Sightings Report
February 6, 2011
Brought to you by the kind (and greatly appreciated!) support of VLT & MCHT
Highlights: Yellow Breasted Chat, Dovekie, Thick-billed Murre, Owls, Redpolls, Red Throated Loons, Boreal Chickadee, Horned Lark, Crossbills, Shrike, Fungus – including Jelly Tooth, Mammals featuring a coyote update.
Upcoming event – Basin Snowshoe/Tracking Walk – this Saturday February 12th – 10am to roughly 1pm. The snowshoeing has been great, lots of places to explore, great area for tracking. Bring snack, water, thermos of warm beverage, and whatever else to Skoog Park to carpool. We’ll do a favorite loop of mine. Somewhat interesting conversations will also be taking place. |
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Some sightings may be “Historical” – A few more things Historical – It has been pointed out very kindly that I may have dropped a few sightings from the last report.
Nudibranchs (sea slugs)– I found a picture from the town dock by the ferry terminal of a Nudibranch where you’ll see my left hand (complete with fiddlehead wedding ring) holding a piece of translucent brown kelp. On the kelp is a white squiggly mass, which is the egg mass of the Branched/Bushy/Brushy Backed Nudibranch. The bonus of the picture is that the owner/layer of the egg mass is right above it on the kelp – the sea slug is the blobby thing. I can’t remember who (actually I can and do remember) but someone called me on the truth of the nudibranch sighting from the last report. There you have it. Inspiration.
Also – some might have noticed a rather large truck sitting in the Huber Preserve parking lot for a few nights in early October (the 8th thru the 12th). While you might suspect some rascals being up to no good, the truth of the matter is that two Owl women, Kate and Merra from the Biodiversity Research Institute in beautiful Gorham (what is the state of biodiversity in Gorham?) were catching owls. They actually spent much of September and October banding saw-whet owls at MCHT preserves up and down the coast. Banding owls entails putting some big nets in the woods and then playing a tape of a saw-whet calling – tiny bus backing up (beep, beep, beep, etc…..) – to lure in the owls and snare them in the nets (snare might not be the right word. Might be, though). Once snared measurements are then taken and a band goes around a leg (not both, that would be cruel) for identification. The researchers were very nice and had a successful fall entrapping and braceleting those cute little saw-whets like the one in the photo. They had their biggest night on the 11th: 19 different saw-whets caught in 5 hours. Owl migration going on in our backyard - it is interesting to get a little glimpse into it. If they return next year for another go around, we’ll try to set it up so interested folks can do a round or two with them.
Recently, or less historical –
More on Owls – it is the owlly time of the year, and, fortunately, Vinalhaven has its fair share of local owls to listen for. Great Horned Owl pairs have been heard making some call and response hooting right around sunset at Perry Creek (my favorite pair) and Wharf Quarry Road. Non-windy crepuscular times can be a great time to listen for your local owls, but I prefer dusk myself. This is the season where hooked up pairs give clues as to where the 2011 nest is to be located. From your porch, road, or hot tub listen and note the general direction and distance where they are calling from every time you hear them. As eggs are laid (soon, if not already, a February thing) the Great Horned Owl Pairs will be calling back and forth as they take turns attending the nest. They switch at dusk. It shouldn’t take too many times before you might narrow down an area where, with a little effort and search, you might be able to find a nest. We here at the VSR recommend not trying to locate any nests just yet (wait till March if you can!) as the owls are in the early stages of committing to a nest site and can get scared off if there is too much activity in the vicinity. If you have some local owls and are interested in help in trying to locate a nest, let me know – we are always up for Owl projects.
Alcids – Black Guillemot numbers are still strong from the ferry, a few wintering alcids from the north have been sighted by John coming and going from Greens Island. He spotted a Thick-billed Murre taking long dives in and around the Tombs cove and then had an interesting interaction with a Dovekie, Alle Alle!, that was apparently on its last legs.
Yellow-breasted Chat – The York road neighborhood is known for its wonderful people and great sightings. Tink had a Yellow-breasted Chat in his yard for a stretch in early December eating some unidentified red berries. Coming in at 7.5 in. and a svelte .88 of an ounce (25 g), the Chat is by far North America’s largest wood warbler – (compare with Vinalhaven’s breeding champ – wood warbler division – Black-throated Green Warbler – 5 inches and .37 of an ounce (8.8 g)).
