Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report –
February 1st, 2014
February 1st, 2014
MCHT & VLT teaming up for support
Highlights – Green-winged Teal, Ferry rides featuring Iceland Gull and an
epic gull trip, Red-throated Loon, Horned Grebe, otters, accipiter at pumpkin
ridge,
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| this burl looks pixelized on my computer something about this reminds me of zappa |
Word of caution - Blogspot is acting a little screwier than usual uploading photos. Some photos appear "over pixelated" on my computer. This is the blog doing that, we are at the mercy of the blog....anyway, if some shots don't look right it's because it doesn't look right. anyway, we're going to roll thru with it. Hope at least some of these shots look alright.
If shots look over pixelated please be kind and imagine what it would look like better. Or something like that.
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| when seal bay freezes over |
This is an MCHT trip
and is part of the “Great Maine Outdoor
Weekend”, www.greatmaineoutdoorweekend.org
. This name kind of implies that other
weekends aren’t as great as this one to be outside. That is simply not the
case, all weekends in Maine are great to be outdoors, and this one will be
great as well, if not greaterer.
Seal Island Seal Cam is up! – hey – here’s something to look at on your computer that won’t make you go blind and is not reading the VSR! - The grey seal pupping camera is back on on (on) Seal Island and is aimed to satisfy all your grey seal watching fantasies (as long as your fantasies have them lying around popping out youngsters and nursing for the most part). http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/seal-pups-cam - It turns “on” at 10am for “live action”, but even if its dark out you can go to the website and watch a highlight reel – with births and battles and eagles caught on film! Anyway, check it out!
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| snow covered roger - from huber |
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| some, if not all of these ducks are inbred. |
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| let sleepin' green winged teals lie |
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| scopin' out the starlings! |
Sightings – Green-winged Teal – probably the most
popular bird on the island over the last couple of weeks has been the Green-winged
Teal that looks to be over-wintering at Carver’s Pond. It has been spotted and reported by a small
handful (missing 2 fingers) of observers over the past month and a half. Originally
spotted in December by John Drury (see those old VSRs if you don’t believe us.
Might have been November.), the 3-5 kids who came to the “perspectives” bird
watching session got great views of it thru the scope, sleeping and standing on
the ice. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen one out here, but we don’t “scan
the pond” like we used to when we lived just down the street. Figures. Here’s
our list for the days:
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| green-winged teal we'll let you guess who took the shot! |
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| nappin' with the big boys |
Anyway, the best (judgment) Green-winged Teal report and photos were sent in by Sally,
documented in this “skin hill sally - off
the hill” special edition. Apparently Sally spotted the bird while at work,
trekked up the hill (that’s “skin hill” to you, buddy) and schlepped back to
the back of the store and got some great photos of the bird. Being keen on
things Sally then went back and looked it up in her bird book. And it was a
“field guide success” story – correctly identified and a new bird for sally to
brag about – VNM! Congrats!
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| wolf's milk and snow |
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| ghost lichen |
From the ferry – Pete’s report – Captain Pete earning
the big bucks by pulling his weight and looking for wildlife while driving the
boat – with his knees perhaps? Here are some words - “straight from the crow’s nest”
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| windsor orange number 34 |
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| day one |
For a few minutes we watched, then the gulls started to stream west. Toward Rockland or someplace else. It appeared that the western most birds started to go then the others. Against the clouds you could see individuals in the "kettle" start to soar west.
It got dark and we were moving away. I thought it was cool. Maybe I was just bored. Lots of Razorbills this week too.
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| 8 days later |
1/17 One Iceland Gull at Rockland at noon
1/19 Lots of Black Guillemots (100 more or less) and Razorbills feeding just west of "FT"
Great Cormorants around too.
1/19 Lots of Black Guillemots (100 more or less) and Razorbills feeding just west of "FT"
Great Cormorants around too.
Thanks Pete – also from the ferry – non cap’t Pete- 1/16 – lots of razorbills, handful of
kittiwakes, Red-throated Loon
Our otters….alright, so I
was researching on the “wide world web”, I did a “something” search on “river
otters spraint estrus” – along with many readers at home. A link with photos
came up, including some shots of what looked like tracks in snow. I said – now
those look cool – and when I clicked on them I found out they were from a VSR
last year! My own photos! What a world. |
| yes, we are still finding this white goo |
Carver’s Pond - Johnny McCarthy (member of the Johnny & Ali McCarthy team) pulled over the other day to tell me about a family otter sighting. Yes, it was both a family of otters (must have been 3 or 4 – “pond otters”) and several members of his family were lucky enough to see it – Johnny was not one of the lucky ones. “Bella spotted them” Johnny confided and its no surprise that she did - Bella being the resident 3rd grader with eagle eyes for wildlife. It should be noted that Johnny mentioned all this while parked head on into traffic on a blind curve with like a 45% slope (editor’s honesty - we have no idea what percent slope it was). Well, we all survived and Bella’s sighting goes along with some of what we’ve (the royal “we’ve” ) been finding at old harbor pond.
