Vinalhaven Sightings

here's looking at you

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

June 9 2021

Happy Birthday Big Brother Erik!

white admiral

Brought to you, in part by the kind support of Maine Coast Heritage Trust

And Vinalhaven Land Trust

Highlights – Warblers!, Woodpecker nests!, Lady Slippers and other flowery things, Butterflies,

common yellowthroat

Business – contact us – vinalhavensightings@gmail.com – send your photos and nature what nots in and we’ll share them with others and you will be a legend in no time!

Tiit trick – click the photos and jumbo size them

red squirrel lower mandible

Don’t forget to check out our ‘sibling’ relation blog maintained by Captain John Drury. Taking people to see great cormorants since before I can remember. Check it out!

www.blogspot.sightingsfromskua

and www.mainseabirdtours.com

red-eyed vireo

Sightings – Warblers and other assorted songbirds …. Red-eyed Vireos seem to be in good numbers ..

blackburnian warbler

Lots of classic warblers around – Yellow and yellowthroat on Lane’s, Ovenbird at Huber, Black throated green, black and white, yellow rumped and magnolia at most, if not all preserves near you. Seems like a good year for Northern Parula as well. Redstarts around.

pink lady slipper
photo by Pat Lundholm

Pink Lady Slippers – Cypripdium acaule – we called for photos and you responded! Well, one of you did (this is not a cheesy attempt at a guilt trip, just looks like one), Pat Lundholm sent in this beautiful photo of a Lady Slipper from up at the Fox Rocks Preserve . Thanks Pat!

We mentioned in the last blog post that Lady Slippers can be found on just about all of the preserves on island, with some like Huber, Fox Rocks, and Armburst Hill having particularly robust populations (?), stands (?) of them.

bunchberry in bloom

There was a question about dispersal and connectedness that reminded me that repetition is a great way to learn things (movie quotes especially) . Pink Lady Slippers, for all their fancy looks and aesthetic grace, are dependent on two symbiotic relationships for survival and pollination, aka the creation of the next lady slipper generation.

The bumblebee/flower symbiotic relationship is interesting for sure, but I tend to focus/think about the plant/seed/fungus as ‘the meat’, or ‘the spraint’ as far as interdependency goes. I get that interdependency is interdependency, all are equally necessary. But I just dig the fungus, please hold it against me.

close up of bunchberry blooms

Anyway, and so we have posted this before, but here’s what John “Little Johnny’ Eastman has to say about this plant/fungus relationship, starting with Lady Slipper seeds. From ‘The Book of Forest and Thicket’…

starflower

‘Elongated fruit capsules split to release hundreds of thousands of powdery, wind-dispersed seeds – among the smallest seeds of any flower. Only a very few (VSR editor note – what is a ‘very few’?) of these seeds ever find the right combination of habitat, microclimate, and symbiotic fungus to thrive. These seeds contain no food tissue for the seedling plant. When a seed germinates, it produces a mass of cells called a protocorm, which must be joined by a mycorrhizal fungus (Rhizoctonia) before it can absorb soil nutrition. This pregrowth may require two years or more, and the growing perennial may take another few years to produce a flower. Often, a plant will produce leaves but no flower in any given year. Seeds may remain viable for eight years or long in a cool micro-environment.’

Hairy Woodpecker female feeding nestling

Woodpecker nests. – The last few weeks have been great for locating woodpecker nests.

The youngsters have hatched and grown large enough to make consistent begs noises from the nest cavity. The only world they have known.

Check this video out – turn up the volume to hear the begging calls of Hairy woodpecker nestlings…

sorry - the videos wouldnt upload. they were fun and not that interesting. i will try to add again with the next VSR.

… and then check this video out to see the ride they were taking on a windy day last week in seal bay….

By this time, they should have fledged… be on the lookout for young woodpeckers – being loud and not so stealth – but away from the nest!

harris' checkerspot underwing

Butterflies – they are out and about in numbers – Tiger Swallowtails abound, though hard for me to get photos of for some reason. I did get a cool shot of a Harris’ Checkerspot under hindwing.

white admiral

And had a nice session with a White Admiral.

white admiral underwing

Butterflies are fun. Send in your butterfly photos now – this is a not-so-subtle subliminal message…

red squirrel upper palate from below

Dead Squirrel – Not saying I was happy about this find, or any happier than I am whenever finding any skulls in the woods. I just don’t find red squirrel bones very often unless they are in a mummified or severely dried skeleton in some gross cabin out in the woods. Other than then, its very seldom actually.