Welcome to the vinalhaven sightings report –
September 20th, 2012
Mcht, vlt and u
Hello equinox! Hello Cleveland!
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| night crew |
Highlights: butterflies,
phararopes, mixed species flocks, raptors, fungus – including “Armbrust Hill
trifecta”, trail camera stuff, plants and flower stuff, and the most beautiful
coral slime I have ever seen.
Send your poor, your hungry sightings... to the official VSR sightings email at sightings@myfairpoint.net. And while you're down there don't forget to demand to be put on the official VSR email list where you'll receive a (relatively) friendly reminder whenever a new VSR is posted – usually twice a month, sometimes more, sometimes less!
anyway, It's a good place to send sightings, photos, and any correspondence you might want to share. and sharing is good.
Remember the "Tiit-trick" - clicking on any photo stimulates said photo into growing! Technology engourges them with enough life and light to fill up your computer screen! In other words- click on the photos and they get bigger. Dad figured this one out. Upcoming events : One more time! - September Wednesday morning bird walks – next Wednesday -September 26th, 8am skoog park. I’ve been to one this month so far and it was fun, here’s what we saw on that rainy morning-yesterday! - (9/19) Folly Pond – 2 white-tailed deer, 9 Wood duck, Black Duck, Mallard. Belted Kingfisher, Golden-crowned Kinglet … State Beach- many Eider, Red-necked Grebe, Laughing Gull, Black guillemot, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow… and then we called in a wet day, even though it had been wet the whole time.
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| its been a little moist at times |
4th or so annual MCHT’s Lane’s Island Hawkwatch – Saturday September 29th, 10am -2pm. Come on out to Lane’s Island and check out the movement of raptors as the big predators get the heck out of the north before winter comes. Peregrines, Merlins, Eagles, Sharpies, Harriers and more are anticipated. Come and go as you please, and feel free to bring coffee for the “leader” of the watch. The darker the better, so the coffee goes. We’ll meet over at the picnic table closest to the tombstones and graveyard and see what we can find.
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| who's fatter? (or who's phatter?) photo by sylvia reiss |
First with the eggs. Then with the caterpillars – the most
beautiful in every stage of the way. Sylvia got this photo on the 12th. those larvae getting all plump with the goodness and poison of milkweed!
Bird Stuff Hawk
migration – lots been going on, with lots more to come. Patience Chamberlin
has been seeing some good raptors as of late- Fox
Rocks (9/10) 35 broad-winged Hawks in mini kettles of 5 or 6.
Biggest was 8. 5 eagles, 6 Ospreys, 3
sharpies-shinned Hawks, and 3 merlins… and on the Reach – (9/10) 3 Merlins,
(9/9) Peregrine Falcon…Rick Morgan and Arlene Rodenbeck were paddling up on
the Thoroughfare and got some photos of this Peregrine Falcon perched on Burnt
Island near the sparkplug. Rick also got some shots of an early Surf Scoter
that is hangin in the thoroughfare. Rick and Arlene later went back and
observed 50 Surf Scoters in the thoroughfare! In September! Seems early, but
those Scoters and Oldtails do love the thoroughfare.
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| Peregrine Falcon by the Spark Plug photo by Rick Morgan |
On the water – Fluke and
Ferry stories – American Golden-plover
observed in flight between 3 phathom ledge and Seal. Seen later that day in
Seal Island…. Hundreds of Red-necked
Phalaropes observed from Fluke Trips this September…Many red-necked phalaropes were seen from
the ferry as well…recent trips to Brimstone
Island include sightings of Sharp-shinned
Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Northern Harrier.
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| this king bolete was tiny and as great to see as ever |
The Armbrust hill
trifecta – in reverse order – if there are three species of mushrooms that I put together with timing and habitat it’s Amanita
muscaria, Chantrelles, and the King Bolete. This goes back to my Acadia
National Park days, and even back to the central California days, where
Chantrelle didn’t share the habitat, but timing was about the same. Anyway…
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| chantrelles patches always get a big smile |
The chantrelle
patch at the turnoff to the Indian Creek overlook was bursting. No surprise
here really. Many of the chantrelle patches that traditionally fruit in July
were “unbloomed” as they say (who’s they?).
