Nature Moncton Nature News: October 4 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

October 4, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Aldo Dorio got some excellent photographs of Wilson’s Snipe at Hay Island on Tuesday. There was a trio of them present.

**Deana Gadd’s photo of a melanistic Garter Snake in yesterday’s addition garnered some interesting comments.
Don McAlpine from the New Brunswick Museum (Research Curator and Head, Zoology Section New Brunswick Museum)
commented, “There is no evidence that the Black Racer ever occurred in the Maritimes, and the feeling is that such reports should be attributed to melanistic Garter Snakes. That said, until we published a short note in 2019 (you were a co-author- see attached) there were no verifiable records of melanistic Garter Snakes for NB. Melanism seems to be quite rare in NB Garter Snakes but has been more widely reported and documented in NS. Still, NB snakes seem to vary a fair bit in colouration, attested to in the 2022 note attached.”

The 2019 report Don refers to that Nelson Poirier co-authored with him is from an incident reported to Nature News from John Massey of a melanistic Garter Snake John had photographed in Dieppe. The photos from that time are attached today, as well as yesterday’s photo by Deanna Gadd.
The paper Don McAlpine refers to is not attached as it is too technical to be included in Nature News.

Another interesting report verbally by Brian Stone is his finding of a melanistic Garter Snake before the days when these things were reported, and Brian was not taking photographs (imagine that!). Brian had collected this snake, and it surprisingly gave birth to a very significant number of young, none of which were melanistic.