Nature Moncton Nature News: April 29 2023

April 29, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**John Inman had yet another special visitor to his Harvey, Albert County yard on Friday when a female dickcissel dropped by for a visit. The dickcissel is always a special yard visitor!

Shannon Inman got a nice photo of a pied-billed grebe in a marsh near their home on Friday.

**Nelson Poirier had an interesting chat with Jim Littlefield who is a resident of Maine and operates a birdfeeder yard. He commented that red-bellied woodpeckers are becoming very common over the past several years in his feeder yard, whereas previously, that was not the case.

This is more anecdotal evidence that this species is in good numbers and moving northward, so we may be able to look forward to having more of them in New Brunswick in the future.

**Sterling Marsh dropped by the Arthur St. Lagoon in Memramcook on Friday and took note of a large number of ring-necked ducks at this waterfowl-rich site.

Sterling got some excellent photographs nicely showing the identification features of this duck.

**Aldo Dorio sends a documentary photo of a savannah sparrow at Hay Island on Friday. This site is also popular with nelson’s sparrow, which will arrive later.

Aldo also sends a photo of the first tree swallow he has seen in that area.

(Editor’s note: tree swallows seemed to have arrived in number in the southern part of the province. They also appeared to have arrived in number in the Miramichi/Neguac area on Friday. Nelson Poirier finished spring cleaning of 18 nest boxes on Thursday but had yet to see a swallow. That all changed on Friday, when he saw them in significant numbers checking out the housing potential)

**Nelson Poirier noted 2 pairs of greater scaup in a cove off Miramichi Bay on Friday. We will not see much more of this species as they migrate through the province.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton