Welcome to the
Vinalhaven Sightings Report
July 16th,
2014
MCHT and VLT co-sponsored
“I haven’t seen any
blue Monarchs lately”
“love the unknown”
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| Minke Whale photo by John Drury |
Highlights – Whale and
tropicbird, Dragons and a damsel, Broad-winged and a mink (not together), pond
and patch (milkweed that is) watching, birds and butterflies, slimes and
fungus, and hey – even a plant.
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| great spangled fritillary |
Tiit trick - click or flick on
the photos and they get huge!
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| Rose Pagonia photo by Beth Guilford |
Tomorrow! - July 17th
– 7am at Skoog
Then…………. July 24th
at 8am.
Then…………. July 31st
at 7am. Got it? Good – see you there!
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| bleeding tooth - great name! |
“Fungus thru Binoculars” - slide show and walk August 4th/5th.
Slide show, stories, commentary and jokes will be Monday August 4th – 7pm at Town
Hall
Fungus walk, exploration and jokes – Tuesday August 5th 9:30am – Skoog Park.
It t’will be fun!
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| red-billed tropicbird photo by John Drury |
Check it out! - “In our hearts, we all figured John would
get all techie and go blog someday….”. Getting the word out about cool
nature stuff is what “it” is all about, and when “it” (the other “it”) comes to
nature blogs we (the royal “we) think “the more the merrier”! And with that we,
(the royal “we”) are excited to post a link to John Drury’s new “Boatrides from Vinalhaven Aboard the Skua” blog, -
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| manx shearwater photo by John Drury |
John has been posting photos from his Skua outings around
the islands and out to Seal since June and it’s an impressive collection
already! So go check it out, and keep checking it out for new stuff posted
(close to) daily! Here’s a taste of some recent shots John has taken from Skua
lately! Thanks for sharing John
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| pair of otters! in the reach photo by John Drury |
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| ivory black-backed gull photo by John Drury |
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| black-throated green female with food |
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| redstart on nest photo by Patience Chamberlin |
Here’s a redstart “at the nest” sent in by Patience
Chamberlin on Reach Road. Our yard Robins are back on their third nest – the
second one got “blue jayed” . Nest #3 has 3 eggs. Pictures to come.
Folly Pond – we stopped
by Folly pond on the July 10th bird walk and saw a pair of Wood
Ducks – female and male in eclipse plumage. And a bald eagle. 5 baby wood ducks
were seen that morning and again that evening. Folly pond is a good pond for
pond watching.
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| 1. BW hunting |
Broad-winged Hawks
– 4 sightings reported in the past few
weeks - just past the dump- round
the island junction with Poor Farm road, twice Broad-wingeds have been
spotted there – another one by Todd’s Garage and then this one just past Folly
Pond. Hunting from the wires, this guy
scored a vole “roadside”.
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| 2. BW hops off wire |
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| 3. talons out |
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| 4. roadside cafe |
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| 5. take off with vole |
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| 6. over the road hope the other vehicle saw it |
Shorebirds return? –
or is this just where they turn around….-
warning – judgments and
generalizations are contained in the following section.
With birds, post breeding migration with birds has a
completely different “feel” (judgment) compared to the spring rush, with birds “not
being so horny” as the speculated difference. The spring (pre-breeding) migration is a mad rush inspired by hormones,
swellin’ organs (cloaca’s swell) and dreams of cloacal kissings (wonder if
birds ever dream that). The “fall” (post
breeding) migration is more like a stroll with a cigarette, “the swelling is
gone but schlepping goes on”. They (the birds) don’t look so sharp (some look
downright disheveled (mid-molt)– as if we should judge). They get to where they
are going, but there will be no singing the songs of bliss and promises along
the way. No. It’s about survival in the fall. Wow, this whole paragraph was a
pleasure to write. |
| least sandpiper |
Anyway, so shorebirds are starting to show up. On the July
10th birdwalk we saw a spotted sandpiper (somewhat local breeder
possibly), we heard a greater yellowlegs, and saw this hot little Least
Sandpiper at State beach. The spotted sandpiper very well could have arrived
from close by, but the Least in breeding plumage came from Labrador or Hudson
Bay area – maybe. What we do know is that more shorebirds will be arriving!
