Vinalhaven Sightings

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

August 30th or so

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’

monarch

Oh my gosh, I am behind again. Here we go. Playing catch-up.

viceroy

Highlights – Mola mola, Leatherback Sea Turtle, some Shorebirds, Fall Webworm

Business : Upcoming event! –Been a while since we posted anything encouraging any form of gathering, but this Saturday the annual “Basin Clean up” – postpone from, the spring – will be happening. That’s right - September 12, 9 AM at the Basin Bridge. Boots, gloves, masks and dedication to social distancing are recommended. VLT and MCHT sponsored. See you there!

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 .

Huge snake skin. At least 7
toilets long! Mystery...
photo by Jim Conlan

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

photo of Mola mola photography
photo by John Drury

Sightings – On the water – Holy Mola Mola! - John Drury, Captain of the Skua, sends in word of Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) sightings. And he even sent in a photo of someone taking a picture of a Mola Mola from his boat! Patience Chamberlin sent in this fantastic photo of an Ocean Sunfish, also taken from the Skua. Taken with her phone, Patience gave much credit for the photo to John’s navigational abilities, which are impressive one must agree!

Little about Mola Mola – lifted from Wikipedia (so it’s got to be true!) –

Mola mola
photo by Patience Chamberlin

The ocean sunfish or common mola (Mola mola) is one of the heaviest known bony fishes in the world. Adults typically weigh between 247 and 1,000 kg (545–2,205 lb). The species is native to tropical and temperate waters around the world. It resembles a fish head with a tail, and its main body is flattened laterally. Sunfish can be as tall as they are long when their dorsal and ventral fins are extended.

Sunfish are generalist predators that consume largely small fish, fish larvae, squid, and crustaceans. Sea jellies and salps, once thought to be the primary prey of sunfish, make up only 15% of a sunfish's diet. Females of the species can produce more eggs than any other known vertebrate,^[3] up to 300,000,000 at a time.^[4] Sunfish fry resemble miniature pufferfish, with large pectoral fins, a tail fin, and body spines uncharacteristic of adult sunfish.

A member of the order Tetraodontiformes, which also includes pufferfish, porcupinefish, and filefish, the sunfish shares many traits common to members of this order. The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is the type species of the genus.’

not a Mola mola
but Leif with a bass he caught

Cool stuff and cool sighting – have you seen an ocean sunfish lately?

For more photos and updates on what the Skua and John have been seeing go to:

http://sightingsfromskua.blogspot.com/

Leatherback Sea Turtle
photo by John Drury

Also – John also sent in this photo of a leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)! Not totally sure what’s going on in this photo, but Leatherbacks are yearly visitors to the Gulf of Maine. Here’s more from a quick something search.

random baby robin photo

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians.^[5][6] It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell, hence the name. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh.

great time to check out Ghost Pipes
as they change to black...

The leatherback turtle population in the Atlantic Ocean ranges across the entire region. They range as far north as the North Sea and to the Cape of Good Hope in the south. Unlike other sea turtles, leatherback feeding areas are in colder waters, where an abundance of their jellyfish prey is found, which broadens their range. However, only a few beaches on both sides of the Atlantic provide nesting sites.^[45]

Going through the changes

Off the Atlantic coast of Canada, leatherback turtles feed in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence near Quebec and as far north as Newfoundland and Labrador.^[46] The most significant Atlantic nesting sites are in Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana in South America, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, and Gabon in Central Africa.'

Leatherback Sea Turtle
photo by Beth Guilford

So this turtle is big and has travelled far! And, on the flip side of things, Beth Guilford sent in this photo of a Leatherback Sea Turtle that washed up at Pocus Point. Once again, not totally sure what the whole story is in the photo, but it was big and had travelled far.

sometimes we call them
'Uni-mono'

The Reach – Patience Chamberlin ‘hit the Red crossbill jackpot’ (8/16) as 18-20 Red Crossbills worked Reach Road spruce tops, and then headed to Greens Island. Lots of chatter and a flock that size is always fun to see! Right on!

this fun group is right by Huber parking area

2 Common Nighthawks were seen flying over the Reach (8/19) ‘Beeent’ing their little hearts out! Greens Island Great Horned Owl

Don't forget the Pine Sap!

Also from Patience – (8/19), kayaking in the Basin near high tide Patience counted 46 Black bellied plovers. All gathered on the rocks just around the corner of the put in. Most I’ve ever seen there. Also one female hooded merganser paddling around with them.

Fall Webworm
photo by Cay Kendrick

Word on the webs – What a year for critters that make webs huh? Earlier in the summer we had Brown tailed Moths and Eastern Tent Caterpillars webbing up branches and leaves, and observers may have noticed another round of significant webbing in trees around island. Following the email exchange between Cay Kendrick and Linnell Mather it looks like the webby culprit has been identified as Fall Webworm.

Here’s some from a something search….

‘The fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) is a moth in the family Erebidae known principally for its larval stage, which creates the characteristic webbed nests on the tree limbs of a wide variety of hardwoods in the late summer and fall. It is considered a pest but although unsightly, does not harm otherwise healthy trees.

fall webworm
photo by Cay Kendrick

The fall webworm is a gregarious insect.^[12] Groups of larvae live in self-created large webs that are found on tree branches.^[12][13] These webs allow for the finding of mates, temperature regulation, increased growth rate, and protection from predators, but also result in higher rates of infections and predation.^[12][13]

The caterpillars of the fall webworm have several strategies to defend against threats. Some examples of protective behavior or defense are shaking and jerking together, repellant scent, and irritants on hairs or spines.^[1][13]

The fall webworm exhibits a form of parental care, where the female will try to protect the eggs after oviposition by covering her newly laid eggs with her abdomen hairs.^[1]

Fall webworm
photo by Cay Kendrick

Fall webworms experience behavioral thermoregulation.^[1][15] The fall webworms' self-created web (which is where the fall webworms live) is able to trap heat.^[1][15] Due to this, the fall webworm (which is an ectotherm) is able to maintain a warm temperature of about 40-50 °C, which allows the larvae to grow and develop faster.^[1][15] Inside the web, there is a temperature difference because the central part tends to have a higher temperature, while the back part tends to have a lower temperature.’