NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Sept 18, 2022 (Sunday)
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Edited by:
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
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**There will be a 3-to-5-day
interruption in Nature News publication starting Monday morning as the editor
will be in an area with no Internet service.
Please continue to forward messages
and photos as usual and publication will resume when I get back to an area of
Internet coverage.
**Sue Berube was able to capture an excellent photo of the Bedstraw Hawkmoth caterpillar a.k.a. Galium Sphinx on Friday.
This
caterpillar can vary in appearance, but Sue’s photo shows the appearance of
this species most commonly seen.
The larval
caterpillars' first choice to forage upon may be Bedstraw and Fireweed plants
but their cuisine can include other plants if indicated.
**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins saw a Monarch
Butterfly flying on the St. Martins beach on Friday. On Saturday,
she had one of two chrysalides eclose in her greenhouse and she photographed the newly emerged butterfly drying in the sun.
Nelson Poirier is experiencing a
similar scenario with Monarch Butterflies still gradually eclosing taking up to
25 days to do so after taking 10-12 days in earlier seasons.
**Pat Gibbs shares a few photos of
her teenage Ring-necked Pheasants that call her yard home. The
youngsters are now developing plumages that indicate what gender they will
become and enjoying Pat’s hospitality to the utmost.
** John Inman had 3 Baltimore Orioles arrive to
his yard on Saturday morning. They were feeding on insects in the birch and
cedars. John noted the slight colour difference in each one and was fortunate
enough to get a photograph of 3 birds in one frame.
We seem to see orioles in the spring; they then go quiet during the nesting period, and then we start to see them again in fall
migration around human habitation with some partaking in fruit and suet blend
offerings in feeder yards with some lingering quite late.
**Brian Stone sends the last of his photos from his visit to Upham and the Hampton lagoons. He managed to catch the time when the large group of Turkey Vultures at the lagoons took off together to begin their day of foraging. He also photographed a flock of Canada Geese approaching and landing in one of the lagoons.
At his sister Carol's place in
Upham, Brian photographed a variety of subjects. He sends images of several
warblers from the wooded area around the home including a Bay-breasted
Warbler, a few Black-throated Green Warblers, a Northern
Parula Warbler, a Black and White Warbler, and a Red-eyed Vireo.
Three caterpillars caught by the camera were the Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar, the Banded Tussock Moth Caterpillar, and the American Dagger Moth Caterpillar.
A Maple Spanworm Moth and a Damselfly were also
photographed along with a hover fly that appears to be an Oblique-banded
Pond Fly and another, very wasp-like, Hoverfly in the genus
Chrysotoxum. Some lawn Mushrooms were fruiting nicely, and British
Soldier Lichen also lined the edge of the woods. Many nice examples of Orb
Weaver Webs were suspended along the edge of the front and back decks, most
having occupants hiding during the daylight hours.
Brian
stepped outside about an hour and a half past midnight and was rewarded with a
fantastic sight of a 22° Lunar Halo with Moon Dogs and a partial Paraselenic
Circle, the evening version of a daytime Parhelic Circle which is a band
stretching from or through Sundogs and circles the sky at the level of the Sun
when complete. As Brian had no camera set up to capture night time images he
just grabbed his cell phone and tried to get a photo but missed the full image
as the thin clouds causing the display had mostly passed by then and he only
got a faint echo of the wonderful scene.
On the way to Upham, Brian stopped at Penobsquis and saw a male Northern Harrier Hawk and
an American Crow competing for supremacy of the skies over a large
field. Their interactions continued as they moved off to a different area and
Brian did not learn who won the right to fly there.
**Nelson Poirier noted a bird in his yard appearing to be feeding on white millet seeds that he at first did not recognize until it turned around to show the white chevrons on its breast to make it obvious it was a young-of-the-year European Starling.
**In the event there is no
publication by Tuesday, I am attaching the write-up for the Nature Moncton
meeting scheduled for Tuesday night, September 20 at 7:00 PM with presenter
Neil Vinson.
NATURE MONCTON
SEPTEMBER MEETING
Tuesday September 20th,
2022 at 7:00 PM
Mapleton Lodge
Building a Pollinator
Garden
Presenter: Neil
Vinson
We
are fortunate to have Neil Vinson present us with the information to develop a pollinator
garden at our homes. Nature needs all
the help we can give to support this basic need in the ecosystem of our yards
and beyond.
Originally
from Halifax, NS, Neil Vinson has been living in Moncton since graduating from
the Maritime College of Forest Technology in 2014. Shortly after graduation,
Neil started working in resource conservation at Fundy National Park, where he
is now into his ninth year. Neil’s love of plants and birds started in school
but flourished during his time spent at Fundy. In his day-to-day work, Neil
conducts forest bird monitoring, battles with invasive plants, and measures
forest growth in permanent sample plots.
Neil
has been involved with Fundy’s 400m2 native plant pollinator garden since its
inception in 2019 – adding new species, knocking back overly-aggressive ones,
weeding, and performing general maintenance. Through this work Neil has
developed a passion for gardening with native plants and spreading the word on
the importance of reintroducing our native species back into our urban
landscapes.
This
will be a hybrid meeting with Neil presenting at Mapleton Park Lodge. Those who
wish to join in virtually on Zoom can go to the attached link at 6:50 PM.
Join our Cloud
HD Video Meeting
Nelson
Poirier
Nature
Moncton