Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report - July 15, 2020

Leif calls this a 'Jawa spider'.

Brought to you – in part – by the nice folks over at the Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust. ‘Two great tastes that taste great together’

this is a chocolate tube slime

Highlights – Not animals -plants. slime molds, mushrooms, 

Business : Pardon our appearance - for some reason 'blogger' (no relation to 'frogger') has updated the whole 'uploading and putting together a blog post' and it is something that I figure I will get used to over time. we are not there yet! a little funky, but ain't that the way we roll.... 

Contact us - feel free to contact us with “questions, queries, queasts” about anything nature or naturally feeling. Good way to share, and an even better way to make friends. At least 10 people have become friends directly related to the VSR . vinalhavensightings@gmail.com . 

Tiit Trick – click on the photos and they magically will fill your screen. Great way to avoid reading whatever is being typed here! 

try it with the tapioca slime to the left! i dare you!

Bittersweet PSA - The 'royal we' ran into some technical difficulties earlier this month which led to not only photos that has been 'dealt with' disappearing, but also an almost completed 'VSR text'. Losing photos of slime molds is not a big deal - trust me - but losing the VSR throws me off. As a naturalist/nature bum, I prefer to move forward to see/find what’s next, and at times writing about the past can be a 'drag'. Writing about the past twice 'drags' for sure, and not in a good way, but we deal. anyway, just to let you know some of the stories may not be embellished as much as usual. Truthiness lies in the drag. And in the end there are two separate VSR summaries for the past weeks. Hope you enjoy!

Lost non animal photos – bladderwort, slart (slug-art)

There are two kinds of animals included in this report, and they make sense with their connections to the non-animal subject of the observations. Springtail and slug, including some basic slart. 

On the lookout – there are 2 photobombs in this particular report, both of a particular slime mold that just happens to be fruiting particularly close to the subject of the photos. See if you can find – 10 points if you do! 

Sightings – It’s a non-animal story about flowers…while some appreciate heath plants (Family Ericaceae) for their fruits that are blue – here is a photo of Leif picking blueberries. some of our favorite heaths are the parasitic and epi-parasitic ones in the genus Monotropa. are up and blooming. Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora) and Pinesap (M. hypopithys). 

Here’s what John Eastman says about the ‘Corpse Plant’ in ‘The Book of Forest and Thicket’ 

‘Botanists of an earlier generation, convinced  that nature had made a bad mistake, deplored this strange little perennial for its ‘degenerate morals’. How dare a seed plant give up being green and become a parasite! Today, botanists call them epiparasites, for it feeds indirectly from the roots of green plants. Its source of nourishment is sub-surface mycorrhizal fungi, which interconnect with the roots of nearby plants and derive nourishment from them. The fungi act as a middleman that processes food delivery to ghost pipes from their neighbors.’

I think they call that ‘stealing from fungi’ actually. The ‘nourishment’ or ‘sugars’ the tree provides are shared with the fungus in exchange for phosphorus and nitrogen. It’s a symbiotic relationship known as ‘mycorrhizal’. What these ‘heaths with degenerate morals’ or the ‘HWDM’, are doing is tapping into this symbiotic relationship for their own benefit. Taking from the fungus, not the plant. It may be epi-parasitic on the trees, but it is parasitic on the fungus! 

Anyway , that’s the good ol’ Ghost Pipe.

And some Pinesap are out and about on the trails in smaller numbers. We love dem parasitic plants almost as much as we love dem carnivorous ones. Bladderwort photos next time, I promise!

It’s a non-animal story about fungus and mushrooms….. low rain year, and the mosquito numbers reflect this. not every spot is 'mosquito low' but mosquitoes have been scoring 'low' on the annoying matrix this year. 

this is a dye maker's polypore from near Old Harbor Pond

always a good year for mushrooms though (even though 2009 was not the best mushroom summer), and at the time of this writing it appears the announcement 'year of the blusher" is appropriate. Amanitas in general always seem to represent, and 'I'manamanitaman' should be copyrighted - we like 'em, they help the trees grow - hardcore mycorrhizal relationships here, every amanita tells a symbiotic story. and some of them can kill us, while most will disagree with us to a certain extent. 

this is a Yellow patches  (Amanita flavoconia) pushing through the earth

They are sighted along most/all trails all summer. 

