[NatureNS] B. oriole, Blomidon Park pond life, astronomical trio, cecropia moths,

Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 20:31:27 -0300
From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca>
To: NatureNS <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
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June 14, 2007 - Lisa Eye, who lives on Church St. northeast of Port
Williams, reports a recently seen male BALTIMORE ORIOLE (after seeing both a
male and female about two weeks previously), and a nest probably of a YELLOW
WARBLER, all in her yard.

June 15, 2007 - I went up to BLOMIDON PROVINCIAL PARK to do my ³POND LIFE²
show and tell to Martin Doucette¹s grade 9 high school students (about 30)
who camped in the park over the two previous nights.  I met them and
Charlane Bishop at the Jodrey Cliff Trail¹s VERNAL OR RUN-OFF POND (no inlet
nor outlet) with my dip-net, bucket, enamel pan, and Golden Guide to Pond
Life.  I had just done this three weeks prior on May 26, which allowed some
interesting comparisons.  A single FAIRY SHRIMP (female with eggs) was still
present, eggs of YELLOW-SPOTTED SALAMANDERS (only one clump, green with
symbiotic algae) seen) were HATCHING, oodles of TADPOLES of ?WOOD FROGS?
with no legs yet, etc. etc. -- more details to be reported later.

The morning was cool at 9 C. and very foggy all over the North Mountain.
Despite a lot of rain in the first half of June, the water in the vernal
pond had fallen by something like 0.5 to 1 metre and now was two separate
bodies of water separated by wet land with oodles of royal and sensitive
ferns.  Every year this pond dries up to varying extents.

June 18, 2007 - PHOTO (end of film) at Digby Pines Resort of a STOP THE
QUARRY COALITION press conference during the lunch break of the fed./prov.
environmenal assessment panel review of the White¹s Cove Basalt Quarry and
Marine Terminal proposal by Bilcon of Nova Scotia (really of New Jersey).

In evening after Blomidon Naturalists Society meeting, the clear sky in the
west showed a lovely astronomical sight: the Crescent Moon nicely grouped
between Saturn and Venus; Jupiter was also very bright to the wouth.

June 20/07 - Bernard Forsythe at his Wolfville Ridge home found that his
CECROPIA MOTH COCOON, kept outdoors in the top of his well since the winter,
had ³HATCHED² overnight into a lovely FEMALE adult moth, AND, by the time he
discovered it, a MALE CECROPIA had found it and was copulating with it.
This is coincidental with the fact that Nancy Nickerson showed us a newly
emerged female CECROPIA MOTH just yesterday evening at the Irving Centre;
she found the cocoon in Greenwich in winter or spring and kept it at her
home until noting the emergence just in time for our nature walk.

Along Highway 101 on the way to Digby, for the public hearings on the
White¹s Point Basalt Quarry and Marine Terminal proposal, BIRD¹S-FOOT
TREFOIL and BLACK LOCUST trees (³ACACIA²) in bloom.

PHOTOS of COMMON BARBERRY (Berberis vulgaris) in bloom at DIGBY PINES RESORT
(2 photos of resort) at Digby; this is the species that is the alternate
host for WHEAT RUST, a very nasty pest for agriculture, and thus common
barberry should be eliminated wherever it can still be found.

Two recent bird reports for Wolfville: Dorothy and Jim Perkin (who reported
a single N. MOCKINGBIRD weeks ago) have been seeing 2 N. MOCKINGBIRDS lately
in their neighborhood, which is west of Cherry Lane and east of Paul
Elderkin¹s pond (new residential area of condos and homes) -- I asked Jim if
he had been hearing one singing, and he jokingly replied that he wouldn¹t
call that ³singing²!; and David Silverberg, who has a studio on lower
Hillside Ave., reports a EUR. STARLING feeding several JUVENILES (he didn¹t
know what the latter were).

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
---------------------
Jim (James W.) Wolford
91 Wickwire Avenue 
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
B4P 1W3
phone (902)542-9204 (home)
fax (902)585-1059 (Acadia Univ. Biology Dept.)
e-mail <jimwolford@eastlink.ca>
----------------------
³The cure for boredom is curiosity.  There is no cure for curiosity.²  -
Ellen Parr
----------------------

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