NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Dec 14,
2022
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Edited by
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
**This could be a significant day with last night’s snowfall covering bird foraging opportunities that may lead many birds to seek out bird feeders. This could be even more significant as many Christmas Bird Counts are underway and 3 days before and 3 days after the count day in your area constitutes count week to potentially get bird species counted that may not be seen on count day.
**It was a bonus to have Gordon Rattray give an outstanding photo presentation of some of the special plants of New Brunswick that will be greeting us in the spring at Tuesday night's Nature Moncton meeting.
The photos are all labelled with both common and scientific names, and many will potentially become part of the website that is under construction to help identify plants in New Brunswick which is hoped will be available for public consumption by spring of 2023.
Gordon’s PowerPoint presentation will be available as a link on the Nature Moncton website in the near future and will be noted on this blog when available.
**Leigh Eaton has been treated to have regular calls by a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers and Tuesday morning observed a joint visit with a male Ring-necked Pheasant.
Leigh recently observed a female Northern Cardinal come to Black Oil Sunflower seed. He had only one other cardinal (female) visit and that was approximately one year ago.
Leigh has been hearing Northern Cardinals vocalizing around Jones Lake and has seen both males and females there on a few occasions. He comments “Beautiful birds and hopes they continue to become more common in our area.”
** David Cannon comments Mourning Doves are regular patrons at many feeders, but they have had only one pair at their Ammon Rd. feeder area for the past few winters. It did increase this fall, to about 7, then 12, and Tuesday, it suddenly grew to a flock of at least 27! Perhaps they could sense the bad weather moving in and wished to load up on the black oil sunflower seeds that are strewn on the ground before the snow arrives and buries them. A 'documentary' photo of some of them is attached. (Editor’s note: from feeder reports with large numbers of Mourning Doves, it would appear numbers are increasing significantly).
**The 62nd Moncton bird count is happening this Saturday, Dec 17. Field parties covering the 24 km diameter circle centered on the Avenir Centre are all set up and ready to go but if you or a neighbour/acquaintance have bird feeders and could spare a bit of time on Saturday the 17th to count the birds coming to them it could be a great help. If you are interested, please get in touch with our feeder watch coordinator Susan Atkinson at susandatkinson@hotmail.com
Roger Leblanc the Moncton CBC compiler also reminds us that count week (3 days before and 3 days after count day) starts Tuesday at midnight so if you see a species that is not expected at your feeders or in your travels in the city and that might not be seen on count day, please make an effort to report it. A good example of such birds would be a Northern Flicker, Boreal Chickadee, Great Blue Heron, and many others. Let us know as it will go on the Audubon Christmas Bird Count website and therefore be available forever for bird conservation research.
Nelson Poirier
Nature
Moncton
