Vinalhaven Sightings

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report –

February 1^st, 2018

Brought to you with the support of VLT and MCHT

Welcome abroad and bon voyage! Thanks for stopping by and spending time with us.

Highlights – Owl activity, otter stuff, gross partially/mostly digested thing, red crossbills, pileated woodpecker, and the curious case of the headless hare…and some other stuff.

Ice shots – with melting and freezing being “the thing” these days we start with a gallery of icy photos. Enjoy!

Mini-rant . We are officially at what we (the royal “we”) at the VSR refer to as “the gap” of February. The next 28 fill in the gap between real months that get full moons and have the standard minimum of 30 days to be recognized by the united nations as “true months”. Gap months are the ones that get excited when the rest of the year throws it an extra day every four years or so, like getting to 29 means something! 30 is the new 30, so to speak. Anyway, that’s the case for demoting Feb to official gap status, and I really think the whole “not having a full moon while the big months on bought sides of you get two each this year” is the ultimate slap in the face. All feb 2018 gets is a new moon, and we all know those happen all the time or at least on Monday according to Duran Duran.

Maybe I’m jaded against “the feb” since its timing also tends to coincide with the heart of “the doldrums” from the ferry (KG original description), as “tweeter” (bird) numbers have dropped in the bay last few trips…

Business -

Contact us – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com – send in your sightings, photos, email addresses – we’ll take ‘em! We’ll post ‘em! Thanks ahead of time for that!

this is larry

Thanks! – To those who have shared photos and sightings in this VSR – that is what it is all about.

Tiit Trick – click on photos to enlarge!

and this is lefty and poncho

Also – send us your email address to “get put” on our super exclusive email list. You’ll get about two emails a month from us (the royal “us”) each with a link to the latest VSR post as it “gets put” up. vinalhavnesightings@gmail.com

Upcoming events – Saturday February 10^th – 10am at Skoog! – VLT and MCHT are sponsoring a Basin Preserve Snowshoe and animal tracking outing. Twill be a blast – snow or no snow! This is an official Great Maine Outdoor Weekend event.

Off island events – Owl talk – with Kirk Gentalen – Tuesday, February 13^th 7pm at the Camden Library. This talk is an effort of a partnership between mid-coast Audubon society and MCHT. I will babble about owls and make jokes about birders. It’s what you do at Audubon society meetings.

Otter talk with Kirk Gentalen – Tuesday February 27^th, Noon at Merryspring Nature Center. Will talk about otters on Vinalhaven and other spots along the Maine coast and make fun of birders and trackers. It’s what you do at nature centers.

subnivean exposed!

Sightings – Huber Preserve – apparently the trail is clear, alive and well as Chuck Gadzik has sent in a couple of “great sightings from his walking of the trail as of late”, or “gsfhwotaol”! Get out there looking!

Pileated Woodpecker – Not many are reported on island each year, with one or maybe two mercy sightings sent our way. Nothing too substantial, and yet over the last few years the reported sightings have become a bit more regular especially when compared to 2004-2010 when Pileated were fewer and even farther between. Most recently Gadzik reports his third Pileated sightings along the Huber Trail from the past few years. From the mouth of Gadzik – or more like “from the computer of Gadzik”.

“The bird followed me along the trail, at one point landing eye height on a fir bole 15 feet from my head. It was HUGE.”

Apparently a “fir bole” is the base of a fir tree. Chuck is forestry guy so he gets to use words like that. Anyway, this is the time of the year where a lot of woodpeckers are observed on wood and roots low to the ground. Very cool and I hope others get to see this beautiful woodpecker!

split gill in a beaver chew

Side note – lots of woodpecker activity these days. Multiple Downy and/or Hairy woodpeckers in the same trees setting up territories and pecking orders through displays, chases and games of freeze tag (staring). Non-vocal communications like drumming are heard on calm days when the message can carry the furthest. Woodpeckers certainly know when the day length gets longer! They are at the mercy of their hormones, which are at the mercy of day length. What a world!

this got upgraded to...

