NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
July1, 2025
Nature Moncton members, as
well as any naturalist in New Brunswick or beyond, are invited to share
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**With all
appreciation to Rhonda and Paul Langelaan, several local bird enthusiasts were
able to see a Swainson’s hawk that they spotted in a tree in the field
behind their home at 3754 Route 112 in Second North River (near Salisbury) on
Sunday evening. It stayed a distance, but the sunny evening allowed excellent
scope observations and documentary photos. It appeared to be a dark morph
individual and very beautiful. A northern harrier and a red-tailed hawk were
nearby, but no animosity was noted between them.
It is hoped
this gem will remain in the area to allow more observations by others.
**Brian
Stone joined Louise Nichols on Monday afternoon for a search of the northern
blue butterfly Louise found on her Aulac property in the bog on
Friday. They found not only one but several, and of both genders.
Louise includes a photo of a female with a different upperwing pattern from the
male posted yesterday. The orange spots on the underwing are also more
visible in this butterfly. Another butterfly encountered by Louise and
Brian was a little wood-satyr, and Louise includes a photo. She
also attaches a photo of a four-spotted skimmer dragonfly consuming a
bee prey.
**On Monday,
Brian Stone had a two-bog day and started with an outing to the Findlay Blvd
bog in Riverview with Cathy Simon to search out bog orchids, and later in the
day had a visit to Louise Nichols' wonderful bog in Aulac that is now hosting
several northern blue butterflies. In the Riverview bog, Brian and Cathy found
specimens of all four orchids that they were hoping to find, including arethusa
bulbosa (dragon's mouth), calopogon tuberosus (grass
pink), rose pogonia, and white-fringed orchids. An added
bonus was the presence of many bog copper butterflies, which mixed
in, sometimes aggressively, with the dozens of small white moths that populated
the bog.
At Louise's
Aulac bog, Brian (and Louise) were happy to find the northern blue butterflies
were still present, and as many as three were noted. Hobomok skippers were
plentiful, and other skippers and some larger butterflies were camera-shy and
avoided photography attempts, except for a nice specimen of a little wood-satyr
that sat for a portrait by Louise.
**Jessica Belanger-Mainville
did a Birds Canada Maritime Marsh Monitoring survey Sunday morning with
Megan Boucher & Angela Thibodeau at the Tintamarre National Wildlife Area.
They heard and/or saw a total of 38 species. Some notable mentions are the Nelson’s
sharp-sparrows and a sora that walked in the tall grasses about two meters in
front of them while vocalizing.
They also
observed some mammal tracks, including those of a raccoon and a white-tailed deer. They also
saw a beaver lodge and some snowshoe hare on the way out.
** Jennifer
Day-Elgee has been doing some night-sky photography for the last couple of
years. Jennifer shoots some images with her camera and some Deep Space Objects
with a compact telescope-camera-computer unit called the SeeStar S50.
Jennifer
shares one of her recent Star-trail photos comprised of many photos taken with
her camera over 2 1/2 hours and combined in software to show the
movement of the stars. The view was to the southwest, so that is why there are
no circles around a pole-star. There are a lot of faint satellite trails and
plane tracks showing, as well as a few greenish blobs near the bottom from a
firefly!
(Editor’s
note: Bear in mind this is a real picture, not an animation!)
**Bob Blake
maintains daily weather statistics from his home in Second North River,
which include morning low temperatures, daily high temperatures, and monthly
precipitation.
Bob submits
a table comparing those statistics for June 2024 and June 2025. Rainfall was not significantly different between the two months; however, June
2025 shows a warmer trend.
|
2024 |
2025 |
||
|
morning temperatures |
daily highs and rainfall |
morning temperatures |
daily highs and rainfall |
|
+8-1
day +10-1 +11-2 +13-3 +14-2 +16-6 +17-4 +18-3 +19-2 |
+31-1 +28-2 +27-2 +25-1 +24-6 +23-2 +22-2 +21-4 +20-3 119
mms. rain |
+11-3 +12-4 +13-3 +14-2 +15-5 +16-1 +17-2 +18-3 +20-1 +23-1 +25-1 |
+35-1 +32-1 +30-1 +29-1 +28- +27-1 +26-2 +25-5 +24-2 105
mms. rain |
Nelson Poirier.
Nature Moncton
