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| tree island photo by Banner Moffat |
Welcome to the VSR – November 5th,
2015
Brought to you with the appreciated support
of VLT and MCHT
“good to see there is crap for you to
photograph on the mainland“– Uncle Tom.
He has always called it as he saw it.
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| Rocks and grass photo by Banner Moffat |
Highlights –Ducks featuring Harlequin and Oldtails, Hooded Warbler, Pipit, Snow Buntings, horned larks, salamanders, butterflies, mushroom stuff of course, couple of new otter latrines, molt stuff,
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| trail photo by Banner Moffat |
Thanks to Banner Moffat for sending in some recent landscape shots of Vinalhaven. Nice way to ease into the VSR – we are always looking for new ways to ease into things. Don’t ease me in.
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| crockett's point west photo by Banner Moffat |
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| surf scoter photo by Rick Morgan |
Tiit Trick – click on the photos and they will enlarge to the limits (size) of your monitor or the programs you run on your laptop. Or something like that. Just click on them, you’ll like it.
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| can you smell the sunset this evening? |
Tiit Trick – click on the photos and they will enlarge to the limits (size) of your monitor or the programs you run on your laptop. Or something like that. Just click on them, you’ll like it.
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| fall ferns photo by Banner Moffat |
Share Your Sightings – always appreciated. Send in reports, photos, rants, questions whatever to vinalhavensightings@gmail.com .
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| these tiny people rolled logs and found plenty of salamanders photo by Susan Raven |
Kid Stuff – the annual fall Salamander hunt never disappoints,
no matter how many years we ravage the woods surrounding the school. (11/3
& 11/4) were fantastic. As many as 50 red-backed salamanders were found
(and lovingly relocated) by the students, and a great time was had by all.
Thanks to perspectives staff – Susan and Elizabeth for dealing me, to VLT and
PIE for sponsoring perspectives, and to MCHT for sponsoring my time with the
kids. Looking forward to the next one!
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| we started with some intense instructions about the hunt. no one is paying attention by the way photo by Susan Raven |
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| Olivia was into it photo by Susan Raven |
Sightings – Martha Reed reports finding a spotted salamander
in her yard recently. Armbrust Hill is
loaded with Spotted Salamander eggs each spring, so one might figure “good
luck” in several cultures, including the Estonian one, so Martha can look
forward to 15 minutes of good luck sometime in the next 4 weeks.
Non-consecutive minutes of course.
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| oldtail ducks.- stock photo |
Drury on water and land– John drury sent
in a report of highlights from a recent trip to Seal Island and from around
Greens - (10/26) Hooded Warbler, many Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. American Pipits on beach. Bufflehead in shore, oldsquaw and Black-legged Kittwake off shore.
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| purple sandpiper - stock photo |
From the ferry – finally caught a couple of early morning
ferry rides from Vinalhaven. The lighting was great and the birds were fun – (10/28) 8:45am from Vinalhaven – 53 Black
Guillemot, 24 Common Loon, 13 Eider, 28 Double-crested Cormorants, 4 Surf
Scoter, 4 Black Scoter, 16 Purple Sandpipers, 1 Black-legged Kittiwake, 2
Bonaparte’s Gull, 6 Oldtail ducks, 1 Bald Eagle…
(11/5) 7am from Vinalhaven – 1 Bald Eagle, 85 Black Guillemots, 36
Common Loons, 11 Oldtail ducks, 3 Red-necked Grebe, 6 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 8 Surf
Scoter, 1 Great Cormorants, 4 Double-crested Cormorants, 2 Laughing Gulls, 3
Ring-billed Gulls, lots of herring and great black-backed, 1 Black-legged
Kittiwake, lots of Eiders…
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| common tern photo by Rick Morgan |
…some notes
– great to see some of the winter classics return – oldtails, kittiwakes,
scoters and purple sandpipers. Lots more to come! November is a great month to
be on the ferry! And you are pretty much guaranteed not to get shot!
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| this loon is working its feathers maintenance or |
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| black guillemot, non breeding plumage |
They are great books, all bestsellers in my household, with catchy titles such as “Gulls of North America”, “Behavior of North American Mammals” and my favorite “Molt in North American Birds”. What a fascinating topic to have a reference guide to. How each family of north American birds – from Anatidae (ducks, dude!) to Fringillidae (Finches, man!) – go thru the motions of growing new feathers.
How can
anyway argue with sentences like “Spending their lives in relatively cool
forested habitats, chickadees are not exposed to much strong sunlight and hence
their feathers are not prone to wear. Thus their performative molts are
partial, typically involving head and body feathers and some wing coverts.” What’s your performative molt like?
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| diggin' needle covered trails perry creek! |
And while
observing molt in Chickadees takes a lot of imagination, there sure are enough
birds that have molted along the ferry route to observe the changes. (purple
sandpiper).
Here’s what
Steve Howell (son of Thurston) has to say about molt.
“although
molt (or molting) is often thought of as feather replacement, it is really the
systematic process of feather growth”. How cool is that – Steve squashing a
false understanding of what molt is. People who believe this drive Steve
crazy. Here’s more
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| certainly something was molting somewhere on earth when I took this |
“the loss of
feathers in later molts is usually a passive by product of new feathers growing
in and pushing out the old ones.” Typical.
And then to
cover all angles Steve writes “Molt is also a dynamic evolutionary process, and
what we see today reflects millions of years of ongoing fine-tuning. In some
cases, a bird’s strategy may not make sense to us, but this may be because
there has not been enough pressure to change a strategy that worked well
thousands of years ago”. When in doubt though in the ol “we have no idea what
pressure millions of years ago inspired this adaptation”!
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| some trails look like this |
Overall I
like Steve’s perspective and information (wait – is this a book review?). the
triggers and stimulators (are you with me?) of molt and feather plumage –
different color feathers alternating out of the same follicle! I think that is
frowned upon in several states. Molt is cool – think about it, or not.
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Bike ride (on the way somewhere) 11/4 – state beach – 6
red-breasted merganser, 4 horned larks, 10 red-necked grebe, 4 common loon, 4
oldtails, sharp-shinned hawk, bald eagle…folly pond – 7 wood ducks, 2
green-winged teal, 2 mallards, 4 black duck, bald eagle.
In the woods – brown creeper, red-breasted nuthatch, chickadee,
golden-crowned kinglet – all very loud.
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| last red admiral on the black cohosh photo by Sylvia Reiss |
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| best. card. ever. - Leif |
also got this awesome card from one of my favorite two sister-in-laws. probably a copyright infringement here, but even if its up for only a short while, I think its important for everyone to see where candy corn comes from. eat it hallmark.
and congratulations to all who see this card and say "I knew it".
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| otter pond scat - |
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| more otter pond scat |
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| nice try tar. can't keep a good mushroom down |
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| shaggy maine how is this not the state mushroom of maine? photo by Amy Palmer |
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| hope to cross with more honey mushrooms |
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| tough tawny grisette in a dry grassy field |
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| turkey tail |
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| chicken mushroom - see it every year, same spot had an awkward conversation with someone about this I think they thought I was going to take. protective mushroom appreciaters |
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| irregular earth tongues are nice and yellow |
time has flown, we have other stuff to share but it will have to be in the next one.....
and some of leif....it was a grim reaper sort of Halloween.
and good times on a beaver dam and the beach.
stay safe out there!
