Welcome to the vinalhaven sightings report – April 1st, 2016
Thanks to VLT and MCHT and their continued support
Highlights – crossbills, Pine siskins, kittiwake,
razorbill, woodcocks, phoebes, springtails, mink, wood ducks, early mushroom
stuff and of course – owl and otter stuff
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| skunky! |
Business –
contact us with sightings, photos,
questions, concerns, criticisms (we are not listening by the way) ….. vinalhavensightings@gmail.com ….
Click on the pictures to make them
bigger – the ol’ Tiit trick!
Upcoming Events – 4/9 – Basin Clean-up – we all love
the basin so let’s show it (our love) this
Saturday – April 9th – 9am at Skoog. Bring some work gloves, a good attitude and we’ll see you there!
4/9 – Woodcock walk – after a nice
morning of cleaning up the Basin, nothing
comes close to taking that edge off
than an evening of woodcocks. This Saturday April 9th,
7pm at in the lane’s parking lot. Bring binos and warm clothes – woodcock walks are not strenuous.
Sightings – And
speaking of woodcocks – Colleen and Jim Conlan report hearing Woodcocks
(not sure why that is capitalized) a week or so back at Lane’s Island.
People from all around the island and throughout mid-coast Maine are reporting
woodcocks, and I seem to scare them up on most explorations these days. (4/4) spent a frozen crepuscular on
lane’s
MINK! - Gabe Peter Harp reports seeing a mink out on Lane’s while exploring with his two favorite small naturalists Mia and Dylan. Here’s a picture of a mink coming out of a den I got recently at Lake Megunticook which is very close to Camden.
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| mink coming out of a den |
Basin – (3/29) – (singing) Brown Creepers,
Golden-crowned Kinglets, Song Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadees, Red Crossbills,
Pine Siskins, American Goldfinch, Ravens, Robins…
Others singing around island – song sparrow, phoebes, juncos,
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| red crossbill photo |
John Drury
reports Red Crossbills in Moyer’s boatyard. Red crossbills also seen regularly Long Cove way and heard at Huber.
Ferry Ride – (3/21 – HBAP!) So we caught a nice
little snow, hope folks got to take advantage of it however you take advantage
of snow…
(3/23)
5 Razorbill, many Long-tailed Duck, Kittiwake, molting Black Guillemots and
Common Loons (not together), otter
sign… - this was nice after the bonus snow on the first full day of spring (?)
– otter slides from the ferry – Lairy’s
Island – historic den appears to still be in use with trails and slides easily
viewable from the ferry.
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| where the otter entered the sands |
Otters – Old Harbor Pond – (3/22) It didn’t take
long for me to “meet” the new otter
(same as the old otter? Apparently not) in my favorite Old Harbor Pond den. It also didn’t take long for the new otter to
let me know that I am not welcome there.
After years of standing on, over, and in front of this den - maybe 3 dozen times,
many times when multiple otters were inside - and now I was finally growled at.
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| the otter would be coming right at ya. nice truck! |
I heard nothing when I approached the
den site. I could see last night’s otter
trail in the snow leading away from the den – and eventually across Sands Road to Sands Cove. The signs
told that only one otter had spent the previous
night in the den was no evidence of the otter returned. This is the first time of finding evidence of a solo
otter in this den after 5 winters of tracking multiple otters there.
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| follow this back to the den |
“It started out as a low growl” – I was standing about 5 feet from the entrance of the den when
I started to hear a low rumble. I thought I might be a sound that my new phone
was making – it shakes and beep when it wants to – but I recognized quickly
that the sound was coming from the den. After a few seconds it started to get
louder and then there was a splash. I learned that there is water under the
den, and undoubtedly an underwater access option for the otter. I didn’t stay
to check it out, message received and understood, there wasn’t enough room for
me and the new guy.
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| while taking this photo I heard the otter growl |
“Well,
it’s official. You are not from here anymore” Jamus Drury summarizing the
underlying energy of this encounter. Not that I was ever from here, but catching spraint about it from an otter
hit home!! I didn’t have to look for a deeper message because the message was clear
– you are not welcome at the den. And I shall not return anytime soon. Gotta
respect the growl.
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| I was standing on the den when I took this photo |
And so the dynamics have changed at den # 5 since the fun loving gang of 4
lived here. And with change comes a plethora of questions. Who is this
otter? A remaining otter from the gang
of 4 maybe? A matured one – possibly a male (or a female) – with different
hormones pumping through it (literally)?
Probably not a nursing female as from what I’ve read, and if what I’ve read
is true, nursing females do not mark by
the den with young. Makes sense, who cares if you draw attention to your
den when it is empty, but when the helpless little ones are there probably a
good idea not to attract too much attention. This den had plenty of spraint
around it. It may be one of the gang of 4, matured and calling the shots. Regardless,
there is a changing of the guards in
the dynamics at old harbor pond. And
this otter was a very good communicator.
