Nature Moncton Nature News: Sept 13 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

September 13, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

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** A long wait has ended for Peter Gadd in Miramichi. Peter reports “Finally, on Tuesday morning, they saw a female Northern Cardinal feeding a juvenile on top of a sunflower seed feeder. This is the first summer that Northern Cardinals have been in the neighbourhood as far as we know. The winter Northern Cardinal visitors always seemed to have moved on come Spring. We have been assuming that the pair would be having young, but only Tuesday got confirmation." The Gadds have been sharing this pair, so to speak, with neighbour Anne Assaf, who lives 3 properties away. The Northumberland County Bird List has the Northern Cardinal coded as ‘Unusual’. It seems there has been no record of successful breeding.

** Yves Poussart recently spent a full week in Québec City.

He also took the opportunity to visit two well-known nature parks in the area (Réserve naturelle du marais Léon Provencher near Neuville and the Base de plein air de Sainte-Foy). On the one hand, these visits did not show a great diversity of species but gave nice opportunities to get a good number of photos of quite special species. The temperature during these outings was well in the 30°C range.

At both sites, Yves could get photos of a Green Heron (Héron vert) in addition to Wood Ducks (Canards branchus). Three of the attached photos show a Green Heron after it had caught a fish, a large frog, and a smaller one. This last species is a lifer to Yves. A total of five Great Egrets (Grandes aigrettes) and a Merlin (Faucon émerillon) were also photographed. Overall, it was a rewarding and really pleasant activity.

**It truly has been a banner year for the Mountain Ash berry crop.

Suzanne Rousseau sends photos of the bountiful crop of berries on her yard trees in Sussex. Suzanne comments that she has never had so many berries on these trees before, to the point she even had to cut some of the branches at the bottom.
Suzanne is looking forward to fruit connoisseur birds visiting this coming winter.

**Pat Gibbs photographed a Red Squirrel in her yard but noticed when she was processing the photo that it was a lactating female.
The Red Squirrel often raises 2 broods in a season.

**Brian Stone sends a few photos from his walk along the beach at the White Point Resort in south/west N.S. near Liverpool on Tuesday afternoon. A small group of Sanderlings kept him company for a significant length of the beach as they scurried along at the edge of the water and darted in and out with the ebb and flow of the waves. At one point, they were joined by 3 Semipalmated Plovers for a brief team-up, but soon they split up and went their separate ways. At the far end of the beach, a few gulls were taking a break, and Brian photographed a Great Black-backed Gull that stood out from the group and then turned away for a few minutes to admire the heavy, pounding waves. When he looked back, the Great Black-backed was gone, and a Lesser Black-backed Gull was present instead. A magical transformation? Or just a lucky break? Only the gulls will know for sure.
(Editor's note: Brian's photos show some nice ID features to distinguish the Great Black-backed Gull from the Lesser Black-backed Gull.
The mantle of the Great Black-backed Gull is very black, whereas the mantle of the Lesser Black-backed Gull is more slate coloured. The primary projection of the Lesser Black-backed Gull is longer than that of the Great Black-backed Gull. The window on P-10 of the Lesser Black-backed Gull has a black tip, whereas the window on P-10 of the Great Black-backed Gull is white right to the tip. The yellow legs are an immediate clue, as is the smaller size for the Lesser Black-backed Gull. The immature versions of these two species often need more scrutiny to separate.)