NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
June 1,
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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The live feed to the
Peregrine Falcon nest box camera can be accessed at https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Norbert
Dupuis had a very special moment in his Memramcook East yard when a male Eastern
Bluebird posed perfectly for a photograph.
**Barbara
Smith and husband took a very pleasant walk Friday morning along the Dobson
trail in Riverview. They saw a White-tailed Deer bound off the trail ahead of them and blend into the woods, but it was moving too fast for them to be able to get a
photo. They did, however, see some slower-moving plants that allowed them to take
a few cellphone photos.
Barbara photographed
Bunchberry, Starflower, the miniature red female cones
on a Tamarack tree, and the dainty nodding blooms of Bluebead Lily
a.k.a. Clintonia.
The pale
green needles on the Tamarack tree were so soft and pliable, they felt to Barb like
the bristles on an extra-fine silicon basting brush.
(Editor’s
note: to follow up on Barbara’s description of the fine needles of Tamarack, I
will never forget FNP interpreter Rob Walker mentioning the Tamarack tree as a
pleasant tree to shake hands with!)
**Giselle
Rushton took note of an odd-looking flower on a Norway Maple tree that she
had never seen before and suspect others may not have noted either.
A consult
with Doug Hiltz at the Maritime School of Forest Technology resulted in a great
explanation which will leave the rest of us prepared when we see this rapidly occurring
development of the unfurling bud. We have lots of Manitoba maple, especially in
our urban areas, which produce a copious seed supply that gets the idea
the world should become a Manitoba Maple forest with their rapid sprouting seeds.
I am sharing
Doug Hiltz’s comments directly to explain this brief scenario:
“Norway maple was introduced from Europe and commonly
planted as shade trees in North America. If anyone wants to know more
about the tree and identifying it I can certainly oblige BUT for now, the
question of what is going on in the bud image. It is not, in fact, a flower.
The red structures that we are seeing are actually bud scales which would
have served to protect the contents of the bud over the winter. They are
actually a modified form of leaf (and to be fair, a fair number of things we
commonly refer to as flower petals, such as dogwood blossoms and
poinsettias, are actually modified leaves too. So, why don't we see these all
the time and on other species? Well, of our northern hardwood trees and shrubs,
there are relatively few species that retain their bud scales for more than a
few days after the buds burst in the spring, and even fewer species that have
them elongate so much as they do in a few of the maples, including Norway Maple.
So basically, we have a right place, right time, right species combination
(coupled with extremely fast growth this spring particularly) allowing us
to see what most folks never see or at least don't notice. I have attached a
few images that show Norway Maple at various stages of bud burst in the spring.”
**Bob Blake
maintains weather statistics of morning low temperatures, daily high
temperatures, and monthly precipitation from his Second North River home.
Bob shares
a table to compare May of 2023 with May of 2024. It is interesting to note the
precipitation as rain in 2024 was only half of what it was in 2023. With
weather forecasters predicting a dry summer for New Brunswick, it is not the
news our forests want to hear. It is to be hoped the forecasters are not
completely accurate as we have experienced this spring.
|
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
morning
temperatures |
daily highs and
rainfall |
morning
temperatures |
daily highs and
rainfall |
|
+4-1 day +5-1 +6-6 +8-3 +9-5 +10-4 +11-1 +12-3 +14-1 +15-1 +16-4 +20-1 |
+20-5 +21-1 +22-1 +24-2 +26-1 +27-2 +31-1 +32-1 78 mms. rain |
+2-2 +3-1 +4-4 +6-3 +7-2 +9-1 +11-5 +12-3 +13-2 +14-3 +15-1 +16-2 +17-1 +18-1 |
+21-2 +22-3 +23-4 +24-2 +26-1 +27-4 43 mms. rain |
Nature
Moncton
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