Sightings Report
Vinalhaven Sightings February 2, 2010
Brought to y’all by the kind folks at VLT & MCHT
and alert viewers like you
Highlights: Harp Seals, Otter trails & sign, Dovekie, Rough-legged & Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Goshawk, Owls and pellets, Red & White-winged crossbill, Horned Grebe, Kittiwakes, Merganser, Razorbills and Iceland Gull, Harlequin Ducks, Snow Bunting, Baltimore Oriole, Bald Eagle, Belted Kingfisher, and so much more…
End of Hiatus? - Appears to be. This was not a scheduled hiatus, as many self-imposed deadlines and goals came and went with very little progress on any reports. And so it goes. For those who have read these before, you may notice a bit of vagueness as far as dates and such goes, and if you’re me you already know a whole bunch of experiences have been left out. A ketchup report isn’t necessarily the prettiest of things. And so here’s to another great year of observing. Now go slap some glass on something. And join the February walks (see calendar for details)
Sightings: The story is in the puke I tell ya! - Lane’s Island Owl Pellet hunts -
I found a couple of Long-eared Owl pellets under the spruce on Lane’s before the big snows. In an effort to lower impact on the owls I haven’t been back since, even though it is killing me not to. March is a good time to track the owl’s behavior via pellets and maybe stumble upon them. Please contact me if you are interested in getting low to the ground and finding pellets. I figure an hour or so on a few mornings should do the trick. Let me know if you are interested. If you don’t like to do cool things then you probably should skip this event.
Other business – VSR’s good friend Phil Crossman is doing a little walk-about around the island. Apparently he is walking the shoreline, currently is somewhere near Brown’s Head, and has only fallen into the water a few times. If you see him, please do not give him any hand outs, this just encourages “phil being phil” behavior. But if you are interested in following our local explorer and his new hat check out his bloggy thing at your convenience. I have to say it’s an impressive blog for sure – and I haven’t even checked it out yet!
Student Stuff – Outdoor Explorer Elders (6th year outdoor explorers)
Joey, Willie, Bobby, and John have signed on for another project this winter – tracking and gps’ing River Otter tracks, trails, dens and sign across the island. (1/10) Coombs Neck – The boys battled some serious wind chill and drifty conditions today as we searched frozen wetlands and shoreline for sign of everyone’s (and I mean everyone’s) favorite weasel. Tracks and belly slides were found in what snowpatches hadn’t been blown off the small wetlands there, and an active latrine on the eastern shore of Coombs Point was found with 7 fresh scats and a belly slide or two.
Harp Seals – (1/23) Pleasant River/Pond – Well, it’s been cold and the tidal ice scene has been fun to watch. A special treat was observed by at least three folk last Saturday when a young Harp Seal hauled itself out onto the ice behind the establishment formerly known as the What’s Left? restaurant and took a siesta for the afternoon.
You may recall last winter’s dynamic discussion of how somewhat recently weaned Harp Seals are called “Beaters” at this stage (you just can’t beat ‘em!). The nickname has more to do with their thrashing style of swimming at that young age (4 weeks and older or so). In another stage of their life they are called “bedlamer”, I had a friend in college with that same nickname, but that’s a different story. (1/24) Basin – After following a River Otter trail and back track roughly .75 miles from Folly Pond to Long Pond (in the Williams Preserve – see lower in text for further explanation) I made my way down to the Basin Shoreline to look for more Otter sign. What I ended up seeing was a whole lot of ice and another (the same?) Harp Seal hauled out in one of the back coves. Not so close to yesterday’s Pleasant River and no direct route for a seal to follow. That said, these Harp Seal-ee-o’s have made their way from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, so going a few miles in a day probably isn’t much of a stretch. They have been found as far south as Virginia – which is for lovers as you may already know. Editor’s note on Harp Seals – these beaters are ones that made it through a non-clubbing season up north, as Harp Seals were historically the main targets of the controversial hunting practice since banned in Canada (1987). For the first three weeks of life or so Harp Seals are called “whitecoats” because their pup fur is so dang pure and powdery snow-like. They are weaned at about 12 days (tough love) and start to lose that pure whiteness at about 3 weeks of age. So the clubbing sport focused on 3 week olds and younger. Those were the good ol’ days. Wait - maybe they are called “beaters” ‘cause they beat the clubbers by surviving. Alright, enough already. Keep an eye on the tidal ice for these winter visitors from the north.
River Otter and sign – to add to the above mentioned Explorers stuff, River Otters are sliding their way through winter around Vinalhaven.
- State Beach – trails and scat. Traditional marking spots used again.
- Greens Island – scat and tracks. Traditional marking spots, including an active latrine, being used once again! Several years in a row for both places.
