Nature Moncton Nature
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**NATURE
MONCTON DECEMBER MEETING
DECEMBER 16, 2025, AT 7:00 PM
ROTARY PAVILION, MAPLETON PARK
MEMBERS’ NIGHT & NATURE MONCTON AGM
A heads-up on activities coming up this week for
Nature Moncton and Christmas Bird counts, getting underway on December 14 with
the Moncton Christmas Bird Count next Saturday, December 20. Christmas Bird Counts
in various areas will run from December 14 to January 5.
The Nature Moncton meeting on Tuesday night will be a
special one with lots of diversity, as several members will be presenting short vignettes
of special memories of 2025 that promise to give special memories to the
audience as well.
The meeting will start with the short required
ho-hum Annual General Meeting and immediately on to the series of much more
interesting presentations before and after a special break with rumoured
Christmas goodies.
**Georges
Brun again spotted a short-eared owl hunting over the Riverview marsh
on Saturday. Georges only saw one bird, but chances are there are more.
Georges
spotted this bird (or another) on Friday midafternoon at 2:30 p.m. and again in
the afternoon on Saturday. These birds are assumedly hungry to be out hunting
during the day. They are typically seen only near dusk.
**It has
been bustling at the bird feeders and nearby trees lately for Peter and Deana
Gadd in Miramichi. They have had a song sparrow and one or two white-throated
sparrows for some time now, and tree sparrows are showing up a little more
regularly. For the last three days, this band of sparrows has been joined
by a fox sparrow. Three days ago, as well, they had a female pine
grosbeak right outside their window munching on hawthorne buds. Not to
be outdone, the next day, an evening grosbeak was doing the same thing
in the same place!
**On
Saturday afternoon, Brian Stone was out and about but found very little to
photograph. He had to be satisfied with a few images of a common raven
harassing an adult bald eagle as they flew overhead, and that was
it for the day.
(Editor’s
note: Brian’s photo of the raven nicely demonstrates some features to
distinguish it from the crow. Note the wedge-shaped tail in flight and the more pointed wings of the raven, and the larger head and bill area.)
**Hopefully, some folks were able to get out on Saturday evening before the cloud set in to
witness the magic displays of the Geminid meteor shower.
Nelson
Poirier was pleased to witness approximately a dozen of these asteroid pieces
race across the sky in split-second views in the 8:30-9:00 p.m. time window. He
watched from the Indian Mountain Road location.
Memories
have to do for documentation as photographing these events requires special
photographic equipment.
The Geminid
meteor shower will continue for a few weeks, but Saturday night was advised as the
peak of activity.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
