Nature Moncton Nature News: Sept 1 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

September 1, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

** The Great Egret seems to be liking what it found at Hay Island. Peter Gadd ‘popped in’ Thursday morning and was fortunate to have this striking bird fly towards him and land nearby, having first seen it at a considerable distance, commenting it is one of the easiest birds to see far off. It did seem at home, doing its hunting not far from a road with some traffic on it. Peter comments, “Always a treat to watch this species,” especially able to share it with the rest of us with 3 excellent photographs.

**John Inman spotted a female or immature male Scarlet Tanager on Thursday morning at the back of his Harvey home. He was able to get a quick photo in the afternoon. This species is an uncommon but regular visitor to New Brunswick.
(Editor’s note: the bird is perched in a White Cedar tree with seed cones just ripening.)
John also got a photo of a young-of-the-year Blue Jay looking a bit unfinished with its adult head crest feathers yet to molt out. However, the completion of its wardrobe will soon happen.

**Rhonda Langelaan recently photographed a deceased Smooth Green Snake, which was showing a very blue colouration that she had never encountered before. Neither had the editor, so quite possibly, we all may learn a bit from this encounter.
Brian Stone located references to this: “When a Green Snake dies [as this one obviously has], its body pigments break down and become a bluish colour.”
One of the many sites that point this out is at the link below:

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/reptiles_amphibians/smoothgreensnake.html

**The Simon family thanks David Cannon for catching 9 Red-backed Salamanders from his swimming pool and saving them in a container for handling. They have included a photo of the smallest and have released all 9 in their backyard in Lutes Mountain. Here is an excellent educational video about Red-backed Salamanders:

https://youtu.be/Qz7T2hHhV5w?si=As7stcgmWxHFBxLO

**August 30, 2023, was a Super Blue Moon. The name Blue Moon is given to the second full moon in a month when that occurs. The next one will be a few years later.

Since it rained all day Wednesday, Verica LeBlanc did not expect to see it. However, at 10:00 pm, she was informed that it stopped raining. Verica loves seeing the Moon as it makes its way out of the clouds, sometimes giving her an interesting view.

As Verica got outside, the moon was just moving into the clouds and later coming out of them; its brightness illuminated the clouds beautifully, to reveal itself finally.

(Editor’s note: As Verica states, the name Blue Moon is given to any full Moon that appears twice in a single month. The true Blue Moon is a very rare occurrence and is caused by dust or smoke particles between the moon and the viewer.

The term Super Moon is given to a full Moon that is in perigee, meaning it is closer to Earth and thus appears slightly bigger; however, it is hard to notice the size difference with nothing to compare it to.)

**Brian Roulston was recently in Victoria, British Columbia, and collected cones of a Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libini). It is notable in being extremely resinous (it took Brian 3 days to get the stickiness off his fingers) and very dense (the attached photographed one weighs 3/4 lb!). The tree itself has striking light green, almost fluorescent foliage composed of soft pine-like needles. Brian is going to try to collect some seeds and grow them in pots in his Piccadilly (near Sussex) home.

(Editor’s note: this could get interesting!)

**It’s Friday already and our day to review what next week’s night sky has in store for us courtesy of sky guru Curt Nason who clearly discussed last Wednesday’s full moon in last Friday’s edition. Scroll back to the August 25 edition to review that explanation.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2023, September 2 – September 9
The constellation Capricornus is a large chevron shape that is south-southeast around 10 pm this week. A pair of stars marks each upper corner, and both stars of the western pair are colourful wide double stars. The sea goat arises from a tale of the Olympian gods being surprised by Typhon, the most ferocious of the rival Titans. Knowing Typhon was not fond of water, the gods changed into fish and escaped to the sea. The god Pan, who was half-goat and half-man, panicked and dove in before the transformation was complete and wound up with a goat’s head and the tail of a fish.

There are four common targets for backyard telescope users near Capricornus, but only the globular cluster M30 off the east side of the chevron is officially within its borders. It is also the easiest of the targets for binoculars. The globular cluster M72 and the four-star (literally four stars, it is not an observing highlight) asterism M73 are above in Aquarius. Nearby is the more challenging but worth the effort, Saturn Nebula (NGC7009), the gaseous remnant of a dead star that somewhat resembles the ringed planet.

A few millennia ago, the Sun was in Capricornus at the winter solstice, when at midday, it was overhead for latitude -23.5 degrees. This is the southern border of the tropics, and it is still called the Tropic of Capricorn despite the Sun now being in Sagittarius at the beginning of winter. Earth’s 25,800-year polar wobble, called the precession of the equinox, is responsible for this shift.

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:40 am and sunset will occur at 7:56 pm, giving 13 hours, 16 minutes of daylight (6:46 am and 8:00 pm in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 6:49 am and set at 7:42 pm, giving 12 hours, 53 minutes of daylight (6:55 am and 7:47 pm in Saint John).

The Moon rises to the left of Jupiter around 10:15 Monday evening and it reaches third quarter phase on Wednesday. Jupiter is stationary on Monday, after which it begins four months of retrograde motion relative to the stars. Saturn is now rising before sunset and is at its highest for best observing around midnight. Mercury is at inferior conjunction on Wednesday, moving quickly into the morning sky and rising an hour before the Sun a week later. Mars is too close to the setting Sun for viewing. Venus, once called Lucifer the Morning Star, trails the bright winter stars into the early morning sky while outshining them all.

The Saint John Astronomy Club meets at the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre on September 2 at 7 p.m. The RASC NB star party at Fundy National Park is on for next weekend, September 8 - 9. For more information: https://rascnb.ca/event/fundy-stargaze/

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.