NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

Dec 15, 2022

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

**Brian Coyle was at a job site in Dieppe at the end of Yvonne St. and for the second time, noticed a Merlin pursuing the local Mourning Dove population. It alighted in a nearby spruce tree to cooperate for a photo op.

**John Inman reports the Baltimore Oriole that has been in their Harvey, Albert County neighborhood the past few weeks continues to be present as of mid-December.

**Louise Nichols checked out the Sackville Retention ponds on Wednesday afternoon to see if the Great Egret was still present. It was there, once again in the southwest corner of the pond in the outflow area that is still open water. The egret was still actively fishing, pulling out some small prey this time, smaller than what Louise saw it catching last week. Strange to see a Great Egret on a pond surrounded by ice and snow!

(Editor's note: watching its antics in Louise's photos is a treat!)

**Karen and Jamie Burris had a fantastic Thursday morning with some excellent bird sightings without leaving their Riverview kitchen!

They found out why the Northern Flicker enjoys their backyard. It found some Mountain Ash berries. It also enjoys foraging for grubs in their yard spruce tree. As Jamie was watching the Northern Flicker peck away on the spruce tree, a male Hairy Woodpecker decided to join it! Jamie doesn’t think it's common to see these 2 birds so close together foraging so was very happy to capture the moment!

They also had 6 Bohemian Waxwings come in to dine on Mountain Ash and some Highbush Cranberry, the first sighting of these birds for us this year for them.

The highlight of the morning was the appearance of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, also on the Mountain Ash. (Editor’s note: this would normally be a late date to see a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. This is a good bird for the winter list and the Christmas Bird Count.

They also had their first American Tree Sparrow, seen perched in Highbush Cranberry.

One more bird that caught Jamie’s eye was a very brown coloured Dark-eyed Junco, assumedly a female/juvenile female.