Nature Moncton Nature News: December 6 2023

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

December 6, 2023

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Edited by Nelson Poirier nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Gordon Rattray was pleased to have a Pine Warbler visit his yard on Tuesday. The warbler was after suet and sat on a sunflower feeder, but didn’t seem to take any. It was very active in flying around the feeders. Gordon also had a Red-breasted Nuthatch at the same time as the Pine Warbler.

Other notables Tuesday for Gordon were two Dark-eyed Juncos and the Red-bellied Woodpecker. With the regulars, Gordon had 10 species in the yard. Gordon noted that the birds were in a feeding frenzy just after lunch, which is when the photos were taken.

**Jane LeBlanc had another busy day in her yard. There were 2 female (or juvenile) Northern Cardinals, and she wondered if she caught both of them or if she just got different angles of the same bird. There was also one male and several female Purple Finch checking out the menu.

**Brian Stone was putting out his garbage for collection on Tuesday morning at 5:00 am when he noticed some interesting light effects in the sky overhead appearing as beams of light radiating from a central spot across most of the sky. It was mostly cloudy with some thin areas, and stars were showing through in some of the partially clear areas. Light, thin, snow with tiny crystals was falling at the time. He wondered initially if it could be a bright display of the aurora shining through the hazy clouds, but the beams of light seemed to look more like the "light pillar" effect that can happen under this type of weather condition, but he had never seen that coming from an overhead viewpoint before. The stars of the Big Dipper asterism (a group of stars forming a shape within a constellation) are clearly visible at the bottom of the photo. Brian remains a bit confused as to what exactly he saw, but he still enjoyed spending an hour in front of his house on busy Mountain Rd. in his pajamas taking photos of the sky in the cold, hazy, lightly snowy, early morning darkness. What could be more fun?

Louise Nichols found the link and Brian feels pretty sure this explains it.

https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/light-pillars-lights-radiating-from-the-zenith/

**Brian Stone walked the Riverview Marsh trail on Tuesday afternoon and found only a few items to photograph. An American Crow was rooting through the snow for whatever crows like to find, and a female Northern Harrier Hawk did a flyover. Way over on the Moncton side of the Petitcodiac River, Brian spotted one of the Peregrine Falcons perching on the Bell Aliant communication tower.

Brian also photographed Petitcodiac River artwork, displayed on one of the buildings facing the river, of the so-called River Monster that local folklore has deemed to appear occasionally on the incoming Tidal Bore.

(Editor's note: sometimes on the incoming tidal bore, a strange circular motion appears that folks deem may be the monster!)

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton