Nature Moncton Nature
News
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** Thanks to
everyone who responded to the notice for more participants to make this adventure
a certainty. There still may be a few seats left. The notice has been rewritten
to clarify some details, so if you have joined the participant list or are about
to, please reread the notice below.
PELAGIC
SEABIRD TOUR FROM GRAND MANAN
For anyone
unfamiliar with the term, a pelagic tour is a boat-based outing focused on
seeing seabirds and other marine wildlife out on the open water. These trips
can be incredibly rewarding, offering close views of species that are rarely
seen from shore.
DATE: Saturday, August 15, 2026
MEETING
PLACE AND TIME: Be
on the Day’s Catch by 9:45 AM, Wharf at Seal Cove, with Seawatch Tours.
The group will be on the water from about 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM.
GUIDE: Jim Wilson, an experienced birder
from the Saint John Naturalist Club who regularly guides pelagic trips.
Participants
will be responsible for booking the ferry from Blacks Harbour to get to Grand
Manan, and the ferry back. There is an
early morning ferry leaving at 7:30 AM, but many may want to travel to the
island the day before. Please see the
ferry schedule at the following link, and be sure to book early:
Cost
details:
* $25
registration fee paid to Nature Moncton
* Approximately
$135 per person, paid directly to the boat captain while on board
* Additional
personal expenses (ferry, gas, food, and/or accommodation, if needed)
Participants
must be 12 years of age or older, and those ages 12-17 must be accompanied by
an adult.
To
officially reserve your place, please complete both of the following
steps
1.
Email Cynthia
to register for the tour outandabout4nm@gmail.com
2.
Send your $25 per person registration fee by e-transfer to:
📧 naturemonctontreasurer2020@gmail.com
(Please include your name and “Pelagic Tour” in the message field.)
All are
welcome, Nature Moncton members or not.
**Ted Sears
was able to capture an excellent photo of a male monarch butterfly
showing the two pheromone spots (arrowed) on the hind wing to indicate gender.
Ted also
photographed an adult monarch butterfly just emerging and drying its wings, and
letting fluid fill the vessels for inaugural flight.
On
Thursday, Brian Stone went back to Wilson Marsh again to try to locate the rare
Halloween pennant dragonfly found by Jean-Guy Goguen on Tuesday. He had no luck on his second attempt to search for it but had some other good luck by
finding another rarity ... a male eastern pondhawk dragonfly. Not
much else in the dragonfly world was seen, maybe because of the high wind and
cooling clouds, but a few other things of interest were noted and photographed.
The cedar waxwing nest was an active spot with the parents alternately
sitting on the nest and feeding the four hungry chicks. An immature tree
swallow posed for a nice photo, and a great blue heron flew past
several times.
(Editor’s
note: Wilson Marsh is becoming a real happening place!)
**This Week’s Sky at a
Glance, 2026 July 25 – August 1
After twilight look low in the south for orange Antares in the heart of
Scorpius. High above the scorpion is a large house-shaped constellation called
Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer. If your area isn’t light polluted you can see two
lines of stars rising up and outward from the bottom of the house. The line on
the right is Serpens Caput and the one on the left is Serpens Cauda. Together
they comprise Serpens the Serpent, the only constellation that is in separate
parts. Globular clusters contain many tens of thousands of stars and they orbit
the centre of our galaxy, which is in the direction just above the spout of the
Sagittarius Teapot asterism. Therefore, these clusters abound in the
Sagittarius-Scorpius-Ophiuchus region of our sky and many can be seen in
binoculars as fat, fuzzy stars.
Ophiuchus represents Asclepius from mythology, who became interested in the
healing arts after killing a snake and watching another snake bring it back to
life with a leaf. Asclepius brought many people back from the dead, including
Orion after he was killed by the scorpion. Hades, god of the Underworld,
complained to brother Zeus about a decrease in business so Zeus sent his pet
eagle to kill Asclepius with a thunderbolt. The constellation of Aquila the
Eagle is east of Serpens Cauda.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 5:53 and sunset will occur at 8:57, giving
15 hours, 4 minutes of daylight (6:01 and 8:59 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:01 and set at 8:48, giving 14 hours, 47 minutes of
daylight (6:08 and 8:51 in Saint John).
The Moon is full on Wednesday, also known as the Thunder Moon or the Birds
Shed Feathers Moon. Venus glistens through evening twilight low in the west,
setting less than two hours after sunset. Saturn now rises before midnight and
early in the week it begins four and a half months of retrograde (westward)
motion against the stars. By 5 am this weekend Mars is fairly high in the
east with similarly-hued Aldebaran to its right and Mercury rolling out of bed
to its lower left. Jupiter is in conjunction with the Sun on Wednesday. Also on
Wednesday morning is the peak of the South Delta Aquariid meteor shower, with
shooting stars emanating from the south and the Moon setting around 4:30.
The Saint John Astronomy Club meets in the Rockwood Park Interpretation Centre
on August 1 at 7 pm. The next RASC NB star party takes place at Mount Carleton
Provincial Park on August 14-15.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