Yellow patch buttons coming up...

..favorite food of slugs (I shouldn’t really speak for the slugs)....

Tawny Grisette (A. fulva)- all-time favorite mushroom, lots of personal history here, and not in a scandalous nor slightly interesting way. 

Cecillae amanitas (A. cecillae) - seen around, especially in the Basin preserve

but the Blusher (A. rubescens) seems to be the local amanita that is diggin' the conditions. 

                                 

what about BOLETES you say? 

Bitter bolete (Tylopilus felleus) with some slug art (slart).

Nice webbing pattern of the bitter bolete stipe. 

King bolete (Boletus edulis) out on lanes, past prime for sure

and leif with an 'in prime' king he found

It’s a non-animal story about slime molds…. once again, a dry spring and summer overall. The numbers say this year is not last year as far as slime molds go, much less anything like the summer of '09! (Will there ever be another one like '09? the summer of the slime mold! what if that was the 'once in a planet's lifetime' event as far as slime molds go? that's how legends are born..... but I digress). 

Wolf's milk slime (WMS) (Lycogala epidendrum) is thriving in the local conditions this year. 

look at this huge patch I saw along Seal Bay.

20 feet along a tree decomposed to the most degree!

Coral slime (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa) has been active. In both flavors....

C. fruticulosa var. fruticulosa with its tiny columns looking to sway in a current...

and the honeycomb looking (C. fruticulosa var. periodes)....on a log along a trail near you!

Tapioca slime (Brefeldia maxima) has also been a hit recently ... .

especially with a spring tail on it - hope the  video can upload!

and chocolate tube slime as well. it’s been a good time to be a slime 

and then there is Leif with a king bolete.

And Leif kayaking, 

And time is up. 

We’ll see you out there!

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report - July 15, 2020

 

Brought to you – in part – by the nice folks over at the Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust. ‘Two great tastes that taste great together’

Highlights – Animals - Red-billed Tropicbird, Razorbills, Hermit Thrush Nest, Canada Geese, hot Slug action, Snakes, Spiders, other things

 

Business : Contact us - feel free to contact us with “questions, queries, queasts” about anything nature or naturally feeling. Good way to share, and an even better way to make friends. At least 10 people have become friends directly related to the VSR . vinalhavensightings@gmail.com . 

American Copper on Calderwood Island

                                Something funky here - the page I upload photos to has changed its appearance and for some reason it's tricky to put photos next to text. this is unfortunate, but maybe I will figure it out by the time to post. We'll see! things may look a little different, but don't we all? 

 

 

Tiit Trick – click on the photos and they magically will fill your screen. Great way to avoid reading whatever is being typed here!

 

Bittersweet PSA - The 'royal we' ran into some technical difficulties earlier this month which led to not only photos that had been 'dealt with' disappearing, but also an almost completed 'VSR text'. Losing photos of slime molds is not a big deal - trust me - but losing the VSR throws me off. As a naturalist/nature bum, I prefer to move forward to see/find what’s next, and at times writing about the past can be a 'drag'. Writing about the past twice 'drags' for sure, and not in a good way, but we deal. anyway, just to let you know some of the stories may not be embellished as much as usual. Truthiness lies in the drag. And in the end there are two separate VSR summaries for the past weeks. Hope you enjoy! This one is on animals…

 

Chalk-fronted Corporal

photos gone - woodcock footprint and bill pokes, dragonflies,

 

Canada Geese in America
Photo by Banner Moffat 

Sightings – Animals - Canada Geese - Banner Moffat sent in this photo of a small gaggle of Canadas up Crockett Cove way. Geese have been spotted from the ferry regularly these days , or so I hear.