State beach is a great place to check ‘em out. Anyway.
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| Spear-marked Black nice name! |
Spear-marked Black
Moth (Rheumaptera hastata) – this moth has been
everywhere this summer. It is a hard common name to say quickly, but “hastate”
is a cool species name. and they are everywhere. That’s all we got.
Pond watching – Dragonflies have been drawing us (the royal “us”) to ponds around the island. What we have found is that sitting by a pond’s edge and following the activity above and below the water is extremely calming. “The VSR hereby officially advocates Pond Watching” – now its official. Here are some highlights….
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| this dude still has a tail |
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| red-spotted newts love to eat dragonfly eggs |
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| chalk fronted corporals love to land on human stuff |
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| rose pagonias |
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| rose pagonias are thick in some ponds |
Note on damselflies – Odonata is the order of insects that includes Dragonflies and Damselflies.
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| eastern forktail - damselfly |
Hardcore Odonata fans
are known as “Odonuts” or “Odonatanuts” or as “Odonataidiots” by jealous “Lepidoptanuts”.
(we could go on forever with this).
And so, “odonuts” probably will be offended by this, but Damselflies, by definition are not nearly as cool as Dragonflies (I mean, come on – Dragon vs. Damsel? No brainer). But even with that said, we can’t help but be impressed with the Damsels around the ponds. There are loads of blue ones (not blue monarchs) and the eastern forktail is an old friend from Cape Cod (circa 1998) for me.
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| spread wing |
And so, “odonuts” probably will be offended by this, but Damselflies, by definition are not nearly as cool as Dragonflies (I mean, come on – Dragon vs. Damsel? No brainer). But even with that said, we can’t help but be impressed with the Damsels around the ponds. There are loads of blue ones (not blue monarchs) and the eastern forktail is an old friend from Cape Cod (circa 1998) for me.
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| this eyed brown was hanging by Mack's Pond |
Anyway, damsels in the genus Lestes are known as spreadwings
because they don’t close their wings like other damsels do at rest. Hurray for
creative names! Anyway, we got this here photo of a spreadwing and were ready
to hit the guides for some spreadwing learning when we learned this from Nikula
and Sones (also Cape cod acquaintences from circa 1997) in “Beginners Guide to
Dragonflies” – of which of course damsels are not dragonflies at all.
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| love mack's pond |
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| another moth feeding the pitcher plants at mack's pond |
Needless to say I did not find a match for this spread-wing
in the field guide. Love the unknown!
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| milkweed galore |
Patch watching – Butterflies have been drawing us (the
royal “us”) to milkweed and dogbane patches around the island. What we have
found is that standing along a patch’s edge and following the activity is extremely
calming. “The VSR hereby officially
advocates Patch Watching” – now its official. Here are some highlights….
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| housed in these chambers is the sweet nectar of the gods. or something like that |
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| look who showed up at Calderwood Island! this Monarch butterfly patrolled the milkweed patch all day I saw two this week - that equals my total from last year |
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| How does this Great Spangled still fly? |
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| that's more like it |
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| white admiral |
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| red admiral underside - racy |
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| red admiral butt |
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| red admiral open |
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| beat up northern crescent |
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| skippers are fast and furious. or at least fast |
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| another skipper snaggin' nectar |
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| after taking a pretty good header falling out of a tree leif opted for some safety gear while bouldering |
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| we don't eat amanitas, we put them on our finger. tony hawk would approve of this picture |
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| getting high (off the ground) with nanni |
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| getting cozy with nanni |
and some nanni time as well! hope your summer is going great. we'll see you out there!
