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| peeper |
Welcome to the
Vinalhaven Sightings Report
June 5th,
2014
Brought to you by VLT
and MCHT
“Ugliest birds I’ve
ever seen” – Sally
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| feather |
Business – contact us at vinalhavensightings@gmail.com .
We are here (or there really) for you. And your sightings. You’re welcome.
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| lady slippers are out! Huber, fox rocks, Armbrust hill and more |
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| vultures photo by Sally |
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| crossing the line photo by Sally |
Not so sure if Vultures so close to the medical center is such a good omen, but maybe the playground smelled badly or something (Vultures can smell!)
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| great time to be checking out the hay scented fern fields |
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| is there ever a great time to drink a "bud lite lime mang-o-rita"? warning - it does contain alcohol |
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| ruby-corwned kinglet with ruby crown showing photo by John Drury |
If you learn one call......Here's a male Black-throated Green Warbler singing - they are everywhere
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| red-bellied woodpecker photo by Kate Bennard |
Calderwood Neck –
Kate Bennard sent in a few shots she
took from her feeder station. Red-bellied
Woodpecker is the only one we’ve heard of on island this year (doesn’t mean
there weren’t dozens of them around). And two male ruby-throated hummingbirds acting civil-like while sharing a feeder
is a moment to capture. Thanks for sharing
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| ruby throated staring contest photo by Kate Bennard |
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| Blackburnian Warbler photo by Karen Oakes |
Chestnut Street and Poole’s Hill area– Karen Oakes sent in this awesome shot of a Blackburnian Warbler she took on Chestnut Street. Karen noted that she had a few new warblers for her this spring – Blackpoll and Wilson’s – and two VNMs are better than none, while “none” is fine as well. Thanks Karen and congrats!
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| ain't no place i'd rather be |
Speaking of warblers
– loads of them still around, not going to “list them to death” but of note was
a pair of dueling Tennessee Warblers
(6/1) over State Beach way. The official “Vermivora of the VSR” (eat your
heart out Nashvilles!)
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| tennesee warbler hop |
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| Canada warbler photo by John drury |
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| Red-billed Tropicbird photo by John drury |
Greens – John Drury
reports - blue birds, bobolinks, Canada warbler,
black-throated blue, blackburnian, black poll, wilsons. Thanks for sending in
the photos John!...also on greens – Jamus Drury reports spooking
an Otter in the cove out there. Apparently the otter bolted and bailed the cove
so fast it took to “porpoising” or jumping fully out of the water (eat your
heart out “breaching”) as it sped at lightning speed, or at whatever speed
lightning would go at when traveling thru water. Anyway, several others got to
witness this spectacle as well.
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| "lady phalarope pico fino" photo by John Derury |
On the water – on the
Skua! (book your trip to Seal and other assorted islands by calling Captain John Drury at 596-1841) – From the
boat (the Skua) or on the island (Seal) - (5/21
on Seal) Lark Sparrow, white-winged dove…(5/26) – Harlequin Duck at
Brimstone…..(6/3) Red-necked Phalarope, Red-billed Tropicbird, Razorbill, dunlin, Kittewake, Parasitic Jaeger Skua,
and Great cormorants.
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| harlequin duck photo by John Drury |
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| lark sparrow on seal island photo by John Drury |
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| dunlin photo by John Drury |
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| great cormorants photo by John Drury |
Shorebirds –
State Beach – Black-bellied plovers and red knot. Both species are
arctic breeders – still heading for the tundra – so get a move on dudes! Red knot
is a VNM for me on Vinalhaven.
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| can you see the red knot mixed in with the plovers? |
Butterflies –
American Lady, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spring Azure, Eastern Comma
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| basin geese |
Babies – Basin –
2 pairs of Canada Geese were sporting young while swimming
around the basin. One couple had 3 youngsters
and the second pair had 6 geeselets
and thought they were twice as good as the first couple. Apparently not even breeding
Canada Geese like breeding Canada Geese as the posture capture in this photo is
not likely an invitation for the other family to “Come over and mingle”. Love ‘em
or hate ‘em – there is no in-between with geese. Or maybe there is….
