows swooping and diving above and over the main pond. They departed without Brian noticing any checking out the boxes.
Most ducks were gone from the park and the few that
were left were well spread out in the park waterways but 4 Wood Ducks, 1
female and 3 males, were patrolling the edges of the main pond. A Belted
Kingfisher was loudly present, and a group of a dozen Yellow-rumped
Warblers were in the trees at the pond's edge. Song Sparrows were also
in the trees, mostly low down near the ground. Brian noticed one Eastern
Phoebe that was extremely camera shy and it was successful in avoiding
being photographed. Beavers were still active in the pond area as many newly
chewed trees were in the area and some down along the trail as well. New ferns
were poking up out of the leaf litter in many spots.
**Nelson Poirier spotted and photographed a
moose in the Miramichi area on Thursday. This time of year, most moose in New
Brunswick show white denuded areas of their pelage having scratched/rubbed
areas of Winter Tick (Dermacentor albapictus) infestation. The Moose
is the host of this tick and is specific to that species. It infests the
animals in the late fall and will drop off the animals in the spring to
complete their life cycle. This should be happening now, and the denuded areas
will regrow hair.
Moose with these
denuded areas in spring are sometimes referred to as ‘ghost moose’ due to the
light-coloured areas of skin showing.
This moose is in
very sharp contrast to the animal photographed by Yvette Richard earlier in the
week that seemed to show no obvious signs of tick infestation with a full dark
coat of fur.
**Annika Chiasson with the New Brunswick
Environmental Network puts out a monthly list of presentations she is aware of.
This month includes the two Nature Moncton
events on May 7 and May 17. There is also a presentation on dragonflies on May
18 that could interest many naturalists.
Links to join presentations or to register in
some cases can be done right from Annika’s list below:
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**It’s
Friday already and time to see what we may see in next week's night sky courtesy
of sky guru Curt Nason. Hopefully Mother Nature will let the last five days of rain end to give us time to look at the night sky instead of designing an Arc!
This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2022 April 30 – May 7
I was fascinated by the movie Hercules, starring bodybuilder Steve Reeves,
which I saw one Saturday afternoon at the Vogue theatre in McAdam sometime in
the early 60s. I was nurturing my interest in the sky at that time so the
constellation of Hercules has long been a part of my life. These spring
evenings it is in the east as twilight fades.
Look for a keystone asterism one third of the way from the bright star Vega
toward equally bright Arcturus; that is the upside-down body of the legendary
strongman. Hercules is usually depicted down on his right knee, with his left
foot on the head of Draco the Dragon and his head close to that of Ophiuchus.
Originally the constellation was called The Kneeler, and the star at his head
is called Rasalgethi for “head of the Kneeler.” It is the alpha star of the
constellation, although Kornephoros (the club bearer) is brighter.
With binoculars you can pick out two globular clusters from the Messier
catalogue in Hercules. Globular clusters are ancient compact groups of typically
tens-to-hundreds of thousands of stars that orbit our galaxy’s core. One third
of the way from the top right star of the Keystone to the bottom right star is
M13, perhaps the finest globular cluster in the northern hemisphere. A line
from the bottom right star through the middle of the top of the Keystone, and
extended about an equal distance, will put you in the area of M92, one of the
oldest objects in our galaxy.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:07 am and sunset will occur at 8:26 pm,
giving 14 hours, 19 minutes of daylight (6:14 am and 8:29 pm in Saint John).
Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:57 am and set at 8:35 pm, giving 14 hours,
38 minutes of daylight (6:04 am and 8:37 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is new this Saturday and on Monday it visits Mercury and the Pleaides
to celebrate the beginning of Astronomy Week. On Friday the Moon lines up with
the Gemini Twins, Pollux and Castor, and the following evening it is within a
binocular view of the Beehive star cluster in Cancer. Mercury remains within a
binocular view upper left of the Pleiades over the week. The highlight of the
week will be a close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter this Saturday, with the possibility
of seeing Venus less than a moon-width below Jupiter around noon with a
telescope. Use binoculars to look for Venus nearly halfway up the sky toward
the southwest, while blocking the Sun with a building. Mars and Saturn are
equally spaced to the upper right of the pair in the early morning. The Eta
Aquariid meteor shower peaks on Friday morning, providing a chance to see a
remnant of Halley’s Comet rising from the eastern horizon. Unseen to us, Uranus
is in solar conjunction on Thursday.
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.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
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