Nature Moncton Nature
News
Clicking
on the photos enlarges them for closer observation. Please note that clicking
on any photo enlarges it full screen and then clicking on the black area on
either side of the photo brings one right back to the main page.
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
**Jane
LeBlanc spent a day on Grand Manan in late August that turned out to be one for
the books. After leaving Black's Harbour in fog like pea soup, she arrived on
Grand Manan to beautiful sunshine. She boarded the Lambert Family whale-watching
zodiac. They weren't ten minutes out when they found a playful humpback
whale, which breached for them (and she missed the shot...again!!). Many
birds were seen as well, including Wilson's storm-petrels and northern
gannets. The star of the day, however, was when they were almost ready to
return to shore and pilot Matt saw a huge dorsal fin in the distance and went
tearing after it. It was Old Thom...the one and only killer whale in
the Bay of Fundy!! He allowed some lovely, fairly close encounters before time
forced the zodiac back to shore.
(Editor’s
note: what a lucky sighting! Old Thom is a famous solitary male orca that
periodically visits the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine. Spotting him means
being in the right place at the right time, as Jane was.)
Not to be
outdone by Ted Sears, Jane LeBlanc still has an active monarch butterfly cage.
She released two newly minted butterflies this week, has one chrysalis,
one 'hanging J', and six more caterpillars of various sizes.
**Yolande
LeBlanc in Memramcook reports she still has a straggler female
ruby-throated hummingbird coming to the feeder quite often and staying
quite a while, as there are no others to fight her off.
Yolande
comments that the feeder stays up for a while.
(Editor’s
note: many suggest leaving one feeder out late in the season and taking it
inside on freezing nights if necessary. It is this time of year that an
unexpected species of hummingbird can show up in New Brunswick is an accidental,
as this has occasionally happened in past years.)
Nelsonpoirier435@gmail.com
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