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| bunny photo by Banner Moffet |
Baby Rabbit –
Banner Moffett was kind enough to send in this photo of a
young rabbit out Crockett Cove way (5/31).
Pretty cute…..
Here are a couple
of rabbits that have been living in my yard for a while.
There is even a third, “lots of lags around these days” as we used to say. Actually,
there does seem to be a lot of bunnies running amok these days….
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| body-less bunny |
And there is one
less bunny out there…..apparently the rest of the rabbit
was eaten by the young Great Horned owlets,
or maybe just one of them. I did manage to snap a shot of one of the youngsters
– getting big and technically can fly. It’s not so graceful to watch, and they
have landings that make you cringe, but the babies are growing up fast.
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| getting big |
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| red crossbills |
Baby Crossbills – we’ve (the
royal “we’ve”) been reporting both red
and white-winged crossbill sightings from the long cove/middle mountain region
for much of the winter. Usually the birds have been singles or pairs, and the experience with them has been mostly
in “fly-by formation” - passing birds
that get mentioned in passing in the VSR. Well, yesterday morning (6/4) a
group of 20 Red Crossbills spent a
hefty amount of time feasting and buzzin’ around middle mountain spruce trees
topped thick with cones. The best part was they didn’t care about me or hearing
the “Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie
Brain’s” I was feasting on with my ears (listening to).
They worked with “crossbill magic” to open up
cones and snag seeds from within.
Got some video to document it the crossbills
in action. Here’s a solo Red Crossbill,
watching guard or something and then he takes off and I give thanks…
Now here’s an interesting one – a youngster whose bill is not crossed yet.
Apparently it takes some time to fully cross – my googlin’ on this topic has
been a failure to this point. Whatever. makes me wonder how frustrating it might be to instinctively want to act like a crossbill while not having crossed bills. I'm sure they get over it.
Now here’s the youngster goofing around until an adult Red Crossbill comes by
and you can see the youngster do a beggin
display with wing-flutter – classic baby bird style.
And here’s the top of a spruce tree buzzin’ with Crossbill activity – 4 or 5 total can be seen in the video.
Did the crossbills breed here this spring? It appears
so, at least the Red Crossbills look like they did. Not sure if Crossbill
families would cross water – like from Isle Au Haute or something – with young
still begging.
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| mom with pup, and anothey pup sniffin' |
Baby Seals – still thinking
about piñatas….anyway – Winter Harbor, Seal
Bay, the Basin, and the from the ferry – we got baby harbor seals! Not
everyone loves these guys either, but if you are passing by ledges do a scan
for perpendicular pairs of seals – the smaller one is probably nursing! First
seen around the 20th, the young are about ½ way to being on their
own – that’s right after 4 weeks with mom its shark bait time. Good luck guys!
Baby Robins – so we’ve had
robins in our yard all spring and the other day Leif and I decided to find
their nest. It took about 5 minutes to locate their fine abode, nice structure
and even nicer that it’s eye level for normal heighted people (fact, not
judgment). Anyway, so there were 4 eggs to begin with and we checked on it once
a day – as long as it was nice out – as to not scare the parents off when it’s
cold or rainy.
One day we came outside to find egg shell in our walkway – pretty much an invitation to check out the nest and sure enough over the course of the day 3 youngster broke their way into the world.
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| day 2 |
The next day we went back out and found that
the 4th egg still hadn’t hatched, at which time we hatched a plan to
deal with the egg since as it seemed likely not to hatch. Needless to say it
ended in grossness – I will spare you the details, ask about it and I may tell
you the story. There will be many a funny face while telling the tale.
Anyway, it’s raining so we haven’t checked for
a few days, at last look 3 of them we’re kind of lying around on each other. Lazy.
Grow up!
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| day 4 |
Baby Ravens – are loud and in the woods
everywhere.and plenty of time exploring with leif.
great time to be out there....so we'll be seeing you out there!
