Welcome to the
vinalhaven sightings report - short one
August 24th, 2014
VLT and MCHT
sponsored
Highlights – Cicadas,
frogs, snake, shorebirds, red necked grebe, pararsitic jaeger, spiders, dragonflies, other stuff
Tiit trick – click on
photos to make them “as huge as your monitor allows”.  |
| pitcher plants photo by Banner Moffet |
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| dog-day cicada, with finger photo by Kate Bennard |
Sightings - Insects – Calderwood neck – great photos sent in from Calderwood Neck by Kate Bennard. Looks to be a dog-day cicada
(Tibica curicularis), but it should be acknowledged that there are over 25
species of cicada in north eastern north America and the book we use has photos
of 4 of the species.
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| cicada photo by Kate Bennard |
Here’s what Donald Stokes has to say about cicadas…”the sound of cicadas is made in an entirely
different way from the sounds of other insects. In the last segment of the thorax, there are two hollow cavities covered on one side
with membranes that act like drum
heads. Attached to these membranes are muscles that cause the membranes to
vibrate. Most of the mass of the large
abdomen of the adult cicada is empty, a large hollow chamber, and this may
help amplify the sounds produced in the thorax.
The sounds of cicadas
are made by the males and have the effect of attracting other males to the same
spot and stimulating them to sing as well. This can result in a large number of
males all gathered in the same trees and all calling”.
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| lilies photo by Banner Moffet |
Kate mentioned hearing the cicadas – “Oh my word....they are so loud” – which is the typical comment when
cicadas move into the neighborhood. Sounds like it might be a new sound for the
area, which is exciting, except that they are really loud. And those cicadas
are “crazy fliers” that at some point will likely fly into someone and that can
hurt. Other than that they are great!
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| monarch photo by Charlotte Goodhue |
Monarchs “en masse” – or at least a bunch at one time
reports Charlotte Goodhue on Roberts
Harbor reports…”I've got Monarchs in my milkweed here! Not clouds of them like the
'old' days,
But a few at a time.
Early this morning at least 4 all at once.”
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| diggin' in photo by Charlotte Goodhue |
On a
personal note, yesterday (8/23) I “bagged” two monarchs in the yard, bring my
yearly total into double digits (10!), which is exciting for no other reason
than I only saw two last year.
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| male monarch - (the king!) photo by Charlotte Goodhue |
Pond/field watching has turned a corner with shorter
days and receding shorelines.
Trolley pond up on Armbrust hill – Green Frogs abound! – tons of them along the ponds edge.
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| six-spotted phishing spider |
Leif
found this Six-spotted fishing spider
(Dolomedes triton) – Family Pisauridae
– or the “fishing and nursery web spiders” along the pond’s edge.
“all fishing spiders carry their egg sacs
with the chelicerae until just before hatching” – chelicerae being “mouthparts
modified for grasping and piercing”. The spider’s “fangs” if you will.
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| nice sac - that's the egg sac below the female! |
Well,
we got to see her egg sac first hand – Leif was checking out the spider and touched it (and who can blame him).
The spider’s reaction to Leif’s ginormous finger coming at it was to turn
upside down in the water. I came by seconds later, saw the upside down spider,
and thought I had to save it so I fetched it out of the water. Ended up the
spider was fine but I blew its cover. So I took a few shots and let it go. Nice
sac. Wish I had taken a photo when it was under water it looked cool.
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| Variable Darner - a mosaic with broken thorax stripes |
Mosaic darners (genus Aeshna) are currently “the” dragonflies to see at the pond. As
with all insect groups, Mosaic Darners can be tough to identify to species in the field. Getting a photo of the thorax and the two “variably shaped
stripes” that run across the thorax can go a long way to tell species. This
mosaic in flight has thin thorax stripes
that break into 4 spots – this
is the Variable Darner (Aeshna
interrupta).
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| Shadow darner - female laying eggs |
Many
mosaics “females lay their eggs above
waterline in the stalks of emergent vegetation, slicing into the plant with
their ovipositor.” The two thin,
straight bands on the thorax (and a few other things) make this a Shadow Darner (Aeshna umbrosa). This
Shadow Darner is laying eggs into iris leaves. Take a look at this series of
photos as the female uses its ovipositor to slice into the leaves to hide eggs
inside. It’s like Easter for dragonflies!
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| 1. nice ovipositor |
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| 2. ovipositor pokin' - note leaf shaving peeling off at the 'positor pokes |
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| 3. getting deeper |
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| 4. fully inserted, the ovipositor will now place an egg in the slit |
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| her eyes showed no sign of emotions as she laid her eggs - looks like she's laid a lot too! all those shavings are from egg laying |
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| laurel sphinx moth at the school |
other insects....
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| speaking of "nice ovipositor" pelecinid wasp |
female Pelecinid wasps "probe the soil with their long abdomens for the grubs of May beetles - they lay one egg on each grub. The hatching wasp larvae burrow into their hosts to feed internally, killing them". another reason why it sucks to be a grub.
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| nice tuffs |
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| nice tuffs again |
Leif spotted this white marked tussock moth caterpillar in the apple tree.
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| state beach |
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| this solitary sandpiper was by itself |
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| we love the lesser yellowlegs on seaweed |
Birds - Shorebirds
– state beach continues to be the place on island to see shorebirds...here are some lists - (8/18) - 2 Spotted Sandpipers, 6 lesser yellowlegs, 13 least sandpipers, 13 Ruddy Turnstones, 1 Black-bellied Plover, 1 Semi-palmated Plover, Solitary Sandpiper, Bald Eagle....(8/19) - 5 Semi-palmated Sandpiper, 5 Least Sandpiper, 7 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 3 Black-bellied Plover, 1 Short-billed Dowitcher...(8/22) 5 Black-bellied Plover, 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 3 Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 Spotted Sandpiper, 5 Purple Sandpiper, 7 Ruddy Turnstones, 5 Least Sandpiper, 1 Semi-palmated Plover, 1 Parasitic Jaeger....(8/23) 11 Black-bellied Plover, 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 4 Lesser Yellowlegs, 5 Least Sandpiper, 5 Ruddy Turnstone, 1 Red-necked Grebe
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| there are a bunch of ruddy turnstones on this ledge |
Shorebird videos - why do we use videos so much with shorebirds? laziness. I find it hard sometimes to get the shorebirds in focus for a photo as they move so much. videos focus themselves and for some reason zoom in a little more. anyway. here's some shorebird videos....
here's some black-bellied plovers doing the ol' classic plover hunting by sight. very robin-like, take a few steps and look, few steps and look, few steps and look...
here's the solitary sandpiper starting to fall asleep
here's a pair of least sandpipers picking off the top of the rock weed
lesser yellowlegs - "floatin"
slightly blurry, but still - 2 spotted sandpipers on the rock weed. you can still see the tail waggin' and bobbin' - classic spotted sandpiper
Not shorebirds - Folly Pond - has been good for Black Ducks and Wood ducks, and will continue to be a waterfowl spot for the next few months. Here's a couple of male wood ducks in eclipse/non-breeding plumage
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| bald eagle - photo by Banner Moffet |
other birds....
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| shag - photo by Banner Moffet |
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| common terns are a common sight on ledges |
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| juvenile common terns are still very loud |
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| nice talons photo by Kate Bennard |
And another sharpie bites the dust. "window thud"
Songbirds singing - in the yard this week - Brown Creeper, Parula, Black and White Warbler - singing
and with leif its about catch and release
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| looking over the edge |
