NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
February 24, 2025
Nature Moncton members as well as any
naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond are invited to share their photos
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Proofreading courtesy of Louise Nichols
**Georges Brun leaves an interesting comment on the bird
feathers posted yesterday for identification. Georges wonders if they may be
ring-necked pheasant. The feather guide sites showed similarities to the
ring-necked pheasant but the ruffed grouse in the feather guide matched better.
In saying that, the habitat where the feathers were found
is much more likely to host ring-necked pheasants, so George’s suggestion has
to be considered. To sum it up, only the bird knows/did know for sure!
Georges shared a photo of a female ring-necked
pheasant strutting about the yard of Château Moncton.
**Norbert Dupuis shares more special moments
photographing birds in his Memramcook East yard, including evening grosbeaks,
American robin, ring-necked pheasants, American goldfinch, and northern
cardinal.
**Issac Acker shares some activity at his Riverview
feeder yard. His whole peanut feeder is being enjoyed by white-breasted nuthatch
and woodpeckers while American goldfinch enjoy the nyjer.
(Editor’s note: white-breasted nuthatches have obviously
had a good year as they are appearing at many urban as well as rural bird feeder
yards.)
**On Sunday, Brian Stone walked the side trail behind Mill
Creek Park in Riverview again, and this time, he walked the entire loop
that left the park and came back in again and went past four beaver dams
and three beaver lodges. This trail is flat, well groomed and easily walkable
but is approximately 6 km from the parking lot (the Robertson St. parking lot
in the back end of the park) and back again. This was Brian's full limit for
the day, and he was quite worn out by the time he got back to the car. I guess
he won't be doing any longer hikes soon. This trail crosses a frozen beaver
pond so it likely is not walkable as a loop in the warmer weather.
Brian didn't see any birds or other wildlife along the
way this time except for a red-breasted nuthatch at a feeder near the
park entrance, but he saw so many snowshoe hare tracks that he thought one must
be visible at some point, but if so, he easily missed it. Several cyclists
whizzed past on their fat tire bikes, and a couple of other faster hikers
passed Brian along the way. While approaching the park, he noticed an
uncommonly seen, oval-shaped lenticular cloud and snapped a quick photo
through the car window while stopped at a red light.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
