Nature Moncton Nature
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**Doreen
Rossiter reports from her bellwether bird feeder yard in Alma.
On Monday, March 9th, the
red-winged blackbirds returned. A group of six American robins is also staying in the area. On Wednesday morning, there was a song sparrow (which has been
around for about a week), an American tree sparrow (the only one this winter),
and a fox sparrow, which is 11 days earlier than last year's first arrival. The
red-bellied woodpecker is still visiting, but the northern cardinals seem to
have moved to another feeding spot in the village.
**Jane
LeBlanc was pleased and surprised to see first a female, then a male northern
cardinal in her St. Martins yard on Tuesday. She has not seen them since
December. She's hoping they are looking for a nesting site in the
neighbourhood.
**The red-tailed
hawk that John Inman has had coming to meat scraps for some years returned
after a three-week absence due to the number of crows present in his yard. But since
the fields opened up, the crows have been leaving. They thought the hawk went
to its summer home. It mantled and kept a protective posture as two ravens
got near. The hawk ate its meal on its table to allow some great photographs.
Shannon Inman heard an American woodcock
peeping Thursday morning, arriving back right on schedule with the males on
their spring mission to provide their most impressive display to impress that just-right
suitor.
Blackbirds
increased to 40+ on Thursday in their yard.
**On Tuesday,
Brian Stone drove to Haute-du-Ruisseau Park, between Memramcook and Dorchester,
to check out the trails and search for early spring arrivals. The trails were
still snow and ice-covered, and flooded in one spot, so Brian did not do a full
loop and only walked in as far as the spot where the creek comes close to the
trail. He didn't see any new arrivals (American robins being the exception), but only glimpsed a red-breasted
nuthatch, a flock of evening grosbeaks, and a few black-capped
chickadees.
When Brian
left Haute-du-Ruisseau, he decided to check the trails off the Walker Rd. close
to Sackville, but he took a wrong turn onto Woodhurst Rd. instead of Woodlawn
Rd. which would have led him to the Walker Rd. Obviously, Brian has never
gotten lost before in his entire life, so he was quite surprised by this turn of
events!! After slowly driving along Woodhurst Rd. for at least 20 minutes, he
realized his mistake and turned around, but not before spotting 2 red-tailed
hawks that were perched on the side of the road (in 2 different spots).
Each time the hawk took flight before Brian could stop the car and get the
camera in play, but some long-distance photos were taken anyway.
After Brian
got back on track, he was running short on time so he decided a quick walk
around the Sackville Waterfowl Park was a better option, but saw no wildlife
there to photograph. He did notice that a few of the nest boxes were up to
their 'necks' in ice, and that the ice was an orangey/brown colour.
On Thursday
afternoon, Annette Stone alerted her photographer husband Brian that the male northern
cardinal was searching their yard for leftover seeds, and he dutifully
started taking photos as the bird foraged in the grass and then hopped up on
the back deck to check out the winter-ravaged flower boxes. A bold dark-eyed
junco also checked out the flower boxes and the rest of the yard in the icy
conditions. Brian, though, enjoyed taking those photos from the warm comfort of
his well-heated kitchen in his birding pyjamas.
**This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 March 14 – March 21
With Tuesday being party time for many O’Revelers, is there anything green that
we can see in the sky? Yes, but rarely. We can see stars that are red, orange,
yellow, blue or white, but not green. The colours are representative of their
outer temperature, with red being coolest and blue the hottest. Any star with
an outer temperature corresponding to green, which is in the middle wavelengths
of the visible spectrum, emits approximately equal but lesser amounts of red
and blue light. This combination gives us white light. Our Sun’s outer
temperature of 5500 C puts it just on the green side of yellow.
Some stargazers have claimed to see green stars that are part of a binary pair
with a red giant star. Green is the complementary colour of red, and it is
thought that if you observe a white star after staring at a red one, the
complementary after-image can make the white star look green. It is said that
Zubeneshamali, the brightest star in Libra and the one with the longest common
name, is green. I did see it once as a very pale green in an 8-inch telescope,
but that might have been due to the power of suggestion. Uranus usually looks
pale green in a backyard telescope.
The most common reason for green in the sky, although still fairly rare in New
Brunswick, is the northern lights. Energetic electrons from the Sun (aka Sol,
the shortest name for a star) can make oxygen atoms in our upper atmosphere
emit green light in a manner similar to that of a neon light. Northern lights
are seen more frequently around the equinoxes, and if electrons in the solar
wind have escaped the Sun through flares or holes in its magnetic field lines,
we could get lucky this week. If not, then take a break from partying to look
up at the constellation O’Ryan.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:33 and sunset will occur at 7:23, giving
11 hours, 50 minutes of daylight (7:38 and 7:28 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 7:20 and set at 7:33, giving 12 hours, 13 minutes of
daylight (7:25 and 7:38 in Saint John). Next Friday at 11:46 am the Sun
crosses the equator to mark the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere.
The thin crescent Moon makes a triangle with Mercury and Mars Tuesday morning
but the shallow angle of the ecliptic places them less than 5 degrees (a
typical binocular view) higher than the Sun and unobservable. The Moon is
new the following day (Wednesday). On Thursday evening, those who enjoy a
challenge can try to see the razor-thin crescent of a 22-hour Moon just over a
binocular-width to the lower right of Venus. By Friday evening it will be the
same distance above Venus. On Sunday evening telescope users might see
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede disappear behind the planet at 7:59 and reappear at
11:17. Saturn is lost in bright twilight as it moves toward conjunction the
following week.
Tune in to
the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel or Facebook page
of Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions?
Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
