Vinalhaven Sightings

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

December 9 2020

Thanks to the Vinalhaven Land Trust and Maine Coast Heritage Trust

Happy 12^th Birthday to Leif! Few days back at this point, but the way he celebrates it’s a weeklong kind of thing!

Monolith fatigue is a real thing. Symptoms started with the first one, like thinking – ‘this is really stupid’.

Highlights – Winter moth, dead stuff on trails, winter finches – evening grosbeak.

PSAs – COVID Alert – And so……

my newest shirt

Since we last connected, the covid found its way to Vinalhaven – 2 confirmed cases – with no new cases being report for several days, if not longer. The COVID spread in Maine, as with the rest of the country, is pretty swift these days. It’s getting just about everywhere, including some places twice! Anyway, Vinalhaven School went remote for a bit, as folks island-wide limit potential exposure and do what’s best to keep the case number at 2. Ride this little wave out and get back to the old new normal as soon as possible. Before the new new normal can kick in with vaccines. Confused yet? Well…

slipper shell

Keep up with the changes and alerts by following/checking in with the Town of Vinalhaven website - https://www.townofvinalhaven.org/home/covid-19-1

And the chamber of commerce site as well - https://www.vinalhaven.org/

And of course, you can do your part in stopping/controlling/limiting the spread simply by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and washing your hands. Have you heard about these three things? It’s been the same freakin’ broken record of a message since March.

So wear a mask – it shows that you care and are respectful of others. If you do not care or aren’t respectful of others, don’t worry - you can be selfish and wear a mask too! Because it helps protect you, even if you think it’s a hoax. Masks not only limit the spread of the virus, but protects from all hoaxes, spells, witches and warlords, conspiracy theories and theorists, Nazis, homophobes, and people who make fun of people for taking photos of scat. Wouldn’t that be a great mask!?!

Winter Moth – Remember these b*stards? Or when they were the biggest thing to worry about? Okay – maybe they were never the biggest thing – but it’s become a Thanksgiving time tradition to look for evening flights of these buggers as they attempt to spread their deciduous munching populations through the mixed wood sections of Vinalhaven and coastal Maine. I did not hear of any significant winter moth flights from island this year– maybe the parasitic flies are working!

Here in St George there was a notable winter moth presence in my neighborhood on the nights of Nov 27-29. Over the past few years there has been a noticeable similarity between moths on the mainland and on island – they almost always fly the same nights. So maybe not getting reports is a sign that the moths are decreasing on island. Maybe it’s a sign that people were hunkered down and doing the right thing covid wise. Did you see any winter moths in late November?

cattail ice

Business – as usual - Contact us – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com. We will eventually respond! And if we don’t you can always write back again! Anyway – send us your sightings, email addresses, photos and nature whatnots. VSR is all about sharing.

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

brown tailed moth webs

Sightings – Dead Flicker – clipping Brown Tailed Moth (more b*stards) webs from along Lane’s Island Trails was very satisfying – maybe clipped a hundred or so. It was also eye opening – lots to do this winter. Anyway – that is another story.

thin line between heart ....

The story of the visit was kill site in the trail. Patches of feathers, mostly brown with dots littered the trail that crosses the island from the beach to the sunset bench. My first thought was of pheasant – re-introduced last year and numerous around island. I’ve been finding plenty of pheasant sign on Lane’s and folk have been reporting them from all over the island. Anyway,

and butt

That thought when out the window when I took a closer look. Even the smallest of the feathers had a yellow shaft – sure sign of the Yellow-shafted, or Northern Flicker, aka Yellow Hammer. State bird of Alabama – and the only woodpecker to be a state bird. Flickers have a lot going for them.

Another fun fact is that they die a lot. I mean, each individual Flicker only dies once, but as a species it is not uncommon to find flicker carcasses and remains around island and other places I’ve lived.

At least two different houses on Vinalhaven seem to entice Flickers into making their way inside, only to have it be a death trap. It was a regular enough occurrence at one house – maybe 3 times? – that John Drury and I used to refer to said abode as ‘the dead Flicker house’. How’s that for a land mark? John talks of days on Seal Island where Peregrine Falcons are lined up a top the eastern cliffs, waiting patiently until a migrating Flicker is in sight. It is then that the Peregrines race out over the water, hoping to be the one who gets to the Flicker first, the one who gets the meal.

check out that yellow shaft

For me, when it comes to dead Flickers I am more likely to find something like the collection of feathers on Lane’s. Although they are woodpeckers, Northern Flickers seldom use their bill to find food in trees. Their bills are slightly curved, which apparently makes them ‘weaker’ than other woodpecker bills. This may be why Flickers often choose well decaying trees to make their nest cavities in – a little easier on the bill as they say.

