NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
September
18, 2023
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**Tomorrow night, Tuesday, September
19 will be the first Nature Moncton meeting of the new season.
The duo of Pierre
Janin and Samuel Legresley will give a live presentation on ‘Growing Native
Species in your Backyard.’
Please note
this will be a live presentation. A revamped Zoom capability is under
construction for future meetings. It is hoped the audio can be recorded and
distributed as a link.
All details
of the presentation are at the end of this edition and upfront tomorrow.
**Friday,
September 15, was a good day for Barb Curlew in Waterside. She spotted a Curlew
Sandpiper on the beach as the day was ebbing. This is an old-world sandpiper
and a very rare visitor to New Brunswick, which few of us have on our New
Brunswick list. Barb rushed in to confirm identification and get the word out,
but unfortunately, it has not been relocated. That does not mean that it is
not still in the area with the huge area it could be in. Checking every
shorebird is definitely indicated!
Barb also
had a morning visit from a Baltimore Oriole in their yard for about 5
minutes, and then it was gone.
On September
17th in the afternoon, a Viceroy Butterfly landed on the Butterfly
Bush that they had planted last year.
**Caterpillars are really ‘rolling in’!Sue Richards has a Canna planted in a container in their home. She noticed the leaves were chewed, and there were droppings (frass) on the table it sat on. She spotted the forager, a Hickory Tussock Moth Caterpillar, noting its contrasting white body with black tufts.
(Editor’s note: sensitive persons get rashes and associated itching when exposed to the hairs (setae) of this sharply dressed caterpillar.)
**Yolande LeBlanc follows up with a Galium Sphinx Moth Caterpillar, a.k.a. Bedstraw Sphinx.
(Editor’s note: this caterpillar is very variable, but Yolande’s photo is the most common form. If placed in an aquarium style of container with several inches of earth on the bottom, the caterpillar will go into its pupal cocoon stage and overwinter to emerge as a beautiful large moth in the spring, providing the caterpillar\cocoon has not been parasitized. It must be kept in the cold, preferably outside.)
**Jane and Ed
LeBlanc in St. Martins took their dog for a walk Sunday morning and heard many
birds. A Red-eyed Vireo posed for a photo, but the Blue-headed Vireo did
not.
Back home,
Jane noticed the newly emerged Monarch Butterfly on the same patch of asters
as well as a Red Admiral Butterfly and got
some photos.
** Brian Stone sends a selection of shorebird photos from his mini vacation at White Point Beach Resort in N.S. last week. Last Wednesday, he walked the length of the very foggy beach and found a varied group of shorebirds busily foraging in some seaweed patches and the surrounding sandy area. Some of the birds included Ruddy Turnstone, Dunlins, Sanderlings, Short-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Plovers, Black-bellied Plovers, and other Sandpipers.
(Editor’s note: a beautiful collection of photos worth studying!)
** NATURE MONCTON MEETING PRESENTATION
“Growing
Native Species in your Backyard”
September 19th,
2023
Rotary
Pavilion, Mapleton Park at 7:00 PM
Presenters: Pierre Janin and Samuel Legresley
With the
loss and fragmentation of habitat, the loss of biodiversity, pollution, climate
change, and many more factors that take a huge toll on our native wildlife, it
is time that we do our part to try and recreate what we are losing in our own
backyard. For the past few years, Samuel
Legresley and Pierre Janin have turned their focus to native plants, learning
how to identify them, how to propagate them, and how to educate people on good
gardening practices in an attempt to attract, protect, feed, and create habitat
for our native species.
For about a
century, non-native species have been introduced in the nursery trade to
beautify our properties. Trees, shrubs, and flowers from as far as Eastern
Asia, with fragrant, colourful, and numerous blossoms, have become the standard
of landscaping. Everybody owns or knows someone who owns a Colorado Spruce, a
Japanese Lilac, a Norway Maple, a Burning Bush, a Hydrangea or a Butterfly
Bush, Hostas, Spireas, Daisies, Bearded Irises, or Shrimp Willows. Even though
they all look great, their usefulness to our native species, i.e. our
pollinators, birds, and native insects, is very limited. Some of these alien
species that do not share an evolutionary history with our local wildlife might
provide some food, cover, and nectar for some, but not as much as our native
species.
In this
presentation, Samuel and Pierre will introduce native species, will discuss the
importance of planting them instead of non-native species, and will educate us
about all the benefits they provide to our backyards and to our local wildlife.
They will give examples of species that you can grow and species to avoid so
that you can recreate habitats that have been fragmented or lost over time,
including species that will attract as many insects and birds as possible while
making your garden a four-season delight for our fauna.
Come and
learn how to draw pollinators, insects, and birds to your yard. All are welcome, Nature Moncton member or
not.
This will be
a live presentation.
Zoom will
not be available for the September meeting as Zoom capabilities are being
upgraded and are expected to be at full steam for meetings thereafter.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
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