Welcome to the vinalhaven sightings report – as of
April 22th, 2017
The VSR is sponsored in part by VLT and MCHT, two good
organizations for folks to sponsor
Highlights – Mourning Cloaks, Woodcocks, Yellow-rumped
Warblers, Purple Sandpipers, and Mushrooms, singing songbirds especially –
brown creeper and golden crowned kinglets, bunch of other stuff
Business: contact us – send in your sightings
and/or photos and stories and whatever you want to share – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com – you will be a better person for sharing.
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| these folks are all smiles |
My oversight – I mentioned volunteering and the basin clean up last vsr and I don’t believe I put any of the pictures of people with garbage that I meant to include. So here you go…thank you peoples!
More volunteer opportunities –
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| this is Luke, he is around the VLT office sometimes. You should introduce yourself to him, he's nice. |
VLT is offering some select Tuesdays for trail work – May 23rd, June 13th, July 11th, and August 15th. Contact Kerry Hardy for more information on location and timing. Kh.2wheels@gmail.com
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| munch with a bag of skin |
MCHT (and myself) are looking for
a few (or a bunch of) folks who are interested in helping out with the trails
at Huber and/or the Basin. We (the
royal “we”) are offering a variety of volunteer experiences – all the way from trail monitoring to
chicken wiring bridges! So if you
are looking to give back a little, contact me at kgentalen@mcht.org
and we’ll see if we can work something out
Verbs – look for “owlin’” & “wormin’”
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| woodcock nest! photo by John Drury |
Sightings – Greens Island – Woodcock eggs! – John Drury sent in this photo of a “wood hen” nest he discovered on Greens
recently. Woodcocks lay four eggs (see photo) and the female was no doubt close
by. personal note - I have never found one but would like to very much. good work John!
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| mourning cloak butterfly - deceased photo by Linnell Mather |
John also reports a Mourning Cloak butterfly – and Linnell
Mather sent in this photo of a deceased Mourning Cloak she took out at the VLT
Fish Hook preserve. Mourning Cloaks overwinter as adults, which is bold for a
butterfly, but find sanctuary and just enough warmth in tree cavities and under
bark to survive the winter. With patches of warm days – was it really 75
degrees last week - mourning cloak awake
and add a sometimes surprising butterfly factor to an early spring day.
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| what remains of an eagle photo by Linnell Mather |
Also at fish hook – Linnell Mather sent in these
dead eagle photos. You just never know what treasures you might find when you
are exploring on a Vinalhaven Preserve.
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| closer look at the skull photo by Linnell Mather |
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| eagle, seals, Camden hills, and a bunch of purple sandpipers as far and low away from the eagle as they can get! |
Thanks for sharing!
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| two other eagles scouting the ledges. |
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| Rhett or scarlet photo by Linnell Mather |
Oh yeah –
one more – this time from Linnell Mather
(again!) – snapped this beautiful flamingo shot recently. Taken from (but
not at) Skoog Park , rumor is the flamingo has been spotted in several lawns
along the sands. At least that’s the rumor I just made up.
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| golden-crowned kinglet |
Who’s singing
– Seems like every April I get that “Brown
Creepers are everywhere” feeling even if it means there is one singing male
at each preserve. No spring song makes me smile quicker. Golden-crowned Kinglets (lots), Hermit Thrush, Ravens and Crows, Winter
Wren and White-throated Sparrow also heard singing around the island.
Calderwood Island (4/13) – Yellow-rumped Warblers,
Song Sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, 35 surf scoter, 15 old
tailed ducks, loons, guillemots, raccoon scat, mink scat, 4 owl pellets…
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| butter butt in the sea-a-weed |
Wonderful day up on Calderwood Island, off the little
throrofare, east of Stimpson Island. Always lots to see there…really stoked to
find some mushrooms in the burn areas. Including Split Gill and mustard red
gilled polypore.
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| portion of a pellet |
Also, the big ol’ grandma oak
just up the trail from the southern campsite had 4 owl pellets underneath her impressive canopy. Even though I have
always looked I didn’t find pellets under her limbs until we burned the juniper
in her zone. Easier owl hunting zone is the grasses rather than the juniper? Harder
for voles to survive zone? Either way it is always a treat to find owl pellets.
These were old and beaten up enough to only be able to say they are probably
not Great Horned. Size was hard to tell…
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| this dude's wormin' days are over |
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| this is an interesting find. full of hair, snail operculums, and seeds . under the big oak on Calderwood. feels raccoonish, similar to a pellet as well. |
31 Reach Road – (4/13-14) – golden crowned kinglets,
white throated sparrow, brown creeper, Eastern Phoebe,
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| split-gill on burnt juniper - Calderwood island |
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| split gill's split gills |
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| last year's yellow-red gilled polypore |
Perry Creek –
(4/13) -an evening on the north side of the island is not complete without a little “owlin’” session, and my favorite pair
of Great Horneds did not disappoint.