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| nice spraint! - latrine associated with OHP den #5 |
(www.acadiaenglish.com ) and they contacted me about a student of theirs that was coming from
Barcelona who was interested in wildlife and conservation. Would I be
interested in spending an afternoon with Oscar and a teacher? Once I found out he wasn’t a soccer fan I
said “sure”. For convenience sake we
decided on Fernald’s Neck out in beautiful Lake Megunticook. And so I did a
little otter tracking there and found 6 latrines and a place to put the camera
up.
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| look at this beautiful scene - brown-out hump to the left another spraint zone in the center and den opening |
The first latrine I found was so classic and beautiful it almost made me cry.
A nice mound with a brown out on top and spraint sliding down along its sides,
maybe 20 plus spraints in all, and the fresher ones looked to have been laid (?) at different times. (Do you “lay a spraint”, like one would
“lay a dookie”?).
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| "brown - out" is my favorite new otter sign term/phrase. where they spraint and mark so much that all plant life dies |
This was right alongside an entrance to what had to be a sure fire otter den.
I mean there was no other scat around-
we are talking pure otter spraint my
friends. So I put up the camera and got these shots of a big ol’ male river otter visiting the brown out (which was
unfortunately outside of the lens view of the camera).
here's a photo gallery of the male visiting and marking the latrine area
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| notice that the tail is wagging this dude is marking |
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| look at that back foot - so webbed. |
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| 4:30 pm visit |
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| just heading to the brown out |
What’s equally as cool (kinda) was seeing a mink while putting up the
camera. And then learn that the den in the photos in actually a mink den! The otter literally spraints all over this mink’s home! The pictures show the mink coming out of the den and sniffing where
the otter had been marking.
photo gallery - mink |
| coming out - same as above |
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| sniffin' the spraint |
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| sniffin' and lookin' |
Had a good time exploring with Oscar
from Barcelona and Brian from Camden, we found 10 Barred Owl pellets as well, to go along with the 15 or so pellets I had found on the
recon mission to set up the camera. That’s a lot of pellets! Safe to say owls
call some of shots out there at Fernald’s Neck!
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| apparently there is a lot of love on fernald's neck |
Bald eagles
also nest along the raging shores of Megunticook… and Kerry Hardy watched the local couple get cozy on the ice not to far
back. Here’s a shot of the pair a few steps away from each and a few moments
away from cloacal kissing! Smooch
city!
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| business time photo by Kerry Hardy |
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| she and he eagles photo by Kerry Hardy |
Otters in the Marsh….and now on to Tenants Harbor where I took the extra hour from the first
day of daylight saving time (extra hour
of light later in the day I mean), added it to a bunch of other hours and walked
around the main section of the marsh
north of the big beaver dam.
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| the marsh |
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| this is an otter mound |
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| this is an otter mound with spraint on top |
All in all it was a 4 hour stroll
looking for sign along the shore. 13
otter latrines, 3 mound areas (mounds with no spraint) and possibly 2or 3 new
dens to go along with the 5 latrines and 1 active otter den I had found
previously this winter. I also found two highly used otter trails heading off into the woods connecting the marsh to the ocean! To top
it all off I saw an otter at the end of the walk, which made it an official
otter walk.
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| this is a series of mounds with spraint maybe 5 or six |
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| the mounds were thick and wonderful around the marsh |
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| the cherry on top of mounds is spraint |
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| and of course there was this stuff |
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| nice mound |
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| why all the mounds? border between two male territories? but there are three otters living in marsh? at least never seen so many |
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| leads to this |
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| wide trail coming out of the water |
Beyond the otter scene the local beaver folk have awoke and their
phat trails coming out of the water led to some tree carnage evidence.
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| and this |
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| wood duck and wigeon photo by Linnell Mather |
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| Goose photo by Linnell Mather |
Whatsmore… A great thing about the
marsh is its geese. Paired up, spread out and making a racquet, the geese are
always up to something. Here’s some geese pictures Linnell Mather took recently. These are Seattle geese, not Canada or Canadian or French Canadian
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| knockin' leif around |
Amphibians –
as we know, Amphibian movement is often earlier than we realize. Spotted
Salamanders migrating from wintering burrows to vernal pools often have to
cross snow and deal with freezing temperatures in late March and early April (typical
time frame for salamander migration on island).
This year however things warmed up
and got moist early – and on the mainland here Wood Frogs and Spotted Salamanders moved on the nights of March 9th,
10th and 14th (at least many did). Vinalhaven
conditions were similar, and undoubtedly salamanders
have made their way to pools around island. This means that since migrating
they have had to deal with snow and freezing temperatures that freeze the
pools.
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| leif can handle it |
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| and takes charge. |
We’ll keep you posted on vernal pool
status and numbers as the season goes and eggs are laid. Found wood frog eggs
yesterday! Too bad Vinalhaven doesn’t have any of them.
Until then here are a couple of shots of Leif and his buddy Isaiah holding a pair of Spotted Salamanders I rented for the season (found on the road).
Rock on and keep it real!
See you out there!