“Coming and goings” Snow
tracking has been on this side of the “pretty lame” line for a while, but with conditions
being what they are/were (and appear to remain being (what?)) we did catch a glimpse into the otter world after a snow
ended late afternoon on (1/19).….(1/20) Looks like the Pond otters or “gang
of 4” (noted from December and above) came out of the Old Harbor Pond den
closest to the Sand’s (south den), headed out to the salt water for an evening
of fishing and frolicking, and then came back. They didn’t return to the south den
that night (1/19-20), instead they headed up pond towards one of the north dens
in the pond.
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| this is a confusing one. the otters are going away, 3 otters in 4 lines they stop almost at the top and then retreat to the right there is some back and forth towards the bottom |
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| back and forth |
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running together, breaking the ice all three end up in the drink three for one |
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| coming and going, rather - going and coming the bottom 4 sets are the otters "going pond" |
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| access to/fro old harbor pond muddy prints on the left are from otters coming out two belly slides on the right are otters going head first |
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| fresh otter tracks in my tracks, made just the day before in falling snow |
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| was it something i ate? this gooey number turned the snow around it red |
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| same crusty (acean) spraint - 7 days later |
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| could have been the beets. or the crustaceans. or the hormones. must have been the roses |
Anyway, cool to see, and if we ever get snow again we’ll
report what we find. Love may be in the air, but anyone familiar with river
otter mating positions knows that love has nothing to do with it.
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| in the ice, many days later |
From the hefty pile of spraints by the north den it was
obvious that the had visited this spot many times this winter (spraint here often?). Whether they spent
the day (their sleepy time) of the 21st in the den could not be
told, they weren’t in there at the moment that was for sure as the den was
frozen shut. What was cool was a set of tracks in the ice that was found by the
den area. Hard to tell when they were made, but all tracks to and fro had been
wiped clean on the ice, I got the feeling these were made a while ago and were
just in a protected spot.
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| spraints and a hole. icy den at this point |
We (the royal “we”) then crossed the pond to see if the 3rd
known den on the pond had any sign of use. What we found was old deer and fresh
raccoon tracks, but nothing from the otters.
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| this raccoon walked across (what seemed to be) the only patch of snow on the ice. seemed to go out of his way i wonder if it was smelling maybe the snow holds something |
It was time to go, so north we trugged along the western
shore towards the old harbor pond bridge, when I came upon a single, large set
of otter tracks and belly slides heading south that were captured in the ice. As
I worked north several more sections of this trail were found as well.
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| first slide found, big one |
From watching tracks and trails morph over the years this
frozen trail was probably made in the snow a while ago. With different melting
rates in the nooks and crannies of the tracks and belly slides and the snow
melting and refreezing (as ice) a raised trail in the ice/on top of the ice is
created. There has been no new snow to speak of since the 20th, and the
pond was de-iced by wind and rain shortly after. The tracks looked to be maybe
9 days or so old. I believe this was the local big male patrolling thru his
territory.
Gettin' that vibe |
| the solo ice trail belly slide at the top |
Anyway, going a little further we crossed 4 sets of frozen
tracks and trails in/on top of the ice similar to the trail mentioned above,
but these were heading north. They were made at the same time (roughly) as the
trail heading south, with frozen trails and tracks such as these taking time to
morph into this wonderful state, with many melting and freezing sessions.
My
guess, and its only a guess, is that these trails were made either on the 20th
or 21st depending on if the “gang of 4” spent a day in the north
den. Either way, the tracks made when they crossed the pond were gone, only the
protected stretch along the western shore was found. The trails did not extend
to the bridge, instead heading into a wetlands where a new latrine was found
and possibly where the otters headed into the woods to get to Old Harbor. There
was no sign that they headed back onto the ice directly from this latrine.
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| frozen four. criss cross. criss cross |
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| great kind of tracking, where the otters slid many days ago |
But, the otters have undoubtedly been back on the pond since
the 22nd – fresh dirt at the entrance to the southern den showed
that there has been recent activity. But with conditions being what they are and
have been (and will continue to remain be?) the otters have left tracks, trails,
and messages in a way to otters – but not visible to me! In other words
they have been scootin’ across the slippery ice for a week or more, but the
only tracks I can find are from like 9 days ago. Such is tracking, always
learning something but seldom is it living in the now. Days behind.
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| new spraint at a new latrine. the otters have taken over |
Anyway, it’s always great to be on the ice, and the tracking
was better than I anticipated, but I am from jersey so I don’t get my hopes up
very often.
Anyway – horned grebes at state beach and in the reach. Lots
of the “regulars” whatever they are.
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Warm days for picnics at state beach, codl days full of
legos (thank you farley!) and buddies coming over.
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| leif approves this picnic spot |
Hope February treats everyone well, and we’ll see you out there