Range maps for Chats will show that east coast populations breed no further north than south western Connecticut, the Peterson field guide to warbler (Dunn/Garrett) has this great quote – “Sightings in early winter in coastal New England and the Maritimes are routine, especially at feeders”. Routine? Maybe for the region, but this is the first I have heard of in my time on Vinalhaven – great spot! Tink identified the chat by its large size, brightly colored breast and the conspicuous eye ring and spectacles. Makes me miss the old neighborhood even more.
Fungally Speaking- So we had an incredible fungal fall and even though it might feel like a long time ago, the fungal scene remained crisp thru early December. We selected 5 of our favorites from this stretch for our “Fungal Photo Forum, Finally”. Enjoy!
Fungus #1 - Jelly Tooth (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum)!!! Yeah baby! – It’s a fungus that’s a jelly, only to act like a toothed one! That’s about as crazy as it gets! Actually, I’ve been trying to get a good shot of this species for years– I see it yearly on the same stumps in the Huber preserve and along the Basin Falls trail – and this year I finally feel like I got a good one! The Jelly Tooth, aka False Hedgehog, or Udik (in Estonian, funnily enough also my nickname in high school) kinda takes a beating in the mushroom books as far as its edibility goes (but there’s always way more to a fungus than whether you can eat it or not!). Here’s some quotes from David Arora on Jelly Tooth :
“Edible. It is said to be fairly good with honey and cream – but what isn’t? It can also be marinated for use in salads. The texture is interesting, the flavor nonexistent…”.
“This denizen of dank places is one of my five favorite fleshy fungal fructifications. The rubbery or flabby tongue-shaped fruiting bodies with small ‘teeth’ on the underside are as attractive as they are unique, and look funnier than they do fungal – in fact it’s hard to take them seriously! (they remind me of the “creepy Crawlers” I used to buy at the dime store with my lunch money!)” – Mushrooms Demystified – D. Arora.
Maybe he’s right though, it is an effort to take them seriously. I think they look cool.
Fungus #2 – Orange Mock Oyster (OMO) (Phyllotopsis nidulans) - A fall and winter favorite on birch around the island, the OMO, adds a nice orange flair to standing trees and fallen logs. This year’s crop, faded and worn from a few months of exposure, can still be observed on either side of Perry Creek. The one in the photo had an especially attractive set of gills, more of a warm feel to them, but still Arora has this to say about their edibility –
“Unknown. The odor is so disgusting that only a zealot with the iron constitution of Charles McIlvaine would consider eating it” M. Demystified page 141
Side note - Mycology Legend - Charles McIlvaine (1840 – 1909) was a Civil War veteran turned mycologist who was legendary for his interest in the edibility of fungus. He ate hundreds of species and was given the nickname “Ole Ironguts” for eating mushrooms that are generally considered poisonous. His 1900 book “Toadstools, Mushrooms, Fungi Edible and Poisonous. One Thousand American Fungi. How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous” is considered a classic, if for nothing more than the title. He passed away by natural causes.
Fungus #3- Funnel or Winter Chanterelle (Cantharellus infundibuliformis group)- I found a few patches of this “species” along the North Perry Creek Preserve trails in November and the gills on this particular one were especially cool looking. You may have noticed that the Winter Chanterelle’s scientific name is followed by “group”. This means that this “species” is a conglomerate of closely related fungal species that currently can’t be told apart, or identification is impossible in the field and even tricky at home. So much to learn about fungus!
A general description of the “group” by Arora mentions “gills are characteristically “chanterellesque” – thick, blunt, shallow, and conspicuously forked or veined and/or wavy”. This specimen really lived up to the description. Arora summarizes the winter chanterelle’s edibility as “edible, but small and thin-fleshed. Some people relish it nevertheless, and in Finland it is harvested commercially”. Cool to have around.
Fungus # 4 – Silver Leaf Fungus (Chrondrostereum purpureum)- Estonia language fans will recognize this as Lilla ebanahkis (sounds like Galifianakis). The Silver Leaf Fungus lives beyond the cool textures and patterns that characterize its “often resupinate” fruiting body. While it lives up to its species name “purpureum”, the common name “Silver Leaf” is in reference to a disease it causes on apple and plum trees, (the fungus is not exclusively found on fruit trees). Here’s a quick summary of the action:
“It enters the bark through wounds, producing the silvery appearance of the leaves, the disease kills branches, and then the whole tree” – Audubon Guide to North American Mushrooms
Quite an attractive killer, this one on birch at the North Perry Creek re-route on the mi-creek trail.
