Nature Moncton Nature News: July 4 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

July 4, 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

**An appreciative thank you to Gordon Rattray for again leading a very successful Wednesday evening Nature Moncton walk, this time to the diverse habitat surrounding the Hillsborough wetlands. There were many photos which will appear in the days to come.

**Louise Nichols joined some other birders at the Sackville Waterfowl Park on Wednesday morning to try to catch a sighting of the previously reported Purple Gallinule. The bird was spotted around the area of the observation deck. Louise was able to get some photos of various pieces of the bird as it skulked its way through the cattails. While looking for the gallinule, a Virginal Rail was also spotted.

**Yolande LeBlanc had a Monarch butterfly visit her Memramcook milkweed patch on Wednesday, July 3rd, her first of the year. The milkweed also attracts the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, of which there seems to be a lot this year.

(Editor’s note: there have been several observations of Monarch butterflies over the past few days which is the expected timing for the arrival of this butterfly. Let’s hope numbers swell, as last year was such a disappointing year.)

Yolande has a resident Gray Catbird that she sees often. She hears and sees the Northern Cardinals almost every day, but they have not brought any young about as yet and she wonders about nest failure.

Like many others, Yolande has not seen many Ruby-throated Hummingbirds this season and the ones she does see are predominantly male.

**Marguerite Winsor is again raising some Black Swallowtail butterflies. She does not have any more dill plants, but since last year, Madame Black Swallowtail butterfly has decided that she likes a large Lovage plant and she deposited eggs at different times. When Marguerite discovered the caterpillars, there were some of different sizes. Now that they have started to pupate, 5 out of 16 are dark grey to suggest later instars. Marguerite sends a photo to show the difference in colour. She has noticed that the dark grey ones took longer to pupate.

On two different nights, Marguerite had a visit from a Small-eyed Sphinx moth to their patio screen door. She suspects that one is a male and the other a female.

**Rheal Vienneau has been raising Red Admiral butterfly larvae and had the first beautiful fresh adult emerge on Wednesday afternoon to have its photo taken.

**Shelley Murphy was photographing a Double-Crested Cormorant. At first, she was a bit puzzled that she wasn't seeing a head, but as Shelley walked around to the other side, she saw, to her relief, that it was just sleeping. The photos were taken in East Point, Miramichi.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nature Moncton