Thursday, 6 March 2025

March 7 2025

 

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

March 7 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

nicholsl@eastlink.ca

 

**The write-up on the bird feeder tour scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) is below:

NATURE MONCTON BIRD FEEDER TOUR
Saturday, March 8, 2025 (with a weather date of Saturday, March 15, 2025)

Nature Moncton’s annual bird feeder tour will take place on Saturday March 8th. Participants are asked to meet at 8:30 AM at the Superstore on Main Street near the Dollarama. Carpooling can be discussed at that time. 

The first stop will be the Richards in Taylor Village to see the many birds in their well-stocked feeder yard while socializing over a delicious pot-luck breakfast. Participants are asked to bring food contributions, and if your contribution is not fully consumed, please take the leftovers on to the final stop, and if still leftovers, take them home with you.  After leaving the Richards’, the group will travel to Memramcook and the home of Yolande and Eudor Leblanc and hopefully see some of the great assortment of patrons that regularly hang out there. Next, we go on to Fred and Lynn Dube’s in Lower Coverdale.  We will end the afternoon at Nelson Poirier’s back in Moncton for further socializing over coffee/tea and snacks. Come and enjoy a day with fellow birding enthusiasts along with the excitement of seeing what turns up at the visited feeders.

          Due to space restrictions, we will have to limit the number of people attending, so please contact Fred Richards at 506-334-0100 or email fred.j.richards@gmail.com to reserve a spot.

(Use this number any time during the day to find out where the group is and join in)

A map of the itinerary of feeder yards to be visited is at the link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s7vtv0nketi32q3/Nature%20Moncton%20Feeder%20tour%202025.docx?st=ovk1du7x&dl=0

 

**A juvenile cooper’s hawk has returned to John Inman’s yard and gave John the opportunity to get some excellent photographs of this species, showing some significant field marks that we don’t often get to see so well.

 

**Fred Richards and Nelson Poirier did an inspection of the area around the peregrine falcon nest box on the summit of Assumption Place on Thursday to see if conditions were ready for the camera installers to get the camera moved to the new location. Everything was looking good with all the ice melted away. A few photographs were taken of the new box in place with the rear trapdoor open for inspection. It appeared something had taken place in the pea gravel nest base, which we assumed may have been done by the falcons. A photo was also taken from the back trapdoor to show exactly what the falcons would see from the nest.

Nesting was underway by the end of March in 2024.

 

**On Tuesday, Nelson Poirier noticed a tamarack tree in the woods that had been freshly worked on by woodpeckers. The style of foraging was very typical of that of the black-backed woodpecker. The hairy woodpecker and downy woodpecker can do this as well, but it is more typical of the black-backed woodpecker.

 

 

**This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2025 March 1 – March 15
There are two five week eclipse seasons each year when the Sun and the Moon align, and those periods occur 19 days earlier each year. Lunar and solar eclipses usually occur in pairs but both are not always seen in the same area. This week brings a total eclipse of the Moon, and near month’s end New Brunswick will also get a partial eclipse of the Sun. In September there will be a total lunar eclipse in the eastern hemisphere and a partial solar eclipse in the South Pacific two weeks later.  

A lunar eclipse occurs when the full Moon passes partly or completely through Earth’s shadow, which is about twice as wide as the Moon at that distance. Just past midnight on March 14 the Moon enters the subtle gray penumbral shadow, which might not be noticed until half an hour later. The partial phase begins at 2:09 a.m. with the dark shadow creeping westward across the lunar maria, mountains and craters. As it progresses we notice more stars appearing as the sky darkens, and the Moon starts taking on a new hue with the red portion of sunlight being bent through our atmosphere toward that direction. At 3:26 the Moon becomes fully engulfed in the umbral shadow for 66 minutes, and by 5:48 it is all over except for the receding penumbra. Our last total eclipse of the Moon occurred in November 2022, setting before the end of totality. Clouds obliterated a late evening total eclipse in May of that year.

This Week in the Solar System

Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:44 and sunset will occur at 6:15, giving 11 hours, 31 minutes of daylight (6:49 and 6:21 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:31 and set at 7:25, giving 11 hours, 54 minutes of daylight (7:36 and 7:30 in Saint John). Clocks go ahead for DST this Sunday at 2 am.

The Moon is full and within Earth’s shadow very early next Friday, and it is near Spica the following day. Mercury is at greatest elongation this Saturday, maintaining the same altitude at sunset all week as Venus slides past to its right. They will be within the same binocular view most of the week. Jupiter rides high in the northwest in evening twilight above the V-shaped Hyades cluster, while Mars is higher in the south triangulating with the Gemini twins. Before midnight Tuesday telescope users might see a double shadow transit of Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede. Saturn is in solar conjunction on Wednesday.

The Fredericton Astronomy Club meets in the UNB Forestry-Earth Sciences Building on Tuesday at 7 pm. 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.

 

 

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

 Nelson Poirier

Nature Moncton



COOPER'S HAWK (IMMATURE). MARCH 6, 2025.  JOHN INMAN


COOPER'S HAWK (IMMATURE). MARCH 6, 2025.  JOHN INMAN


PEREGRINE FALCON NEST BOX. MARCH 6, 2025. NELSON POIRIER


PEREGRINE FALCON NEST BOX INTERIOR. MARCH 6, 2025. NELSON POIRIER 


PEREGRINE FALCON NEST BOX LOOKING OUT FROM INSIDE. MARCH 6, 2025. NELSON POIRIER


WOODPECKER FORAGING. MARCH 5, 2025. NELSON POIRIER 


WOODPECKER FORAGING. MARCH 5, 2025. NELSON POIRIER 


Lunar eclipse Paul Owen