Vinalhaven Sightings

Friday, May 7, 2021

this osprey is back and sitting on a bouy

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

May 8 2021

Thank you to MCHT and VLT for their support!

spring beauty - not from Vinalhaven
but probably out there

Highlights: Migration, songbirds including Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos, woodpeckers, Ferry ride including harbor porpoise,

Business: PSA – ticks are abound these days – do tick checks when you are out and when you get back home! Spray if you want, there are lots in the ‘right’ places.

poison ivy sure is cute when little

Contact us! – Send to us! Share with US! – That’s right; the Vinalhaven Sightings Report is currently (and eternally) looking for anything you might send us! Seriously, we love it

Vinalhavensightings@gmail.com is the email. We will respond!

also - check out Nature Bummin' columns at

www.mcht.org/story-tag/nature-bummin

blue headed vireo

Tiit Trick – click on photos to make them Jumbo-sized!

Sightings –

Songbirds – who’s singing – White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Winter Wren, Black-capped Chickadees, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Brown Creepers, Hermit Thrush, Dark-eyed Juncos, Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos

red breasted nuthatch

chickadee excavating cavity

brown creeper on sap

Fantastic year for Brown Creepers – do I say that every year? Do I repeat myself when under stress? Probably to both.

Anyway, I got these photos of a Creeper on Clark Island . Blending in well with the sap running down the spruce. Looked cool

Ferry Ride – (5/4) – Surf Scoter, Old-tales, Bufflehead couples, Black Guillemots, Common Loon, Bald Eagle, Double-crested Cormorants. Common Eider, Harbor Porpoise

Loons and Guillemots of different molt status seen. Old tales in breeding plumage – possible nomenclature ‘spring tales’ – seem to float just that much more further away

black guillemots in black and white

broad winged hawk

Raptors – been seeing a lot of Broad-winged Hawks on the mainland, certainly lots making their way to the island if not already then soon enough.

Here are some shots I took of a pair that were displaying across the road from the clubhouse that I work out of much of the time in St George. Sharp looking small raptor….

Wood Ear/Tree Ear – Auricularia auricular – good mushroom to look for after early, warm rains…if you are looking for a mushroom to look for…

slime mold plasmodium

Also – early stages of Slime Mold spore formation – slime mold plasmodium – are making their way through a substrate near you.

plasmodium with snail

Scat Lessons – Raccoon flavored – Well, those of you who were concerned about the Racoon population along the shores of Seal Bay need to worry no more.

The raccoons, or at least one raccoon, have a diverse diet of ‘shellfish’ and ‘crab’, as evidenced by the crab exoskeleton pieces and bits of Blue Mussel in their/its droppings.