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| Lady Slippers photo by Banner Moffet |
Welcome to
the Vinalhaven Sightings Report
Late June 2017 – and even later posting!
MCHT and VLT Sponsored
thanks a bunch!
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| Calico Pennant from the Basin |
"alright joe, you asked for it - here come's the big one!"
- Frank Zappa
Official editorial note – this post is
long overdue, and we already have much for the next VSR, so – in theory and in
hopefulness – there should be two VSR posts in somewhat
rapid succession. Apologies if that is overwhelming…another one in a few days…or so…there may be things listed here that will be included in the next edition...thanks!
rapid succession. Apologies if that is overwhelming…another one in a few days…or so…there may be things listed here that will be included in the next edition...thanks!
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| old harbor pond |
Highlights – spotted turtle, red-billed
tropicbird, woodpecker nests, flower things including golden heather, otter
spraint and latrines, red crossbill families, smooth green snake, spotted
salamander larva, slime molds including scrambled egg and chocolate tube,
mushrooms, butterflies, dragonflies (more in the next one) – just about
everything, really! – just in – Harbor Porpoise!
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| Iris field, field of iris photo by Stephen Zoloth |
Business – Contact us: hey – send you photos,
sightings, complaints, advice to us! we are programmed to receive. vinalhavensightings@gmail.com
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| Amanita mush-hump, gotta love 'em |
Tiit Trick –
click on a photo to make it get large
R.I.P. – we
learned the sad news of the passing of Mia
Mather last month. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Mia’s family and
friends. She is missed already.
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| Armbrust Hill Green Frog |
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| green frog tadpole |
Volunteers – MCHT and VLT are always looking for volunteers to help out with trail work (and more probably!). I only really care about trail work – so if you are interested in helping out an afternoon, morning or day on the trails give me (Kirk Gentalen – kgentalen@mcht.org) or VLT Stewardship Coordinator Kerry Hardy (kh.2wheels@gmail.com) and set up some work time in the woods!
Upcoming events
– MCHT/VLT Thursday morning bird walks are happening (I say this again below!).
they alternate between starting at 8am or 7am - Check out the VLT or the MCHT
websites for times! They are fun and have fun people on them. Trust me – you’ll
learn that you love it or you’ll learn that you don’t like bird walks – either
way you’ll be learning and what’s wrong with that!
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| Armbrust Hill Chalk-fronted Skimmer |
Instagram –
if you are on it and are into that kind of thing we (the royal “we”) are
posting under the label “baldfulmar”.
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| Harbor Porpoise swim by photo by Jay Borden |
Sightings- Hurricane Sound – Jay Borden paddled recently through hurricane sound when he heard
a pair of Harbor Porpoise surface close
to his kayak.
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| photo by Jay Borden |
Jay positioned himself and
his kayak in the right spots and was able to get these incredible shots. The
porpoise were apparently curious as to Jay’s presence on the water as well!
Thanks for sending these in Jay!
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| spouting off photo by Jay Borden |
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| ripples from the second porpoise |
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| bookin' it - three legged spotted turtle style photo by Eryk Silver |
Spotted Turtle
– Kerry Hardy and VLT intern Eryk Silver found this three legged
Spotted Turtle crossing the road by Folly Pond. Folly Pond, Otter Pond, and
Mack’s Pond we all found to have healthy populations of Spotted Turtles when
Herpetologist Trevor Persons visited the island a few back.
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| spotted turtle photo by Eryk Silver |
Word is that Trevor caught no
three legged spotted turtles when he was out. Not saying that one he caught
couldn’t have lost a leg in the meantime, but he also did not put any traps in
Folly Pond.
Either way – thanks for
sending in the picture Kerry and Eryk! Watch the road for critters when
cruising up ol’ North Haven Road.
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| full nelson - nelson's sharp tailed sparrow photo by Rick Morgan |
Birdies – Bird walks are happening! – they have been going on
since early June and people have been loving them. Here are a couple of lists
and a photo of the Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow from the bird walk (7/6). See
you out there!
