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| raven photo by John Drury |
Alrighty Vinalhaven…let’s do this thing…..
the VSR, July 15th,
2013
MCHT and VLT get a tip of the hat, but…
Hats are all the way off to our boy Lincecum – the Freak! – on his 148
pitch no-hitter!
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” – Leif. He was thinking about
building a Viking ship.
Highlights – insects,
shorebirds, slime molds, fungus, butterflies, eggcorn
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| here are bunch of people looking at birdies |
Upcoming events – Advanced bird walk this Thursday July 18th
, 7am at skoog– for our intents and purposes “advanced” just means getting
up a little earlier. In theory an earlier start means well, we’ll see. Should
be fun, will be fun. It always is – VLT/MCHT joint venture.
Regular bird walk – July
25th, 8am – skoog – regular.
MCHT Basin Mushroom
Walk – Sunday July 21st at 1pm! Meet at skoog! – “Get down with
your bad fungal self” and we’ll take in a leisurely stroll along some of the
Basin trails and see what we can find, fungally speaking that is. Slime molds
too!
Speaking of mushrooms here’s a video of chantrelles cooking in their
own juices
No moisture added
Two quick reminders –
please send in sightings, photos, questions and emails to vinalhavensightings@gmail.com.
And the “Tiit trick” with the photos – click on them and they’ll fill your
screen with joy and bliss. Sound good? OK!!!!!
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| Polyphemus Moth Photo by Erin Creelman |
Highlights – Insects we trust – Erin
Creelman, (of recent turtle photo fame) continues to capture shots of
wildlife in her neck of the woods, and now is sending in moth photos. “It is a polyphemus playground up here in
our neck of the woods!” (7/9),
now how often do you get to read that in any neck of the woods!
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| Nice antennae photo by Erin Creelman |
Anyway, Erin points out that with all the talk about winter
moth these days it’s good to point out moth diversity – not all moths suck as much as winter moth! Some are huge and others
are beautiful even to non-moths….
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| ain't no tomato in my hornworm! photo by Erin Creelman |
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| get those wings dry and pumped photo by Erin Creelman |
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| dragonfly style |
and then I went up to Armbrust Hill to get some dragonfly
pictures (insert nerd/loser joke/comment here) and crossed paths (literally)
with this young Praying mantid (for
some reason most references I’ve found call them “mantid” rather than mantis! Whatever
it’s called I can honestly say that this little bugger was tiny!
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| this dude was really tiny |
I’ve seen a handful of mantids out here on the island, and
others have sent in photos, but for some reason this little one helped me
realize that I didn’t know squat
about their being or life cycle (or lifestyle) other than the fact that the
lady sometimes eats the dude after mating. Here’s some more info on them – much
of it lifted from the internet so you know it has to be true!
Insect relations are still disputed, but currently (or what
I most easily found) is that Mantids are all in the order Mantodea, and are included in the superorder (I love my orders to be super) Dictyoptera along with
cockroaches and termites. Nice company.
It is believed that back in Cretaceous Period Mantids evolved from some sort of “predatory cockroach”. That’s right
folks, not only did mantids roam with
Dinosaurs, but there were predatory
cockroaches roaming too. (Maybe there still are predatory cockroaches today,
I don’t know squat about cockroaches). Anyway…. and so for at least 65 million years Mantids have been eating
their mates, right? Sure. Good for over 2400 species of mantids on earth today, many in the tropics.
Mantids go thru 3 states – egg, nymph, and then adult - during their life, a process lovingly
referred to as incomplete metamorphosis.
Nymphs (like the one I found) look pretty much like adults, but they can’t fly (thusly why I was able
to chase this one in the video below) and can’t reproduce
(one less thing to worry about for a nymph). This little dude will shed/molt its exoskeleton up to 10 times
before it achieves adulthood and then can start eating mates, or be eaten
by them.
Since our little man of the house (Leif) is going thru a
huge Ancient Egyptian/mummy faze I had to look up if there was anything about
them mentioned in ancient texts. Sure enough…..
“During the
excavations at Deir el Medine B. Bruyère [5] discovered a small, somewhat anthropomorphous
coffin made of clay which contained the remains of a praying mantis wrapped in
linen.”
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| 12 spotted skimmer - hint: only count the black spots |
That’s right – a mantis
mummy! That’s so cool, and truly the
spraint! Ancient Egypt must have been so cool (they were making mantid mummies
for crying out loud!), and all of us at the VSR wish Egypt a smooth settling
these days, for everyone’s sake. I’m sure they feel better.
“Are you thinking
what I’m thinking?” - Any reference
to Mantids in ancient China? (just pretend you were wondering that) so while we
are at it…
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| beavers are active at folly pond beavers are not mantids |
“Two martial arts
that had been separately developed in China have movements and fighting
strategies based on those of the Mantis. As one of these arts was developed in
northern China, and the other in southern parts of the country, the arts are nowadays
referred to (both in English and Chinese) as 'Northern Praying Mantis' and
'Southern Praying Mantis'. Both arts are very popular in China, and have also
been imported to the West in recent decades.” - Wikipedia
So that’s all cool, but what are they
called in Estonia? “palvetades Mantis” and yes, Mantis is capitalized for some
unknown reason (to us, the royal “us”).
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| chalk-fronted skimmer |
And while
we’re at it and pardon me for getting all literary and spraint but I often find
myself writing/typing the name “Preying”,
rather than “Praying”, Mantis. Now,
the whole “Praying” (standard, excepted
way of spelling) part of the mantis comes (obviously) from the way Mantis
(or is it Mantii?) looks as if it is
praying as it sits waiting to strike in ambush (praying for food?) or looks
to mimic blades of grass (maybe praying
not to be seen). The little nymph in the photo appears to be doing this, but
failing miserably as I could see it . Word has it that they mimic ants as well,
but we didn’t see that. Anyway, this simple slip in spelling that I make constantly
(or as often as I have to type “praying mantis”) is probably due to the fact
that the appearance of them “praying” is not so much on my conscience as much
as their “preying” on other critters (hefty appetites or so we hear), or their
mate (how many times do we have to mention this?). This simple mix up with no
intentions of being witty, whiffy, punny, or funny is called an “eggcorn” by some. I had never heard of
an “eggcorn” before, but the term comes in reference of someone writing “eggcorn”
instead of “acorn”. “Eggcorn”, what a
concept. Is there a term for everything? It’s like a pun but not supposed to be
funny, not that puns are funny. Anyway, we like the term “eggcorn”. That’s what
this whole thing is about.
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| tropicbird and pal photo by John Drury |
Wow, that
was exhausting….what next – On the water…
John Drury has sent in another set
of great shots as well. The tropicbird
looks to be continue being seen (what?) on a regular basis out on seal. From
the photos and reports of Puffins, Razorbills,
Manx Shearwater and Tropicbirds sounds like the trips have been going
great. Don’t forget to get out on the water with john this summer –
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| wren and fir photo by John Drury |
Also and
from up Tip-toe way is the raven (seen
above) and a great shot of a Winter
Wren. Winter wrens are some of the loudest songbirds in our woods, some of
the earliest singers and yet it seems like years can go by without a view of
one.
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| least sandpiper |
Bird walk –
we had a nice morning with our first bird walk of the summer last Thursday
(7/11). Lane’s Island – goldfinch, common
yellowthroat, alder flycatcher, catbird, song sparrow….folly pond – wood duck and bald eagle….state beach –
willet, least sandpiper, lesser yellowlegs,
short-billed dowitcher, common tern, nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow, common
eider with young, osprey, double-crested cormorant, common loon,….
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| willet |
the story
here is several fold. It was a great bird walk – shorebirds so close you could lick the tundra off them, nelson’s sharp-tailed
sparrow aerial display and then in the scope, eider babies, and other things –
lots of songs in the woods. But the highlight was Army seeing birds for the
first time on one of the bird walks. He has been on several bird walks over the
course of a few years and had never mentioned not seeing birds before! Good on
ya Army! Way to keep with it!
Fungus – wish we had mroe time to delve into, here's a little taster, so to speak...
Chanterelles and Amanitas are doing well……
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| Amanita muscaria |
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| You can hide, but you can't run |
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| no comment, destroying angel |
Boletes
looking good….
....with pink pores even!
Slime molds are doing their thing.
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| yes, that is a springtail on this tapioca slime |
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| meeting of the minds |
And leify is handling the hot days well. Weller than his dad for sure.
and a video of rockin' out with uncle big al jones.
see you out there!!!!
