Nature Moncton Nature
News
Clicking
on the photos enlarges them for closer observation.
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.
To respond by email,
please address your message to the information line editor, nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Please advise the editor
at nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com, as well as proofreader nicholsl@eastlink.ca, if any errors are noted in wording or photo
labelling.
For more information on
Nature Moncton, check the website at www.naturemoncton.com
Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
**Jane
LeBlanc went back to her neighbour's yard, hoping to see the eastern towhee which is still around. She was disappointed, but did see song and American
tree sparrows.
**Norbert Dupuis is enjoying 2 dozen evening grosbeaks
now as regular visitors to his Memramcook bird feeder yard.
A significant presence of evening grosbeaks this season has
made for some colourful and loud bird feeder yards.
**Susan Richards photographed an American robin at their
heated water dish on Sunday. It stayed quite a while drinking while
mourning doves and blue jays ate seeds that were spread on the ground.
The robin will now be putting its attention to clinging winter fruit.
(Editor's note: heated water dishes are a bird feeder yard magnet.)
Susan comments that they have evening grosbeaks appear each day, flying in flocks to sunflower seeds spread on the ground. They have a recognizable sound when flying in a group with so many singing at once.
**Shannon Inman spotted a ruffed grouse high up in the
tree, very likely seeking out winter buds to forage upon.
Shannon also photographed an artist’s conk mushroom alongside
a species of white lichen.
John Inman photographed a red-winged blackbird
that joined his five rusty blackbird regulars.
**On Saturday, Brian Stone drove a coastal outing from Cap
Lumiere to Shediac. Some areas were frozen over already and seabirds were
scarce. At Cap Lumiere, the sky was hazy with high-altitude icy clouds, and as
a result, there was a 22° solar halo around the Sun with a pair of sundogs
visible at times in their spot on the sides of the halo. He took some wide-angle
photos of that apparition and also a close-up of one of the sundogs.
He noticed a female long-tailed duck and a male harlequin
duck near each other far out past the breakwater, and he took a series
of gull photos as they flew around over his head and sometimes lower
than that. A large great black-backed gull was floating serenely near
the wharf in Saint Thomas, and a double-crested cormorant was resting on
the edge of the wharf at Pointe-du-Chene, oblivious to onlookers and
photographers.
(Editor’s note: note the very streaked head of the adult ring-billed
gull in Brian’s photo and the clean white head of the adult great black-backed gull.
Our larger adult gulls have a streaked head in winter, except the great black-backed
gull, which will be clean white.)
At Saint Thomas on Saturday, a herring gull was digging a
long, thin trench in the ice, about twice as long as seen in the photos. Brian
was not sure what his purpose was. Maybe just looking for a soft spot to punch
through.
**Nelson Poirier was in the Rockport area on Sunday and was
surprised to see a small flock of obviously domestic turkeys sporting a
plumage he had never seen before. It was rather striking that all were identical. Nelson wondered about a white turkey crossed with a dark plumaged turkey, but had never seen this cross before. Any comments would be appreciated.
It is typical for a flock of turkeys to gobble in
unison whenever a sharp sound is heard. A dog would occasionally bark off in
the distance to make them all emit their three-second gobble that had Fin quite
perplexed!
Nelson also noticed the typical winter remnants of a cedar
waxwing nest with its loose old man’s beard lichen (Usnea) component.
The abundant mountain ash crop that is often present in the
Johnson’s Mills/Rockport area appeared to be totally absent this year to
suggest a spring pollination failure.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
