Nature Moncton Nature News: April 3 2023

April 3, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Recently, Dan Hicks had some special guests arrive to his yard pond with 2 River Otters putting on a great show and allowing photographs. Sunday afternoon provided another special mammal performance at Dan’s yard pond when 2 Mink spent the better part of the afternoon frolicking around the pond. One spent most of the time swimming while the other ran around the perimeter and subsequently napped to again provide a great yard performance. Dan comments that his family was watching a movie but thought he got the better show.

**On Sunday, Yolande LeBlanc had a hawk chasing the smaller birds about her Memramcook yard and was able to get some good photos. This bird acted like nothing she had seen before. It landed in a quad of Weigela bushes, and even dove into the very densely branched bush to try to get the birds hiding in there. It eventually reached through the bush, not catching anything. It then proceeded to sneak under and in between the bushes to flush prey. It went up to the mountain ash tree and rested for a while, then disappeared.

Yolande got photographs from different angles.

We felt it to be a Cooper’s Hawk but were uncertain.

On consultation with Gilles Belliveau, he confirmed identification with reasons quoted below:

It’s a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk due to the very fine streaking across the chest and upper part of the belly, combined with the somewhat flat-topped head with a slightly raised crest at the back of the head.

The legs also appear quite thick and rounded in the photos of the bird facing us. You can’t see them well, but you can see the bottom just above the toes, and the leg doesn’t appear narrow as it would in a Sharp-shinned Hawk, which has legs that are compressed in a way that they are narrow when viewed from the front but wider when viewed from the side (hence the name, Sharp-shinned Hawk).

In the 2 photos where the bird is facing us, you can also see the tail feathers in the gap of the railing it’s perched on, and fairly certain one can make out 2-3 feather tips of varying lengths which would not be the case with a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

** Cathy Simon is happy to report that an American Woodcock can be heard calling and doing its circular flight pattern from her backyard in Lutes Mountain. Cathy listened to 4 cycles trying desperately to spot it in the snow and sky, only to see it as it flew overhead to leave.

(Editor’s note: Nature Moncton Activities Committee is hoping to find an American Woodcock site where a group can visit standing in a silent circle around a performing site and see the action).

**Those of us in southeastern New Brunswick never tire of Northern Cardinal photos as this species swells in number albeit slowly.

Nelson Poirier was able to enjoy the pair Margie and Jack Rogers have enjoyed as regulars in their Memramcook yard the past few winters; however, they have departed for the summer in the past. They are hoping the pair will choose their yard this summer as they are surrounded by excellent Northern Cardinal nesting habitat. Suspicions are that the pair get spirited off to Yolande LeBlanc’s yard, which happens to be only a dozen wing flaps away!

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton