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**This must be red-bellied
woodpecker week! Bev and Mark Schneider in Fredericton had one visit
their feeders for the first time this week. They had heard it a couple of
weeks ago, but did not see it, and it did not visit. This week, it thinks
their place would be a good place to hang out! He is a very young male.
He didn’t even know what a suet cake was or how to access it.
After watching the other woodpeckers, he tentatively tried it. Now
he waits for his turn to have a feed.
They also had a Carolina wren this week, but it stayed only for one quick visit, so no photos.
**On Thursday afternoon,
Brian Stone noticed three northern cardinals foraging on his Moncton back
lawn, a male and two females. They seemed to be picking up a small brown seed,
but Brian was not sure exactly what they were eating. They stayed for about
half an hour before departing.
(Editor’s note: From reports
of northern cardinals, it is fortunate to have more than one that cooperates so
nicely and not in a bird feeder scenario.)
**Like most birdfeeder
yards at the moment, Nelson Poirier is experiencing blue jays gobbling
down almost every menu item and putting the run to other patrons.
A friend suggested the
inexpensive Ol’ Roy small kibble size dog food sold at Walmart to satisfy the
blue jays and let other patrons make other menu choices. The dog food idea
worked. It is dispensed in one of the Nature Moncton feeders that is protected
from the weather to prevent it from going soggy. Blue jays are the only takers and they are going for it aggressively.
The friend who suggested
it said that woodpeckers would go for it as well, but that has not happened for Nelson as yet.
Woodpeckers have to be a possibility though as Nelson made a visit a few years ago to see a rare adult red-headed
woodpecker, and to his surprise, it was coming to Ol’ Roy dog food!
**Tony Thomas shares a
site from a magazine that carries with it a lot of information on things we may
not see but are all around us.
“Perhaps your readers
would be interested in 15 years of images of the miniature life in NB:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html
An article in the November
2025 issue of Micscape Magazine.”
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2025 November 15 – November 22
Stock market-minded astronomers could be inspired by looking to the northeast
after twilight. On evenings in mid-May, Ursa Major the Great Bear is high
overhead, dominating the sky. Taurus the Bull, meanwhile, sets early, and then
we have several months of a bear market for stargazing. Later sunsets and
extended twilight, with the compounded interest of daylight time, means sparse
hours for viewing the summer night sky. Now that we are well beyond the
autumnal equinox and have returned to standard time, early darkness reveals the
Great Bear reaching bottom to the north after sunset, and the Celestial Bull
rising in the east. We are entering the bull market phase of stargazing.
Although we lose the globular clusters and nebulae that abound within the Milky
Way areas of Scorpius, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius, we can still observe the
summer treasures near Lyra and Cygnus before they set. The autumn
constellations of Cassiopeia, Andromeda and Perseus are peaking in mid-evening,
ceding their reign to the bright stars and open clusters of winter’s Taurus,
Orion and his dogs, Auriga and Gemini by midnight. Early risers can start on
the springtime galaxies in Leo and Virgo before morning twilight. For stargazers,
as the carol goes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Invest some time
in observing the night sky.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:20 and sunset will occur at 4:46, giving
9 hours, 26 minutes of daylight (7:23 and 4:54 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 7:29 and set at 4:40, giving 9 hours, 11 minutes of
daylight (7:32 and 4:48 in Saint John).
The waning crescent Moon is near Spica in Virgo Monday morning, with Venus
rising to their lower left around 6:20. New Moon occurs on Thursday.
Saturn will be at its best for observing around 8 pm, with Jupiter rising a
half hour later. A Jovian treat for telescope users occurs Thursday when
the shadow of its moon Io overtakes that of Callisto from 9:33 to 11:47. Mars
is too close to the Sun for viewing, while Mercury reaches inferior conjunction
on Thursday. The Leonid meteor shower peaks on Monday, best seen in the
morning with the Sickle of Leo high in the south-southeast.
Tune in to the Sunday
Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of
Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions? Contact Curt
Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
