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| northern red chiton |
Welcome to the Vinalhaven Sightings Report
June 1 – June 17, 2026
Thank you MCHT!
And Happy Solstice!
And Happy Father's Day!
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| Golden Heather |
‘Beavers don’t bother minding the gap.
They just fill it in.’
Highlights: Northern Red Chiton, Mack’s Pond – a Beaver’s Story,
Flowers, Mushrooms – including Amanita muscaria, Ironclad Beetle, and so much
more!
Business: vinalhavensightings@gmail.com
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| crab spider with prey on a flower thing |
The response has been fantastic! – emails are flying in (or ‘air-emailed’
as I like to call it) and the VSR is reaching an audience that is a fine mix of
readers both newish and long termish. Everyone is welcome here (if you
are offended by these 4 words, just remember you are part of everyone) so send
those emails to the email address above! And feel free to share these posts
with others who might be interested. I mean – who wouldn’t be interested in Chitons!
Hard to imagine those people exist.
Sharing is fun, and so is my friend Sharon - And with that – the eternal call
for your sightings! – see something, share something. Send in your
photos and stories to the email above and add to the knowledge of others around
the island. This here VSR is a resource – add to the resource!
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| Moses likes the hardened trail on Lane's Island |
Tiit trick - Click on photos, it makes them feel special and
enlarges! Thanks Dad!
So click on Moses (the dog) and jumbo-size him!
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| Mack's POND |
Bob thing - Hooked on these posts and need a VSR fix (drug addiction references
never get old)? There are links to spraint-loads of past VSRs at the
bottom of this post – take a look if you are so inclined.
#1 video – woodcock walking… (all videos from up Barney Point way)
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| blackburnian warbler - 'flame throat' Wharf Quarry Road |
Sightings – Basin – Wharf Quarry Road – And Before we get fully going – Blackburnian Warblers nest of the island – not in huge numbers, but certainly there have been known to nest at Polly Cove, Carrying Place and out near the Barney Point trailhead over the years, amongst other locations of course.
Anyway - there has been a male singing for the last three
weeks at the Wharf Quarry access to the Basin preserve – between the parking
area and the kiosk (closer to the kiosk, but birds move gosh darned it!). Worth
a looksee.
#2 video – snowshoe hare eating…
All that the rain promises, and more … We need the rain, and so do the
fungi! And with recent showers and assorted rain events the fungal world is ‘getting
their spores out’ the old-fashioned way – via Mushrooms! (there will
be more to come about mushrooms in the upcoming VSRs!)
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| Amanita muscaria - Fly Agarc photo by Javier Penalosa |
Javier Penalosa was kind enough to send in this photo of a striking Amanita muscaria – aka the Fly Agaric – he crossed paths with near Carrying Place. Classic and fantastic, this is the same species as the red capped shroom in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ – Amanita muscaria var. muscaria. The version, or variety if you will, that we find in the Northeast is sometimes called ‘American Eastern Yellow Fly Agaric’, or Amanita muscaria var guessowii. ‘Locally yellow’ is another way to describe these luscious (‘nuther way to describe it) shrooms as they rise up from the underground mycorrhizal fungus that is ‘the being’ and helps the trees grow. Lots going on above and especially below the surface with these bad boys.
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| I prefer my Kings dry sauteed |
Legend has it that when the Amanita muscaria are up it’s
time to look for King Boletes – Boletus edulis – aka Porcini.
Found these bad boys yesterday in a yard by the post office in Tenants Harbor
(mainland) right next to a clump of Amanita muscaria var. guessowii. Ain’t so
different on Vinalhaven, so maybe worth poking around for Kings these days. They
are the best (not a judgement – simple fact) and prove that Mychorrhizals
truly are the spraint, fungally speaking of course. But in the end, they
have nothing to prove.
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| Wolf's Milk Slime photo by Javier Penalos |
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| Fresh Mick - Red-belted Conk |
Famous shrooms! – A good species to start your mushroom appreciation journey
with is the Red-belted Conk (RBC). The fruiting bodies of these classic
saprophytic fungi can be seen as shelves on the side of trees. The trees may be
standing or lying down (their choice!), pound for pound this may be the top
species of mushroom on island.
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| remember Roger from over at Huber? |
And as long as silly people don’t collect them, a red-belted
conk lasts forever (exaggeration) and may be visited for years and years - some
becoming landmarks on trails – like this one that was on the Huber trail for
years. I called it ‘Roger’, but I don’t think that mattered too much. ‘Roger’
in the non-gender specific sense. Everyone is welcome here!
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| fresh Mick, with Mountain Ash growing out of cap |
Or Mick – the most recent huge RBC to be (noted)
trailside – a massive RBC with what - 10 trees growing out of the top of the shroom.
Mick has been a fan favorite for years, but last year he turned green with
algae (happens to the best of us) and recently has become ‘unattached’ from the
old spruce it was attached to. And so the next stage starts!
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| Currently Mick is leaning to the right |
It’s been fun to check in and see Mick change over time (mushroom watching) and twill be fun to see how the trees growing out of the cap handle this new development – Nurse Mushroom!
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| unatttached Mick, with Rosie award winning pup at least in our books! |
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| small ironclad beetle |
What’s that on your shroom? – speaking of RBCs – checked out an RBC on the
Macks Pond trail in the Basin Preserve a few days ago and was happy to see a
favorite mushroom muncher – the small Ironclad Beetle (Phellopsis obcordate)!
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| ironclad beetles |
There were a few of them – 4? – munching and mackin’ on the
RBC – a formidable shroom to chomp
through. Anyone who’s been bored in the woods knows how hard it is to sink your
teeth through one of these!
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| upside down ironclad beetle hardcore mackin' |
#3 video – beaver walking …
Beaver Story – …and speaking of Macks Pond – so, if you’ve visited Mack’s Pond over
the past 10 years or so, and you went there hoping to see a ‘pond’ you may have
been disappointed. You may have thought that ‘Mack’s Fenn’ or ‘Mack’s Bog’, or ‘Mack’s
Swamp’ would have been more descriptive. And you probably would have been more right,
whichever the most correct title is/was.
Well, the times have changed! (This is what happens when
Beavers are added to the mix). Those busy rodents (Beavers) have added to the old human dam
at the outflow of Mack’s wetlands and have really filled in the gap. Beavers
don’t mind the gap; they fill it in!
And with that, Mack’s is a pond again! Who woulda thunked?
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| beaver kit |
And with that I left the weedwhacker and stuff, took out my
camera (was in the stuff) and made my way to a protected view where I might be
able to snap a shot or two of the ducky. And I did.
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| not a wood duck weird duck |
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| muskrat with reed |
But as I was sitting there a Muskrat swam by draggin’
a long reed in it mouth. This may be the first Muskrat I’ve seen alive on Vinalhaven
– plenty of dens and one roadkill have been the muskrat ‘sign’ I’ve seen over
the years. This one was definitely alive! And thriving in the pond!
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| check out that tail |
#4 video Muskrat walking away …
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| beaver tail for comparison |
Draggin’ a reed (and not eating it!) really only points to one thing – this muskrat
was building a lodge/den/ summer place in the pond! New neighbors already! I
watched it as it swam to a clump of Leatherleaf and then disappeared. But not
before showing off it’s thin tail that is used as a rudder when swimming. And like
that – it was gone!
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| beaver |
.jpg) |
| little hands |
After a bit it swam back out and around, and then over to
some submerged Leatherleaf shrubs and started mackin’ one of ‘em! Fantastic just
floating there, tail up as a buoyancy helper floaty at times, slicing up
some plant matter for energy. Good for it!
.jpg)
After another little bit it swam to shore and out of view. It
was a section of shoreline with a lot of spruce saplings, and I could see where
one was moving and shaking a bit. Clearly a beaver was having its way with the
tree.
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| kits are cool |
And then, ripples again! But this time the ripples were made
by a smaller Beaver – a kit if you will – and from the looks of it being
disheveled (bad hair day) it made one think that maybe the tree had its way
with the beaver!
This little one swam out and around my seat and out of view,
and then the big one came back out and followed. Out of view.
Never did see the muskrat again that day, or a wood duck at
all at Mack’s Pond. But the neighborhood is changing, and it’s impressive how
quickly the rodents move in! And then I got back to work.
Do You Intertidal? Hecks yeah – Tide pooling is a way of life. Here’s
some stuff from a sweet, calm, and warm -1.3ft tide on Lane’s. Lots of good
stuff to cross paths with, here are a couple of ones that stood out - See what
you think….
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| chitons |
Atlantic Red Chiton – Tonicella rubra – Chitons are cool! Used to see
lots of em out west – lots in both diversity and in numbers. While Chitons are
regular on the east coast, these are the first I’ve seen in Maine, and at the
tidepools I’ve been visiting for 20 years plus.
Also realized this was the first time I’ve tidepooled at Lane’s
in June – often the best, lowest, and least inconvenient tides are during the
school year – and one thing you learn quickly with tidepools is that there is a
seasonal flow – ebb and whatnot – and that things are never the same in the
pools.
Here’s a bit about Chitons from Deborah Coulombe’s epic
masterpiece – ‘The Seaside Naturalist’ –
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| limpet for comparison |
‘Chitons are armadillo-like mollusks that comprise the class Polyplacophora. Their flattened oval body is covered by a shell made of eight overlapping plates. Around the edge of the shell is the mantle, which in chitons is called the girdle. Both the foot and girdle clamp tightly to rocks so the chiton can withstand the turbulent waves and currents of the intertidal zone.
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| blood star |
Chitons are notoriously lethargic mollusks. Usually they avoid
the light and lay low during the day. At night they methodically crawl around
scraping algae and minute organisms off rocks with their radula. Like limpets, chitons
often return to their own resting spot when they are through feeding for the night.
Chitons seem to stay motionless at low tide, waiting to forage when the tide
comes in.’
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| scaleworm, periwinkle and crab exoskeleton |
Wow – thanks Deborah! So there is a lot going on there, even
if ‘chiton watching’ is better at night and at high tide! Fun to see em…
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| what? |
…Now what about these guys (non-gender specific) – what the
heck?
#5 video – nudibranchs…
I saw maybe 20 of them under a whole bunch of rocks, and so,
I reached out to some folk who are more ‘tide pool focused’ than me (doesn’t
take much) to see if the blobby critters in the clips were familiar to anyone.
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| sculpin |
With that, the current thought on these critters – of which -
is that these are reminiscent of Nudibranchs – sea slugs – which was my
thought to begin with (I want credit! Ha ha!). But these are acting unlike any
others I’ve seen.
Once again, wondering if June is part of the equation – but these
‘feel’ like Barnacle eating Nudibranchs that are ‘normally’ seen in Maine
tidepools – but look a little deflated, like maybe young nudibranchs that haven’t
‘filled out’ their bodies yet.
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| gunnel |
Not even sure if that’s a thing – I usually am not a fan of ‘brainstorming’
but this ‘feels’ like a perfect time to get the speculator going. I don’t know –
what do you think?
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| Aristotle's lantern |
Nature sure is funky, wouldn’t you say? Will update if
anything is determined about these little buggers.
And hey – how about some limited editions….
And a couple of funky ones Claudia Dengler sent in from a recent Portugal trip. Thanks for thinking of the VSR!
Crack Star! – that was my nickname in high school!
And here’s what I looked like at the Claypool Gold show in
early June in Portland. Les Claypool has a catchy little tune called ‘Amanitas’
(and another catchy tune called ‘D’s Diner). The Frog Brigade played both that show
– not saying that the sign had anything to do with that – but it did get me
some street cred with Claypool-heads near me at the show. ‘Good call’ was the
comment. The show was fantastic.
And now a solstice hit-up. This part is optional of
course….
Solstice reminder/ask/hit up - So here we are, wrapping up another
VSR! Hope it was stellar; hope you’ve enjoyed it and hope you are looking
forward to next one as much as we are excited to put the next one together the
next! Nature doesn’t rest (well, you know what I mean) and we here at the VSR
take the sharing of nature and environmental education seriously! Glad you do too!
With that in mind, and with summer solstice happening
(nothing we can do about it!), we just wanted to take a moment and thank all of
you for checking out the rebooted Vinalhaven Sightings Report (VSR). Good to be
back!
(here comes the ‘hit up’) - We also wanted to let you know that these posts require three ingredients for them to blossom - the support of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), a bunch of my volunteer time and you! If you are someone who enjoys the VSR and are moved to take an active role in supporting this ‘sharing forum’ type blog, then maybe consider donating to MCHT at this li
And while you are at it – check out the cool stuff MCHT is up to at the website home -
Mention your gift is in the ‘Name of the VSR’ and get
the next year of VSRs absolutely free. What a bargain!
Maybe you didn’t see the ‘hit up’ coming, and maybe you can
tell this is a little awkward for me as there has never been a ‘hit up’ portion
of a VSR before. But don’t worry, it’s nothing you have to get used to since it
will solely be a ‘round ‘solstice’ time activity. So maybe you’ll be ready in 6
months for the next ‘Solstice hit-up’.
Thanks for listening …
And we’ll see you out there!
