Nature Moncton Nature News: May 26 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

May 26, 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

**Jane LeBlanc was at a neighbour's in St. Martins and found a flock of Cedar Waxwings enjoying the petals of Serviceberry and Apple blossoms that is a behavior this species often does in spring.

**Lois Budd enjoyed some corn on the cob and put out some kernels on the stalk with butter on it in her birdfeeder area. It seemed to delight several species as she had Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Jays, Red Squirrels, Black-capped Chickadees, and woodpeckers to name a few who came to enjoy it as well.

A new bird-feeding idea!

Lois has a Dryad’s Saddle mushroom growing near the bottom of a large dead Elm tree. Lois comments she keeps the tree just because she enjoys dead trees and it seems her birds do too as its branches are always full in all seasons. She likes the looks of it!

(Editor’s note: this mushroom is edible if collected when it is young and tender before getting tough and fibrous. It is mostly found on dead Elm trees as was the case for Lois.)

**Fred and Lynn Dube have a Fishing Spider (Dolomedes sp) as a patron in a rock wall by their home. This is a large spider approximately 1½ inches that does not build a web but chases down prey and can go underwater after prey for a time taking a bubble of air with it.

**Kudos to Gordon Rattray for leading a very successful Nature Moncton Warbler walk on Saturday with Mother Nature providing sunshine and lots of birds.

Dale Pugh and Brian Stone send some great photos from the Nature Moncton Haut-du-Ruisseau Park outing in Memramcook on Saturday. As well as sending some pictures of the large group of 20 people having a great time in the good weather and not too bad buggy-ness, they also managed to process some of the bird photos observed during the walk. Other interesting plant and butterfly photos will hopefully be processed shortly.

Some of the photographed birds include Eastern Bluebird, Ovenbird, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, American Redstart, a male Purple Finch, several Blackburnian Warblers, a Least Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched calmly at the high top of a dead tree.