Nature Moncton Nature
News
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Some sudden heavy rainfall
is making for a short report today (with a few computer challenges to add!)
**Ted Sears noted the recent post about the leopard frog and thought about this past Thursday. He had picked his wife up in Moncton as she was coming back from Calgary.
While driving back,
there was some drizzle between Sussex and St. Martins; he thought, “Good night
for frog crossings.” Ted never got the thought out of his mind when the first
of 3 individuals were hopping across the road. All at different locations.
(Editor’s note: the
temperature drop after a few ‘tropical’ days may make our frog community slow
their tempo.)
**Shannon Inman
photographed a bald eagle feeding on a carcass (white-tailed deer
suspected) with two ravens appearing to act as a tag team, one to
distract the eagle while the other nabbed a bit of the loot.
Shannon noted the recent
mild weather had the mushrooms popping again, with a shaggy mane mushroom
in their driveway and two other dead logs with fresh mushrooms working on them,
one of which had three mushroom species growing on its butt. The one identifiable
mushroom on that one is orange jelly fungus, which is specific to
conifer wood.
**Jessica Belanger-Mainville photographed a hooded merganser with fish prey a few weeks ago. Memory has it that the photos were taken at Highland Park in Salisbury. When possible, we always try to identify fish prey.
The habitat, the way the pectoral fins are extended, and the sun reflecting off the posterior portion to create an orange hue are all good clues for identification. As this fish has no scales and a lot of mucus, which makes for a good reflective surface, Alyre Chaisson and Nelson Poirier agree that the fish prey is suggestive of brown bullhead.
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
