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.
If you would like to share
observations/photos with Nature News, contact the 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.
Proofreading courtesy of
Louise Nichols at nicholsl@eastlink.ca
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.
As of Sunday evening, it
is looking like two hatchlings are getting lots to eat! Will they be joined by
another? Chances are.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Tuesday night, May 19, is Nature Moncton meeting night with our speaker
presenting in person at the Rotary Lodge. All details below:
May Meeting
Presentation
Moose Surveillance Project
Tuesday, May 19, 2026,
at 7 PM at Mapleton Park Lodge
Speakers: Becky Graham and
Steve Ginnish
National Parks are not
just for camping! They also support ecological health and monitoring
programs to assess indicators and ecosystems of the park, the health of
wildlife, and to help guide restoration efforts.
Fundy National Park has
been monitoring moose in its boundaries and buffer areas for some time using
aerial surveillance. More recently in 2024, based on guidance from Mi’gmaq
partners, trail cameras were added. Since then, eight trail cameras have
gathered hundreds of photos that have allowed the park to collect much more valuable
health information on the moose that frequent the area.
Becky Graham is acting
Resource Conservation Manager at Fundy National Park and has been involved with
the moose surveillance program from its beginnings. The Mi’maq indigenous
community has been a valued asset in the project’s development, and Becky has
worked closely with Steve Ginnish, the forestry director at Mi’gmawe’l
Tplu’taqnn Inc. In this presentation, both Becky and Steve will present
some of the data and images they have collected and will share what they have
discovered about the moose population in Fundy National Park.
This presentation will be
live at Mapleton Park Lodge and recorded for those unable to participate in
person.
As always, all are
welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.
**John Inman photographed a
showdown between a rose-breasted grosbeak and a blue jay. The jay
left!
John has had three more Baltimore orioles
come by -- two bright males and a female. They're not staying around long,
just a rest and feed for the day, and moving out.
Down further in John’s backyard,
the peregrine falcon came in for a blue jay lunch.
**Lisa Morris sends a
photo of a trembling aspen female catkin that has already gone to seed.
**Jane LeBlanc joined the
Saint John Naturalists for a hike through the Irving Nature Park in west Saint
John on Sunday. Species totalled around 50. Standouts were a brown creeper,
magnolia warblers, bay-breasted warbler, Canada warbler, chestnut-sided
warbler, and bobolink, among others. Some photos are better than others,
but as everyone knows...warblers don't come out in the open/sit still for long!
**David Lilly led a walk
for Nature Fredericton on Saturday at Thatch Road close to the Fredericton
Airport doing a distance of approximately 6 km with 9 participants.
They recorded 216 birds,
which equaled 42 species.
A least flycatcher was a
treat.
**Brian Stone sends a few
photos from the Nature Moncton warbler hike on Saturday. Birds that Brian
photographed that weren't posted in yesterday's edition are a female
black-throated blue warbler, a pine warbler, and a blackburnian
warbler. He photographed many other birds that were also photographed by
other excellent nature group photographers that were posted yesterday.
Brian also photographed the cloud of mayflies that were hovering around
the group and got a close-up of one that was resting on the back shoulder of
club member Louise Nichols.
After the outing was over,
Brian and Cathy Simon continued birding, and Cathy's sharp eye found a spotted
sandpiper, an osprey eating lunch, a few dozen great blue herons
out on sandbars, and a double-crested cormorant successfully
fishing.
**Wild leek is an
uncommon plant in New Brunswick, found only at a few sites. One of those sites
near Sussex has many plants.
Nelson Poirier
transplanted four plants from that site to a wet site near his camp on the little
Southwest Miramichi River. They seem to have liked what they found and are
doing well. They appear to like the company of trout lily and Dutchman’s
breeches, as some photos show. The Dutchman’s breeches are just emerging,
and a nearby plant is arrowed.
Nelson also photographed a
hobble-bush in prime bloom, showing the outside rim of sterile ray
flowers with the inner fertile flowers yet to bloom.
Other plants photographed
were dwarf ginseng, sessile-leaf bellwort, and threeleaf
goldthread, showing the bright yellow root to give it its name.
Nelson also visited the Beaver
Lake burn-over site from last summer, hoping to find woodpeckers, longhorn
beetles, and mushrooms. None of the three were present. Almost no greenery had
appeared, but groups of 1 cm clusters of common liverwort, a.k.a. umbrella
liverwort (Polymorpha marchantia) were found.
The cuplike structures on
the surface are gemma cups, which contain asexual reproductive cells called gemmae.
Raindrops splash them out as their means of reproduction.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
