This morning Deana and I took a drive to the beach at the end of Cedriere Rd. which is in Northumberland County but getting close to Tracadie. The beach itself was bare and ice free and very “walkable” although we didn’t walk far. This stretch of beach is beyond Miramichi Bay and the barrier islands, directly on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, so is often partly or completely ice free. There was no ice to be seen today. We were interested in what sea ducks we might encounter. The list includes about 40 Long-tailed Ducks, 4 Common Eider, about 20 Common Goldeneye and one Barrow’s Goldeneye. There were two Herring Gulls as well. We had a flyby of six Iceland Gulls, perhaps checking on whether we had any food offerings. We didn’t. I was not cold nor windy, really quite pleasant.
Ten club members had a pleasant walk yesterday along the Millbank nature trail, although we did not encounter a Red Squirrel (Gus), as far as I know, nor did we see or hear from any of the birds. Regardless, the scenery was lovely as was the company. We covered a little more than 4 kilometers in about 2 hours, so the overall pace was leisurely! Thanks were expressed to Deana for making this arrangement.
While snowshoeing at the ski club today I came across signs of a Black-backed Woodpecker. These medium sized woodpeckers do not visit feeders, they are associated with burnt areas or boggy areas. You might hear one scraping away the bark, to get at the larvae of beetles within the tree. Peter saw this woodpecker on the ski trails last year, not far away from this site.
I propose as a club we share our nature in winter observations and experiences under the heading of WinterWatch (title courtesy of the BBC!). The other members of the executive have supported this initiative, Dave G and Mathieu.
Your submissions could be anecdotal, just a straightforward narrative, a poem, a sketch, a photo, a short video clip, whatever. What would be of particular interest would be what the casual observer might miss, the subtleties, the beauty, the curious, the interpretive and so on. Send to gadd1313@nb.sympatico.ca
These submissions will help us all enjoy this apparently quieter time of year all that much more.
I will post, likely on the club’s web site, (with a link for photos and short video clips on Flickr ) textual submissions … so that we can have them all in one location.
Peter
To get started here is a photo of a “Peeping Cardinal” at one of our windows today!
“I know they have food in there! People Watching, a great winter hobby!”