Nature Moncton Nature
News
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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
**Nature Moncton has a
very special Wednesday walk coming up tonight to Haut du
Ruisseau Nature Park in Memramcook. All details are below:
**This
week’s Wednesday evening
walk is on August 19 starting at 6:30 PM at Haut du Ruisseau Nature
Park in Memramcook. Traveling on #106 from Memramcook toward Dorchester, turn left on Breau Creek Road, then
left toward the park sign, at the corner of Breau Creek Road and Palmer
Road. The 5 KM trail system within the park is well-signed and colour coded.
There are 5
kilometres of trails
from easy gravel/packed ground to steep climbs and some tree-rooted paths, giving moderate
conditions. There is a Porta-Potty in the parking lot. The lot can hold about 10
vehicles with an overflow parking lot below about the same
size. There are benches,
covered benches, and little buildings to sit in with windows.
Fred and
Susan Richards will lead this walk. Long pants and bug repellent
are suggested.
This
excellent hiking trail may be new to many and offers a perfect chance to explore and enjoy
it with comradeship and lots of sharp eyes to miss nothing!
In addition
to the written directions above, a park map is attached below.
Please wear your Nature Moncton name tag. Everyone is welcome, member or not.
**More
awesome photographs from participants on the recent pelagic adventure continue to arrive as they will all this week.
Phil Riebel
also captured many special moments of the day, and he shares a selection of his
photographs and also the commentary below:
“The Bay of
Fundy is best known for its extraordinary tides and rugged coastline, but it's
also a habitat for many seabirds and marine wildlife. Its cold, nutrient-rich
waters support an abundance of life, attracting birds and ocean life from as
far as Antarctica.
Traveling
offshore provides opportunities to encounter species that are rarely seen from
land, including shearwaters, storm-petrels, gannets, alcids and other seabirds
that spend much of their lives at sea. Whales, dolphins, seals and other marine
wildlife are also part of this rich offshore ecosystem.
FACT: The
Bay of Fundy is changing. Long-term research has found declines in the
abundance and productivity of some of the plankton and small forage species
that form the foundation of its marine food web. Warming ocean temperatures and
changing environmental conditions can affect when and where this food is
available, with consequences that can ripple upward to fish, seabirds, and
whales."
**Gordon
Rattray joined the participants on the Nature Moncton trip to Grand Manan on
Saturday, and like everyone, he observed many of the offerings of the bay.
Gordon photographed some of them. Gordon includes photos of many of his sightings: Atlantic puffin, black guillemot, Bonaparte's gull, common loon, common tern, great shearwater, Manx shearwater, northern gannet, red-necked phalarope, ring-billed gull, sooty shearwater, South Polar skua, and Wilson’s storm-petrel.
Gordon also saw humpback whales, white-sided
dolphins, seals, and a special sighting of mola-mola (ocean sunfish).
Gordon Rattray and other members of the Nature Moncton
pelagic trip visited Dark Harbour, Grand Manan, for the sunset on Friday
night. Islanders highly recommend this site for its great sunsets, and
participants found they weren't overstating them. Gordon photographed the
sunset that night.
**Grant
Ramsey also shares some of the avian life his camera captured.
**John Inman
photographed a mother yellowthroat scolding a young one for lagging
behind while two more fledglings were waiting nearby to be fed, with the
mother taking a break before they left.
Shannon
Inman noticed and photographed a solitary sandpiper in a small pond in
the Harvey area.
**Jane and
Ed LeBlanc just returned from a 12-day trip to Vancouver Island. Jane sends
along some photos of what they saw, with more to follow as they are processed. They
took all these photos on the same day. A boat trip left Port McNeill looking
for grizzlies. They spotted only one, and it spooked when they were still quite
a distance away, so Jane felt lucky to get the few photos she did. The orcas
are Bigg's orcas, known as transients. They are mammal eaters, and these
were members of the T60 clan. The black bear was turning over rocks along the
shore to see if anything edible was underneath.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
