Nature Moncton Nature News: 2024-10-06

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

October 12, 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

**Deana and Peter Gadd traveled up the south coast of the Gaspé Peninsula on Friday toward the 'homeland' of Deana’s family around the town of Gaspé. They stopped at several locations along the way to see what birds might be about. Not surprisingly, they stumbled across a couple of flocks of Horned Larks but in Carleton, they were fortunate enough to again, literally, almost stumble on a Lapland Longspur. Due to the cold strong wind, Peter decided not to take his camera along, disappointing the bird that seemed to patiently wait not 5 feet away. (A lesson learned).

Having heard that a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was hanging about in Cascapedia for the last week, they took a short detour and were not disappointed. Apparently, this species, like the Black-capped Chickadee, is not adverse to humans and has been hanging about a home on an extremely busy intersection (heavy truck and car movement) to the delight of a number of birders and was still busy catching insects and returning, like an Eastern Phoebe, to the same perch. It was not a warm day!

On arrival at Percé, with a strong sun low in the sky, a flock of Northern Gannets were busy getting their supper just off the wharf, with Percé Rock and their colony’s home, Isle Bonaventure, in the background. Their death-defying plunges at close quarters were another great treat to end a darn good birding day!

**Phil Riebel captured some beautiful images of Thursday night’s amazing light show as he saw it from Miramichi city.

Phil’s high-quality photography equipment was able to capture some of the colour show that our human eye could not see.

**Lynn Dube captured a photo of a female Marbled Orbweaver spider.

The spider is at its maximum size this time of year with its cargo of eggs at .8 in, excluding legs. It is easily recognized by the striking yellow-marbled pattern on its large abdomen. It feeds on flies, beetles, mosquitoes, and other flying insects and generally poses a very low risk to man/mammals.

**Lisa Morris noted a group of bumblebees about their mission on a

goldenrod plant in prime bloom, obviously meeting the needs of the

goldenrod and its pollinators. The bumblebees in Lisa's photo

appear to be all Tri-colored bumblebees showing the red band on

the thorax.

**A couple days ago, on Tuesday the 8th, the Sun unleashed a powerful flare that hit the Earth and gave us the wonderful episode of the Aurora (Northern Lights) that thrilled everyone who saw it and photographed it. Brian Stone photographed the Sun (through special filters) on Friday afternoon to show the large Sunspot AR 3848 that let loose the flare and includes a screen print of the Spaceweather.com site showing the flare erupting.

**On Friday evening, Brian Stone went out to a high area to get to a low western horizon in an attempt to get a photo of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) as it closely followed the Sun to set shortly after it at the same spot on the horizon. The comet being so close to the Sun made it difficult to locate and when found it was in the orange twilight and not easy to photograph. It will gradually get higher above the horizon in the next week or two and should be easier to find then, even though it will be getting dimmer each day.

Brian only had minutes to get a photo once the comet was located before it set and he had plenty of trouble trying to get a clear focus and never did achieve that as the photo shows. While waiting for the comet to appear Brian amused himself by photographing the waxing gibbous Moon and the planet Venus.

**Larry Sherrard and Nelson Poirier have been putting what fish entrails they can find on a woods trail in Miramichi with a trail camera aimed at them. So far, the patrons have been one Black Bear and one Raccoon.

The booty would be very welcome fodder for Black Bears that are fuelling up for winter hibernation.

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton

SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER. OCTOBER 11, 2024. PETER GADD

NORTHERN GANNET (PERCE ROCK IN BACKGROUND). OCTOBER 11, 2024. PETER GADD

NORTHERN GANNET. OCTOBER 11, 2024. PETER GADD

AURORA BOREALIS, OCT. 10, 2024. PHIL RIEBEL

COMET C-2023 A3. OCT. 11, 2024. BRIAN STONE

MOON. OCT. 11, 2024. BRIAN STONE

VENUS. OCT. 11, 2024. BRIAN STONE

SPACEWEATHER SCREENPRINT

SUN. OCT. 11, 2024. BRIAN STONE

BLACK BEAR. OCT 11 2024. LARRY SHERRARD

MARBLED ORBWEAVER SPIDER. OCT 11, 2024. LYNNE DUBE

BUMBLEBEES TO GOLDENROD (TRICOLORED BUMBLEBEES SUSPECTED). OCT 11, 2024. LISA MORRIS

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

October 11, 2024

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

Thursday night’s spectacular Northern Light display gets top billing upfront in today’s report. What a show!!!!

**On Thursday evening Brian Stone checked the Aurora forecast on the Space Weather site and was thrilled to see notification of an intense Aurora in progress! He stepped outside to check for clouds and saw the display happening above him even in town on Mountain Rd. He didn't risk taking the time to get dressed and go out to a dark site or even set up his DSLR camera as this type of display can fade quickly so he just pulled out his cell phone, set the camera to "night sight" which gives a time exposure setting, and took pictures until the Aurora faded. It continued at a dimmer level the rest of the night and Brian occasionally went back out to check on its progress.

**Jane and Ed LeBlanc saw the Northern Lights right from their yard in St. Martins for the first time. The lights were almost directly overhead, so the fact they were surrounded by trees didn't make a big difference. They were also visible to the naked eye, which is not always the case.

**Nelson Poirier was able to see the stunning Northern light show from his Miramichi camp yard with little nearby distracting lights to make for a show he had never witnessed before. In the 8 PM time area, the predominantly red and some green flaring seem to be coming from a point mid-sky to make the show nothing short of spectacular before the whole sky seemed to go a homogeneous red.

One can only speculate what folks thought when seeing a spectacle like this before the days it was realized what really was happening.

**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins still has numerous species coming to her suet feeder, including Canada Jay, Blue Jay, Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Thursday, a Yellow-rumped Warbler. She remembers several years ago, she had A Yellow-rumped Warbler stay most of the winter. She also had several White-throated Sparrows below the feeder, taking leftovers.

**Leon Gagnon sends a few photos of action on Miscou Island from the last few days before he leaves his cottage for the winter.

He visited La Malbaie South lagoon on Wednesday to note many shorebirds and waterfowl. They were too distant to photograph, but the blazing fall red of the Huckleberry plants stood out. Leon took note of one larger shorebird that he was able to get documentary photos of, and it turned out to be a juvenile Hudsonian Godwit.

Leon also comments he noted five individual juvenile Bald Eagles on Thursday that seemed to be taking advantage of a west wind.

**As her garden winds down for the year, Barbara Smith noticed a bumblebee clinging to a spent flower from an obedient plant.

It's a reminder that dead and dying plants still hold tremendous value for the insects that shelter under them during the winter. So if we are worried about insects and habitat loss, perhaps we should do as the Nature Conservancy of Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and others suggest, and not cut back our flowers and plants, or rake our leaves, until the spring.

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has written an excellent post about why we should "Leave the Leaves." As they say, they're habitat, not trash. You can read the full post at the link below:

https://xerces.org/blog/leave-the-leaves

**Suzanne Rousseau had a duo of adult White-tailed Deer checking her Sussex yard while they cooperatively stood for photographs.

(Editor’s note: White-tailed Deer seem to have chosen St. Andrews, Quispamsis, and the Sussex area to become urban wildlife.)

**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2024 October 12 – October 19
With the Square of Pegasus appearing higher in the east after twilight, look under it (or outside the first base line of the diamond) for a circle of fainter stars. This asterism is the Circlet of Pisces which forms the head of one of the two fish that make up this zodiac constellation. The other fish head is to the left of Pegasus. Below left of the Circlet is the Vernal Equinox, the point where the Sun crosses the equator to mark the beginning of our spring season. At times it is still called the First Point of Aries, despite having moved well to the west of the zodiacal ram.

The two fish represent Aphrodite and her son Eros, who tied their ankles together with a cord before leaping into the sea and changing into fish to escape the fearsome monster Typhon. The star where the fishes’ tails meet is called Alrescha, which means “the cord.”

This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:32 and sunset will occur at 6:37, giving 11 hours, 5 minutes of daylight (7:37 and 6:43 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:42 and set at 6:24, giving 10 hours, 42 minutes of daylight (7:46 and 6:31 in Saint John).

The Moon is near Saturn on Monday evening and it is full and at perigee on Thursday, the closest full Moon of the year. Be prepared for extreme tides heading into next weekend. Venus shines brightly low in the southeast in the early evening, and it will be joined by comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS to its right this weekend when it is closest to Earth. Over the week the comet will be moving to the upper left and by next weekend it will high above Venus. On Tuesday it will be within a binocular view of M5, a dense globular cluster in the constellation Serpens the Serpent. Saturn is at its highest and best for observing in late evening. Jupiter will be rising around 9:30 midweek, and next Friday telescope users might catch its Red Spot transiting at 10 pm. Reddish Mars can be seen rising in the middle of Gemini around 11:30.

Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.