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| winter wren |
(6/29) Herring gull, Black throated green, Red breasted nuthatch, Hermit
thrush, Black capped Chickadee, Common eider, Song sparrow, Winter wren, Yellow
warbler, Flicker, Common crow, Osprey, White throated sparrow, Blue jay, Modo, Amer
goldfinch, Bald eagle – not sure why this background color is here.
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| winter wren pooping that white thing shooting to the ground below |
(7/6) – Common Raven, (all) American Crows, Alder Flycatcher, Song
Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Flicker, Common Loon, Eiders, Bald
Eagles, Osprey, Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Green Warbler, American
Redstart, Northern Parula, Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Also with birdies – families of
Red Crossbill were seen and heard in
the Basin and at Huber in late June.
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| spraint on the lower right. might be easier to run up hill after pooping |
Otter latrines
– turning up in the most interesting of places…
Basin preserve– platform trail – here are a few photos of this brand spanking new
otter latrine right along the trail.
Folks may be familiar with
this part of the trail; it’s the kinda steep uphill stretch just after the
first hay-scented fern field on the left side of the trail. gotta say it seems
like a
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| this spraint had a real nice blue hue to it (judgment) |
A second latrine was re-opened where the set of bridges in the second hay-scented fern field crosses running water.
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| its been a few years since I saw spraint at this spot - welcome back spraint! |
maybe 6 years ago this spot was marked with spraint. hasn't been marked since nad trust me I've been looking! easily could have been marked from scent glands, but hey...
great to have another couple of places to look for otter spraint!
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| skinny dipping spot- with matted otter spraint area clearly visible if you are looking |
Basin preserve - Williams trail – I re-opened the little side trail to the otter latrine/skinny dipping spot (funny
how often those two go together) and found the latrine to be pretty active.
This is a latrine that has been used for at least 11 years ranging in activity
use from just a “handful of spraints”
to “spraints up the wazoo”. This
year is a “mucho spraint” kind of
year as otters must be using the lobster pound area more frequently, or denning
nearby. Love the spraint for what it is!
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| sprint of crab and fish scales! must have been tasty |
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| grass and spraint |
Also found this ancient
writing on a bridge…ends up it’s the cursive and creative sprainting of a River
otter! This was past Poole’s Hill…
more on this location in the slime mold section below…
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| this tire acts like a stump or raised area on a trail where otters love to mark. or it just had a great view |
Monroe Island is that big
island just to the east of Owl’s Head that you see from the ferry…or from owl’s
head I guess. Went on a visit recently and found tons of otter sign, including
a set of spraint on an old tire…
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| this is a nice (judgment) otter trail |
…the otter trails were
impressive…
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| otter print |
…and this was a cool otter track
in the mud….
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| shy maiden anyone? |
…plus these beautiful single
delights/toad’s reading lamp/shy maiden/single flowered shinleaf…
…also great to learn about
otters all along the Maine coast – send us your Maine coast otter story today!
…
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| couldn't miss these scrambled egg slime molds |
A tale of two molds - Slime molds and woodpecker nests – Seal Bay – doing some work…
So here’s a story about some
work out towards Coombs Neck way…as
I was wrapping up some chain sawing this Scrambled
Egg Slime mold caught my eye. Bright
yellow, sparkly and gooey – scrambled egg slimes always demand attention
and who am I to not give them what they demand. So I got close, took the shots
you see here, and was making my way back down the trail when the mobbing
started.
Editor’s note – “mobbing” is
an aggressive behavior where birds (or other animals I’m sure) yell, scream,
dive bomb and generally try to annoy a critter (a being) that is basically not
wanted in their territory. In this case it was me.
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| woodpecker nest on the left, scrambled egg slime on the right |
First off – I am not a big fan of being mobbed by wildlife in the woods, especially
when I didn’t do anything. This mob started with a pair of Downy Woodpeckers freaking out so much that it was obvious that
they had a nest nearby (nice parenting move Downies!). It took less than a
minute to find the nest cavity after the mobbing started. The only reason I
found the nest was because they were mobbing. There you have it.
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| male (daddy woodpecker) torpedoing out of the nest. nice polypore above the cavity opening |
So the woodpeckers were
making all kinds of ungodly squeaks and squeals, had quick jerky flight
patterns, and then were flapping their wings rapidly when perched. All while
making their way slowly down some spruce towards me. Damn woodpeckers. No
reason for that.
