NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
July 15, 2022 (Friday)
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Edited by: Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**Louise Nichols visited the Tintamarre Thursday morning,
the location of one of Nature Moncton's Wednesday night walks in a few
weeks. She found lots of action from the expected bird species -- Common
Yellowthroat, Swamp Sparrows, Yellow Warblers and Red-winged
Blackbirds. Too distant to photograph was a Northern Harrier
hunting the fields and an Osprey flying and hovering near to Paunchy
Lake. Ring-necked Ducks, Wood Ducks and a Hooded
Merganser family were seen on the lakes.
Lots of butterflies were in flight, particularly Northern
Crescents and European Skippers, but also Great Spangled
Fritillaries and Eyed Brown. Louise saw four Monarch
Butterflies drifting over the fields in the course of her walk, an unusual
sight but very encouraging.
Speaking of Monarchs, Louise has had Monarchs
appearing in her yard and visiting her milkweed plants, a first time for
milkweed in their yard thanks to Nelson's help with digging up some roots in
the spring. She got a blurry photo of one Monarch ovipositing on the
milkweed and she can see a number of eggs on various milkweed leaves.
Louise attaches a photo of some scat that
was found on their front deck railing and she wonders who left it. The
scat was about 1 ½ in long and 1/2 wide. (Editors note: we would sure like to
have opinions from readers as to ‘who done it’. The white suggests urates of a
bird??)
**Thanks to the warm and calm weather on
Wednesday evening at Wilson's Marsh, the outing was a very pleasant one.
Yves Poussart took part in this group activity.
It
provided opportunities to get photos of some of the common species of
birds in such an environment (SONG SPARROW, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT,
WILSON'S SNIPE).
The trail
is easy to walk and the borders on each side offer a nice
variety of wild plants at different stages of maturity.
Among all these plants there are numerous possibilities to
get close-up photos of the flowers themselves (QUEEN ANNE'S LACE) and
of different species of insects interacting with these plants. Some
photos of LADY BEETLES are included. In fact, such a diversity
could offer numerous close-up scenes that could be photographed, and another visit to this site should be considered in a near
future.
**Gordon Rattray
joined with members of Nature Moncton for the Wednesday walk to Wilson Marsh,
led by Andrew Darcy. There were many birds on the marsh, but not all allowed
photos because of distance. Gordon got pictures of a Wilson’s Snipe that stopped on the trail for
all to see. Gordon was able to get several botany pictures, some close
and some at a documentary distance. The first water plant was a mat of
plants with up right stems; these were not identified at the time. Gordon
also photographed Yellow Pond Lily, Butter-and-Eggs along the
path as well as a large patch of Cotton Grass. Gordon also saw a
patch of yellow Bladderworts at a distance across a canal.
**For all of us on the Wednesday evening outing to
Wilson's Marsh who fretted about two plants identity, Pondweed and Marsh Hedge
Nettle, Gart Bishop explained why to give us an excuse for our indecision!
Quoting Gart
“I think the Hedge Nettle is Stachys
palustris (Marsh Hedge Nettle), but one needs a clear picture of the
stem, and of the calyx, neither of which are well illustrated in the
photo. S. palustris is by far the most common of our hedge
nettles.
The ‘Pond
Lily’ is actually a Pondweed. These plants frequently have two types of
leaves, those that float on the water’s surface, and leaves along the submerged
stem. It is best to have a clear picture of both. Unfortunately,
Brian’s photo does not show a clear outline of the floating leaf shape.
My guess is that this is Potamogeton epihydrous (Ribbon-leaved
Pondweed)”.
**Lisa Morris Had her first bird window strike of
the year (an American Goldfinch) after adding window vertical lines.
The bird was upside down seemingly gasping and
blowing bubbles and Lisa didn’t have much hope for his recovery (but didn’t see
any blood). Lisa dawned gloves and flipped him onto his belly (he had a bit of
spark when she moved him) and kept checking on him. He left on his own accord
after 40 minutes so hopefully the outcome was successful, and it was able to
continue on its seasonal mission.
**Jamie Burris has some recent backyard nature observations to share
from his Riverview backyard.
They had 4 Pine Siskins present for the
first 2 weeks of June. Jamie has not been feeding birds, but they just seemed
to be finding food in the spruce trees. They have not seen any since June 17th.
He didn’t know what they were feeding on, but it was nice to have them around
for a while.
Jamie put eggshells around his pepper plants to
prevent cutworm attacks. He observed a Common Grackle arriving daily
eating them all up. He was not aware that Common Grackles were so fond of
eggshells.
They recently had a hatch of spiders on the
side of their house with no idea as to what species.
They had a family of Song Sparrows and Chipping
Sparrows raising their young in their yard. Jamie was able to capture a
photo of a young Chipping Sparrow about to land in front of Mom to get fed.
Two Grey Squirrels stopped to show much
affection on the power line behind their house before moving on down the line.
And finally, they too have had Monarch
Butterflies depositing eggs on Swamp Milkweed. They have been coming 4 days
in a row since Monday.
Jamie comments he is so busy with the garden this time of year he gets back logged on his reporting. A few backyard photos of eye candy show why!
They have more observations to report on recent trips to Wilson’s Marsh and Salisbury later this week.
**Aldo Dorio was yet another to be able to photograph a female Monarch Butterfly nectaring on a succulent-appearing head of clover getting fuel to complete her mission.
**There are so many Canada Geese wandering about many locations in Moncton at the moment, it’s getting harder to tell the adults from the youngsters!
Anna Tucker got a photo of a meandering group on Thursday.
Anna also got a photo of Fireweed that is in prime bloom at the moment in many areas.
**Brian Stone was able to capture some pleasant photos of the Full Moon as it appeared on Wednesday evening. (Editors note: I think if there was a man on the moon, he would have shown up in one photo!)
**It’s Friday and time to review what to expect next week in the night sky with the pleasant script of sky guru Curt Nason.
This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2022 July 16 – July 23
Constellations are not the only stellar figures in the night sky. Any imaginative figure seen that is not one of the 88 constellations is called an asterism. The Big Dipper in Ursa Major and the Sagittarius Teapot are two of the most prominent. Others require binoculars or a telescope, such as the Coathanger and ET star clusters. Near the eastern shoulder of Ophiuchus binoculars will show a large V shape resembling the Hyades cluster, and star maps of a few centuries ago labelled this as the constellation Poniatowski’s Bull. One I read about in Sky & Telescope magazine a few years ago is a smiley face in Cygnus the Swan. Scan with binoculars just below the swan’s right (western) wing near the brightest star in that wing, and look for a pair of eyes above a semicircle grin of five stars. You will probably smile back.
This summer, spend some time scanning the night sky randomly and let your imagination run wild. Pareidolia is the phenomenon of which your mind sees a familiar pattern where none exists. Just as we imagine figures in clouds by day, we can imagine them in the stars and on the Moon at night.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:43 am and sunset will occur at 9:06 pm, giving 15 hours, 23 minutes of daylight (5:51 am and 9:08 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 5:51 am and set at 8:59 pm, giving 15 hours, 8 minutes of daylight (5:58 am and 9:01 pm in Saint John).
The Moon is at third quarter on Wednesday and gets cozy with the planets throughout the week. It passes below Neptune on Monday, rises below Jupiter at midnight Tuesday evening, and it is near Mars Thursday and Uranus on early Friday morning. Saturn rises around 10 pm this week, followed by Jupiter before midnight. Mars and Venus grace the early morning sky to the east, bracketing the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters of the constellation Taurus. Mercury is at superior conjunction this weekend, moving into the evening sky later in the month.
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
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