Heard them from the mid-creek trail on the north side, and then again 45
minutes later from the fox rocks parking lot. Woodcocks, Peepers and the Great Horned were a wonderful tri-fecta
for my ear holes – from Fox Rocks
Parking lot!
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| black hairy cup |
Huber - (4/14) – Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown
Creeper, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Chickadees, Northern Flicker- seal bay – 159 Surf
Scoter, 16 Bufflehead, 18 Common Eider. Mushrooms – black hairy cup and
red-belted Conk “Roger”.
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| what's eating Rodger the red-belted conk? |
The story here was the duck
numbers. Seal Bay is a staging area for Surf
Scoters (as is the thorofare) of historical proportions. We’ve been
reporting numbers like this for years. A closer look (that I should have taken)
showed that the scoters were broken into a few rafts, with much activity in
each and roughly a 20:3 ratio of
males to females. Quite the ratio, quite the pressure…
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| rodger's under carriage - chewed up |
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| I was concerned with the lack of suitable branches for the salamanders to attach their egg sac to |
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| spermatophore city |
…the other story here was
when I stopped to snag a photo or two of
the vernal pool along the east side of the Huber trail. I noted
the lack of egg masses, but I also noted the lack of branches, as well as a
lack of any branches with lots of branches in the pool. Even though these are
not necessary, it sometimes feels good to enhance the habitat a bit and give
the lady salamanders more options. These branches are what she attaches her egg
masses to!
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| spermatophore - out of the water! |
Anyway, I noticed some white dots dotting the bottom of the pool,
like discarded heartwood below an active
woodpecker tree, flakes from a downy maybe. Except they weren’t. And when I
took a closer look at a branch with them (them being the dots) I realized that
these were spermatophores – male sperm
packets left behind by male spotted salamanders. There were a hundred of them.
It was impressive. How had I never seen them before?
Here’s a little from Thomas Tyning from “A guide to
Amphibians and Reptiles”
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| this turkey vulture flew right over the car line waiting to load for the 2:45pm to rockland (4/14) |
“the courtship dance of the spotted salamander consists of a single male
and female circling each other on the pond bottom. Occasionally one or the
other will swim up for a gulp of air, but then will slowly drift back down and
resume activity. Males and females nudge each other and try to push their heads
beneath the other’s body, especially near the tail. Males attempt repeatedly to
rub their chins along the back of the female.
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| numbers have only increased in the shallow coves around Vinalhaven - and much of the coast. These gulls be "wormin'", or just relaxing on the log. |
At some point the males will walk away and slowly
wiggle the tip of his tail. The female may follow and, if so, he will
deposit one or more spermatophores onto
a leaf or twig. If fully stimulated, the female will walk forward and cover one
with her cloaca and, in so doing, transfer the sperm to her oviducts.
Generally, the female will then show little or no interested in this or other
males and head out to deeper parts of the pond. The make may return to a nearby
congress and search out another female on the pond.
“normally, they don’t lay eggs for at least a day or
two after they court.”
So maybe, just maybe there
were pregnant females in the leaf litter, just waiting for me to toss some branches
in! will keep you posted on any egg mass development reports. Have you been
walking Huber? Have you looked for egg masses in the pool? take a look, and
take a photo! And send in your sighting! This is an assignment.
The thing that gets me is
internal fertilization with no penetration for a vertebrate. No wonder they are
so mellow.
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| skunk and spraint nice otter dropping there in front |
Basin - platform trail loop (4/14) - Red Crossbill, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ravens, Bufflehead, Common Eider, otter sign, Skunk Cabbage -
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| the poor squirrel had to eat its plain cone next to a bag of sh*t. and the bag had to deal with the squirrel. don't know which is worse |
we love the basin - and this day was a treat with Skunk Cabbage and otter spraint. Right where they should have been!
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| cat poop, not in a bag - but on the trail! |
Off island – Made a quick visit to MDI and Acadia with family and Nanni. Always a fun time.
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| Leif on top of Dorr Mountain photo by Amy Palmer |
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| sandhill cranes are loud |
Amy and Leif bagged Dorr Mountain pretty readily , even saw some snow!. In the mean time Nanni (Mu Mom!) and I heard and saw this sandhill crane and the spring in Acadia. Thought I would share the view - never landed....
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| red-bellied snake meets minecraft |
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| he's a good bowler |
see you out there! I hope! Thanks for reading!