Whatsmore, Chuck also reports a decapitated snowshoe hare, or “headless hare”, laying (presumably dead) trailside at Huber as well. I really enjoy getting emails like this one –

“There is a fresh corpse on the Huber Trail - a headless hare. Do you know what predator would remove the head?”

...something frank would be proud of.
We could use a little Zappa in days like these.

And while there are probably loads of predators that might remove a head – including humans – the one most likely responsible for this heady little story would be a Great Horned Owl, and maybe a parliament of them. Back in my VLT days, I found many a snowshoe hare leg left behind by Great Horned Owls at Perry creek. I used to find headless turkey on Cumberland Island in coastal Georgia and remember learning/hearing (source not remembered) that decapitation was not an uncommon behavior of GHOs. It’s hard to know from an email report and really impossible to know the story without being there when it all came down, but that would be the guess from this end (my better end). Have the Huber owls been fortunate with so much food that they can discard hare bodies and just eat the tastiest part? Are the owls getting smarter by just eating the brains? So many questions, but the fact that GHOs are known to breed at Huber not too far from where the carcass was found, and are heard in the area on a semi-regular basis leads to the GHO quesstimation. There, I said it!

barred owl
photo by Angie Olson

Speaking of owls – I just got an text from our friend and all around good person Angie Olson with a photo of a Barred Owl she took up on Tip-toe Mountain road near the Fish Head road turnoff. Angie and family report seeing and hearing Barreds on numerous occasions on the north end of the island over the past year or two, and highly suspect breeding activity occurring in the area. While being downright numerous on the mainland, Barred Owl reported sightings have been few and even further between on island so this development is exciting and curious. Will be good to hear any developments from anyone! Have you seen/heard Barred Owls on Vinalhaven?

Great Horned Owl – Angie also reports that “her” (yes, it’s her owl) local owl that lives in the woods behind her house has started hooting it up a bit. Angie refers to this Great Horned as “Hoots your daddy”, which is by far the coolest nickname for an owl that I have heard. When is the best time to listen for owls? “Never been a better time, than right now” . unless you are a snowshoe hare.

gross things - photo by Jim Conlan

Speaking of non-owl stuff – Jim Conlan sent in this “shot of grossness” and was wondering if an owl was part of the process or what? From the looks of it, and it doesn’t look that good (just being honest), I would think a cat and its digestive system was involved. People sometimes talk about feral cats not being part of the equation anymore on island, and that is not true from my observations. Most trails have feral cat latrines on them, usually full of segmented poops that are full of fur and less, well, grossness of skin or whatever innards that passed through in this little present left behind. The world may never know the complete story of this pile of stuff, but it can be confirmed that it is gross! And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

otter track

Basin – Otter sign – Niall Conlan mentioned following a “well beaten otter run” that appeared to be a short cut across the peninsula just north of the basin falls. From Niall’s description of a particularly distractive rock wall the otter trail is most likely a historically known trail stumbled upon a few years back. The trail begins (and ends really) at a den in the base of a spruce along the shores of the mighty Basin. Through ferns or snow the otter(s) go straight up (impressively steep for Vinalhaven but not too insane) to a moss covered boulder pretty close to the top of the run there. On said boulder there is a ”well sprainted otter latrine” and undoubtedly a continued trail by-passing the basin falls.

3 at the old harbor pond latrine

All this otter talk, and with otters on the brain in general, got me looking through some old Vinalhaven otter shots I have. Here’s a little gallery of blasts from the past otter glory.

hanging

and rolling

5 set of eyes in Carvers Pond

I think I called this guy "roy" - big dude in the Reach

Long Cove – Red Crossbills – it’s been what, like 6 years straight with Red Crossbills breeding late winter in the Long Cove area and this year is starting off the same! Multiple red crossbills have been heard calling on recent trips to the area. It’s red crossbill heaven…

belly slide

larry by his hole

Off island – been hanging out with the local male otter in the marsh here in Tenants Harbor we refer to as “Larry”. The hole in the ice that Larry frequents is now referred to as “Larry’s icehole”. Right out the back door and seen when walking to and fro school across the ice, Larry is becoming a legend in our household. Here’s a few of the better shots as of late.