Fungus #5 – Lion’s Mane – (Hericium erinaceus) – This past-prime, slightly discolored individual was growing on a big-tooth aspen right by the map at Fox Rocks trailhead. When fresh, a Lion’s Mane is pure white and universally considered beautiful (not that the orangey specimen in the photo isn’t sexy in its own way). It is also considered a “choice” edible (a.k.a. The Scat). This combo of characteristics leads to tough decisions – whether to leave it for all to see or to take it home and mack on it and take care of #1 by stoking his bald taste buds and stomach.
Arora says in Mushrooms Demystified:
“Excellent when fresh, but tougher than other Hericiums and sometimes developing a rather sour, unpleasant taste in age. Slow cooking is called for and the base should not be eaten – it’s so tough that it’s difficult to remove from the tree without a knife!”
Having beauty & being choice makes for a rich combo in the fungal world. Toss in a little medicinal mumbo-jumbo and the fungus will quickly approach “otherworldly” status. Mid-coast’s own Greg Marley mentions that Lion’s Mane contains “erinacines that show that ability to stimulate the production of nerve growth factor (NGF) in animal trials and hold promise as therapeutic agents in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders” G. Marley, “Mushrooms for Health : medicinal secrets of northeastern fungi”.
Book Note- Marley’s book on medicinal mushrooms should be in your library (title above – signed copies can be found at the Good Tern). The book focuses on 10 species, going through each species’ natural and medicinal history: past, present and future potentials. The photos are more than sufficient to make identification easy and the book size and weight are conducive to bringing into the field. All the species are found on Vinalhaven, some in abundance. Enough!
As far as the coyote goes, I have had the pleasure of following three of its trails over the last couple of months. All the trails were in the Basin and all appeared to be hunting expeditions. The trails were all easy to locate, identify and every single thing about the tracks, trails and interpreted behavior screamed Coyote.
(12/9) The first snow of the season provided the first trail, and some unbelievably light and fluffy snow conditions that would remain pristine for 5 days. The stretch of the trail I backtracked went for about a mile before slushy mid-day tracking did me in. It did go through several habitats along 
the way, and the trail visited 5 deer beds, many deer trails, and posted lots of snowshoe hare sign. The coyote kept a consistent gait and stayed focused on the hunt – no room for play whatsoever. A coyote “with a purpose” as Leif would say.
(12/12) A few days later we got a nice fluffy layer to go on top of the previous tracks and trails. It made a clean slate in the woods and the coyote trail was picked up quickly. Super fresh as the snow hadn’t even stopped 24 hr. prior, and I had been there roughly 20 hours before and had seen nothing but the last flakes falling.
Anyway, I backtracked this trail and once again it went thru several habitats and the trail seemed to float from hummock to hummock as the Coyote cruised thru the boggy wetlands. Sure footed and even paced, undoubtedly more graceful than the handsome bald man in pursuit. What took the Coyote a few minutes probably took me 4 times as long. At least.
There were a few thick sapling spots where the coyote focused on snowshoe hare, but there was no sign of catching or chasing of lagomorphs of any kind. No pikas seen.
After maybe a mile or so I spotted some deer fur on the coyote trail. It was very fresh and the first hard sign of the coyote in some time (tracks being on the softer side of sign). I carefully picked up the clump of fur and having forgotten my ziplocks in the car (never again!) I loaded up my sneaky breast pocket with the sample. I stood there for a bit of time thinking about the deer and speculated about the story captured in this small sample of fur.
Then I continued on the trail, turned a corner around some saplings and saw the bloody mess of the kill site. Fresh blood, fresh fur, drag marks and a large amount of coyote foot traffic over a 20’ radial area or so.
The stomach was left behind, as well as most of the spine and one leg and plenty of fur. Ribs broken, body completely destroyed, devoured or cached – all since the last snow ended 24 hours before. It was a textbook coyote kill site -
…”Domestic dogs do not eat much off the carcass, they’ll play with it (kg – who can blame them) and carry some of it off, but they are more used to cereal at home. Coyotes will pick the bones clean…they eat until only the head, legs from the knees down, and the rumen (stomach contents) are left. Eventually, they will carry off even the head and the lower legs, leaving only the rumen and some hair at the kill site.”
