Editor & Proofreader

Editor: Nelson Poirier    Proofreader: Louise Nichols

Tuesday, 8 April 2025

 

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

April 8, 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 the 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

 

To view the live feed of the Peregrine Falcon nest cam on the summit of Assumption Place in Moncton, go to:

https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam

 

**Fred Richards has placed a few videos in the Nature Moncton Dropbox of the peregrine falcons in the initial stages of housekeeping atop Assumption Place.  There is a video dated Monday December 7 that shows the male and female having a conversation.  She leaves, and he stays and guards the egg.  Pretty cool stuff. Check out the video link below:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qdhcpt97qo74uewt8kt3z/peregrine.hopto.org_01_20250407121205218.mp4?rlkey=eze421tlbfd46k8ki7o5qjsxq&st=ja352kc5&dl=0

 

 

 

**Suzanne Rousseau in Sussex has had a red-bellied woodpecker drop into her bird feeder yard periodically all winter and it paid a visit on Monday. Suzanne comments, “It was a very nice visit that always puts a smile on my face!”

 

**During the Riverfront bird house cleanup, Fred Richards and David Cannon saw a small animal moving quite quickly into a pile of wood at a construction site.   Fortunately, it was as interesting to them as they were to it. It was a weasel.   

Fred took documentary cell phone photos.  One shows the colour change is complete to summer brown.

 

 

**During a walk in his local forest, David Lilly came across a pileated woodpecker excavating a nest cavity. They excavate cavities that can be 12-24 inches deep. Their beaks are strong enough to chip away the wood into large, flaked pieces, but in the attached photos, the male was excavating a large birch tree to the size just right for nesting.

 

**Louise Nichols put the macro filter on her camera and was looking for any small, moving things outside on Monday morning.  The only bug she found was a winter firefly resting in the sun on the side of a shed.  She also took a couple of photos of lichen- British soldier lichen and pixie cup lichen.  If you zoom in on the pixie cup lichen, you can see something that looks like small eggs resting inside.  

 

Kendra Driscoll from the New Brunswick Museum suggested the small green "egg-like" structures belong to the lichen. They are probably wet soredia (same as the drier powder on the outside of the cup).

(Editor’s note: soredia are tiny packets of fungal and algal material that make up the original lichen and are one way for the lichen to reproduce itself when it gets carried off elsewhere.)

 

**On Monday morning, Brian Stone was inspired by Jim Carroll's report of a Ross's goose on a golf course in Rothesay, N.B., to get up and out and go get some photos of that interesting, rare bird. It was easily located, and it spent time in the large pond as well as on the grassy fairways. It stood out just a little as something different from the group of Canada geese that it was chumming around with.

On the way back home, Brian stopped at a farmer's field outside Hampton to get a few quick photos of the pair of snow geese (blue morph) that were also hanging out with Canada geese to make it three special geese for the day. Brian also visited the Hampton lagoons and will send those photos along for tomorrow’s edition.

(Editor’s note: Brian provided some very interesting goose photos for today’s edition. The Ross’s goose is indeed a rare visitor to New Brunswick. The snow goose migrates North mainly on the Mississippi flyway to the west of us, but we do get spillover. The white morph snow goose flies North in huge numbers on that flyway with the blue morph of that species among the flocks but relatively uncommon compared to the white morph. The blue morph snow goose was once referred to as the blue goose, but it is the same species exhibiting a different phenotype plumage.)

 

 

 

 

 

Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com

Nelson Poirier.

Nature Moncton



ROSS'S GOOSE. APR. 07, 2025. BRIAN STONE 



ROSS'S GOOSE AND CANADA GEESE. APR. 07, 2025. BRIAN STONE 


ROSS'S GOOSE AND CANADA GOOSE. APR. 07, 2025. BRIAN STONE 


SNOW GOOSE (BLUE MORPH). APR. 07, 2025. BRIAN STONE


SNOW GOOSE (BLUE MORPH) AND CANADA GOOSE. APR. 07, 2025. BRIAN STONE 


SNOW GEESE (BLUE MORPH). APR. 07, 2025. BRIAN STONE




PEREGRINE FALCON (1st EGG). APRIL 7, 2025 (SCREENSHOT). BRIAN STONE


RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER (MALE). APRIL 7, 2025. SUZANNE ROUSSEAU


PILEATED WOODPECKER (MALE) EXCAVATING NEST. APRIL 7, 2025. DAVID LILLY


PILEATED WOODPECKER (MALE) EXCAVATING NEST. APRIL 7, 2025. DAVID LILLY


PILEATED WOODPECKER (MALE) EXCAVATING NEST. APRIL 7, 2025. DAVID LILLY


WEASEL. APRIL 4, 2025. FRED RICHARDS


PIXIE CUP LICHEN. APRIL 7, 2025. LOUISE NICHOLS


BRITISH SOLDIER LICHEN. APRIL 7, 2025. LOUISE NICHOLS


WINTER FIREFLY. APRIL 7, 2025. LOUISE NICHOLS