Nature Moncton Nature News: July 15 2025

NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS

July 15, 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

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**Nature Moncton’s weekly Wednesday evening walk is on schedule for tomorrow night Wednesday, July 16, with a special visit to the newer section of Salisbury’s Highland Park with all details below:

JULY 16 WEDNESDAY EVENING WALK

Location: Salisbury Highland Park - Braemar to Parkin Trail Extension

Start time: 6:30 PM

Hosts: David Miller and Lois Budd

Starting Location: Parking area on the unpaved section at the end of MacDonald Road. (There will be a Nature Moncton Event sign).

Directions: If you come in by the highway, take the Salisbury exit by the Big Stop, turn left, and head down 112 (Fredericton Road) to our Town of Salisbury. Take a right on Main Street and continue to the first road on the left past the Pizza Mill, MacDonald Road… If there are detours due to street resurfacing, continue on Main Street, left onto Gordon Street >> Highland Drive >> Chad Crescent>> left to MacDonald Road, turn right on MacDonald to find parking.

Site Background: Since our last visit to Highland Park, the town of Salisbury has opened the Braemar to Parkin Trail Extension. The trail and boardwalk are adjacent to provincially significant wetlands (PSW), and were created as part of a Wetland Compensation project. “Wetland compensation is the process of offsetting permitted impacts and loss of wetland area and/or function with actions that ensure no net loss of wetland function in the province. Wetland compensation ensures that when wetland area and/or functions are lost, they are restored, enhanced or created elsewhere in New Brunswick.” https://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/env/pdf/Wetlands-TerreHumides/WetlandCompensationGeneralGuidance.pdf

This new trail is open for use by the public, and dogs on leashes are permitted. These trails are not possible without easements with private landowners. The Town owns the trail, with easements with these landowners. In order to maintain the trail, users must respect the space and stay ON the trail.

Our Walk: Our walk will be led by David Miller, one of Salisbury’s resident bird enthusiasts. https://salisburynb.ca/our-community/salisbury-wetlands/.

We will access the trail as usual from the wetlands park, then go left and onto the new trail that goes under the bridge and onto Parkin Street along the river. The trail is easy walking, with no hills or obstructions. The trail is approximately 1.8 kilometres in length.

On our walk, we will see permeable pavers, which reduce run-off and allow for natural percolation through the pavers and into the granular base. As a condition for constructing the trail, pavers were required within the buffer(s) near the provincially significant wetland (PSW), being on the approach to the boardwalk and near the farm crossing.

There are trees and ponds nearby, all raising mosquito larvae, so remember your bug repellent. Don’t forget to wear your name tag! All are welcome, Nature Moncton members or not.

Our co-host Lois Budd has helped organize this Wednesday's walk, but she will not be joining us. She will be working this Wednesday evening at the United Church’s Strawberry Take-Out, where treats are available for $8.00 each. The take-out service officially closes at 8:00 PM, but Lois has offered to keep our orders for us after hours. Cynthia will collect and relay our orders, so after our walk, we can pick them up and take them home.

**We don’t often get photos of the secretive Virginia rail. A Virginia rail cooperated for an excellent full body photograph taken by Maureen Girvan as she walked the Dieppe Marsh Trail on Monday. Chances are it’s not alone!

**John Inman sends a photo of Stumpy, his resident 3-legged raccoon. She is sitting with an assembly of her youngsters and grandchildren.

A gray catbird came by for a bath, and a colourful moth perched on the window.

**Jane LeBlanc caught a hermit thrush just before it flew away in her yard on Monday.

**In response to the feather query in yesterday's edition, John Inman and Bob Blake both felt chances are high that they were feathers dropped by a ring-necked pheasant. An online search suggests they are correct.

**On Sunday, Brian Stone joined Cathy Simon and her sister for a walk on the trails at the Tucker St. Ducks Unlimited lagoons in Riverview. The first section of the trail was densely populated with mosquitoes, but they thinned out further along. Although not as many ducks were present as on other occasions, Brian still observed a good number of species. Canada geese had coated the first half of the trail with their "gifts" which required boot tread cleaning after leaving the trail.

Nature photographed along the way included green-winged teals, a male red-winged blackbird, a song sparrow and a song sparrow, a pair of adult bald eagles and one immature specimen. An osprey hovered over the lagoons but was not seen diving, and a surprise American coot popped out of the reeds to look back at the observers. Lesser yellowlegs were heard calling and seen at a distance and at least eight short-billed dowitchers were snoozing far out in a marshy area. One spotted sandpiper was photographed, at a distance as well, and a few more were suspected to be present. A paper wasp was seen in the grass, and a paper wasp nest was nearby on the eaves of a small outbuilding and was under construction by several wasps. Some wasp eggs were visible deep in the open chambers of the nest.

Other insects photographed were a northern azure butterfly, a honey bee, a common eastern bumblebee, an eyed brown butterfly, a nice blue Virginia ctenucha moth, and a bluet damselfly. Back at home, Brian noticed some tiny flying insects hovering over and landing in his yard in a couple of spots that turned out to be beewolf wasps (Philanthus bilunatis) that were likely searching for nest holes or bees to parasitize.

While Brian was struggling to photograph the tiny wasps, his wife Annette noticed a nest in their tree that appeared to be an American goldfinch's nest. Brian will keep an eye on that as the days progress.

(Editor's note: The nesting time of the American goldfinch is right on. This species nests later to take advantage of the availability of ripened seeds, especially thistle.)

**The Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance announces that they are installing a new rain garden in Riverview on July 21st, 2025. They would like to have volunteers join them to help dig, plant, and mulch the new garden.
Register for the event using this link: https://forms.office.com/r/V36hN3d1dj
Event Details:
Date: Monday, July 21st, 2025
Time: 11:00 AM- 3:30 PM
Meeting Location: Greenpark Drive, Riverview (Walking trail entrance).
To participate, please ensure that you:
-Download, fill out, and return the attached liability form
Please wear sturdy footwear and clothing suitable for the weather conditions. You will be provided with gardening tools, but feel free to bring your own if you prefer.