And so, in turn, Flickers have adapted by finding food on the ground. Especially ants – of which it is said that Flickers eat ‘more ants than any other bird in North America’. Which places Flickers on the ground – they are the large bird with the white patch near the base of their tails that fly off with sparrows and juncos as your car putt-putts by. Spending time on the ground means flickers are vulnerable to cat and surprise attacks in general. This was no cat attack though.

With no blood spots it’s hard to say if the Flicker was killed right there. Feathers were torn out there for sure, and it was interesting that only one larger feather – with a bold yellow shaft was around. A nearby tree/shrub/thing had more feathers dangling from it and below it. Plus one bird scat – directly below a nice perch – one singular dollop. To me that means owl, and in with the freshness of the feathers the flicker was likely taken that morning, caught being the early bird in a crepuscular world full of predators. The predator perched? Sounds more and more like a long-eared owl rather than short eared, with long eared known to visit/pass through the preserve in November.

Still, only a theory. I remain open to other options as well.

Beautiful feathers either way. Thanks Flicker!

Basin – otter latrine with recent spraint.

recent white winged crossbill action

White-winged Crossbills, Pine Grosbeak,

Saw-whet owl scat

Nice to see irregular earth tongue (Neolecta irregularis)

And then not totally sure what to make of this find. - Dead thing on the side of the trail, under some ferns.

Felt bigger than a red squirrel- which is a bummer. Red Squirrels are by far my favorite mammal to find dead, That always puts little bounce in step. Maybe a small raccoon? The head was gone – story of my life – and much of the fur was too. Large back legs may mean Snowshoe Hare. Pretty dry and somewhat mummified.

Identification wasn’t the focus; instead the claws demanded attention and were so cool to check out.

What do you think it is? Dead is an acceptable answer.

Funny thing was- it seemed obvious it had been in this spot for a long time, and I will admit that I changed the scenery immediately around the carcass in order to get shots. Bent back some dead ferns, partially exposing the carcass. And then when I returned the next day it was gone. I want a button that says ‘I helped a scavenger today! And I vote!’

3 mushrooms – amongst many – to look for when taking advantage of the open space on Vinalhaven, as of late. These are mushroom growing off wood, being it branches, twigs or the truck of a tree. These three

Orange Mock Oyster – (Phyllotopsis nidulans) – hot, late fall –winter mushroom. Tend to see it on birches, especially up Fox Rock way, but have seen on all preserves at one time or another.

Flip over the log they are growing on for some cool under world views. The gills are cool

Crimped Gill (Plicaturopsis crispa) – Schizophyllum family (Schizophyllaceae) along with the Split Gill! One of our favorites.

Funky crinkled gills make the crimped portion of this species' common name.

another hot one , small and shell-like, I’ve seen maybe 7 patches of Crimped Gill in the last week, I think I had noticed maybe 7 patches before in my life. Good year for Crimped Gills!? Maybe. At least it is for me!

Here’s a good quote from the Audubon Field Guide, Gary Lincolff, 1981 –

‘The Crimped Gill is quite common in some years and absent in others’.

Look for these on small deciduous branches. Birches along the coast for me.

And, Crowded Parchment – (Stereum complicatum), Family Stereaceae (that is 6 ‘e’s and 2 ‘a’s in that 10 letter word). Parchment Fungus Family

Parchments, such as the Crowded and False Turkey Tail, look like polypores but have ‘smooth undercarriages’ rather than tubes and pores when the spore releasing features are examined.

crowded parchment with tree ear

Spice is nice – A photo gallery of otter spraint with ice = sprice. Frosty mornings at the beaver dam by my house in St George. They are not too bad on the eyes.

Hearsay – let’s just say a little bird on a skateboard told me that Evening Grosbeaks were spotted recently on at least one Round the Mountain Road. The ‘Mountain’ being Ambrust Hill. Anyway – that’s the way rumors spread. Confirmed rumors I mean. Word o’ mouth.