Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report – June 1st 2019
Thanks to the support of MCHT, VLT & U – thanks for reading!
Highlights – Red-billed Tropicbird, Tracking the wild springtail,
warblers, spotted salamander egg masses update, flowers, mushrooms, fungus, crab
spider, and so much more!
Business: lot of
photos in this one. Just a warning…
Tiit trick –
click on the photos to enlarge!
There is a song that starts with “I
just don’t know where to begin…” and that’s how we feel with all the action out
in the woods these days. Hope you have been enjoying the sights and the sounds!
Lively time to be observing
Sightings - On the water – Word from Seal Island is that the infamous, local
Red-billed Tropicbird has returned
for another summer of fun. This is what, year 9 or 10 at Seal maybe? Summer 15
in the Gulf of Maine! Welcome back.
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| mum and pup |
Also from John Drury’s adventures on
the water - Harlequin at little Roberts,
kittiwake at Seal,
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| mum and pup in the water |
From the ferry
– Harbor seals with pups…
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| razorbills |
Razorbills in Hurricane Sound
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| head first, butt second to last.... |
Black Guillemots going butts up!
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| and feet last! |
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| American redstart |
Songbirds - Warblers – Spring just ain’t spring
without warblers, and there are tons of birds passing through these days.
Here’s a list compiling Armbrust Hill, Greens Island, and many of the preserves
on island. Thanks John for the greens list additions. Common
Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, Northern
Parula, American Redstart, Chestnut sided, Black and White, Black throated
Green, Blackpoll, Yellow, Magnolia, Black throated blue, Black burnian, Nashville,
Tennessee, Cape May, Yellow-rumped and Wilson’s Warblers
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| female northern parula |
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| black and white warbler |
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| Nashville warbler |
Other songbirds seen recently - red eyed vireo, red-breasted nuthatch,
rose-breasted grosbeak, yellow warbler, greater yellowlegs, gold finch, purple
finch, Scarlet tanager, Indigo Bunting, brown thrasher, , Philadelphia vireo.
Good times for observing! Thanks for the reports John!
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| yellow rumped warbler flycatching at lane's island |
Multiple Indigo Buntings are being reported at feeders throughout town.
Munch has had one visiting her feeding station regular for a bit now.
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| yellow rumped warbler |
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| grey catbird |
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| shoe string rot of a Honey Mushroom |
Mushrooms/fungus/ mycology section – Been having a little fun with old Honey Mushroom (Armillariella mellea) fungus and the art the old
mycelium creates.
“shoe string rot” because of the
stringy black mycelial strands (rhizomorphs) by which the mycelium spreads.
These “runners” may extend up the host’s trunk or infect neighboring trees by
traversing great distances through the soil. Actively growing mycelium may
phosphoresce at night, giving the wood as eerie luminous aura called “foxfire”.
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| Marasmius sp |
Maramius sp –
tiny mushrooms growing off individual spruce needles. So cool, and so numerous
these days in the woods!
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| lichen agaric |
Lichen Agaric (Omphalina ericetorum) - another tiny mushroom that currently is really
numerous in the woods!
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| fuzzy foot |
Fuzzy Foot – (Xeromphalina campanella) – Wonderful decurrent gills on these…
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| note the white dots |
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| these gills are decurrent |
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| brown tooth crust |
I first got turned on to Brown Tooth Crust (Hydnochaete olivaceum) leading hikes through the scrub or bear oak
in the dunes of Truro, MA. That was back in 96. The oaks at Huber – as well as
just about anywhere else on island – host this decamping fungus as well. The new
lens added a closer demention
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| BTC - side view |
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| bunchberry |
Plant stuff - And
so, don’t tell Javier but this close up lens thing is bringing out the florist
in me, or something like that. So here are a few of the flowers lightening up
the woods these days as well as some other related stuff to look at. Lots of
life in the woods these days!
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| star flower |
Bunchberry (Cornus Canadensis), Star Flower (Trientalis borealis) , wild strawberry,
service berry, low bush blueberry,
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| blueberry |
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| strawberry |
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| pin cherry |
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| bunchberry and ant |
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| serviceberry |
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| service berry, a bit more mature |
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| hayscented fern - moose stage |
Also – fiddleheads of some of our
favorite ferns are up!
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| wood fern |
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| bracken fern |
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| bracken fern again |
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| oak fern - unfurled. note the white spots |
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| skunk cabbage |
Took a closer look at some Skunk Cabbage flowers the other day.
Cool shots turned up….
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| not quite pink yet |
and of course, there are the lady slippers to think about...
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| there appears to be white dots on this young lady slipper sflower |
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| last year's seed pod over this years growth |
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| cool lady slipper seed pod |
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| lilac, young |
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| springtails |
Tracking the wild Springtails – Had a few little stretch seeing lots of Springtail (Order
Collembola) on trails in the Basin Preserve. I got these videos of “hopping
springtails” - action springtail videos coming up!
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| Hypholoma capnoides |
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| springtails on red-belted conk |
… as well as photos of Springtails on
the mushroom Hypholoma capnoides, red-belted conk, and this black cup mushroom.
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| springtails in water! |
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| on the way out the springtail scat was kinda obvious |
I passed this springtail scene on both
my own out to work on the trails and on my way back. There was a noticeable
increase in the number of “little brown dots” associated with the springtails was
impressive. Yes, Springtail poop/scat was all over the place.
After a bit you start to realize that
– at least in sections of the woods – a fair percentage (let’s say 5%) of the forest
floor and ground cover was covered with a thin layer of Springtail poop! I
know, sometimes a closer look takes you to that thin line between “beautiful”
and “gross” (there actually is no line).
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| the next week the Hypholoma looked like this |
Anyway, I returned to the trail (platform
trail system) the next week and couldn’t help myself and checked on the
mushrooms. There was no springtails to find (can’t keep up with them!), but
instead found some incredible spore prints and spore captures where the Hypholoma
capnoides overlapped.
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dark spores collected on the overlapped cap
note the white dots |
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| tree ear with white dots |
While inspecting it was easy to see
that there were no brown dots on the mushroom caps anymore. Instead, there was
an impressive amount of white dots present. It doesn’t seem like too far of a
stretch to say that springtail scat turns white over time, like all good turds
should.
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| black jelly roll, with lots of white dots |
With this realization in my pocket I started
looking at mushrooms and flowers a little differently. I started looking for
white dots and boy was I not disappointed. If my “connecting the dots” with the
white dots was correct, springtails had been everywhere.
Now, of course, there are many other
insects and arthropods out in the woods that are pooping to their little hearts
content. Either way this new lens of mine is shining light on a world of scat
that I was not aware of, but certainly has been part of the forest scene for
eons (or at least a long time).
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this turkey tail had both white and brown dots -
fresh and old scat - I was hot on the springtail trail
at this point |
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some of the dots are probably pollen
some of them |
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| empty egg syndrome |
Spotted salamander eggs continue to develop....
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this spotted salamander embryo is just starting to grow
its external gills |
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| female crab spider |
and lets not forget about the spiders....
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| orb weaver abdomen |
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| sit and wait....and wait...and wait |
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| just in time for summer fires |
A few of the “limited editions”
discovered by Leif on a recent visit to "food" stores. thank you oreos!
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| starting fires with the scrapey thing |
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| hiking in Acadia |
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| life or death putt putt golf session |
And of course….the boy! Another home
run in the books, this was a game changing two run blast.
we'll see you out there - and we look forward to it!
