Nature Moncton Nature News: August 7 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

August 7, 2023

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .

Please advise both the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com and the proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.

For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .

Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Many of the regular Nature Moncton Wednesday night walk participants will have fond memories of the August 2 walk at Highland Park. We are just going to move down the road a bit this week for a potential repeat of that great night. The write-up is below:

This Wednesday night's summer Nature Moncton walk (August 9) will be around the Salisbury Municipal Wastewater Lagoons and Wetland Ponds. We will first check the lagoons and see the ducks, gulls, and swallows that enjoy this area. From there, we will go down a couple of easily navigated, somewhat steep slopes to get down to the ponds but this area is mowed and can also be accessed with a more gradual slope if needed. The trails around the ponds are groomed. Once at the pond area we will cross a dyke with water on both sides and on to more ponds on the right and river on the left. A beautiful walk. Bring bug spray. A 6:30 start will give us more daylight time, so we are back up the grades before dark.

The location is Salisbury Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility, Government Road, Salisbury, NB E4J 1Z1.

Gov't Road is off the Salisbury Road/ Highway 106, within the Town Limits. Silver Meadows Trailer Park is on the right once you go down Government Road, and the Treatment Plant is on the left. Parking is available as you drive up to the gates.

David Miller and Lois Budd will be your evening guides.

** Shannon Inman planted a bee balm plant, a.k.a. Monarda, last year, which grew quickly to a 3-foot by 3-foot-tall plant this year. It has been a real magnet for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, a variety of bees, butterflies, etc, for the past 3 weeks. John and Shannon share some photos of the action!

Also, a Globe Thistle plant John has had for years also attracts the same and, in the fall, the American Goldfinch.

**Georges Brun reports he noted multiple days last week with Monarch Butterflies (3) near Chateau Moncton. He also had 3 sightings of Mourning Cloak Butterflies and includes a documentary photo.

A Common Loon made a visit one day; then for the last few days, a Surf Scoter (male).

Early this week, there were approximately 25 Great Blue Herons in the Biss Marsh Pond in Dieppe (Chartersville).

Also, a small flock of shorebirds made a flight up the river to near Moncton Wharf. Some continued upriver, and a few headed downriver again. The water level at Bis Marsh is high, but many shorebirds are wading along the edge and feeding.

Two White-Tailed Deer were in the Dieppe marsh following the Greater Moncton Pest Control tracks.

**Christine Lever was pleased to have a Hummingbird Clearing Moth cooperatively perch on a drying bathing suit for a pleasing photograph.

** On Wednesday, August 2, Brian Stone undertook two different outings, one earlier in the day at the Tintamarre Wildlife Area near Jolicure, N.B., and later that evening, he took in the Nature Moncton Wednesday Night Walk at Highland Park in Salisbury.

At Tintamarre he was hoping to relocate the earlier reported Sedge Wren but had no luck. He did manage to get a flight photo of a Caspian Tern that was cruising around overhead and a Nelson's Sparrow that came close to check him out. A vocal Song Sparrow posed on a distant fence post similar to a Savannah Sparrow that was a bit closer, and several Swamp Sparrows also posed on various perches. Many Common Wood Nymph Butterflies were nectaring among the early August flowering plants.

Later that evening at Salisbury's Highland Park, Brian joined the Nature Moncton Wednesday Night Walk, and he sends a few photos from that outing to include an Eastern Kingbird in hunting mode, Cedar Waxwings, a female Red-winged Blackbird picking fluff from a cattail, a Greater Yellowlegs swimming around one of the ponds, some of the large number of Common Grackles that are congregating there, one of the adult Pied-billed Grebes, and a yellow Horned Bladderwort water plant near some large Arrowroot water plants.

One relaxing Frog poked its head up above the pond water in a typical pose.