NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
January 6, 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
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**John
Inman still has his impressive blackbird lineup of Rusty Blackbirds, Common
Grackles, and Red-winged Blackbirds.
A Barred Owl dropped in during the day to hunt rodents in the tall grass near the feeders enabling John to get some excellent photographs of the action. The resident Cooper’s Hawk and the newly arrived adult Sharp-shinned Hawk are also still present making the other patrons quite “street-smart."
It was not long before the resident Red-tailed
Hawk came in and put the run to the other hawks and then went after
the Barred Owl that was sitting in an apple tree. The Barred Owl flared its
wings at the hawk, but it never slowed down the hawk. It left to collect its
scrap of meat quite successfully.
**David and Anita Cannon saw fresh
animal tracks around their home on Sunday and were able to get excellent
photographs.
The dimensions of what looks like
double impressions are 2.4 inches by 1.8 inches, with each pair about 14 inches
apart.
Five toe pads front, and hind narrow
the possibilities. The only one of those possibilities that walks with the paws
directly opposite one another and with one pawprint smaller than the other in
an alternating fashion is the Racoon. We are going with that conclusion, standing to be corrected!
**Fred and Lynn Dube were again able
to capture some nice photos of their birdfeeder yard activity.
Lynn got a photo of a female Golden-crowned
Kinglet ground feeding, which we don’t often tend to see; it was also showing
off its solid yellow crown patch, indicating a female.
Fred got a few lucky photos of their Pileated
Woodpeckers with male and female in the same frame to show the gender
difference of a complete red crown in the male and only partially so in the
female.
**Phil Riebel and Pam Watters made a
recent trip to the island of Bonaire (80 km from the coast of Venezuela). They saw
a total of 70 species of birds!
Some of these species have made
occasional visits to New Brunswick, the photos of which are added to today’s
edition courtesy of Phil.
These include the Crested Caracara, Black-necked Stilt,
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and the more regular visitors to New
Brunswick, the Whimbrel and American
Coot.
.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
