NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
May 15,
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 both the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com and the proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca if any errors are noted in wording or
photo labelling.
For more information on Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com .
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
**Louise
Nichols walked a trail off Walker Rd in Sackville on Monday morning. In
addition to the early Yellow-rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers, Louise
saw or heard 6 new warblers for the year: Magnolia, Black-throated
Green, Black-and-White, Ovenbird, Nashville, and Blackburnian.
A Hermit Thrush also posed for a photo. On Tuesday
morning, Louise walked another trail off Aboujagane Rd., close to the White
Birch impoundments where she added two warblers to the photo collection: Black-and
White and Northern Parula.
Louise also
includes photos of a Black-legged Tick she discovered crawling on her
hand after she came in from the woods a couple of days ago. The tick was
unengorged and very small, no bigger than a pin head. She thought it was
just a small spider at first and almost brushed it off, but then realized it
was likely a tick, ran to get a container, got it in the container, and put it
in the freezer. Once frozen, she photographed it with her macro filter
and sent it to the e-tick site which replied with the identification of the
tick.
(Editors
note: ticks are a very emerging issue in New Brunswick and Louise did
everything right in making a proper identification. The e-tick site gives good
instructions for taking photos at the proper angles for identification with a
cell phone if one does not happen to have the camera Louise has.
Canlyme.com
gives a firehose of information on the ticks that are of concern and how to
protect ourselves.
Geneticks
provides information for testing for Lyme infection and other less common but
serious medically challenging infections the Black-legged Tick may carry. We have two other ticks in New Brunswick that will choose humans as a meal as well but
are not disease vectors, so an identification is very important.
The
Black-legged Tick has arrived, increasing in number significantly, and is with
us to stay. It is up to us to learn to live with this tick.)
**It’s that short time
of the spring when Baltimore Orioles tend to pay visits to feeder yards
before they head off into nesting territories.
Fred and Sue Richards
had a beautiful adult male arrive to their Taylor Village yard as the day's special visitor on Tuesday, one of
the birds Sue looks for every spring.
**Shannon Inman came across a Weasel
on its mission in a rock pile to get some excellent photos of this
secretive and fast-moving mammal. It is carrying something in one photo
but not certain if it is a kit or some type of prey. Any comments as to the
identity of that would be appreciated.
**Lynne Renton was
able to get a documentary photo of a lone Sandhill Crane in a field off the old Fredericton Road recently.
We seem to be seeing
more Sandhill Cranes in New Brunswick, but breeding records are sparse due to
their very secretive nesting habits.
**Gordon Rattray walked in the Hillsborough area looking for warblers on May 14. The warbler population
was very low with few specimens of birds that showed. The most plentiful
bird was a population of Gray Catbirds. They were all along the trail.
Bird census: Common
Yellowthroat, Gray Catbird, Magnolia Warber -very short window to get photos. Also present were Yellow-rumped
Warblers, American Goldfinch, and Yellow Warbler.
Gordon also took notice of some of the flora on the trails:
Evergreen Wood Fern - Dryopteris intermedia
Sugar Maple in flower and Norway Maple in flower. Note that the Norway flowers point upward and the Sugar Maple point downward.
White Birch catkin
Red Oak terminal buds
On a trail Gordon
also met a worn Mourning Cloak Butterfly, and a Crane Fly landed on the
car window so he got a view of the bottom side.
**Aldo Dorio photographed a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak showing
the very different plumage from its brilliant flashy mate. Note the heavy light-coloured
beak and finer chest striping that helps distinguish it from a Purple Finch
female in a photograph where size cannot be appreciated.
**Jane
LeBlanc took a short bicycle ride from her St. Martins' home and found warblers,
including Black-and-White Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Northern Parula,
American Redstart and Magnolia Warbler.
**Cathy Simon spent several hours in the beautiful
sunshine at the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Tuesday, May 14. The 2 most notable
species she saw included a Gray Catbird and a Sora.
**Brian Stone
walked along the Taylor Rd. at Second North River on Tuesday to search for
spring arrivals and hopefully some butterflies of interest. He saw several of
the small blue Northern Azure Butterflies as well as a Red Admiral
Butterfly and a couple of Mustard White Butterflies. Two other orange-coloured butterflies flew past at speeds that defied identification. A Blueish
Spring Moth masqueraded as a tiny butterfly and several of those were seen.
Some bird species that cooperated with the camera were a Nashville Warbler,
a Black and White Warbler, and a couple of very vocal Northern
Waterthrush.
Some of the
ditches and small ponds alongside the road were hosting a variety of frogs. Green
Frogs and Bullfrogs were plentiful and their tadpoles were present
in most waters. Some of the large numbers of the small Banded Killifish populated the pond to provide significant food supply. Yellow-spotted Salamander eggs were showing their
developing embryos in the same ditch as the young turtle.
Some other
small creatures that caught Brian's eye were a caterpillar that was
struggling to cross the road and a fast-moving Wolf Spider that was
having no trouble doing the same, as well as a flashy green Six-spotted
Tiger Beetle that flew between stops. Earlier in the day on the Petitcodiac
Riverfront Trail Brian caught a Groundhog also crossing the road,
assumedly to "get to the other side".
Nature
Moncton
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