Nature Moncton Nature News: August 28 2024

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

November 27, 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 the editor at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com 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 last of the summer series of Nature Moncton Wednesday walks tonight is described below:

** Wednesday Evening Walk. August 28, 2024

As August comes to an end, COME JOIN US for Nature Moncton’s final Wednesday Evening Walk at Fred and Sue Richards’ property. The address is 31 Rockland No. 1 Road, Taylor Village (instructions to follow) to start a walk at 6:00 pm rain or shine. There will be some social time and then a walk down to the Memramcook River, that will be displaying a rising tide. The walk will be on mowed trails and the walking fairly easy. We recommend long pants and mosquito repellent. We hope to see you there! All welcome. If you need directions or have questions, call Sue at 506-988-2247.

Moncton

From Main St/NB-106 E

Continue to follow NB-106 E

1.8 km

Slight right onto Acadie Ave/NB-106 E

Continue to follow NB-106 E

18.2 km

Turn right onto Central St

3.1 km

Just past the Irving

Stay left on Central St

4.6 km

Turn left onto Rockland No1 Rd

Destination will be on the left

950 m

1 Rockland No1 Rd

Taylor Village, NB E4K 2R1

call Sue at 506-988-2247.

**Pat Gibbs sends some photos of the brood of Ring-necked Pheasant chicks and parents that make their home in her Moncton yard. Momma is teaching them to chase the crows away from their food and teaching them how to take a dust bath. Daddy has seemingly abandoned any and all family duties and is lying down on the job!

The brood was a bit smaller this year with four chicks.

**Aldo Dorio photographed a duo of juvenile Ruddy Turnstones at Hay Island on Tuesday.

The pendulant pair of black breast bands helps to identify this species in all plumages in combo with the orange legs. The Ruddy Turnstone uses the slightly upturned bill to flip aside shells, pebbles, and seaweed to forage for insects.

**The family of Shirley Childs (Nature Moncton member) who live at Terrence Bay near Halifax were quite surprised recently to look out in the morning and see a small heron perched on top of their boat. They were able to get a few documentary photos that strongly suggest the heron to be an uncommon-to-the-area juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Gilles Belliveau commented the large bill and long lanky appearance are very suggestive of the identification. The bill should be completely black which it appears to be.

** Andy Stultz, an officer aboard the icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent, shares more photos and comments on what they are seeing plying Arctic waters at the moment.

Andy comments on an interesting thing about sunrise in northern latitudes. The beginning of nautical twilight to sunrise can sometimes be as long as two hours, whereas at the equator it’s only about 45 minutes. The longer twilight makes for some beautiful sunrises and gives great opportunity for photos. And then if you go far enough north, there’s no sunrise or no sunset at all of course.

They saw three Tundra Swans on Monday but got no photo opportunity.

The second picture is of Snow Geese. It’s already open season in that area and the bag limit is 50/day per person with no retention limit because they are so plentiful to be considered a nuisance. They have seen lots of waterfowl: loons, Tundra Swans, Canada Geese, Ross’s Geese, and many more.

They were seeing a lot of dead geese in the water, so they launched a small boat to investigate. Almost all were immature birds and any that Andy picked up had all the breast meat gone. Andy wondered if seals were eating them as they appeared mangled and did not appear to be shot.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton