Nature Moncton Nature News: January 1 2025

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

January 1, 2025

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 and proofreader Louise Nichols at 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

**In a follow-up to yesterday's submitted photo of a Barred Owl suspected of taking fish from the fishpond of Fred and Lynn Dube, Pam Watters shared a tip that Brian Donovan was able to capture a trail cam video of a Barred Owl taking a fish in a stream in the Renous area. In consultation with Brian, he did indeed have a video of a Barred Owl successfully fishing and shares the video capture at the link below. The chances of actually catching this scenario with a trail cam would have to be considered very fortunate. Thank you, Brian Donovan!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ohzt2ogcm3fu2vawzg2ok/Barred-Owl-Combined.mp4?rlkey=cvyhi8ct0z6wrx6xeay8gbl2j&st=1qzswdu0&dl=0

**Like many others, Louise Nichols was out on the Tantramar Marsh Tuesday afternoon looking for the Golden Eagle but did not see it. In fact, she saw only one Bald Eagle which is unusual as Bald Eagles are normally there in numbers. Other hawk action was present, but much of it was at a distance from the road. Louise attaches one photo of a closer Rough-legged Hawk and two photos of a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk, which she saw at the end of the day.

**Jane LeBlanc had a Ruffed Grouse in her birch tree on the soggy Monday just past. On a sunnier Tuesday, she had the female Northern Cardinal that she hadn't seen for a week or so. She notes when she can hold her new 500mm. lens steady, (or prop it on the windowsill), she can get pretty good close-ups.

(Editor’s note: note the remnant black areas on the bill of Jane’s close-up photo of the female Northern Cardinal. I'm wondering if this may be a young-of-the-year bird that is just completing the transformation of the juvenile black bill to the adult red.)

**Richard Blacquiere was in Saint John on Dec 26 and stopped at a small parking lot near Tin Can Beach, where he saw someone emptying bags of bread for the gulls and pigeons. It was just Herring Gulls at first, but it wasn’t long before a single Ring-billed Gull joined them. Through binoculars Richard could see it was carrying a metal band on each leg. Of the many dozens of photos taken, luckily a few were in focus. From those, Richard was able to work out the sequence of numbers on the federal band and sent the information to biologists in Massachusetts. They reported back that the gull was banded as an adult female in March of 2011 at a K-mart in Holyoke, MA making it 13 years old.

This is the third Ring-billed Gull recently noted in Saint John that has come from that banding project conducted in Massachusetts over a decade ago. How many more are yet to be found?

(Editor's note: These banded gulls must be visiting Fredericton and Moncton as well. Are we not looking closely enough, or are we not as generous with bread offerings?)

**Barb Curlew relocated the Killdeer on the Waterside Marsh. She is hoping that it will stick around for today’s January 1st Riverside Albert Christmas Bird Count and her New Year's list.

**Fred Dube captured a pleasant photo of a White-breasted Nuthatch and a Black-capped Chickadee enjoying Fred’s suet blend together.

**Nelson Poirier and Brian Stone spent most of the day on Tuesday searching for the best photo subjects that the Tantramar Marsh at Sackville had to offer. Several Bald Eagles were noted, with one adult pair seen collecting grasses from a marshy area in a possible nest reparation scenario.

A half dozen or so Red-tailed Hawks perched for sometimes good and sometimes not-so-good photos while the Rough-legged Hawks ruled the day with the largest numbers seen and photographed. Also noted were an impressively large number of Muskrat lodges in one of the newer marshy areas.

(Editor’s note: some of the Rough-legged Hawks were surprisingly cooperative in showing some characteristic field marks in a few of Brian’s photos with arrows to point them out.

Note the feathered [booted] legs, large dark carpal patches [hockey pucks], dark belly band, [the latter two features only seen in light morph birds], and the clean white area of the tail above the dark terminal band that would be seen in females and juvenile birds whereas the males would have narrow bands in that area.)

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton