NATURE
MONCTON NATURE NEWS
July 25, 2025
Nature Moncton members, as
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**The Nature Moncton Field Trip to
the Joggins Fossil Centre set to happen on August 16 requires a minimum
number of participants of 15 in order to get a personally guided visit. That
minimum of 15 has not been met yet, so any interested participants are asked to
contact Fred Richards at fred.j.richards@gmail.com or 506-334-0100 as soon as possible
to make sure this trip can go ahead.
All details on the trip are at the
end of this edition.
**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins sends
photos from around her yard. In her pond, small wood frogs are slowly
losing their tadpole tails.
In her monarch butterfly cage, she now has two
chrysalids and a hanging J...meaning she should have fresh butterflies soon.
**Below is more information
about the Butterflyway garden project
initiated by Pamela O’Brien and Karen Rogers in Riverview.
This is a nearby destination everyone
should visit and experience. It is a series of several plots of extremely well-cared-for
native plants (labelled) designed as a pollinator garden for pollinating
insects, butterflies, and birds to fulfill their missions admirably.
Pamela and Karen sourced a lot of
their plants from the Harriet Irving Botanical Garden in Wolfville, NS, and
took a training course with the David Suzuki Foundation.
The gardens were teeming with
pollinators on Wednesday, and one could not help but notice the bulk of
attraction seemed to be to the several patches of blooming butterfly weed, with
a variety of others getting attention as well. Some of the many blooming plants
are included in today’s photo lineup.
To get to the site from Moncton, take
Gunningsville Boulevard on the Riverview end of the Gunningsville Bridge. Turn right onto Pinewood Road, then left onto Greenpark Drive. It is a short drive to
the first corner in the street, where the garden plots are clearly visible.
Location: Joggins, Nova Scotia
Leader: Fred Richards
We have tentatively scheduled an outing at the Joggins Fossil Centre (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) for Saturday, August 16, 2025. We must have a minimum of 15 for the outing to take place and a maximum of 40 participants. We will need to know if you are going by Friday, August 1, so the museum can make sure there is enough staff to accommodate us. The tour of the fossil cliffs will start at 11:30 and will last approximately 90 minutes. Visitors to the site are asked to wear appropriate footwear, be careful of cobblestones, and avoid walking on wet, loose rocks.
You will have access to the museum before and after the tour. This event will take place in Joggins, Nova Scotia and is just over an hour from Moncton. We should plan to have some car pooling for this event and I will plan this after we find out how many are interested. Please use the Nature Moncton Contact email to have your name added to the list: naturemonctoncontact@gmail.com or email Fred Richards at fred.j.richards@gmail.com, or call Fred at (506) 334-0100. The cost will be $25.00 per person.
Joggins Fossil Cliffs on the Bay of Fundy: Canada’s 15th UNESCO World Heritage Site
Explore up to 15 kilometres of magnificently exposed layers of rock along the Bay of Fundy coastline, just 30 minutes from Amherst and 40 minutes from Parrsboro. Towering cliffs reveal the world’s most complete fossil record of life in the ‘Coal Age’ when lush forests covered Joggins and much of the world’s tropical regions, 300 million years ago.
Constant erosion from the Bay of Fundy’s tides, rising and falling up to 13 metres (42 feet) in Joggins twice daily, creates possibilities for exposing new, rare fossils. Search for fossils on the beach or view the spectacular sandstone layers with fossilized remains of the 300-million-year-old forest. With careful observation, you may even find fossils of animal and insect trackways or the remains of amphibians or Hylonomus lyelli – the oldest known reptile and Nova Scotia’s provincial fossil!
- Visit the Joggins Fossil Centre to learn about the ’Coal Age’ through fossils, exhibits and displays that tell a 300-million-year-old story.
- Take a guided beach tour with the Joggins Fossil Centre to explore the nearby Joggins Fossil Cliffs, where fossilized trees and roots from an ancient forest are preserved within the cliffs.
- Uncover fossils on the beach as almost every rock contains a fossil, and each tidal cycle reveals new fossils!
- Enjoy local coffees, teas and baked goods at The Roundhouse Café open Saturdays through Wednesdays in July and August.
**This Week’s Sky at a Glance,
2025 July 26 – August 2
After twilight the bright star Altair is halfway up in the southeastern sky,
forming the lower peak of the Summer Triangle with Vega and Deneb. It is
flanked by two somewhat dimmer stars, Tarazed and Alshain, and the trio forms
the head of Aquila the Eagle. The eagle’s body and tail stretch southward,
while the wings reach forward to propel it up the Milky Way. In Greek mythology
the eagle was the pet of Zeus and the bearer of his deadly thunderbolts. In
Chinese mythology Tchi-Niu (Lyra) was a princess and royal weaver, and
Kien-Niou (Aquila) tended the king’s cows. The two fell in love and were
married but they subsequently neglected their chores. Angered, the king placed
the herder on the opposite side of the river, represented by the Milky Way. On
the seventh day of the seventh month all of the magpies in the country form a
bridge to allow the lovers to be together for one day.
Following a string of stars beyond the eagle’s tail, over the constellation
border into Scutum the Shield, a binocular search will pick up a smudge of
light which is a cluster of stars called M11 or the Wild Duck Cluster. From the
eagle’s head toward Cygnus or Lyra is a tiny constellation called Sagitta the
Arrow. Look to the upper right of the arrow’s fletching with binoculars to see
a popular asterism of about a dozen stars. Although it is upside down you will
recognize the Coathanger Cluster, also known as Collinder 399 or Brocchi’s
Cluster.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:54 and sunset will occur at 8:56, giving
15 hours, 2 minutes of daylight (6:02 and 8:58 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:02 and set at 8:47, giving 14 hours, 45 minutes of
daylight (6:10 and 8:49 in Saint John).
The crescent Moon is near Regulus Saturday evening, Mars on Monday and Spica
Wednesday, before reaching first quarter on Friday. Venus and Jupiter are the
attention grabbers in the morning, starting the week about 15 degrees apart and
reducing that to ten degrees by next weekend. Mars hangs out low in the west in
the evening and setting before 11 pm, about 15 minutes before Saturn rises in
the east. Mercury is at inferior conjunction on Thursday. The South Delta
Aquariid shower peaks Tuesday morning with meteors emanating from a point to
the right of Saturn.
The Mactaquac Park star party occurs
this weekend, with the one at Mount Carleton taking place next weekend. See
rascnb.ca for details.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier.
Nature Moncton