Paul Rezenedes – tracking and the art of seeing. page 196
The freshness of the kill can be punctuated by this quote –
“Mammals do not have to be dead long before their blood congeals and no longer runs”
- Mark Elbroch, Mammal Tracks & Sign, page 718
So there you have it, down to the punctuation, a match with the scene that unfolded. Not that the coyote tracks that led up to the kill weren’t clear enough.
Each winter I’ll find at least one dead deer in the woods, and if I remember I’ll note the decay process with photography. It’s an alright hobby I guess, none of the other deer I have watched decompose had a scene anything like this bloody mess. The deer looked to be a young one, and it appears that the coyote surprised it as there was no sign of a chase or anything.
After a bit I continued following the trail, as the coyote meandered across fallen logs and took me to a new (for me) waterfall. I eventually ran out of time to follow. Next time I’d be ready for a full day adventure.
(1/1/11) Rabbit, rabbit and a happy new year to you. In the Basin again on a gorgeous morning, and once again I hooked up with a coyote trail within the first 10 minutes of the walk. This was 5 days after the first good storm of the season dumped a bunch the day after Christmas. The trail was fresh, maybe made that morning a few hours before. The next 3½ hours were a lesson in the focus and determination of the hunt. There was no wandering or playing, just a steady pace and a fine mix of open woods, frozen ponds, jumping up rocks, deer beds and a dead crow all in stride. The last hour was also a lesson in pain tolerance as I did my yearly break thru the ice and my left boot, leg and foot were soaked and frozen at the same time. I managed fine, but when the trail started getting mushy and melty I was quick to bail.
Several times since then I have returned to the area and have not found any sign of the coyote. Trails can come and go quickly of course, especially with the snow and wind we’ve been having, and getting to the area got trickier with each snow. A quick observation would be that there has been noticeably less deer activity in the areas I’d been following him through. I would imagine that snow up to my waist would affect the coyote and deer as much as it affected me. We’ll keep returning anyway.
What does this all mean? Not much really.
From what I’ve found we can say this - we have an individual coyote that knows the island way better than any of us could ever imagine. It hunts snowshoe hare, deer, and voles and will scavenge. The deer it took was a young one. It covers a lot of ground and is lighter than me. He’s super sly and doesn’t use our trails or roads other than to quickly cross over. A good jumper, a good swimmer (?), and can balance on small logs no problem. He is the master of wetlands, crossing hummock to hummock like nobody’s business. He has no fear of the ice.
There is much literature on how predators can be a positive influence on the health and dynamics of a prey population. One famous on-going study (started in 1958!) is on wolf/moose dynamics on Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior (overrated lake – superior? To what? Show me). Predators can help relieve pressure (lack of food, disease, whatever) on a prey population by taking the young, old, and weak/sick/injured.
The consensus on Vinalhaven seems to be that there are too many deer on the island. Over population of deer is often mentioned as rationalization for seasonal hunting (no rationalizing required by the way). Other concerns cover gardening, lyme’s disease, the island’s deer population’s health, and food of course.
A kill like the one I found is probably rare- the fact that he macked most of the carcass (probably stashing some, little trail evidence found of that) in one sitting leads me to think that he was hungry. There was no struggle, no chase, just a big surprise for the deer– one that the coyote might have been banking on for a while. He was surely well aware of its victim and had that little deer on its radar for a while. When I returned to the site a few weeks later there was no evidence of the kill. Sunshine cleaning.
Folks have concerns and valid they are. Nobody wants a pet or a goat or a chicken or a pet goat or a pet chicken to disappear and so far the trails have steered well away from residences. These woods are full of food for this predator and until the coyote acts in a way detrimental (in the least) to island life, speculation on its impact on wildlife, livestock, and small children is pretty much speculation. A deer or two picked off from an island population that most everyone agrees is too big is not an impact (other than to “the deer or two”, which could be considered a direct impact). And that’s what we seem to have here.
Maybe it will eventually move on to feral cats, then we’ll have something to cheer about.
Chances are none of us will ever see it. Alright, maybe a few will see it, or they'll see something. I see this coyote being awarded “legendary” status as time goes on. Coyote track with snow fleas- dream come true.
Kirk
