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.
https://www.zoodemagnetichillzoo.ca/nest-cam
**Jamie Burris found a
nice flush of wine cap mushrooms (Stropharia rugoso-annulata) AKA king stropharia! They are a choice edible and can be grown
in your own backyard garden. After Jamie had his fill (he shared), he decided to
make a mushroom garden.
While gathering the mushrooms, he collected lots of spawn, mycelium and older specimens. He laid down a substrate of straw on top of the soil,
then some wood chips, and then the mushrooms and spawn he had collected. Jamie made
3 layers of this, like making lasagna! He will keep an eye on this garden and
inform us if this works out; he should know by autumn.
(Editor’s note: this is a “very
interesting project” Jamie is doing, and the results will be very interesting
to hear. Many folks mention they would like to have their favourite wild mushrooms
growing on their property. As Jamie points out, it is very important to seed
the area with some ground that was around the original mushrooms, as this is
where the spawn is. This will not work for all species of mushrooms as the habitat
has to be right. Go Jamie go!)
**Susan Rousseau saw a striking
sky colour show in Saint Grégoire (between Bouctouche and Saint-Antoine)
recently to capture a photo.
Brian Stone was consulted, and he responded “it looks like a rainbow segment.")
**Shannon Inman
photographed a very distant egret on the Harvey Marsh on Thursday. It
would appear to be a great egret, but distance has to call it suspected.
She also photographed serviceberry
(with so many other common names) in fruit on Thursday, which is normally the
first tree/shrub to actually produce fruit in the season, much to the delight of
wildlife fruit connoisseurs such as cedar waxwings.
**Brian Stone revisited
Irishtown Park on Thursday afternoon and heard fewer birds than he did
the evening before, but walked some trails in much better weather than the
previous evening. The common loon that was cruising the reservoir
earlier was much closer and in better lighting conditions so Brian managed to
get a few better photos of it. A Swainson's thrush or two were calling as
loudly as they were on Wednesday, and a hermit thrush stopped on the
path to peck at whatever a thrush would find interesting on a dirt path. A
female common whitetail dragonfly rested on the ground close enough for
a photo as Brian was approaching the car in the parking lot.
Back at home a song
sparrow perched on Brian's back deck briefly, but long enough for a
photo.
The day before, on
Wednesday late afternoon, a rare astronomical occultation took place when the Moon
approached the planet Venus and moved in front of it. Brian was hoping
to photograph the entire event but was frustrated by the large fluffy clouds
floating around in the sky and only managed to get a couple of images as the
Moon became visible at times in gaps between them. He combined two images
together, one suffering from some wispy cloud cover, that show the little
bright dot of Venus as the Moon got closer to covering it, but he missed the
actual occultation and reappearance of the planet as it came out the other
side. The Moon was in a waxing crescent phase and was 9.3% illuminated at the
time, just past 5:00 pm.
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 June 20 – June 27
Seasons are the result of the earth’s rotational axis being tilted about 23.5
degrees off the vertical with respect to its orbit. The first day of
astronomical summer is this Sunday. The “astronomical” qualification is used
because meteorologists have taken to confusing people with meteorological
seasons based on temperatures. Meteorological summer in the northern hemisphere
includes June, July and August because they have the highest average
temperatures for the year.
On the summer solstice, the Sun rises and sets at its most northerly points on
the horizon. For those of us at 45 degrees latitude, at midday (1:21 pm in
Moncton) the Sun is about 68.5 degrees above the southern horizon; its highest
altitude for the year. If we lived at latitude 23.5 degrees the Sun would be
directly overhead at midday on the solstice. Several millennia ago the Sun was
“in” the constellation Cancer on the solstice, hence that latitude is marked on
maps as the Tropic of Cancer. The dim constellation does resemble a crab somewhat,
but there is speculation that the Sun’s forth and back movement along the
horizon at that time of year was reminiscent of a crab’s sideways walk.
The summer solstice point on the ecliptic, the Sun’s path through the
constellations, has since passed through Gemini into Taurus. The roaming
solstice is due to Earth’s axis wobbling like a top, making one revolution
every 25,800 years in what we call the precession of the equinoxes. Enjoy your
summer, whenever it starts.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:27 and sunset will occur at 9:13, giving
15 hours, 46 minutes of daylight (5:36 and 9:15 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 5:30 and set at 9:14, giving 15 hours, 44 minutes of
daylight (5:38 and 9:16 in Saint John). The Sun reaches its most northern point
of the ecliptic, the summer solstice, this Sunday morning at 5:25.
The Moon is at first quarter on Sunday and on June 27 it is near the
orange supergiant star Antares in Scorpius. The alignment of evening planets
changes over the week as dim Mercury moves below the ecliptic, By midweek it
sets around 10:30, followed by Jupiter 20 minutes later, and Venus 50 minutes
after that. Early in the week Saturn rises around 2 am and Mars an hour and a
half later.
Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and
Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
