Nature Moncton Nature
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**Jane LeBlanc in St. Martins photographed the beautiful chrysalis of a monarch butterfly as well as the tiny football-shaped egg freshly laid.
MONARCH BUTTERFLY EGG. JUNE 26, 2026. JANE LeBLANC
On July 25, Gordon had a Monarch Butterfly arrive at his swamp milkweed; it stayed from about 9:00 to 4:00, feeding on milkweed flowers and an adjacent coneflower.
Gordon also had four unknown fledglings arrive on his driveway and into the lawn. They were very active and very vocal. They exhibited sparrow-like features. Merlin could not give any indication of hearing their chirps. Merlin did indicate a northern yellow warbler in the area, but did not highlight it with the fledgling.
**John Inman photographed a fledgling male and female downy woodpecker as well as the larval caterpillar of the two-lined hooktip moth a.k.a. warty birch caterpillar.
(Editor's note: there must
be lots of these caterpillars out there, but good luck finding one as John did!)
**Pat Gibbs took some
photos of a crow that visited. She thinks there is evidence of a small leucistic
area under the wing as well as the body. Several years ago, there were
crows in her yard with more leucistic patches, but she hadn't seen any evidence
of it again until now.
**Brian Stone joined Cathy Simon on a walk on a woodland trail near Mapleton Rd. on Saturday and he shares just a few photos that turned out from the outing. The deep woods and tall trees made photography difficult in the dim (but wonderful) lighting conditions. Some difficult-to-identify fledgeling birds were seen, as well as a female pileated woodpecker checking out several different trees and a suspected eastern wood pewee perched while it was eating dragonflies that Brian would have liked to have photographed before they got eaten. In tall pine trees alongside the trail, many bird species were hopping around, and photography was attempted with mixed results. Still, a female American redstart and a blue-headed vireo were clear enough for identification. A very distant male white-winged crossbill was seen and made a very poor, extra-documentary quality photo.
The closest wildlife
encountered was a healthy-looking snowshoe hare that posed on the path
and was content to let the hikers get fairly close before vanishing back into
the brush.
(Editor’s note: I am
hearing a lot of reports of snowshoe hare this season. I'm suspecting this
species to be in an upward cycle?)
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
