NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Dec 13,
2022
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Edited by
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**A heads up on some last-minute changes for tonight,
Tuesday night December Nature Moncton meeting at the Mapleton Rotary Lodge at
7:00 PM .
Unfortunately, Jaden Barney is ill and cannot
give his planned presentation. However, some last-minute rearrangements may
work out fine as Jaden will be slotted for a later date.
Gordon Rattray already had an excellent
presentation ready on highlights of New Brunswick botany that will fit in
perfectly this evening as a pleasant summer review of some of the beautiful unique
plants, many of which we will see only by going to certain sites during their
flowering period, which is exactly what
Gordon has done to appreciate what we have in select parts of New Brunswick.
Gordon’s photos were captured on outings offered by the NB Botany Club to Shea Lake in Victoria County,
Chance Harbour in Charlotte County, Burt’s Corner near Fredericton and Fundy
National Park.
Plants from Nature Moncton outings to Sussex Bluff and Kent Hills in
Albert County are also highlighted.
The lineup will include plant types encompassing orchids, ferns, wild shrubs, sedges, flowering
plants, and club mosses.
This will be a live presentation at Moncton
Rotary Lodge but anyone anywhere is welcome to join via the Zoom link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83795914087?pwd=ejI1Q3I1WjZqUTArYXE2THRjQ05JUT09
This link will be opening at 6:50 pm this
evening.
Mother Nature’s weather forecast indicates the
predicted snowfall will not start until later this evening which will allow
this presentation to happen without weather interruption.
** Roger Leblanc and Andrew Darcy decided to try the traditional Fundy to Moncton birding route on Sunday. They started in the uplands of Fundy National Park where they did manage to get both Pine Grosbeaks and White-winged Crossbills. But few photos were possible due to the high-flying antics of the species. The rest of the trip was rather slow, even for the season, with regular birds and White-breasted Nuthatches that seem to be again having a good year.
But the real prize was to be had at both
the Inman and Wentzell feeders In Harvey. This tag team certainly
looks like it has the best-duo-of-feeders championship for the province
in a firm grip as 15 species were seen only there. Andrew managed to take
some photos of some of them but some like the Yellow-breasted Chat at the
Wentzell feeders was a bit too shy for that as is often the case with that
species. The day was nicely closed with a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk sky-kiting
over the Shepody Marsh.
**Jane LeBlanc found a Mermaid's Purse on the
beach in St. Martins. (Editor’s note: the ‘Mermaid’s Purse is the leathery embryo
case of the Atlantic Skate that can wash up on our shoreline after releasing
its cargo).
Jane also
notes, for anyone interested, that the St. Martins Christmas Bird Count
is this coming Wednesday, Dec. 14th. She is the coordinator and can be reached at perkyleb2309@gmail.com or Jane’s cell contact number is 506-333-5520 for folks
who may wish to participate.
**Verica LeBlanc photographed the last
full Moon of 2022, referred to as the Cold Moon, last Wednesday.
Verica
captured a photo of a beautiful solar corona before it quickly
dissipated. The planet Mars was also overseeing things in the background
(arrowed). A link to a write-up on these occasional colourful fleeting solar coronas
is attached below:
https://atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm
Nelson Poirier
Nature
Moncton
