Nature Moncton Nature News: May 22 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

May 22, 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

**All appreciation to Nigel McLaughlin for spending his evening Tuesday night sharing with Nature Moncton and friends the amazing tree planting efforts and forest management for the future in progress within the Fundy Biosphere Reserve.

Also appreciation to Fred Richards and Cathy Simon for organizing an up-to-date review of the progress of our Peregrine Falcon family. It was special to have Ron Arsenault in the audience who was one of the small group, including Nelson Poirier, who placed the original nest box on the summit of Assumption Place in 2011.

** On Monday, Gordon Rattray went to the White Rock area in Hillsborough on a quest for greens for supper. He was a week late as the Ostrich Ferns were fully open. Gordon wandered around and found other ferns also with fully unfurled fronds. Observed and photographed were the following:

Interrupted Fern - Osmunda claytoniana

New York Fern - Thelypteris noveboracecsis

Northern Beech Fern - Phegopteris connectilis

Northern Lady Fern - Athyrium filix-femina

Oak Fern - Gymnocarpium-dryopteris

Ostrich Fern - Matteuccia struthiopteris frond and fiddlehead

Sensitive Fern - Onoclea sensibilis

Gordon also found some other plants on the walk: Forget-me-not - Myosotis scorpioides, Dwarf Raspberry - Rubus pubescens, and Fly Honeysuckle - Lonicera canadensis showing flower and a seed case.

At home, Gordon was able to get a photo of his resident Eastern Phoebe nesting in the same spot for the third straight year.

**Susan Richards has had a female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker visiting their front porch landing, preening itself. It has visited several times. This bird shows a black crown instead of the expected brilliant red crown and the yellow on the breast appears accentuated which called for a consultation with Gilles Belliveau. Gilles points out the following:

“As far as the black crown goes, a small percentage of females have black crowns (shown in Sibleys)." This is the third or fourth photo Gilles has seen of a female with a black crown in NB.

"The amount of yellow underneath does seem to be variable and some individuals do seem to have more than others. The photo also seems to have some 'warm' tones to it, possibly from the white balance being a bit off, which may be making the yellow appear even brighter.”

**Christine Lever recently visited the UK and brings back a very interesting encounter with a Eurasian Coot. The Eurasian Coot is very similar anatomically to the American Coot that we now enjoy nesting in New Brunswick. Christine’s account is too good not to be shared verbatim; therefore, I am quoting Christine directly with some beautiful photos attached:

“I was in the UK for 3 weeks from April 22 - May 13. While I was there, I took photos of birds. I know that they're not NB birds but I wondered if people would be interested in seeing them. The first birds I saw were Eurasian Coots. I have to say that I became smitten with these lovely birds. Their feet are amazing. They look like feathers (you can see their feet in the attached photos).

The birds stay on the water the whole time. Although they might hop up on a piece of flotsam, they're most comfortable in the water. As you can see from the photos, this little family lives on a canal in Hackney, London, UK. The canal is full to the brim with the detritus of our throw-away lives. The pair of coots built a nest using plastic straws, tetra drink packets, chip packets, and some reeds and aquatic plants.

The mum laid her eggs and the first day that I saw them, there was only one egg left in the nest. Over the three weeks I was there, I visited them four times. The parents are incredibly attentive and fierce defenders of their family. I saw both Mum and Dad chase away ducks, geese and swans. When I say 'chase away' I really mean it. They didn't stop chasing them until all of their mortal enemies had disappeared around a bend in the canal.”

Thank you Christine. That account is like being there!

**John Inman was surprised to spot a Blue Jay picking out the seeds in orange halves that he had put out for orioles. It is the first time John recalls seeing this behaviour.

John also photographed an interestingly marked spider.

BugGuide has identified it as the Zebra Spider (Salticus scenicus). This is a common jumping spider of the northern hemisphere but the editor does not recall seeing it previously. The common name refers to the vivid black and white bands giving it the zebra-like colouration. The white bands are actually hairs. The spider is 5-9 mm in length.

**Brian Stone drove along the New Scotland Rd. on Monday and stopped at a few select spots to search for photo subjects. He saw and heard at least four Least Flycatchers, and got a photo of one, and there were many warblers present along one dirt road including a Black-throated Blue Warbler, a Nashville Warbler, and he heard a Bay-breasted Warbler, Northern Parula, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Hermit Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, and others.

At a small bog area, Brian photographed a very distant Magnolia Warbler singing loudly in a far tree at the back of the bog and he inserted a close-up crop of it into the photo to show the bird better. A Green Comma Butterfly, a Mourning Cloak Butterfly and an American Lady Butterfly posed briefly, and a Four-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly perched on a twig long enough to join in the photo session. In a ditch beside one dirt road, a poor Green Frog was being assaulted by five mosquitoes.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton