NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Dec 27,
2022
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Edited by
Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Proofreading
thanks to Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Aldo
Dorio sends some scene photos from Hay Island to show the lighthouse in
winter plumage and sun rising in the haze. He also adds a photo of a male Northern
Cardinal he photographed in Neguac earlier in December.
**
Brian Stone sends a few photos from Upham
while he is holiday-visiting his sisters and family. The Evening Grosbeaks
are still visiting his sister Carol's feeders along with the regular feeder
patrons and Hairy Woodpeckers. He also found an interesting nest
padded with some fuzzy material which could have been a potential Yellow
Warbler inhabitant, and he found a few tracks/trails in the snow.
One photo
is very suggestive of the trail of a Shrew snow plowing its way
through the soft snow. Other photos show the tracks/trail of a mammal. It is
difficult to make a guesstimate of ‘who dun it’ in photos without knowing the measurements
of the track/trail. Measurements such as stride (distance between tracks heel
to heel and straddle (distance between tracks side to side) and measurements of
individual tracks. I've attached a photo of a small inexpensive cloth measuring
tape that is easy to carry at all times. The substrate the tracks/trail imprint is in makes a big difference, especially in the track measurement; however, trail
measurements are still helpful in soft fluffy snow.
Additional
hints like a tail drag, foot drag, scat, did it go up a tree or fly away, and habitat
(yard, conifer or hardwood forest, near water) can be very helpful.
Animals do
not cover their tracks to make it a good time to start looking closely at 'who’s
been there'. Some measurements with photos are an absolute necessary in many
scenarios.
Nelson Poirier
Nature
Moncton
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