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
**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:
**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.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
