Nature Moncton Nature News: April 2 2025

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

April 2, 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

**Andrew Darcy has been monitoring local vernal ponds for amphibian activity for a Nature Moncton outing this coming Friday night. Andrew’s recent monitoring has found this coming Friday night is too early, so he is postponing the event until conditions are right, which may well be another week. Stay tuned, as this will be a great spring outing when conditions are right.

**A recent discussion on the use of butterfly boxes has surfaced, and it would be very appreciated if readers who have used these structures would comment on their effectiveness and how/if they are used by butterflies.

(Editor’s note: I have the impression that these units may impress people more than butterflies, but I would like to be proven wrong. I hope folks who have used these units will share their thoughts.)

**Although not serious, the recent ice storm was more of an event in Memramcook than in some local areas. Norbert Dupuis photographed a male northern cardinal on an ice-coated shrub. He also photographed a huge flock of common eider going over the Memramcook Valley on that day.

**Fred and Lynn Dube had a dozen or more American robins visit their yard, foraging for food. They hoped they had found what they were looking for, as parts of the yard were very torn up, and that wasn't an April Fool's joke. A photo shows only one area of the yard they searched thoroughly.

**On Sunday, Brian Stone checked out the ponds at Highland Park in Salisbury but found sparse numbers of ducks, just one pair of green-winged teal. Other birds present were several common grackles, numerous male red-winged blackbirds, a few incoming Canada geese, and one very distant, far across the river, pileated woodpecker. Back at home in the yard, a male ring-necked pheasant showed up for a photo, which Brian appreciated greatly.

**On Tuesday afternoon, after the weather started to clear a bit, Brian Stone went for a short walk in Mapleton Park and had fun photographing a busy muskrat as it went about its business in the newly flooded cattail pond.