Vinalhaven Sightings

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

December 2 2021

Brought to you with the support of Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust

Happy Birthday Leif – 13 tomorrow! What a world

Happy Hanukkah!

Highlights – Snowy Owl, Winter Moth, Ipswich Sparrow, Snow Buntings, Red-throated Loon, Black-legged Kittiwake, Mushrooms featuring Crimped Gill, and Sweet Tooth, Ferry Rides, Blood on the trail, and so much more. Good stuff in this one!

Letter 'P'?

Business – Contact us – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com – send us your photos, your stories, your ‘anything nature related’ or of ‘limited edition’ style and become a star for a week (or a day or an hour – a lot of that depends on you). Anyway – who’s the star this week you ask? Answer down below – sharing is good!

Tiit trick- click on the photos – make them jumbo sized! That’s an order, or a dare – whatever gets you to click!

Red-throated Loon from Ferry, Rockland Harbor

Winter moth – November 22^nd was a ‘good’ night for winter moth watchers (you know who you are). While a random winter moth or two were spotted on nights preceding the 22^nd (like the 19^th, the 20^th, and the 21^st) the 22^nd was active enough on the St George peninsula that I sent an email to Linnell Mather (yes, went to that extreme) to see if any/many were noted that same night. Here’s Linnell’s response –

the one that got away
blood trail on Basin trail

‘I meant to email you when I got home an hour ago: I gleefully killed about ten fluttering around outside my back door this evening. I spotted a few as I drove home, but just the random few; no snow clouds of them.’

even bled on some VTP!

So the same night but less than other years from Linnell’s point of view and route home. Cool. I love (rather ‘am fond of’) the fact that the mid-coast mainland ones are n’sync with the moths on Vinalhaven, but when it comes down to it I do not love either population. Hope the numbers stay low on island! Stay classy Vinalhaven.

ring necked phesant
photo by Linnell Mather

Sightings – Yard Birds! - More from Linnell – here are some shots of a female Ring-necked Pheasant that Linnell sent in. This female apparently visits her yard on a regular basis. Nice shots.

Linnell mentioned that there may be as many as 4 hens in her neighborhood and one local male Ring-necked Pheasant as well. Seems like a good time to mention….

kinda look like they would be
easy to shoot
photo by Linnell Mather

…that Ring-necked Pheasant season in Maine runs through 12/31 with a daily bag limit 2 birds. So someone go out there and shoot some – that’s why they were brought out to the island a few years ago, right? Quicker they are shot, the quicker we can move on…..

Hit up this website for more information on hunting pheasants in Maine. https://www.maine.gov/ifw/hunting-trapping/pheasant-hunting.html

Thanks to Linnell Mather for the photos and for helping with the pheasant info….

zoomed in back yard Snowy
Photo by Alison Thibault

Yard Birds II - Alison Thibault was kind enough to share this video – slightly shaky at times – and photo of a Snowy Owl being harassed by a crow (raven?) in her backyard Saturday (11/27).

Talk about the ultimate yard bird! So cool – hopefully a beacon for a ‘good’ winter of Snowy Owls – an irruptive winter if you will.

loon diving, has nothing to be with owls

Note on owls – good to remember that when we have ‘good’ years or even ‘good’ sightings of owls, there is often an element of stress on the owl that is part of the reasoning for why you (the royal ‘you’) are seeing it in the first place. This is not always the case by any means, but an inspiration for some irruptive years is lack of food up north. This is when owls head south with grumbly, empty tummies and many do not survive the winter – nature is/can be cruel or something like that. Anyway – just keeping it real, things to think about while nature observing.

surf scoters

Crossing my fingers for a good owl winter!

Thanks for sharing Alison! You may know Alison from crossing paths with her on the trails or in the Post Office. But did you know she makes jewelry? Well, she does, and her store is called ‘Windhorse Arts’ – and here is her website - https://www.windhorsearts.com/

black-legged kittiwakr

I can honestly say that the majority of the jewelry I have bought (none for me) in the last 18 years has been from Windhorse Arts! In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the majority of jewelry I have bought in my life is from Windhorse (says something about the amount of jewelry I have ever bought) and have never been disappointed in the least. Alison is a pro, super creative and best of all a wonderful person. Pretty sure wherever you are you should buys gifts from her. Let’s see that ‘VSR-bump’ at Windhorse!

Ipswich Sparrow

State Beach – Took a lunch moment or two at State Beach (11/15), first time in too long of a time for a November State Beach visit.

A single Red-necked Grebe was a surprise low in numbers, but lighting and lack of a scope undoubtedly played a role in the singularity of Grebe sightings.