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| Amanita muscaria always like a dream |
Anyway, coming back thru the playground I spotted the
Amanita muscaria of my dream. more like the
A. muscaria of my morning. It was a beautiful moment.
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| the chantrelles were about 2 months late this year. that was fine with me. |
there is mucho fungus out there these days, more that should be talked about then will be. only at a later date. too much has been left out. so it goes...
for now it's photos and a game. the game is called "flip it over".
for now it's photos and a game. the game is called "flip it over".
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| warty amanitas are thick in the woods this time of year. |
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| some waxy caps are golden |
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| coral mushrooms are almost as beautiful as coral slime |
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| waxy caps lightinp the woods |
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| its hard to imagine false chantrelles fooling anyway. and yet it happens |
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waxy caps look good above and below |
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| scaley-stalked pholiotas still pumping 'em out |
\
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| we love tawny grisettes wonderful amamita |
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| young amanitas are as cute as a button |
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| the boy and me were back to our old roles i cut 'em, he cleans 'em |
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| the gypsy is a pleasure to find |
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| chocolate milkies are crowd pleasers |
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| salmon unicorn entoloma |
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| corts' stalks come with a ring... |
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| ... that the ring is a remnant of a protective coverng off the gills called a cortina |
now let's flip some fungus!
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| this luminescent panellus looks like |
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| this when its turned over. and it glows in the dark |
next...
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| this thin maze polypore looks like this.... |
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| when its flipped over! |
and finally...
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| this looks like this.. |
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| and then like this... |
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| and finally like this how does it get its name, the maze polypore |
Plants, flowers and
stuff. – (9/4) found some nice sundews in a pleasant river wetlands.
As with all predatory plants, we here at the VSR are big fans of the sundews.
Especially when they team up with a Mycena for a group photo op.
(9/4) pleasant river – Hooded
Ladies’ Tresses. – I believe the first I have seen before, John Drury
mentions seeing them on Otter Island nearby. Cool to find them on Vinalhaven.
And these plant things, when they go to seed can be purrtee as well. Jack-in-the-pulpit fruit bunches (is there a name for these things?) are pretty these days.
And a family favorite – Skunk
Cabbage – fruits are like a darker, further decomposed version of a fruity
bunch.
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| there's the goldenrod and there's the poop |
And a shot I call “goldenrod and raccoon poop”. The goldenrod has been especially easy on the eyes as of late. Alright, enough about plants.
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| leify with a giant floridian grasshopper probably called soemthing else |
On a personal note – the Gentalen family/world has certainly been turned on its head with my dad’s surprise passing a few weeks back. Thanks to all the VSR folks for their thoughts, emails, cards, hugs, kind words, and random crossings of paths in Rockland during this really weird time. It all makes coming back home from being off island for the worst month of my life that much easier. And nicer. It’s so good to be home. And good to see ya.
And with all that in mind - let’s play a game – it’s called ”Do you know this kitty”? – the MCHT game camera is on a game trail – white-tailed deer/raccoon/snowhoe hare to be exact , not a Homo sapien trail. The pictures have been fun to check out. We did get past a few technology glitches, (all of which were “kirky-induced”) and suddenly had a summer’s worth of photos (almost a pletheroa) at my disposal. So Anyway, I got a few of this little dude- does anyone recognize this cat?
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| otter pond kitty |
The other shots are from August - just west of Mack’s pond in the old harbor pond section of the basin. this is about a mile from the otter pond camera location. The frequency of cat photos near Mack’s pond leads one to conclude that this is a regular pass for the feline pouncer, might even be a home area for him. For the kitty it looks to be regular 3am pass in the area, and it’s been “caught” three times on film over in the last month doing so.
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| do you know this kitty? |
The other shots are from August - just west of Mack’s pond in the old harbor pond section of the basin. this is about a mile from the otter pond camera location. The frequency of cat photos near Mack’s pond leads one to conclude that this is a regular pass for the feline pouncer, might even be a home area for him. For the kitty it looks to be regular 3am pass in the area, and it’s been “caught” three times on film over in the last month doing so.
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| mack's pond kitty alias - otter pond kitty |
So do you know this
cat?
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| mack's pond kitty moving- to the left this time! |
So I guess the next question is if you do recognize this
cat, can you tell its owner to keep it
in? Even say please if you have to.
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| night of the pale zombie cat. in 3-D! |
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| at one time there were two... |
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| ...and then there was one |
and just like that, the end of this VSR. we'll be back with more in a little bit.
enjoy the day! and we'll see ya out there!
