acorn interrupted

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

October 28, 2020

 

Brought to you with the support of Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Vinalhaven Land Trust! Two good organizations, teaming up for our benefit!

 

Did I put this photo in last time?
If so, this is a totally different photo

And of course – thanks to you! The reader, the observer, the sharerer – all niches associated with the VSR are important! We appreciated the support you show by simply showing up!

 

Highlights – Botfly larvae, Mourning Cloak butterfly, Pine Siskins, sparrows, juncos, Snakes, Loons calling, note on puffballs…

 

pine siskin and goldenrod

PSA – Just in time for Halloween! – Drive safely!

 Hey Buddy – Get some orange on! We can’t emphasize it enough, while November is deer hunting season with usage of firearms, the trails are for everyone to use. If you venture out for some piece of mind, do yourself a favor and put on an orange hat, shirt, coat, gloves, socks, skivvies, whatever – heck even an orange mask would be helpful! November is full of beautiful days to not get shot. No hunting on Sundays and any time, any day on Lane’s!  Enjoy the month safely!

 

this fly was either eating the otter spraint and 
white stuff or was laying eggs in it.
either way this is the coolest insect.

More Business: Contact us – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com . We will respond! And if we don’t you can always write back again! Anyway – send us your sightings

 

Tiit Trick – click on the photos to jumbo size them – have the photos take up your world! Click ‘em – I dare yah!

 

Sightings – Jim Conlan sent in this video of River Otters in Long Cove. I hope it works and that it is awesome! I can’t see it on my computer – but look forward to seeing it on the blog! Thanks Jim!

I still can't see it. Man I hope that worked - first otter video ever sent in to the VSR! 

Legends are made this way.

botfly larave and dead mouse

There are many, anonymous VSR faithful – a ‘silent majority’ you ask? Kinda, maybe… with a touch of  ‘embarrassed majority’ most likely? Anyway, one of the anonymous who visit, read, scan, sniff and creep through the VSR ‘in a silent way’ has sent in this photo of a Botfly larvae that they removed from a locally caught, dead mouse’s nose. You can probably see why ‘anonymous’ was emphasized here. Who wants to be associated with this! 

Legendary though.

 

sensitive fern, in its bead fern stage

Now, I have had the pleasure/satisfaction/thrill of killing many a mouse that crossed the line and desired to be housemates with me in many of the diverse living conditions I have dwelled in over the years. I will be honest and admit that I probably don’t look at the dead mice super closely, but I can honestly say that I have never noticed any swelling around a deceased rodents nose. So this is a special find, one that is nasty in a super cool way. Thanks Anonymous!

 

mourning cloak
photo by Patience Chamberlin

Mourning Cloak butterfly – Patience Chamberlin was kind enough to send in this photo of a late season Mourning Cloak butterfly. Often one of the last butterflies seen during the year, Mourning Cloaks are also often the first butterfly seen in spring as adults, such as this one, overwinter in cavities and under bark. They hit ‘pause’ until temps climb and day length increases in early spring (Late March/early April). Great to see before and after their big nap, See ya in spring there buddy!

 

juvenile White-crowned Sparrow
in hand...

Songbirds around the island – Lots of sparrows – plenty of white-throateds, but numbers of white-crowned sparrows are being seen as well. Dark-eyed Juncos seem to be especially thick these days. Pine Siskins have invaded the east this fall, and Cay Kendrick reports at least one day of heavy siskin activity on her feeder system. I’ve attached a few shots from a recent Beech Hill excursion where the family saw a bunch of siskins! Common Redpolls also have been invading , anyone seen any?

 

 

pine siskin

Well there is one less raccoon on the island, reports of Bald Eagles eating raccoons on shorelines are being tossed around!

 

pine siskin

Jim Conlan also reports hearing Loons calling from the salt water around island, which is a cool experience for sure. Common Loons nest along fresh water lakes and many spend their winters/non-breeding seasons in salt water along the east coast. Apparently some are still feeling ‘the fire down below’ after they leave their breeding areas and will continue calling into the fall. Cool sound and cool observation.

 

Curtis's Puffball

A word on a couple types of puffballs.  My time dedicated to Alder wetlands had increased dramatically with the newly found ‘alder aphid direction’ that I am following (it’s just a phase  I’m going through I swear!).  While many are hunting deer for sustenance (and for fun I suppose) a silent minority of us are hunting the wooly alder aphids in hopes of finding a predator of theirs – the Harvester butterfly in its caterpillar stage. Probably too late for the caterpillars this year – we’ll get an earlier jump next summer! But that doesn’t mean the searches and hunts have turned up empty – nature explorations seldom do.

 

White Puffball

I think in the last vsr I posted photos of jelly mushrooms that I have been crossing paths with while searching for the elusive aphids. This time it’s a couple/three of Puffballs (Order Lycoperdales) that I’ve been seeing in the Alder wetlands. Decomposers through and through, these three all happen to be in the family Lycoperdaceae, and in the genus Lycoperdon. What does that mean? Not much I think really, but here they are!

 

Curtis’s Puffball (L. curtisii) with its really cool spines that cover is always a treat to see…

 

gem studded puffball

… L. candidum, aka ‘the white puffball’, which is a funny common name since many puffballs are white. This one has a short base/stalk and is densely covered with spikes. Apparently the spikes and outer white skin will ‘slough off in big patches’, which exposes a brownish inner wall around the spores. So why do they call it ‘white puffball’ again? Even the ‘White shadow; made more sense.

 

gem studded puffball spikes
and squirrel bite I believe

And finally, the gem-studded puffball, (L. perlatum). Classic, little white puffball with spikes scattered around its white outer skin.  

 

Limited Editions – how is lucky charms hot cocoa not a limited edition. Should be!

 

And a limited edition shape of Ritz cracker – snowflake. ‘That’s not snowflake’ is one of my favorite quotes from Ace Ventura.

 

Leif and Amy on a recent excursion. Lots of family time these days, Frankie is healing nicely, looking forward to a long winter.

 

Stay smart and stay safe – don’t be a maskhole!

see you out there! In orange!

 

milkweed

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

October 18th or so

 

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

 

‘Fall continues to be Fun!’

 

Highlights – Woolly Alder Aphids, Preying Mantii, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Raptors, otter latrines galore!, Woodpeckers featuring Pileated and Red-bellied, and so much more!

 

Business: Book – Good friend and longtime VSR admirer Don Reimer has a book out ! – Heck yeah! I got my copy of ‘Seen Anything Good?” and it is great! Here’s a review from the Bangor Daily –

 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

https://georgesmithmaine.com/articles/book-reviews/october/2020/great-stories-about-birds-and-birding

 

Check it out and get your copy today! Don is a birder that the VSR advocates! Not always the case!

 

Lane's Island Woolly Alder Aphid

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 .

 

yellow-rumped warbler

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

 

 

 

Pileated Woodpecker
Photo by Pat Lundholm

Sightings! – Woodpeckers! - Huber Preserve - Pat 'Godmother of the VSR' Lundholm sent in this photo of a Pileated Woodpecker at the Huber Preserve. Pileateds are making a statement and taking a stand with their recent (last few years) increase in number

 

 

Wooly Alder Aphid fuzz
Photo by Hillary Bunker

Aphid time !  - Longtime VSR reader and even longer-time cool person Hillary Bunker recently sent in this photo of an alder branch lined with white fuzz along with the question - What is this? Solid question that deserved an answer.

 

Turns out the white fuzz is actually growing off of Wooly Alder Aphids (Prociphilus tessellatus). I'd seen them a few times in the past - fondly remembering checking them out with Big Al Jones in the great meadow of Acadia National Park back in 06! - but for whatever reason these aphids and I hadn’t clicked in a way that would have me searching them out. That all has changed and I have Hillary - and probably a slow mushroom season - to thank for that.

 

Here's what Donny Stokes has to say about them in 'Guide to observing insects lives'

 

'The easiest time to see wooly alder aphids is in fall when the leaves are off the trees and the white wool of the aphids can be easily spotted on the dark alder trunks. A close look at the colony of these aphids shows you their wax-producing tubes and their winged and wingless forms. You may also find the caterpillar of the harvester butterfly feeding on the aphids, or other insects feeding on the excess honeydew produced by the aphids.'

 

What??? Did Donny just say i might find Harvester butterfly caterpillars - the only carnivorous butterflies in North America - eating the aphids?!?!? Immediately I started searching for them.

 

Took about ten minutes to find my first patch of Aphids at Lane's Island. Like Donny says 'they look like tiny hand grenades - oval with little projections all over their body'. Out of these projections a strand of 'wool' is secreted, which conceals the insects (protection from predators) and helps prevent the aphid drying up during dry stretches.

 

Anyway - didn't find any harvester butterfly larva munching on aphids - but will be traveling to Clark Island in St George to look for those (only place i have seen the adult Harvester butterfly). And just like that I'm hooked on aphid hunting. Didn’t see that coming and not sure how i feel it! Whatever gets you out there, right? Even if it’s aphids!

 

North haven day – (10/5) Lots to see when pedaling around North Haven, and on this particular day the big draw was Preying Mantii. On the road both alive and flattened, several were also seen flying frantically out of my bicycle tire’s way, with those cool translucent wings.

 

When stopped to check this particular Mantis on the North Shore Road, a Red-bellied Woodpecker started calling from a nearby apple tree. Twas cool to see and a nice ‘one thing leads to another’ moment.

 

red-bellied woodpecker

The highlight scat-wise on North Haven was this beautiful mink scat I crossed paths with. Twisted and tight, a classic mustelid poop. Nice going North Haven!

 

Nice little Turkey Vulture roost off Crabtree Point Road as well.

 

Raccoon scat – for those who think there are no more raccoons on island, you are not correct. A few years ago raccoon numbers around Vinalhaven and surrounding islands dropped dramatically – maybe a disease or bacteria or fungus (fungus rule!) must have swept through and wiped the population somewhat clean.  Raccoon scat was hard to come by.

 

Well, raccoon scat is turning up in more and more places. So much that it is hard to imagine the population not rebounding back to a similar size as before. We shall see, but they are here for sure!

 

Otter latrines – seems like more and more often I am crossing paths with otter marking spots and latrines that I had not seen before both on island and off. Latrines are fluid – literally and figuratively – and may move as local otters are replaced by the next generation (otter lifespan 12 years? Did I read that some where some time?

 

Anyway – Vinalhaven’s robust otter population remains large and ready to mark! Here are a couple of shots from recent latrine visits. Visits to otter latrines I mean!

 

yellow fairy cups

Mushrooms – has been a ‘slow’ October after a dry September, which in a way makes finding any mushrooms just that much more exciting. Here’s an array of photos – gallery style – from recent finds….

 

 

 

red gilled cort

brick tops!

jelly tooth

orange jelly

tree ear

Birdies - lots passing through and lots to be seen. Here are a couple of Brown Creeper photos from Vinalhaven. no lists today, been either too focussed or two distracted to break down flocks. Palm Warbler and lots of Golden-crowned Kinglets seem to be making up much of what i've come across in the woods. Lots of White throated sparrow and Yellow rumped warblers as well!

What a long strange year it’s been, and continues to be! The shroom scene has been a little low for an October but things are popping up, scattered throughout the wood, and still i have seen as many yellow-billed cuckoos in the last week as i saw in my first 15 years in Maine! that's right - 4!

with mantis

yummy

I took these photos cuckoo photos in St George. There were two of them and one ate a Preying Mantis. it was cool.

A few limited editions...

...and here's Leif! Frankie is healing nicely - disc issue - and so we got another dog (follow the logic there?). Anyway, her name is roxy and i would like her to stop licking my ears and nose all the time, but if that is worst thing you can say about a dog than its probably pretty alright.

she thinks she is a mountain goat

hey - see you out there!