Ipswich Sparrow

Where the waters off State Beach are often Grebe-ful, and the mudflats can be magnets for shorebirds in summer/early fall, the isthmus that connects the beach to the island thing is also a hotspot for cool sparrows and sparrow like birds in November.

I marched out quickly to the isthmus – only had a moment or two – and this sweet (judgment) Ipswich Sparrow working its way through washed up bladder wrack.

snow buntings in flight

I had forgotten how hard it is to sneak up on critters and other mobile things while wearing orange, and so removed my hat and Hunter Pence bright orange San Francisco Giants visitor’s jersey and was able to get close with little noticeable impact. I mean, the bird knew I was there, but just slowly walked, never flew in fright. Or so that I saw.

snow bunting

Ipswich Sparrow is a subspecies of Savannah Sparrows, which breeds only on Sable Island of Nova Scotia and winters on East Coast beaches. Large and pale compared to ‘regular’ Savannahs, Ipswich lack the distinct yellow lores of the ‘other’ Savannahs. Always fun to see, not a yearly sighting in my experience.

snow buntings on the rocks

At the same time, and in the meanwhile, a flock of 15+ Snow Buntings had spotted me in my orange and seemed very jittery to my presence. Could have been predators around that put them on edge – cutting myself some (undeserved) slack here – maybe a Peregrine or a Merlin, but these bunting wanted none of me or my presence.

Got a few shots and then my moments were up and I was off. Good times at State Beach!

latrine and view

Basin – (11/15) Clearing trails off Wharf Quarry Road allowed for a quick ‘drop by’ to the first river otter latrine I’ve ever been aware of. Back in Jan ’07 on one of my first days working with MCHT I walked to the lobster pound/skinny dipping point (not to go swimming or dipping – it was January!) with a couple of co-workers. One guy, let’s call him ‘Jeff’, wanted to see if he got cell phone coverage (wasn’t going to happen in the Basin in 07) and while he waited I noticed he was standing on several small piles of fish scales and broken crab exoskeletons! He was deep in the spraint, and my appreciation of otter latrines began. (too much history).

hard to miss this otter trail

Needless to say, but I will anyway, I visit this spot at least 5 times a year (depending) and never have I visited and not found otter spraint there. Quick math puts that at 14 years and counting, and when you factor in that otters live 8-9 years of average in the wild suddenly it appears that we (the ‘royal’ we) have tracked 3 generations of otters in the Basin at that spot! Creatures of habit, we love ‘em!

I also visited the beginning (or ending?) ‘trailhead’ of one otter trail (1.5 miles) that connects the Basin with Vinal Cove over by Pleasant River. Anyway – Niall Conlan helped me learn about this trail wow – back when he was in High School! And now he’s a pop! Go figure.

creek side latrine

And of course, the trail was as ‘evident as day’ from heavy use and travel. Otter spraint was present in impressive amounts; clearly the trail continues to be used today. Love the Basin otters, which also happen to be Vinal Cove otters to an extent.

another otter latrine view

Huber – (11/14) cleared some trees off ‘the Hubes’ trail and it was wonderful.

Oak Point’s otter latrine showed fresh spraint- wonder if it’s from the same otters from the Vinal Cove Trail? Sometimes I get a little envious (not really) of the views otters get to take in while pooping (sprainting?). I hope they appreciate the beauty of their latrines. This is hopefully the most anthropomorphic paragraph in this report!

turkey tail

Beyond the spraint –
well, some hefty branches that have fallen – not necessarily too recently, but some that have not too long ago – are covered with mushrooms. One hefty branch along the lollipop loop (first branch on your left going clockwise) harbors a significant amount of shrooms – like almost covered completely. Worth checking out.

false Turkey Tail

young VTP specimen

love Crimped Gill!

Here are a couple of mushrooms shots from that branch. Crimped Gill is a favorite of mine, and not a yearly sighting at all

and here are some of the crimped gills themselves!

crimped gills rule!

enough with the crimped gills!

nothing says christmas like

Limited Editions – it’s that time of year!

...or...

...or even....

what about.....?

and whats the deal with this?

doubt it.

PSA – just a word on stuff like this. Not trying to pick on anyone, but rule of thumb is if you have to explain how cool you are (or used to be) you probably weren’t/aren’t that cool, even if it’s true. And that is okay. Keep it real, be cool with yourself, and cool to yourself and others. There is a book called ‘What do you care what other people think’ by Richard Feynman that I used to see in book stores. I never got it or read it because I believed in its title, and thusly didn’t care what the author thought. The title worked too well! The best cool is being cool with yourself and enjoying life. Or so I hear. Easier typed than done I suppose. Anyway, bumper stickers like this bug me. Thanks for listening.