Nature Moncton Nature News: April 17 2023

April 16, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**The write-up for the Nature Moncton April meeting this coming Tuesday night, where we will get to know the life and times of the Nelson’s Sparrow, appears at the end of this edition.

It’s a busy week as Roger LeBlanc will give a Zoom presentation for owls on Wednesday night followed (on another night) by an owl outing with write-up at the end of this edition as well.

**On Saturday, as Brian Coyle was out checking his trail cameras, he came upon 2 White-tailed Deer, with one being ‘piebald.' This is a skin pigmentation mutation that is somewhat different than true albinism.

At noon on Sunday, April 16, 2023, Brian Coyle spotted a male Ruffed Grouse ‘drumming’ right at the edge of his backyard.

Brian got some still photos as well as some great videos of the action at the links below. Turn up your volume to hear the Ruffed Grouse!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zazt5upf6i5cn4w/Piebald%20Deer%20-%20Brian%20Coyle.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fr76vxbw0ivotsh/Ruffed%20Grouse%20-%20Brian%20Coyle.MOV?dl=0

(Editor’s note: many of us will get to hear this unique drumming sound the male Ruffed Grouse will make beating its wings together to get the attention of females; however, not many of us actually get the chance to see it).

Brian also captured a photo of a very elusive Ruby-crowned Kinglet on Sunday catching the oblong white eye-ring as an identification aid to the species.

**Deana Fenwick shares more photos of Saturday’s Sea Duck field trip, and she is the only one so far to send a documentary photo of the Tufted Duck, which was still at the Cap Brule lagoon after being located by Gilles Belliveau a few days ago.
Deanna also got pleasant photos of a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, a pair of Long-tailed Ducks, a Lesser Scaup showing its slightly crested head feature in comparison to the smooth rounded head of the Greater Scaup, and a great photo of the lone male Surf Scoter that was spotted.

**John Massey ventured further up the coast than the sea duck group on Saturday to Ste. Anne Wharf to get a nice photo of some male Black Scoters courting a female.

**The Simon family dutifully count the birds in their yard each weekend from November 1st to April 30th for Birds Canada's Project FeederWatch program. This weekend was a record-breaker with 22 species. The highlights included a male Ruby-crowned Kinglet, two male Brown-headed Cowbirds posturing at the feeder, and a pair of Chipping Sparrows.
(Editor’s note: note the slender red crown patch of the male Ruby-crowned Kinglet that shows in Evar’s photo that we don’t often see).

**Gordon Rattray reports that on Saturday and Sunday, he has had some new colourful visitors to his yard. On Sunday, he had 4 Purple Finches, and a Pine Warbler has been at the feeder often all weekend.

**Aldo Dorio found 3 Horned Larks at Hay Island on Sunday to get a documentary photo of one.
Aldo also noted a pair of Common Goldeneye in the water off Hay Island.

**Fred Dube did spring housecleaning on the 10 Nature Moncton nest boxes erected in Mapleton Park.
Fred found 9 of the 10 boxes had been used last season. Six were used by Black-capped chickadees, one by a Tree Swallow, one was being used by a Red Squirrel that had enlarged the opening, and one had Deer Mice.

**Alyre Chiasson got a documentary photo of a pair of Wood Ducks that are enjoying the Centennial Park pond where they must be getting quite accustomed to human traffic.

**Anna Tucker spotted a male Wood Duck on Jones Lake near the gazebo on the northern side of the lake on Sunday afternoon. Anna comments she has never seen a Wood Duck in that area and checks it often. A male Ring-necked Duck was also on the lake further out.

**Shannon Inman shares a photograph of the evergreen plant Pipsissewa, also known as Princes Pine, showing its seed packets.
This woodland plant will produce a very striking flower later in the season.

** Brian Stone walked through Mapleton Park on Friday and sends a handful of photos of some of the birds that are becoming active there.
Bohemian Waxwings were foraging at the tops of birch and aspen trees. (Editor’s note: it would seem the lack of berries has Bohemian Waxwings choosing the nutritious opening buds of trees as a food source).

Golden-crowned Kinglets hopped through the branches. A pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were drumming together in adjacent trees, and nearby, a Common Raven croaked its own messages from its own high perch. (Editor’s note: note the roughened neck feathers and honker of a bill on the raven that show well in Brian’s photo).

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet easily managed to avoid a decent photo by being the most actively flitting bird in the park.
As Brian walked the main trail, he noticed a dark ‘lump’ low down on the side of a tree that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a male Pileated Woodpecker seemingly resting, maybe after perhaps a furious hammering event at another spot.
The sides of the trail between the ponds and the Gorge Rd. entrance were blooming heavily with thousands of Coltsfoot Flowers.

** Nature Moncton April Meeting

April 18, 2023, at 7:00 PM

Mapleton Rotary lodge

How colonial history has changed breeding patterns of the Acadian Nelson’s Sparrow

Presented by Kiirsti Owen, PhD student at the University of New Brunswick (with Joe Nocera) and Acadia University (with Mark Mallory)

The Acadian Nelson’s Sparrow (Ammospiza nelson subvirgata) breeds in salt marshes from northern Massachusetts to New Brunswick and eastern Quebec. In Atlantic Canada, these birds also successfully breed in dyked agricultural lands (“dykelands”) originally created by Acadian settlers in the 1600s. Little is known about how or why these secretive birds use dykelands. Kiirsti will be discussing how she is attempting to fill this knowledge gap.

In 2021 and 2022, Kiirsti attached radio tags to 76 adult Nelson’s Sparrows in southeastern NB. Kiirsti and her team tracked birds’ movements using handheld radio telemetry in saltmarsh and dykeland habitats from June to August in both years. From these data, she is looking at home range sizes and distribution in natural vs. human-made habitats. With rising sea levels and ongoing habitat alteration, it is important to understand how populations use natural and human-made habitats to carry out important life stages.

Future research will focus on discovering why some Nelson’s Sparrows choose to use mainly dykeland habitats during the breeding season. Kiirsti will also present some of the interesting observations that her team witnessed while tracking Nelson’s Sparrows, and some of the basic natural history questions that scientists can answer using radio telemetry.

This presentation will be in person at the Mapleton Rotary Lodge and available by joining on zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85252722594?pwd=MDZHa3ZvMHZEY2xXR1QxeUZ6VDF5Zz09

All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.