Nature Moncton Nature
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**The camera on the peregrine
falcon nest box on the summit of Assumption Place is now live. When
checking the link to watch the activity, scroll down to the first large image,
which shows what is happening in real time.
We are still at one egg
Friday morning as the dawn breaks, but there has to be a possibility that the
second egg may appear today with a pleasant temperature coming on. Watching the
female on the nest this morning, it would appear that she has that thought in
mind as well!
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Jane and Ed LeBlanc took
advantage of the sunny day on Thursday to travel to St. George to see the tufted
titmouse. They arrived in the morning, but the pictures they got were not great as
the bird was backlit no matter where they were taken from. They had lunch in
town, then walked the St. George marsh to stretch their legs (dog Piper, too).
Then they went back to see the bird again. Jane was just about to leave when the
pair showed up. She suggests going in the afternoon as the light near
the feeder is better. She also suggests you bring a lawn chair and patience!!
(Editor’s note: The
titmouse pair is coming to the feeder yard of Gail Taylor at 52 Dillman Rd,
Canal, NB.
Canal is only a few
minutes away from St. George.)
**Jane LeBlanc couldn't
have been happier after returning from St. George, to find a male
yellow-bellied sapsucker in her maple tree, and she was able to get fairly good pictures this time. Jane noted that at the same time the sapsucker was there,
there were two downy and one hairy woodpecker in the same tree at the same time.
The tree was quite crowded!
**Jim Johnson in Scotch settlement cleaned out his nest boxes on Thursday. He found 10 out of 13 boxes had been occupied.
**Aldo Dorio photographed
a great blue heron at Hay Island on Thursday, seemingly a bit perplexed
with the snow level!
**John Inman had a new rusty
blackbird arrive on Thursday, and he was able to get a quick photo before
an overwintering one became territorial, encouraging the newcomer to move on.
(Editor's note: The
population of rusty blackbirds has drastically reduced over the years. The number that John Inman hosted at his Harvey feeder yard this
past winter is surprising.)
John now has a pair of northern flickers in his yard.
**Brian and Annette Stone
decided that their walk on Thursday would be in a sheltered spot, away from the
constant chilling wind that seems to blow regularly lately. They went to the
back end of Irishtown Park and walked the trail that leads to the boat launch
area and beyond to the woods in the distance behind the park. This area is not
usually a great spot for bird viewing, but it is good for dragonflies later in
the season and is mostly wind-free at the moment, as it is lined with deep
forest. While they were walking and enjoying the warm sunlight in an area past
the boat launch, Brian was suddenly surprised by the appearance of several
colourful infant moths fluttering along the trail low to the ground.
They rarely landed, but Brian managed to catch one that was taking a short
break in a couple of spots. Brian enjoys butterfly photography and this
moth almost qualifies visually as one, and so he was quite excited to be
starting that season already. If anyone is thinking "nerd!" when
reading this, it's ok. Brian is quite happy with that title.
(Editor’s note: the infant moth is unique in the moth world. It is one of the first moths to appear in the spring on its mating mission. We get to see it as it is a day-flying moth, but quite small at 3 cm open wingspan, typically flies very erratically and fast, and is difficult to see closely. With wings closed, it is very cryptic, but very brilliant orange hind wings when in flight. It is most often seen around its favoured host plant, birch, from which it takes sap with larval caterpillars to follow feeding on the foliage.)
**On Thursday morning,
very early, very, very early, Brian Stone drove to a dark site with a low
eastern horizon (at 4:30 am) to try his best to get a photo of comet C/2025
R3 (Panstarrs). It was quite chilly just before sunrise, and Brian
binocular-searched the sky for about 20 minutes before he located the
comet, even though he knew right where to look. It turned out to be the
smallest comet (visually) that Brian ever went looking for, and it was so
similar to the size of the stars nearby that it was only by checking the
long-exposed photos on the camera that Brian was able to be sure he had
found it. Only one of his photos rose to the standard of
"documentary," and none were good, partially because Brian doesn't
have the best camera equipment and partially because he messed up his camera
settings and focus. Brian has included a link to the Spaceweather site to show
people what the comet actually looks like under the proper photo
conditions.
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=232094
**Nelson Poirier will be
giving a tick talk presentation tomorrow, Saturday, April 11, at Mountain Equipment
Company, 79 Wyse Rd. (just off Mapleton Road) at 11:00 AM with updated
information on how to learn to live with this up-and-coming outdoor challenge
and what to do when we encounter a tick on ourselves or our companion animals.
This is not a Nature
Moncton sponsored event but anyone is welcome.
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 April 11 – April 18
For stargazers, early spring means it is time for a Messier Marathon. In 1758 a
French comet hunter, Charles Messier, started compiling a catalogue of nebulous
objects in the sky that resembled comets but weren’t. His completed catalogue
was issued 13 years later with 103 objects. In the mid-20th century the
catalogue was expanded to 110 based on Messier’s notes. Under a clear, dark sky
all of the Messier objects can be seen in a small telescope, and it is a rite
of passage for amateur astronomers to locate and observe them all.
The Messier catalogue includes 57 star clusters, 40 galaxies, 12 nebulae of new
or dying stars, and an enigmatic pair of stars. The first on the list, called
M1, is the Crab Nebula, the gaseous remnant of a supernova that was seen in
daylight in 1054. M110 is a galaxy seen near M31, the Andromeda galaxy. The
easiest to see is M45, the star cluster also known as the Pleiades or Seven
Sisters. The Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery in Orion’s sword, is M42, with the
much less spectacular M43 nearby. Many of the galaxies are within the area
bordered by Leo, Virgo and Ursa Major.
For a few weeks in March and April, around the time of a new Moon, it is
possible to see all the Messier objects in one night, hence the Messier
Marathon. However, from New Brunswick the globular cluster M30 in Capricornus
rises in bright twilight and is pretty much impossible to see in late March.
This week it might cut through morning twilight but we could lose one or more
to evening twilight.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:40 and sunset will occur at 8:01, giving
13 hours, 21 minutes of daylight (6:46 and 8:05 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:27 and set at 8:10, giving 13 hours, 43 minutes of
daylight (6:33 and 8:14 in Saint John).
The slim crescent Moon is
a binocular field above Mercury on Wednesday morning, a challenging
observation, and it is new on Friday. Venus sets around 10:15 pm midweek and
it is starting to catch the eye as it climbs higher each evening. With Jupiter
high in the southwest on Wednesday, telescope users might see its moon Io
disappear behind the planet at 9:43 pm and Europa reappear from Jupiter’s
shadow 15 minutes later on the opposite side. Early in the week rural
observers might see the subtle glow of zodiacal light in the west 60 to 90
minutes after sunset. Comet C/2025 R3 Panstarrs is a binocular object low in
the east around 4:30 am this week, reaching perihelion next weekend.
Tune in to the Sunday
Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of
Astronomy by the Bay. The Fredericton Astronomy Club meets in the UNB
Forestry-Earth Sciences building at 7 pm on this Tuesday.
Questions? Contact Curt
Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
