NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
October 9, 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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**Shannon
Inman captured a nice spread wing photo of a fresh Gray Comma butterfly.
This butterfly would appear to be from a recent brood and will overwinter as
the adult employing its very effective biological antifreeze methods.
Shannon also photographed a
grouping of Gem-studded Puffball mushrooms. These are relatively small
mushrooms and are considered edibles.
Shannon’s camera eye was also
attracted to some maple leaves giving off their fall performance.
**Thanks to Tony Thomas’ sharp eye, we can make a
very interesting correction on the identification of the butterflies Leon
Gagnon had visiting his Miscou Island cottage this past summer. They were
originally incorrectly labelled as Black Swallowtail butterflies but are the much
more restricted range Short-tailed Swallowtail butterflies.
The worldwide distribution of the Short-tailed Swallowtail
butterfly is the area surrounding the Gulf of St. Lawrence that includes
parts of New Brunswick, Québec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and more recently, Maine.
It was an interesting scenario that Leon had a dozen
of this species of butterfly stay around his yard for a week. It would have to
be assumed that a lot of eggs were laid in that area and if this was the last
brood of the season, there must be a lot of chrysalids left which could create
an interesting scenario again next summer.
The photos are rerun in today’s edition correctly
labelled.
**Andy Stultz, a crewmember on a Coast Guard vessel
in the Northwest Territories, photographed a ptarmigan that landed on
the ship for a rest. It is in its very cryptic snow-white winter plumage making
a complete reversal from its summer brown plumage. Two species of ptarmigan are
resident in the area Andy is in, the Rock Ptarmigan and the Willow Ptarmigan. Identifying the species from the photo would be challenging.
The chances of seeing a ptarmigan in New Brunswick are remote.
Nelson
Poirier
Nature Moncton
