Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

September 7^th or so

Brought to you with the kind support of the nice folks over at the Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

‘Two great tastes that tastes great together’

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

Highlights – Calderwood visit, White Islands visit, Salamanders, Mushroom photos

Business: Correction! – Good guy and long time VSR reader Fred Gralinski pointed out that the bit on Webworms in the last VSR had some misleading or downright incorrect information about Webworm caterpillars forming couples in the larval state. To be honest with you, the info was lifted off the internet and while I am pretty sure I read what I copied in its entirety before posting, in retrospect I believe I may have skimmed it to get a feel for the general information being past. Apparently I did not read super close, which I believe is a reflection of a human nature trait, which proves that I am human, I think. I appreciate your letting me know Fred!

mink

(Psychology) (aka Boring Story) It is the trait that takes over when you are writing about photos that were sent in weeks ago. So you are writing about photos of the past that you didn’t take, of a subject matter that you don’t necessarily know much about and for whatever reason haven’t caught that spark of interest even though you’ve seen it for years. Webworms. You have three pictures to post – and the pictures are nice – and so you have some space to fill or it will be a line of web photos. Your books aren’t helpful with this particular, but a something search turns up all kinds of options.

Slart om a dye makers polypore

So it’s time to post and the information is not all that interesting, but you find a paragraph or two that looks kinda good, looking even better when in a hurry. Lots of buzz words. And so the words are plugged in next to the nice photo. But some of them turn out to wrong. I think professionals call that being ‘lazy’. And that is the trait of the day!

To make matters even lazier, I have opted to not go back and removed the incorrect words or phrases. I have a rule, and that is I don’t go back and read VSR posts once they are up. Doubly lazy I know.

So if you are reading these in order, then we are just letting you know that there was some misinformation about webworm larval behavior in the last post. If you are somehow reading these in reverse order, well, then we are just letting you know that there is some questionable content in the webworm info concerning their larval state in the next post. As far I know this is pretty much the misinformation in the VSR archives, but I could be wrong. I’m just too lazy to check!

Upcoming event! –DON’T FORGET! - 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!

ghost pipe or 'Uni-mono'
as the cool kids call it

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 .

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

Sea Lavender

Sightings – Early morning trips to Calderwood are the best! And while trail work is the focus for much, if not all my time spent on island, some photos present themselves and demand to be documented. Take this sea lavender (Limonium carolinianum) for instance. Lining the beach where I landed (North End) and circling the log I used as a bench (comfortable at first, loosing compfyness as the day progressed). Such a subtle purple is seldom seen in the wild, or at least in my experience. They are brighter if you don’t look directly at them, kinda thing. Cones vs rods kinda thing almost.

Anyway – good times on Calderwood!

Salamanders – replacing old log bridges is fun, but often a sweaty experience in the summer time. To make things a little better about this overheated situation, critters are often found (and then relocated) under the logs when they are moved. There’s always slugs, rolly-polelies (how do you spell?) and other invertebrates assisting in the whole decomposition transition. In lower numbers are the vertebrates, like the random vole who gets scared sacred (is that a thing?) and dives into underground tunnels to escape the sweaty bald guy who really doesn’t want any part of the vole. Other than small rodents, Salamanders are the most likely vertebrate under the decaying bridges.

Red-backed salamander and tail

Recent bridge work in the Basin provided some looks into the lives of Red-backed Salamanders. The two I found on this particular day had both recently ‘lost their tails’, and when I say recently I mean like moments before I saw them, because the tails were bouncing around. You see, one survival adaptation (as opposed to non-survival adaptations?) Red-backeds and many other salamanders have to deal with predators is to lose their tails when attacked. The tails are full of nerves and continue to twitch/bounce around after they have been removed, thus distracting predators and, in theory, allowing the rest of the salamander to escape. They then will grow the tail back over time. Anyway….

I had only seen this once, when I lived in Tennessee and a local cat was hasslin’ a local salamander. I’ve literally turned over 1000s of log and found 100s of red-backeds over the years and never seen a loose tail bouncing. Not a once. Sometimes you find a salamander that is growing back its tail, and we always talk with the kids about not grabbing salamander tails when handling them, because even though they grow back, it is a slow process. Anyway, finding two that looked to have lost their tails because of me was surprising. I did not feel bad though, but that’s the way I roll. Eat a rock, rub some dirt on it, it’ll grow back! That’s really the whole story here.

I had Leif helping me with some Huber bridges when we found an adult Spotted Salamander minding his own business under one of the logs. Leif took him and chilled with it for a while – with wet hands! – before locating a new log for it to live under. Got me thinking later – I’ve seen somewhere in the ballpark of 2000-2500 spotted salamander egg masses over the years at Huber, but this is the first adult I’ve seen at the preserve. That was cool.

White Islands – always fun to get out to the Whites, and on this day Amy and Leif were able to join me, which made the day even better. 24 Monarchs, 2 American Lady butterflies, 15 Sand Dollars, 1 Mink, 1 Least Sandpiper, lots of otter spraint.

Couple of stories here – Monarch migration! – we stopped counting at 24 – which everyone knows is the highest number (Mr Show Season 3 , Episode 7 ). Many more Monarchs passed us by, we spotted one refueling on a Seaside Goldenrod, and another landing on granite, looking as it may have been collecting salts.

American Lady

The American Lady butterfly was more of a bonus of the day I would say. Some years there are tons of both American and Painted Lady butterflies, but alas, this is not one of those years! I think only the 3^rd or 4^th American Lady of the season for me. I don’t think that sounds cool anyway you take it.

Sand Dollars are always fun to find, and the Whites are as good a group of islands to look around for them. Haven’t found any live ones in Maine, but even give the dead ones a sniff test - always a good idea for any shell, bones, or body part you desire to take with you as a memento. 15 Sand Dollars is the most I have found at one time in Maine. Full disclosure - haven’t found them in too many places.

A Sand Dollar is an Echinoderm , closely related to Sea Stars, Cucumbers, Biscuits & Urchins. 5 is the magic number with this group – 5 arms, 5 rows of tube feet, and whatever this 5 pattern is on the sand dollars.

Just as we were heading out from VLT’s Little White Island when Amy ‘More Than Just A
Trophy Wife’ (MTJATW) Palmer spotted this mink (great spot) making its way onto Little White. The face off lasted long enough for Palmer to call us over and for looks and photos before he passed and made his way possibly to the den on the north side of the island.

Anyway, we don’t see much for mink sign -or sightings for that matter- on the mainland. Think it might have to do with the variety of predators in the neighborhood. Mink are around, but not like on Vinalhaven. This was a cool reminder of that.

It was great to do some exploring with Amy and Leif in the Fox Islands.

Mainland – Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, such as this one, are around and in the case of this one, they love the native Jewel Weed behind the clubhouse.