Nature Moncton Nature News

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.

**The Nature Moncton seabird field trip took place on Saturday with the bonus of pleasant sunny skies. Roger LeBlanc took the large group of participants to some spots some of us were not familiar with as well as other favourite haunts. With very open water, some species were distant with scopes doing their job while other spots like St. Thomas wharf had ice far out, bringing birds in close for pleasant observations. The beautiful sound of vocalizing Black Scoters was haunting.
It was a very pleasant day of camaraderie with approximately a dozen new members present for the chance to see new birds, and for long-time members to get to know new members of the flock!

Louise Nichols report on the day:

"Louise Nichols sends some photos from the sea duck outing. She comments that it was a spectacular day to be out at the coast with a large group of duck enthusiasts under Roger Leblanc's guidance. A good showing of ducks, especially at St. Thomas Wharf where the whistles of the Black Scoters were clearly audible. Magical!"

Gordon Rattray comments on the day:

“Gordon Rattray attended with many others the Sea Duck excursion, led by Roger LeBlanc, to several locations along the Northumberland Shore from Shediac to Bouctouche. It was a beautiful sunny day, and many birds were spotted. Gordon was able to get some photos even though many of the birds were at a distance. Photos Gordon included are Black Scoter, Common Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers, female Common Eider, Lesser Scaup, Osprey and Ring-billed Gull.”

Brian Stone comments on the day:

Brian Stone sends some photos documenting the Nature Moncton Sea-Bird Outing on Saturday. Some of the sea birds seen were ... some very distant Northern Gannets, very vocal Black Scoters, Surf Scoters, a female Common Eider resting on a rocky breakwater, Bufflehead Ducks, Canada Geese, Tree Swallows, a Great Blue Heron, several Ospreys, Scaups, Iceland Gulls, Red-Breasted Mergansers, Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneyes, and many others.

(Editor's note: in Brian's flight photo of the Red-breasted Merganser pair, note the double black bar lines on the wing of the male. This appears as a single bar in the female and in both genders of the Common Merganser).

Brian was able to capture a video of the Black Scoters to include that unique vocalization. Turn your volume up and enjoy!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oo78b6omm80orz0/Black%20Scoters%20-%20Brian%20Stone.MOV?dl=0

Below is the list of shoreline observations:

Bernache du Canada / Canada Goose

dabbling ducks

Northern Shoveler / Canard souchet

Canard chipeau / Gadwall

Canard d'Amérique / American Wigeon

Canard colvert / Mallard

Canard noir / American Black Duck

Sarcelle d'hiver / Green-winged Teal

Fuligule Morillon/ Tufted Duck rare (at Cap Brule spotted by Megan Boucher and located a few days ago by Gilles Belliveau)

Fuligule à collier / Ring-necked Duck

Petit Fuligule / Lesser Scaup

sea ducks

Fuligule milouinan / Greater Scaup

Eider à duvet / Common Eider

Macreuse à front blanc / Surf Scoter

Macreuse à bec jaune / Black Scoter

Harelde kakawi / Long-tailed Duck

Petit Garrot / Bufflehead

Garrot à oeil d'or / Common Goldeneye

Garrot d'Islande / Barrow's Goldeneye

Grand Harle / Common Merganser

Harle huppé / Red-breasted Merganser

Pigeon biset / Rock Pigeon

Tourterelle triste / Mourning Dove

Goéland à bec cerclé / Ring-billed Gull

Goéland argenté / Herring Gull

Goéland arctique / Iceland Gull

Goéland marin / Great Black-backed Gull

Plongeon catmarin / Red-throated Loon

Fou de Bassan / Northern Gannet Good show

Cormoran à aigrettes / Double-crested Cormorant

Grand Héron / Great Blue Heron

Urubu à tête rouge / Turkey Vulture High numbers

Balbuzard pêcheur / Osprey Recent arrival

Pygargue à tête blanche / Bald Eagle

Martin-pêcheur d'Amérique / Belted Kingfisher Recent arrival

Pic flamboyant / Northern Flicker

Corneille d'Amérique / American Crow

Grand Corbeau / Common Raven

Hirondelle bicolore/ Tree Swallow Recent arrivals and in good numbers near Cocagne arena

Étourneau sansonnet / European Starling

Merle d'Amérique / American Robin

Bruant chanteur / Song Sparrow

**Karen Burris felt badly about their lone Bohemian Waxwing patron striking their picture window, so she wanted to help it. She put out Concord grapes that she had stored in the freezer. She was spot on with a very happy waxwing that was feeding happily on the booty on Saturday and looking very much back to good health!

**It was nesting box clean-out day on April 15, 2023, for Fred Richards being a sunny day with not much wind with 30 nest boxes in Taylor Village on their property plus the neighbour’s property plus along Taylor Road. There was a Tree Swallow sitting on top of a nesting box yesterday on a post by the pond. After taking what was in the box out, applying Pyrethrin insecticide spray, and shaking a small amount of Diatomaceous Earth in each box, Fred closed the box, put the screw back in, and on to the next one. There were 23 boxes that were used and 7 that had nothing in them. Some nests were made of grasses and feathers, mostly white feathers, which indicates a Tree Swallow nest. There was one that, after moving the nest off the metal step where Susan laid it to take the photo, she saw many small bugs crawling from the nesting material. Some nests were packed with grasses and moss and small bits of twigs, indicating Black-capped Chickadee use. There was grass and fine dirt in some nests, suggesting mouse use over the winter. A photo shows one has a wasps' nest seemingly used as nesting material.

This spring job is done, and the boxes are now ready for new families to reside for the short term of housekeeping in Taylor Village, New Brunswick.

Fred Richards also cleaned out one Duck Box that was used and one Duck box that was not used this year. Last year the opposite boxes were used and not used. These are near the marsh pond, which is by the Ducks Unlimited pond near the dyke by the Memramcook River.

**Aldo Dorio photographed a group of Double-crested Cormorants having just arrived and resting on an ice flow off Hay Island. One bird is positioned in the photo to show the dark tufts on either side of the head to give this species the name double-crested.

Aldo also photographed a duo of male Black Scoter off Hay Island.

** 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.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton