Vinalhaven Sightings: December 2022

Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report

Dec 10, 2022

Brought to you, in part, by VLT & MCHT! Thanks!

‘Getting’ lucky at state beach!’

Highlights – Hooded Mergansers. Sharp-shinned Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, Winter Moth, Snow Buntings, Pileated Woodpecker sign, Rosy Polypore, and so much more!

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Tiit trick – Click on photos, make jumbo, everyone happy

Recent flights – Winter Moth, that dastardly invasive fiend is still at it! The last few weeks of November had some reports of flights – starting with a trickle and then one might have seen a dozen or less on an evening drive. They are fun to hit with a car.

So they are still here, and will be. The parasitic fly that was introduced to control their numbers can take ten years to take hold, and it’s been about 7 or 8 years. Damage from the moths seems to be lower and flights appear to be less in numbers, but that is not based on actual data. Still might be true, and it’s good to believe. Not an overwhelming number of reports or sightings this year, which is good enough to believe.

hooded merganser
photo by Jim Clayter

Sightings – Jim Clayter sent in this photo of Hooded Mergansers in Old Harbor Pond. Always great to see!

Sharp-shinned Hawk
photo by Claudia Dengler

Claudia Dengler sent in this photo of her neighborhood Sharp-shinned Hawk from the comfort of her dwelling up Crockett Cove way. Apparently the Sharpie had just nailed a Mourning Dove (and no one is mourning for that happening).

One less dove! One less dove!

Bald Eagles - Looks like Folly Pond maybe
photo by Rick Morgan

Rick Morgan sent in a few more photos he took during the summer. Eagles

Grand ol' Osprey
photo by Rick Morgan

Osprey

red crossbill
photo by Rick Morgan

And Red Crossbill…

Thanks for sharing Claudia, Rick and Jim!

Songbirds around (the preserves I have been at) - Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Dark-eyed Juncos, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and after a largely quiet November - lots of Red Crossbills again!

State Beach Snow Buntings. – A late November/early December tradition. With hunting season winding down, taking a walk across the isthmus (favorite geographical word to say) to the high tide island-place and you are bound to scare up (or scare off depending on how fast you are going) some pretty cool songbirds.

The main isthmus songbird draws for me are Horned Larks and Snow Buntings. Every now and then I’ll see an Ipswich Sparrow subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow, which is cool, but it’s the Larks and the Buntings that can be counted on. One or the other, but there’s almost always Snow Buntings at State Beach in late winter.

And sure enough, last week I had just enough time to ‘stroll the isthmus’ (so fun to say) to see what was going on. 6 or 7 Snow Buntings were ‘working the isthmus seaweed’ as they say. Even with my being covered in ‘survival’ orange they did not take flight, only slowly working their way off the sea weed – with a watchful eye on me and my orange outfit – and then back to the seaweed after I sat down. Sitting down is a great way to lessen a perceived threat to a ‘wild’ animal. They came straight back and went right to searching the washed up sea weed.

The first person I ever told about seeing Snow Buntings at State Beach (back in ’04!) didn’t believe me even though they are not a tricky identification. ‘You’d be lucky to see one at State Beach’ (with a lame tone) was the quote I took away from that interaction. It’s now 19 years in a row seeing them there – I guess I keep getting lucky! Ever have sightings that pack more of a personal punch than others. Snow buntings at state beach – gotta be at state beach – is one of those for me!

Oh yeah – there was this sunset as well. Very distracting.

Exciting news – Dead Raccoon brings in Turkey Vultures on North Haven Road!

Like an epic dream coming true, driving back and forth to the thorofare last week I drove past a scene of crows, ravens, Bald Eagles, and Turkey Vultures roadside. I snapped photo or two of the vultures. And bailed.

this raccoon was 'all skin' by the end

The next morning I returned to see what the commotion was all about. It was about this raccoon – only a shell of its old self.

two parts of Rosie

Huber – 11/28 – red crossbills, dark eyed juncos, red breasted nuthatch.

Plus this nice Rosy Polypore and Pileated Woodpecker scene. The Rosy Polypores (Fomitopsis cajanderi) have been there for years – they started to fruit right about the time the tree fell across the trail! Here’s a great description of Rosy Polypore from ‘Mushrooms of the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada’ by Timothy J Baroni (my, my, my, my Baroni!)

fresh, but not rude, Rosy Polypore

‘On conifers with rosy-pink cap and pores; often several caps fused laterally, also shelving and the tube layer often extending down the woody substrate below the cap’

Rosy Polypore supporting a cone scale
gotta stick together!

Nice wording Baroni! Perfect match with the specimens trail side at Huber.

And if that weren’t enough, the Rosy Polypore tree - which I am internally referring to as ‘Rosie’ and humming ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ by AC/DC when I pass by from now on – is attracting Pileated Woodpeckers.

Well, I’m guessing its grubs inside of Rosie that is the main attractant and inspiration for pecking classic rectangular holes – classic Pileated.

Even the section of Rosie’s trunk that’s on the ground – still covered in Rosy Polypore – inspired a Pileated to search its innards for food. The pileated would have had to be truly horizontal to do this kind of peckin’.

Rosie can be seen on the right side of the Huber Trail, not too far past where ‘Roger the red belted conk’ used to preside. Just before the old stone bridge (is that the right word for it?) and the ‘recent’ re-route. Rosie’s worth a look, even more than a once over, and it’s got a nice personality to boot!

lovely, sacred spraint

Also at Huber – Otter spraint at Oak Point

Lungwort lichen along the trail – closer to the water than Rosie

Lungwort with Violet Toothed Polypore

match made in heaven

Wolf’s Milk Slime

horned grebes

From the ferry – Black-legged Kittiwakes, Bonaparte’s Gulls, Horned Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Common Loon, Ye Olde-tailed Ducks, Red-breasted Merganser, Bufflehead, Black Guillemot, Bald Eagle, Common Eider, Great Cormorants, Double-crested Cormorants, Harbor Seals, Purple Sandpipers, Surf Scoters

black-legged kittiwake
a moment or two behind

Been really nice rides on the Ferry as of late – often with close looks at Kittiwakes and Bonaparte’s Gulls.

red-throated loon

Late season Double crested Cormorants, a red-throated loon in Rockland Harbor that totally caught me off guard, and the Kittiwakes have been some of the recent highlights