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**While painting part of
the frame of a patio door Thursday, Peter Gadd was distracted by a busy small wasp
showing an interest in the hollow section of the door's bumper. Repeated visits
were made, and to Peter’s relief, he was ignored. The industrious wasp
eventually plugged the hole with what appears to be mud, with presumably eggs
inside. iNaturalist identifies the wasp as Ancistrocerus capra, a
member of the Potter and Mason Wasp subfamily. A second bumper just above was
also plugged in the same manner.
(Editor’s note: this small
wasp species is a solitary wasp of no harm to people if ignored. It is much
smaller than the mason bee group that visit our bee houses in early spring, and it is quite normal for it to be active in July.)
**Even though it's been 2
weeks since the first one visited, Jane LeBlanc hasn't been able to find any
caterpillars but had that second confirmed visit of a monarch butterfly on
Thursday.
**Aldo Dorio photographed
a willet at Hay Island on Thursday. This resident shorebird nests at
that site.
**On Wednesday morning, Brian Stone visited Wilson Marsh on a hunt for the elusive blue dasher dragonfly. He was unsuccessful in that endeavor, but got lucky by finding several widow skimmer dragonflies, including at least five immature males and a similar number of new (teneral) females. After following them around for a while trying for a decent photo, Brian went to the other side of the marsh to check on the pied-billed grebes and their newly hatched chicks and found them still on the nest and then hitching a ride on their parents' backs when they wanted to avoid the photographer. A second nest has still unhatched eggs in it. A few other photographed marsh residents were colourful meadowhawk dragonflies, a slender spreadwing damselfly, a variable dancer damselfly, a hummingbird moth, and a mallard duck family.
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 July 11 – July 18
Constellations are not the only stellar figures in the night sky. Any
imaginative figure seen that is not one of the 88 constellations is called an
asterism. The Big Dipper in Ursa Major and the Sagittarius Teapot are two of
the most prominent. Others require binoculars or a telescope, such as the
Coathanger and ET star clusters. Near the eastern shoulder of Ophiuchus
binoculars will show a large V shape resembling the Hyades cluster, and star
maps of a few centuries ago labelled this as the constellation Poniatowski’s
Bull. One I read about in Sky & Telescope magazine is a smiley face in
Cygnus the Swan. Scan with binoculars just below the swan’s right (western)
wing near the brightest star in that wing, and look for a pair of eyes above a
semicircle grin of five stars. You will probably smile back.
This summer, spend some time scanning the night sky randomly and let your
imagination run wild. Pareidolia is a phenomenon in which your mind sees a
familiar pattern where none exists. Just as we imagine figures in clouds by
day, we can imagine them in the stars at night.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:39 and sunset will occur at 9:09, giving
15 hours, 30 minutes of daylight (5:47 and 9:11 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 5:45 and set at 9:04, giving 15 hours, 19 minutes of
daylight (5:53 and 9:06 in Saint John).
The Moon is above Mars this Saturday morning, and it is new and at perigee
on Tuesday so expect extreme tides later in the week. That evening the very
thin crescent sits a few degrees to the right of Jupiter and sets a half hour
after sunset. The Moon is just below Regulus on Thursday and near Venus on
Friday. Saturn is well-placed for observing in the morning, rising before 1 am.
Mercury is at inferior conjunction on Sunday.
The next RASC NB star party takes place at Mactaquac Provincial Park on July
17-18.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
