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**The missed presentation
from Josh Christiansen on amphibians last week is rescheduled for tomorrow night Tuesday evening, September 22, with the write-up at the end of this message.
If folks coming to the
meeting can find some fresh mushrooms in the next few days, place them in a paper bag and in
the fridge for shroom chatter during the second part of the meeting after the
main presentation, as was done last week.
**Fred Dube was traveling
down Three Brooks Road in Pictou on Sunday and saw a leucistic Canada Goose
among a field of Canada Geese.
(Editor’s note: Fred's
photo reminds us all that it is a very important time of year to look closely at
every Canada goose flock for an
unexpected species.)
**Jane LeBlanc has had
several warblers go through her St. Martins yard lately, including a male
northern parula. She also had some regulars back, including a red-breasted
nuthatch. A Sunday visitor was a hermit thrush. She also has a witch
hazel shrub which is in flower. Also, six monarch chrysalises are left to hatch.
(Editor’s note: witch
hazel is a shrub that blooms late in the season, even into December.)
**Ted Sears in St. Martins
is another who still has monarch butterfly caterpillars and chrysalises in
their maturing cycle. One of Ted’s photos shows a caterpillar in the J
position, indicating a chrysalis is about to form.
Ted comments that it may
be getting late, but Mother Nature will decide, and the fact that development continues
is a positive sign.
**Last week Brian Stone
was in Fundy National Park for 5 days and he sends some photos of the life he
encountered. Besides the dozens of different types of fungus on display he
photographed a few park inhabitants such as one of the several turkey
vultures that were circling slowly over his cabin, some beavers that
were active in the early morning at the Caribou Plain trail (one photo showing
a beaver doing some maintenance work on the right side of its lodge), a
selection of adult and tiny new American toads, a downy woodpecker and a
black-throated green warbler, a few of the many Canada geese busy
dabbling for snacks, a small salamander that was hiding under a large
rotting mushroom (suspected to be a juvenile red-backed salamander), and a large
resident orb weaver spider hanging outside the cabin window.
Brian photographed many
mushrooms in Fundy National Park, but as always, photos can be difficult to
confirm without knowing more features.
(Editor’s note: Brian’s
photo of the pungent cort shows the very cobwebby partial veil of the
cortinarius group perfectly. As the partial veil breaks away in the corts, it
leaves a ring on the stalk to help identify this group of mushrooms, which tend
to appear in the later season, which has arrived.)
**SEPTEMBER MEETING PRESENTATION
Stressful Cityscapes or Pockets of Paradise? How
Forest Retention May Buffer the Impact of Urbanization on Salamanders
Date: September 22, 2026
Place: Rotary Pavilion, Mapleton Park
Presenter: Joshua Christiansen
Urbanization is one of the greatest challenges
facing our world’s wildlife. As New Brunswick’s urban centers continue to grow,
it is important we understand how our growth impacts the wildlife we share our
backyards with. MSc graduate Joshua Christiansen investigated the influence of
urbanization on the behavioural and thermal ecology of the Eastern Red-backed
Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In
this talk, Joshua will discuss his findings on the influence, or lack thereof,
of urbanization on this species’ behaviour and thermoregulation and what this
means for amphibian conservation in our urban centers.
Joshua
Christiansen is a Research Associate in the RBG Labs at Mount Allison
University. He holds a BSc in Biology from the University of Regina and an MSc
degree in Biology from Mount Allison University. Joshua studied bats in his
undergrad years but made the big switch to herpetofauna for his master’s where
he studied the behaviour and thermal ecology of Eastern Red-backed Salamanders
in urban and non-urban forests. He is now working on a field guide to the
amphibians and reptiles of Atlantic Canada.
Don’t
miss the chance to learn more about these mysterious inhabitants of our urban
yards.
All are
welcome, Nature Moncton member or not.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
