Nature Moncton Nature News: May 7 2023

May 7, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins had a Broad-winged Hawk fly over the house twice on Friday, giving good views of the underbelly and other features such as the dark trailing edge of the open wing.

She also saw a Chipping Sparrow in a neighbour's yard.

She then saw a strange animal critter in one of her ponds, not having a clue what it might be, which led to a consult with Alyre Chiasson.

Alyre comments, “From the photo, it looks like a Yellow-headed Soil Centipede. It's armoured and has legs and not parapodes so it is not a polychaete but a centipede. They can reach 3.5 to 4 cm. Like all centipedes, it is a predator. Those long antennae are used to sense the presence of prey. This particular species is introduced. Scary looking but harmless.”

**Aldo Dorio photographed a Ruffed Grouse that visited his Neguac yard, which nicely shows the striking markings of this bird. Take note that it is beside some still brilliantly blooming Coltsfoot flowers.

** On Friday afternoon, Brian Stone went out to Mapleton Park in Moncton for his second outing of the day.

He wanted to check and see if the Tree Swallows were still in the area after seeing photos of some perching on the nest boxes Nature Moncton had erected around the ponds. He was very pleasantly surprised to see dozens of swallows swooping across the water of the main pond and interacting around and on some of the nest boxes.

This turned out to be just part of an unusually good day for nature photography in the park as Brian soon had photos of a Red-bellied Woodpecker, which was the first he had seen in the park. This was followed by close pictures of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a Palm Warbler. Male and female Hooded Mergansers were fishing in the pond, and Yellow-rumped Warblers were hawking insects around the circumference of the pond.

Wood Ducks were also present, as well as Song Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows. At one end of the ponds, a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers were interacting in a likely mating ritual. A large Leopard Frog was sunning on the trail to become Brian's first frog of the season. Also, on the trail around the pond, Brian came across a few dozen small bees swarming on and just above the ground that he thinks might be Mining Bees but is waiting for identification to be sure.

**It’s that time of year when we see some of the first butterflies starting their seasonal mission.

Nelson Poirier was able to capture a quick photo of an Eastern Comma butterfly on Saturday with wings spread to capture the energy of the warm sun. Nelson still finds the Comma butterfly species' identity challenging, leading to a consult with butterfly guru Jim Edsall for confirmation.

The Comma butterfly overwinters as an adult and thus is ready to boogie at first spring warmth. The Mourning Cloak butterfly too is flying at the moment as it also overwinters as an adult. Nelson saw that species as well on Saturday, but they were too excited with the warm weather to stay still for a photo.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s comments on Bullfrog gender identification, Ron Arsenault shares photos he got of a male and female Bullfrog taken at Livingstone Lake north of Alma on June 12, 2010, to show more features of what was mentioned yesterday.

Ron also comments that it should also be noted that the relative size of the tympanum can be used with the Mink Frog, Green Frog, and Bullfrog. It is not useful in differentiating the sexes in the other NB frog species.

Yesterday’s comments are repeated below.

The sex of an adult Bullfrog can be easily determined by examining the size of the tympanum (the external ear of the frog and arrowed) relative to that of the eye. The tympanum is a round circle located on the side of the head near the eye, and in males, it is much larger than the eye, whereas in females, the tympanum is about the same size or smaller than the eye.

Female bullfrogs are larger in size than males, and males' heads are narrower. The female's throat is white, whereas the male's throat is yellow.

Although smaller in size than females, male Bullfrogs make their presence known by emitting loud calls, which females do not. A male mostly makes these sounds during the breeding time of the year at night to attract females as mates.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton