 |
| 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
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!
