Nature Moncton Nature News: May 15 2022

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

May 15, 2022 (Sunday)

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .

Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com

Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**John Inman in Harvey, Albert County had a “big day” on Saturday with lots of new activity as he had predicted.

Baltimore Orioles arrived and one was enjoying the nectar in the hummingbird feeder. Five White-crowned Sparrows arrived and both female and male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks arrived.

Of the wave of warblers John listed, he was able to photograph Nashville Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, and Cape May Warbler. Female Red-winged Blackbirds were also moving through in significant numbers as John’s photo shows.

Henrietta, John’s resident Groundhog also came by to augment its herbivore diet with some sweet juicy orange sections.

**Cathy and Isabelle Simon captured an interesting view of the tail feathers of a Barn Swallow while walking the Gray Brook Trail in Hillsborough on May 8. They also saw a Spotted Sandpiper.

While visiting Highland Park in Salisbury, Cathy and Evar Simon saw several male and female Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Mergansers, Canada Geese, American Wigeon, Pied-Billed Grebes, Tree Swallows, a Yellow Warbler, and a Common Gallinule. Their walk was then cut short when the clouds opened up and poured buckets!

For two days in a row, a pair of Tree Swallows have been investigating the nest box in the Simon family's backyard in Lutes Mountain. Fingers are crossed that they decide to move in! In addition, two male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have started to frequent their window feeder since Friday. A White-crowned Sparrow made an appearance for the first time.

** Clarence Cormier had a host of arrivals to his Grande Digue, site on Saturday. Those that Clarence identified were the following:

10+ Bobolinks, 1 Gray Catbird, 2 Chestnut-sided warblers, 1 Black-and-white warbler, 1 Yellow Warbler, numerous Yellow-rumped warblers (both males and females) ...and numerous kinglets a few days earlier, both Golden and Ruby-crowned (males and females).

**On Friday Brian Stone drove to the Dorchester lagoon to view the second Garganey Duck and got some long-range low-resolution pictures to document his sighting. A fresh-looking Savannah Sparrow came close to offer a portrait. He then moved on to the Arthur St. lagoon to check for newcomers and got a close up of one of the many Tree Swallows that have recently arrived. At Wilson Marsh Brian stopped in just long enough to get an image of the American Bittern present hiding in the reeds and of a close flyby of a Canada Goose. He then headed out to Second North River and checked out Taylor Rd. for interesting subjects. There he photographed a Nashville Warbler, a Northern Waterthrush, 2 Black-and-White Warblers, a Brown Elfin Butterfly, a Northern Azure Butterfly, a Bee Fly, a small blue-black Spider Wasp, a Six-spotted Fishing Spider, some Honeysuckle, Wild Strawberry flowers, Sensitive Fern, and Marsh Blue Violets.

**Nelson Poirier photographed a Manitoba Maple tree in bloom recently. A consult with Doug Hiltz at the Maritime School of Forest Technology provided some very interesting comments which are too good not to be shared and I am quoting Doug below:

“Spring is the absolute most difficult time of the year to ID trees so even common ones are difficult. Your tree is a Manitoba maple (sometimes called box elder). It is oppositely arranged and probably would not be any intact leaves from last fall either since Manitoba Maple leaves are delicate and decompose very quickly. The blooms or inflorescences that you are seeing are staminate flowers (male flowers, pollen flowers). Manitoba Maples are dioecious, meaning different individual trees have different gendered flowers so this tree is male. The pollen will be carried to female trees that have pistilate flowers (female flowers, ovulate flowers) that will produce seeds later in the year. The bright red structures on the pictured flowers are the anthers, where pollen grains are produced and released. They get swollen and red before the release. The longer, darker coloured ones you see hanging below are the ones that have already released their pollen and are dying off”.

nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton