July 28, 2022 (Thursday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
** On Monday, Sue and Steve Berube caught sight of a
striking visitor to the Riverview Marsh, a Great Egret in the water just
below the sewage treatment plant. It was buddying up with a Great Blue Heron. It
was observed for some time and Sue got excellent photographs. Sue
went home to retrieve a telephoto lens, but when she returned 20 minutes
later it was gone. It was not in the area before 7 am the
following morning.
Also on July 25, Sue & Steve went to check the milkweed
patch on the trail in the Riverview Marsh. The plants are healthy and in bloom.
A quick search revealed no eggs or caterpillars. One Monarch Butterfly
was having a difficult time to land and feed due to the high winds.
**Mac and Brenda Wilmot in Lower Coverdale have an Eastern
Phoebe nesting under the eaves of their gazebo. It's partially on the top
of the shutters so they have left them in place. The parents are not very
gracious hosts so the Wilmots have been sensitive to their inhospitable
behavior. (Editors note: at this point of the summer, this could be a second
brood).
** Who would not like to have a Ring-necked Pheasant nesting
in their yard?
Pat Gibbs
shares a photo of a hen Ring-necked Pheasant and one chick, but Pat counted 9 chicks
earlier. This is the 2nd brood in her yard this year. The first
brood had 8 chicks and they are quite large now. There are two females
this year, which is also a first for her yard. Every other year there has been only the one female and she never saw any chicks in other years. There is no
way for Pat to tell if these two broods belong to different females or if the
one new hen had two broods. If so, she must have been one busy lady because
there was almost no time between the first brood getting big and this brood of very
small ones appearing.
**Grant and Magda Kuhn saw early activity of a pair
of Eastern Bluebirds using a nest box in their yard but saw no real consistent activity to suggest they
were using it.
They checked the nest box to clean it out for next
season, and to their surprise, found a carefully constructed nest inside.
The bottom layer is moss, then grass, followed by pine needles and finishing
with a comfortably arranged layer of feathers. (Editors note: I have not
been able to investigate a large number of Eastern Bluebird nests; however, every
one seen has had a major or significant amount of pine needles in the
construction)
**The Nature Moncton Wednesday evening walk
happened last evening under very pleasant evening conditions at the Tucker
Street Ducks Unlimited impoundment. It has become the usual, comradeship and
nature sleuthing event very much enjoyed by participants.
Many great
photographs were taken which will be appearing over the next few days as the
event went later than usual into the evening.
Maureen Girvan got a nice photo of the large Scotch
Thistle in bloom, and it was noticed that many American Goldfinch were checking
out the numerous Scotch Thistle and Canada Thistle blooming with some seed
heads starting. The American Goldfinch wait for the thistles to go to seed to
feed their young, so no doubt American Goldfinch nesting is underway.
**Annika Chiasson from the New Brunswick Environmental Network publishes events she is aware of that are happening for the next month. Her list for August is attached below and one can get more information on each event by clicking on it and in some cases registering if indicated.
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