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, 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 from 2025 that promise to evoke similar memories in
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.
**Jane and Ed LeBlanc participated in the St. Martins Christmas Bird Count
on Sunday. After hiking in the woods, they found all the birds at their
feeder! As well as the regulars, they had a male pine grosbeak (a new yard
species for Jane). Over lunch, other unusuals seen were peregrine falcon,
harlequin ducks, snow buntings, and a northern mockingbird! This is a very
preliminary list.
**It’s that
time of year when the basketball-sized bald-faced hornet nests that we didn’t notice
when the leaves were present are now in plain view and intact. All the nest
inhabitants will now have passed with the exception of the new fertilized Queen(s)
that are spending winter hibernation elsewhere in sheltered spots.
The original
queen, all males, and worker hornets die off as cold weather sets in, with each
new queen starting a new colony from scratch in the spring. The old nest is
abandoned and not reused.
Shannon
Inman photographed a bald-faced hornet’s nest just as it appeared in
summer.
**Georges
Brun photographed a sundog on Friday afternoon as the sun was setting
over Riverview at 4:00 PM, looking from the Moncton side of the Petitcodiac
River.
**Brian
Stone joined Cathy Simon for an outing along the various trails on the
Riverview Marsh on Sunday to search for that special short-eared owl that has
been seen regularly by Georges Brun over the last few days. They were not
successful in locating the owl, but they did relocate the large flock of more
than 100 common redpolls that Brian had seen earlier. They also saw a
small group of American tree sparrows foraging on the path and perching
on the tall, invasive phragmites plants. The sparrows seemed to follow
along with them for a bit, but it was not likely they were looking for company.
They were also lucky enough to get nice views of both resident red foxes
as they patrolled the marsh. At the river, a few American black ducks
and mallard ducks flew away when spotted.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
SUNDOG. DEC. 12, 2025. GEORGES BRUN
