Vinalhaven Sightings

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report - July 15, 2020

Brought to you – in part – by the nice folks over at the Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust. ‘Two great tastes that taste great together’

Highlights – Animals - Red-billed Tropicbird, Razorbills, Hermit Thrush Nest, Canada Geese, hot Slug action, Snakes, Spiders, other things

Business : Contact us - feel free to contact us with “questions, queries, queasts” about anything nature or naturally feeling. Good way to share, and an even better way to make friends. At least 10 people have become friends directly related to the VSR . vinalhavensightings@gmail.com .

American Copper on Calderwood Island

Something funky here - the page I upload photos to has changed its appearance and for some reason it's tricky to put photos next to text. this is unfortunate, but maybe I will figure it out by the time to post. We'll see! things may look a little different, but don't we all?

Tiit Trick – click on the photos and they magically will fill your screen. Great way to avoid reading whatever is being typed here!

Bittersweet PSA - The 'royal we' ran into some technical difficulties earlier this month which led to not only photos that had been 'dealt with' disappearing, but also an almost completed 'VSR text'. Losing photos of slime molds is not a big deal - trust me - but losing the VSR throws me off. As a naturalist/nature bum, I prefer to move forward to see/find what’s next, and at times writing about the past can be a 'drag'. Writing about the past twice 'drags' for sure, and not in a good way, but we deal. anyway, just to let you know some of the stories may not be embellished as much as usual. Truthiness lies in the drag. And in the end there are two separate VSR summaries for the past weeks. Hope you enjoy! This one is on animals…

Chalk-fronted Corporal

photos gone - woodcock footprint and bill pokes, dragonflies,

Canada Geese in America
Photo by Banner Moffat

Sightings – Animals - Canada Geese - Banner Moffat sent in this photo of a small gaggle of Canadas up Crockett Cove way. Geese have been spotted from the ferry regularly these days , or so I hear.

Black-billed Cuckoo
photo by John Drury

Good year for Tent Caterpillars can mean a good year for Cuckoos. Here’s a photo of a Black-billed Cuckoo from Greens Island that John Drury sent in.

razorbills and matinicus rock
photo by John Drury

On the water – John also reports Red-billed Tropicbird from Seal Island. Both John and Jamus Drury have reported seeing Father/offspring pairs of Razorbills floating around. Here’s a couple of photos John sent in of razorbills pairs….

Razorbill pair
photo by John Drury

And so, from here this VSR becomes a tale of three main tales. Tales that were lost, and now are found, but are not going to be repeated in their entirety. For the sake of getting these things posted we will lightly skim these three and toss in random in between. Anyway, and whatever - enjoy!

two hermit thrushes

And so, it’s a tale of a Hermit Thrush nest...while weedwacking out along Seal Bay,

walking back with motor off, but Frank Zappa keeping my hiking beat true

I saw a scurry under the sensitive ferns, which I figured to be a rodent or shrew

secretly I was hoping for a shrew.

Anyway, it was these two youngsters in a nest (see photos), and one nearby that scurried

widow skimmer

freshly sprinkled with greens from the weedwhacker that I brushed back the ferns with

did I mention the motor was off?

but the Zappa wasn't. Cosmik Debris, complete with Tina Turner background vocals serenaded the youngster while I took a few photos quickly.

whitetail skimmer

I would like to say all parties were better off for it, but I can’t confirm that

Not a story about dragonflies on Armbrust Hill. And a couple to be on the lookout for….

and so, it’s a tale of the year of the snake? – ‘Year of the snake’ - not ready to make that call just yet, but I have been crossing paths with snakes at an alarming rate this year. Timing? most likely, but this one on the log was almost a 'still life with snake' scenario.

Hiking in the basin preserve, heading to the Jim Mack pond trail, chainsaw over shoulder, I noticed this garter snake resting on a trailside log.

I didn’t break stride and turned off the ‘earth wind and fire’ (I learned from the hermit thrush/zappa incident) walked maybe 15 feet further and dropped everything.

I went back with cameras and the scene remained the same.

very content, barely moved. wasn’t sunning, was shading.

its skin looked new, and the chill feeling there, late in the morning, was different than almost every path crossing I have with snakes in general.

Lasted a few minutes, grabbed a few shots and kept going.

5 minutes tops.

red-spotted ant-mimic spider

Spiders - Not a story about - Red-spotted ant-mimic Spider (Castianeira descripta) - on Lane's.

Not a story about different crab spiders in my back yard in St George.

male crab spider

And so, it’s a story of spiders, or at least one. It has been a summer of Crab Spiders in my world. After a dragonfly session at Armrust Hill I came across this crab spider scene.

I am used to the Crab Spiders being the predator, nailing butterflies of all sizes in a classic camouflage ambush style.

But here was this Blue-black Spider wasp (Anoplius sp), carrying an adult female Crab Spider in its mouth and having little to no problem covering ground. Three times the wasp leapt from a leaf or a blade of grass, only to catch itself on the next landing spot while maintaining a swift pace and progress. this wasp knew what she was doing.

this one is in mid-air.
riding the spider like a surf board

it eventually hopped across the trail and into the underbrush. it had some difficulty maneuvering through the grasses.

Apparently the wasp took the spider to a shallow hole or grave. she will lay a single egg on the corpse and then bury it , a delicious first meal for the freshly hatched egglet!