 

Black-billed Cuckoo
photo by John Drury

Good year for Tent Caterpillars can mean a good year for Cuckoos. Here’s a photo of a Black-billed Cuckoo from Greens Island that John Drury sent in.

 

razorbills and matinicus rock
photo by John Drury

On the water – John also reports Red-billed Tropicbird from Seal Island. Both John and Jamus Drury have reported seeing Father/offspring pairs of Razorbills floating around. Here’s a couple of photos John sent in of razorbills pairs….

 

Razorbill pair
photo by John Drury

And so, from here this VSR becomes a tale of three main tales. Tales that were lost, and now are found, but are not going to be repeated in their entirety. For the sake of getting these things posted we will lightly skim these three and toss in random in between. Anyway, and whatever - enjoy!

 

two hermit thrushes

And so, it’s a tale of a Hermit Thrush nest...while weedwacking out along Seal Bay,

 

walking back with motor off, but Frank Zappa keeping my hiking beat true

 

I saw a scurry under the sensitive ferns, which I figured to be a rodent or shrew

 

secretly I was hoping for a shrew.

 

Anyway, it was these two youngsters in a nest (see photos), and one nearby that scurried

 

widow skimmer

freshly sprinkled with greens from the weedwhacker that I brushed back the ferns with

 

did I mention the motor was off?

 

but the Zappa wasn't. Cosmik Debris, complete with Tina Turner background vocals serenaded the youngster while I took a few photos quickly.

 

whitetail skimmer

I would like to say all parties were better off for it, but I can’t confirm that

 

Not a story about dragonflies on Armbrust Hill. And a couple to be on the lookout for….

 

and so, it’s a tale of the year of the snake? – ‘Year of the snake’ - not ready to make that call just yet, but I have been crossing paths with snakes at an alarming rate this year. Timing? most likely, but this one on the log was almost a 'still life with snake' scenario.

 

Hiking in the basin preserve, heading to the Jim Mack pond trail, chainsaw over shoulder, I noticed this garter snake resting on a trailside log.

 

I didn’t break stride and turned off the ‘earth wind and fire’ (I learned from the hermit thrush/zappa incident) walked maybe 15 feet further and dropped everything.

 

I went back with cameras  and the scene remained the same.

 

very content, barely moved. wasn’t sunning, was shading.

 

its skin looked new, and the chill feeling there, late in the morning, was different than almost every path crossing I have with snakes in general.

 

Lasted a few minutes, grabbed a few shots and kept going.

 

5 minutes tops.

 

red-spotted ant-mimic spider

Spiders - Not a story about - Red-spotted ant-mimic Spider (Castianeira descripta) - on Lane's.

 

Not a story about different crab spiders in my back yard in St George.

 

male crab spider

And so, it’s a story of spiders, or at least one. It has been a summer of Crab Spiders in my world. After a dragonfly session at Armrust Hill I came across this crab spider scene.

 

I am used to the Crab Spiders being the predator, nailing butterflies of all sizes in a classic camouflage ambush style.

 

But here was this Blue-black Spider wasp (Anoplius sp), carrying an adult female Crab Spider in its mouth and having little to no problem covering ground. Three times the wasp leapt from a leaf or a blade of grass, only to catch itself on the next landing spot while maintaining a swift pace and progress. this wasp knew what she was doing.

 

this one is in mid-air. 
riding the spider like a surf board

it eventually hopped across the trail and into the underbrush. it had some difficulty maneuvering through the grasses.

 

Apparently the wasp took the spider to a shallow hole or grave. she will lay a single egg on the corpse and then bury it , a delicious first meal for the freshly hatched egglet!

 

Alright, here’s some Leif…..

 

 

saving a sparrow.....

pulling out a tire.....

And our animals…..

 

 

 

 

And on to the next thing! See you out there!