Nature Moncton Nature News: April 10 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

April 10, 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

To respond by e-mail, please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com .

Please advise the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com if any errors are noted in wording or photo labelling.

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Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca

The live feed to the Peregrine Falcon nest box camera can be accessed at https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam

**The Peregrine Falcon nest box atop Assumption Place is now hosting a fourth egg.

Lynn Dube captured a screenshot showing the fourth egg on Tuesday evening.

Many New Brunswickers were able to create their own stories on their quest to see the solar eclipse. Participants share more photos of the Nature Moncton group enjoying their eclipse moments.

**Daryl Doucette’s family was originally planning to go up Rte. 126 to Harcourt, but some cumulus clouds were forming up that way, so they headed for Cocagne Bridge, onto Highway 11, to find a traffic jam between Shediac Cape and Cocagne of hundreds of cars pulling off the side of the highway. They managed to finally make their way and park in Cocagne right beside the new bridge to witness the absolutely wonderful event!

**Phil Riebel and Pam Watters were more New Brunswickers who were able to take in Monday’s total solar eclipse from their Miramichi home, and Phil shares a few different photos of the total solar eclipse taken from their home driveway.

They were right in the middle of the ‘totality path’ and it was a beautiful clear day with no clouds – also nice warm weather (12-14 C). Perfect conditions and an awesome experience. Phil took many different exposures with his telephoto lens sharing some at the link below. Note the solar flares. Phil was surprised that they showed up so clearly in the photos.

Just to put this in perspective, the solar flare in the close-up is roughly 115,000 km in length which is equivalent to 9 times the diameter of earth! The smaller flare in the bottom left on the other photos is only 4.5 times the diameter of the earth in length.

https://philriebelphotography.smugmug.com/Private/Solar-Eclipse/n-mHcjqJ

**Barbara Smith’s family decided to catch the solar eclipse from Bouctouche. They were so glad they made the drive up. Watching the sun disappear behind the moon and then show itself again was really impressive. Magical, in fact.

The clouds were gorgeous too, beautifully framing the main attraction. The drive home was considerably less beautiful. It took five times longer than the drive-up. Almost every second license plate was from Nova Scotia. Astounding.

**While they were waiting for the eclipse to begin on Monday at St. Thomas Wharf, Louise and Glen had a chance to check out what was around the wharf. They could hear the plaintive call of Black Scoters as soon as they arrived. Louise checked out the water with her scope and could see mostly Black Scoters and not many other species. She did see several Long-tailed Ducks, Common Eiders, and Common Goldeneye that were further off. She includes some photos she was able to take of Black Scoters that were closer to the wharf.

(Editor’s note: Louise’s photos provide a beautiful example of the two genders of the Black Scoter together. The other photos nicely show how a diving duck has to run along the water's surface to lift off.)

**While sitting in his backyard Tuesday afternoon, Brian Coyle noticed about a dozen small birds in the top of a Trembling Aspen. Upon zooming in with his camera, he could identify them as American Goldfinches, and he could see they were feeding on the newly emerging catkins.

At around 3:30 Wednesday morning, Brian Coyle got up in time to see a Northern Flying Squirrel upside down on his peanut butter feeder, enjoying a snack.

**Jane LeBlanc had heard a woodpecker drumming near her home. On investigating, she found a Downy Woodpecker making adjustments to a Nature Moncton nest box. She also had a dozen or so Common Grackles spend part of the day in her yard. Driving in West Quaco, she saw large birds. Stopping for a better look, she got a very distant photo of five Bald Eagles (2 immature, 3 mature) fighting over some kind of carcass at high tide. Water completely surrounded the sand bar they were on.

**Ruth Ricker was able to capture a beautiful flight photo of one of the Evening Grosbeaks that was buzzing the Nature Moncton group and vocalizing while waiting for the solar eclipse totality; however, it went silent during totality.

**Norbert Dupuis shares some photos of finches enjoying the hospitality of his Memramcook East yard.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton