Nature Moncton Nature News: January 13 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

January 13, 2024

Nature Moncton members as well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond are invited to share their photos and descriptions of recent nature sightings to build a fresh (almost) daily edition of Nature News

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Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

**Gordon Rattray reports that his Weldon feeder yard is busy. All his regulars are coming daily, but on Friday a few new-for-this-year visitors came: American Crow and the first visit from an American Tree Sparrow. A Brown Creeper made a quick visit but did not pose very well. Gordon observed a special event when a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a male Hairy Woodpecker shared the peanut butter feeder. The male Pine Warbler spends a lot of time in Gordon’s yard.

**Aldo Dorio sends a few photos of the aftermath of last Wednesday’s storm that hit a lot of New Brunswick including Hay Island. Some of the pieces of ice tossed up onto the roadway would seem surprisingly thick for the temperatures we’ve had so far this season.

**Frank Branch was a bit surprised to note a Canada Goose still present alone in a field in Anse Bleue (just past Grand-Anse), close to the Bay Friday afternoon. It was picking at the frozen grass.

**Brian Stone joined Nelson Poirier on an outing Friday that took them over to Caledonia Mountain and as far as Fundy National Park. The weather was sunny and cool and a few more birds were seen than usual lately, but none of the hoped-for species showed up.

Along the way in the Turtle Creek area, three or more American Tree Sparrows were foraging low along the roadside and picking grit at the side of the road. Many Black-capped Chickadees were present in several spots over the mountain and a couple of stops produced numbers of Red-breasted Nuthatches.

At one location a large group of American Goldfinches were gathering grit and/or seeds from the side of the road and were unconcerned with the presence of the vehicle that stopped beside them.

In Alma, a few birds were seen at Doreen Rossiter’s feeders including a beautiful male Northern Cardinal and a White-throated Sparrow along with American Tree Sparrows. Even though most of the birds seen were of a more common variety it was great to finally see them in larger numbers than have been noted over the last few weeks.

(Editor’s note: an interesting observation from Friday’s outing was the presence of birds at feeders. Most feeder yards we passed were rural and folks mentioned they were having very little activity at them. At my own urban feeder, there is lots of action from expected species. Friday’s trip showed the reason why.

In rural areas, most areas other than Caledonia Mountain were near snow-free and we were able to see a number of expected birds avidly feeding in the snow-free areas. Even on Caledonia Mountain, one avid birdfeeder commented there seemed to be birds all around him but not coming to the feeder area.

It seemed obvious that many of these birds were finding lots in the wild with no need to partake at birdfeeders. This situation may be very different for urban feeders where there are fewer wild forage areas.

I think this explains why many of us may comment it’s just not a good birdfeeder yard year; however, a few winter storms could very much change that scenario.)

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton