Nature Moncton Nature
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** The NB biota open
house, the culmination of a week’s effort by a group of experts in their field
to document everything they can in a Protected Natural Area, is happening
tomorrow, Saturday afternoon.
It is a great opportunity
to meet with the researchers who have been combing the area and see many of
their finds in one place. It is considered one of the most thorough biota
efforts in Canada.
**Shannon Inman sends a
few photos of alder bushes that have been skeletonized by alder flea beetle
larvae. When a group of these beetle larvae feeds, they eat the soft leaf
tissue, leaving only the tough veins and a skeletonized look.
Shannon also photographed
a duo of common wood nymphs nectaring, a bald eagle surveying its
territory from a barn roof, and a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk that
dropped by their Harvey yard to check on the menu.
**Yvette Richard shares
more great photos from last Saturday’s pelagic adventure to create even more
great memories of a great day!
Yvette got a nice photo of
an Atlantic white-sided dolphin not only breaking the surface of the
water but clearing it -- a very quick maneuver that can be hard to photograph.
**On Thursday morning,
Heather Silliker did a double take when she spotted a grey squirrel with
a body as red as any red squirrel. Heather’s comment: “It must’ve been quite a
party!”
**Brian Stone visited Highland Park in Salisbury and Wilson Marsh on Salisbury Rd. on Thursday afternoon and took a few photos as he usually does. At Highland Park, the great egret was still present and fishing contentedly in the first pond.
Also
fishing there, very successfully, was a great blue heron that caught a
large black bullhead catfish and had a bit of a hard time getting it under control so it could swallow it. The heron carried it along the side
of the pond until it found some firm ground and then dropped the fish and began
strongly spearing it with lightning-fast jabs of its beak until it was dead.
Then it was a quick and easy gulp, and it was all over, and back to fishing.
(Editor’s note: the black
bullhead has the ability to thrive in waters that are low in oxygen, brackish,
turbid, and/or very warm. It also has barbels located near its mouth that can be
very spiny and sharp).
Some wood ducks, yellowlegs, and
a least flycatcher also got on the photo list, and then Brian headed
out.
At Wilson Marsh, Brian
found the widow skimmers and halloween pennants were still
present, as well as the twelve-spotted skimmers, bright red meadowhawks, and a
range of damselflies that are regulars in the province. Turtlehead flowers were
blooming, and so were the mosquitoes that eventually drove Brian out rather than force him to slather on the bug repellent, so that was the end of his outings for the
day.
**Jane LeBlanc sends a few
more bird photos from British Columbia.
** This
Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 August 22 – August 29
The Summer Triangle is at its highest in early evening. Vega pokes through
the twilight overhead, followed by Altair to the south and Deneb to the east.
All three are the brightest stars of their respective constellations of
Lyra, Aquila and Cygnus. Although it is the dimmest of the trio, Deneb is
actually much brighter but it is about 60 times more distant. If it were as
close as the other two it would be more than ten times brighter than Venus.
The brighter stars appear near the end of civil twilight, when the Sun reaches
six degrees below the horizon. Nautical twilight ends when it is 12 degrees
below, at which time mariners have difficulty discerning the distant coastline
from water. Readings for celestial navigation were taken during nautical
twilight. When the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon astronomical twilight
ends, and in areas with no light pollution or moonlight the only light is from
stars, planets, and airglow. Around the summer solstice northern New Brunswick
gets only 80 minutes of dark sky between the end and start of astronomical
twilight, while southern New Brunswick gets 3 hours and 10 minutes.
This Week in the Solar System
Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 6:27 and sunset will occur at 8:15, giving
13 hours, 49 minutes of daylight (6:33 and 8:19 in Saint John). Next Saturday
the Sun will rise at 6:36 and set at 8:03, giving 13 hours, 27 minutes of
daylight (6:42 and 8:07 in Saint John).
The Moon is full and in eclipse overnight Thursday/Friday, a deep partial
eclipse (93% of the diameter) between 11:33 pm and 2:52 am. Jupiter rises at 5
am this weekend, at which time Mars is three fist-widths above the eastern
horizon and Saturn is halfway up the south-southwestern sky. Venus is low in
the west-southwest at sunset, and Mercury is lost to view as it reaches
superior conjunction on Thursday.
The next RASC NB star party will be on September 4-5 at Fundy National Park.
Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
