July 31, 2022 (Sunday)

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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**Jamie Burris updates with some photos of the Monarch Butterfly rearing activity in his terrarium. Jamie now has 4 Monarchs in the chrysalis stage. The first pic shows a caterpillar hanging upside down pupating. 10 minutes later and it had formed a chrysalis. (Editor's note: the caterpillars attach to an appropriate structure and go into the J position just before going into the pupal chrysalis). Jamie also discovered 3 more caterpillars. He originally had 5 but when he brought in fresh milkweed recently, there were a few eggs on the leaves. He has 7 in total now.

**Wayne Fairchild is yet another to have a female Monarch Butterfly visit his newly minted milkweed patch and watch her ovipositing. Take a look at the action at the link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7ivi8hk0q80oud/IMG_3193.MOV?dl=0

**Fred Dube was able to detain some small critters he noted hopping about at dusk on beach sand near their Pictou, NS camping park site. They get several common names including Beach Hopper, Beach Flea, Sand Flea, etc. They are in the genus Orchestoidea.
They are a crustacean, and the designation of flea is misleading as they do not bother humans or animals and are quite content to feed on algae and detritus.

Fred and Lynn have also recently noted hundreds of midges perching on the white wall of their trailer, attracted to the lights. There are many species of midges that tend to look like small mosquitoes but do not have the proboscis to quickly differentiate them from mosquitoes.

**Gordon Rattray, Mathieu Carroll, and Nelson Poirier spotted a very colourful caterpillar on goldenrod on Saturday. It was identified as a Brown-Hooded Owlet moth larval caterpillar. This striking caterpillar sports a brilliant yellow, red, black, and white body that appears as if it were hand-painted and then glazed. Gordon and Mathieu got nice photos.
Surprisingly, the adult moth is a dull brown and small.

This caterpillar appears on the cover page of the jem of caterpillar guides ‘Caterpillars of Eastern North America: A Guide to Identification and Natural History’ by David Wagner.

**Anna Tucker visited the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Friday and photographed a group of Cedar Waxwings that appear to be young-of-the-year birds.

Anna also took note of the colourful goldenrod beside Lupin now gone to seed replacing its colourful blooms of earlier season. Anna also photographed the carved shorebirds now at the Irving Big Stop location in Aulac.

**Alain Clavette is leading a pelagic boat trip off Grand Manan on August 17 (weather date August 18) and advises some seats are still available. The poster is added to the photo section below, but the photo must be enlarged to read the details.
Booking details are at the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/386511565497