Nature Moncton Nature News: October 3 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

October 3, 2023

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**The black melanistic Garter Snake is a rare occurrence in New Brunswick.
Deana Gadd spotted one at the Miramichi Cross Country Ski trail on Tuesday and got a quick cell phone photograph before it slithered away.
It is thought that historical reports of Black Racer and Rat Snakes in New Brunswick are very likely to be what Deana photographed on Tuesday.

**Lynn and Fred Dube have a campsite near Pictou, Nova Scotia, overlooking a beautiful marsh bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

On Monday, they had a group of 4 Great Egrets in that marsh in front of their site. It is the highest number of Great Egrets they have ever seen in one spot. A Great Blue Heron was monitoring the activities of the visitors.

**Wayne Fairchild was able to capture a striking photograph of a katydid day-perched on the window of their RV in Moncton. Wayne comments that he suspects the katydid was hoping the RV would soon head for warmer climes!

(Editor’s note: the katydids, of which we have a small handful of species in New Brunswick, are grasshopper kin. The trained ear can identify them to species by their nocturnal vocalizations.)

** Georges Brun took photos of 7 Killdeer near the railroad trestle bridge in Salisbury (end of Parkin Street).

Georges visited the area to see how high the tidal bore was at that site.

(Editor’s note: Killdeer are indeed shorebird kin, but we are more accustomed to seeing them in fields instead of enjoying the menu of the banks of the Petitcodiac River.)

Georges noted a nearby sewage lagoon was the resting site for numerous Canada Geese along with several species of ducks.

A bright meadowhawk dragonfly also caught the interest of the camera lens.

Georges captured some very interesting photos of the Petitcodiac River at the Salisbury train trestle bridge just before and during the arrival of the Tidal Bore.

**On Saturday, Brian Stone drove and walked the Taylor Rd. at Second North River and then circled Highland Park at Salisbury in the pleasant fall weather.

At Taylor Rd. Brian found an American Kestrel flying from tree to ground and perched briefly for a quick photo. He was flown over by a pair of Wilson's Snipe and saw a group of close to a dozen Wood Ducks in a pond that flew away faster than the camera could react. A curious male Common Yellowthroat Warbler came in close to check him out, and a mating pair of meadowhawk dragonflies landed close to where Brian was trying to get a decent photo of a small Giant Water Bug (Belostoma). Two Turkey Vultures circled close overhead for a few minutes, and a Double-crested Cormorant swimming in the big beaver pond decided to buzz the photographer with a close fly-by.

At Highland Park, Brian photographed several of the many young Pied-billed Grebes still there that were getting close to maturity. Also still there were a couple of American Coots and 3 or more young Common Gallinules. An American Bittern flew up at a distance and got "documentaried" (a new term created to describe the fruitless attempt to photograph a subject too far away and in flight, no less). Some Great Blue Herons were standing around, one on what looked like a large nest of another species, and what appeared to be a family group of several Green-winged Teals were splashing about in the ditch pond beside the trail. Red-winged Blackbirds were congregating in large numbers prior to migrating south, and an American Wigeon family ducked for cover, leaving the male out as a distraction to the photographer. Eastern Phoebes were present at both sites.