Soon some of the neighbors
got involved – I know for a fact those nuthatches had no clue what they were
yelling about. The chickadees seemed one part angry, one part curious. Anyway…
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| after torpedo |
I pulled back down the trail
after all the mobbing shenanigans
and within moments things calmed down and the woodpeckers went right up to
their nests like good parents should. I snapped a few photos of the woodpeckers
tending and being parental. See what you think…
Chocolate tube slime – as you may know, we moved around the block recently and so will not
be walking our traditional walk through the woods to the St. George school
anymore. We saw a lot on this minute long trail over the 2 years we lived there
and we closed out with a session with a Chocolate Tube slime. |
| patch # 2 day 1 |
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| patch #1 started like this |
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| patch #1 day 2 |
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| patch #2 day 2 |
One of my favorite things
about slime molds (what are your favorite things about slime molds?) is how
they change over the course of days – in appearance, structure and form (not
sure if form is the right word there but it kind of flowed so I am keeping it!).
Anyway, the chocolate tube
slime went from tiny white balls (so cute at that stage) to chocolately spore
dispersing elongated tubular wieners on a stick. Spore covered corn dogs. Spore
dogs! Spore dawgs. Love ‘em. Here are photos from the few days before we
moved, of two patches of chocolate tube slime on the same log…what a way to wrap up a trail! enjoy
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| patch #1 day 3 |
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| patch #2 day 3 |
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| patch #1 day 4 |
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| patch #2 day 4 |
More slime mold stuff in the
next VSR.
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| on one day it looked like this... |
Fungus –
nice bloom of Amanita muscaria on the mainland.
Most of my bike rides in mid-late June on the mainland have been with A. muscaria and woodpecker nests on my
mind. All Amanita photos here were taken from bike rides from tenants harbor to
the Marshall point lighthouse and back. Nice times…
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| bustin out |
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| later it looked like this.... |
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| ...and it looked like this... |
a goal of mine is to not be the creepy guy in the woods. I often find that I fail at that goal.
recently I was the creepy guy by the church (to a certain extent) as I was hiding behind the sign in the photo waiting for parent woodpeckers to return to a nest in the tree to the right of my bike.
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| baby downy woodpecker. cute, and a constant beggar |
never saw the adults, but one of the kids looked like this...
now back to mushrooms...
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| Suillus sinuspaulianus has no common name it can find. can you come up with a common name for it? yes, you. |
Boletes – Suillus seems to be the genus of
choice, or the genus of bolete I have
crossed paths with recently. Can’t really remember if I have ever seen this
one before, but it was all over the Williams trail in the Basin Preserve trail
(6/22) - identified out as Suillus sinuspaulianus. Sticky cap is classic for the Suillus genus....
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| cool shaped pores |
... S. sinuspaulianus has a beautiful undercarriage of angular pores and a sweet ring around its stalk/stipe. just check these out....
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| "S. sinuspaulianus" is a fun common name |
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| dot stalked suillus has dots on its stalk |
....I also can’t remember the
last dot-stalked suillus I saw, if
ever but this one was definitely bloomin’ along turkey cove road in St. George.
Subtle along the stalks…
Water club - (6/15) – wetlands close to Seal Bay turned up a handful of these beauties – love the “club fungus”.
Much more on fungus and
mushrooms in the next VSR!
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| love the water club |
More on mushrooms in the next VSR - including King Boletes....
Butterflies –
Tiger Swallowtails, American ladies,
Common ringlets all pretty common these days. Lilacs have been sweet
smelling and irresistible (no way to actually tell this) to American Lady
butterflies.
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| "viceroys are much tastier than monarchs" - ancient Estonian Proverb |
I found this Viceroy sitting in the parking lot of
the Tenants Harbor General Store. He spent the night in some potted flower
thing on the porch. When you look at them closely they don’t really look that
much like Monarchs, but it was fun to have this guy hang out for an evening in
some store bought flowers. Classic Viceroy habitat!
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| leif and flowers next to the viceroy for size comparison. leif is much bigger than a viceroy butterlfy |
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| "we'll have plenty more nature stuff in the next VSR" says scrat the chipmunk |