- Folly Pond/Long Pond highway- 3 winters ago Niall Conlan and I followed a River Otter trail that Niall had found along the east side of Long Pond. Our lack of snowshoes at the time prevented us from following the trail to its destination as the trail curled away from Long Pond and into the woods. The last 2 winters I have found otter trails and slides on Folly Pond, and both times the trails started from the same hillside along the backside of Folly. Lack of snowshoes and time once again prevented me from following the trail(s) into the woods. I had been wondering about a connector trail covering the roughly ¾ of a mile of land between ponds. (1/24) After finding no otter sign on Folly pond itself I hooked up with an otter trail (and its subsequent turnaround) at the same historic spot along the backside of Folly. Apparently this otter had made whatever journey to Folly Pond, didn’t like what it found (really deep snow?) and went back to where it had started. The otter did not take the shortest or lowest path as we skirted just below pitch pines (otter in the pitch pines!) and after an hour or so (the trail got fuzzy at times) I found myself at Long Pond, right where Niall and I had followed tracks years ago. This is one of the coolest days I’ve had out here. And then I found the Harp Seal…..
Dovekie – (1/27) – Greens Island. Yes – a little Auk!, a pine not!, a Dovekie! , Alle alle! – call ‘em, what you want. Dovekies can be a great inspiration to move to an island in Maine or to get out of bed and look around the coast in the winter. This little one apparently spent much of the day feasting in the Tombs area of Greens. Even with destruction of a pier going on loudly nearby, the Dovekie remained focused on food and even allowed for a “real close” path crossing in the great evening light. This is a great sign for the future. Or at least it stirs up the promise of more Dovekie sightings soon.
Feeder talk - Baltimore Oriole – A single, (or quite possibly 2 different) Baltimore Orioles spent a few weeks visiting island feeders in early December. Jessica Martin was the first to report an oriole (12/6 or so) at her feeding station. At roughly the same time an Oriole was being reported from the feeders around Eldercare. Both individuals were in immature plumage and were seen for well over a week. If I got the stories straight. Baltimore Orioles are considered rare in the state of Maine in December and have recently been named the state bird of Baltimore. So keep looking, you never know what will turn up.
Raptors – Rough-legged Hawk – (1/5) while scouting for otter sign, I noticed a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk hunting Smith Island. My not living on Roberts Harbor has cut into my Vinalhaven Rough-legged sightings, so seeing this one was a real extra special treat. I watched the dude hunt for a bit, and then taped a video of him flying overhead towards the horse farm and beyond. Wonderful sight…Red-tailed Hawk – we pretty much never see ‘em out here, so the fact that 2 have been seen over the last little bit is somewhat impressive. One juvenile was spotted by (legendary) birder Don Sibley from Skoog Park (no less!) (12/12). An adult has been seen by the wind turbines (not necessarily the best place for red-tails), and was seen over Perry Creek from the snowshoe walk (1/23)…Northern Goshawk – late December was a good time for Goshawks as one was seen from the Ferry out by Lairy’s Island and another was seen in the Basin from the Basin bridge. Very cool.
Bald Eagles – November/December is a time of glutttoning oneself on the sight of many Bald Eagles (and snails and crabs) gluttoning themselves on discarded deer. 9 or 10 at one time from the Basin Bridge was the highest count I’ve heard of this fall. Joseph L’Africain sent in this picture of a youngster along the Round The Island road.
Basin Bridge – …in December this Red-breasted Merganser spent some quality time near the bridge with 2 tweaked wings. Most likely a survivor of a hunt somewhere along the line – probably pretty close to Vinalhaven as this bird ain’t flying nowhere. And to those who hunt merganser – what are you thinking? Fishy, fishy, fishy! There are so many other ducks out there (all of which are being skipped in this ketchup report) that taste better. And how did you only manage to hit the wings and not kill the bird? Now that’s a trick shot for sure.
The Basin bridge has been home for a male Belted Kingfisher for most of January (last reported 1/22). Seen by many, the kingfisher has been hunting from the wires (classic kingfisher) just outside the Basin bridge. Nothing says winter in Maine more than a Belted Kingfisher
Crossbills – While there hasn’t been nearly as many crossbills around this winter as there were in ‘08 (ah yes, the year of the Crossbill) just about every trip into the woods on the east side of the Basin has had at least a few White-winged Crossbills serenading. Anywhere between 3-12 White-wingeds have been heard (most recently heard 1/31). There is an extreme report of “there were hundreds” from the Otter Pond area (1/10). There was also an individual Red Crossbill seen and heard (12/28) in the Basin as well.
Snow buntings – these wonderful winter visitors were on Vinalhaven for most of December and into January. State Beach is legendary for them and had groups of up to 20 working the grasses and open lands for seeds. Several times they were spotted right at the last turn around with the view of Fish House Cove. Anyway, there was even a report of roughly 25-30 buntings on the school soccer field! Surprisingly none were seen in the Basin this year. Surely they passed through the Basin. Just not observed and reported. None have been reported or observed for the past few weeks
Also at State Beach – up to 40 Red-necked Grebes rafting off House Ledge. A small group of Purple Sandpipers (3-5) on House Ledge. Many Red-breasted Mergansers, Common Loon, Oldtails and Eider. Often Ring-billed Gulls (by no means abundant at all on Vinalhaven).
Polly Cove – (12/6) An impressive 13 Horned Grebe were seen rafting up just outside the cove. Highest personal previous day total maybe 3 or so. First White-winged Crossbills (4) of the season as well.
On the water – November and December is my favorite time to kayak around Vinalhaven. You get these incredibly calm days, with just crisp light conditions, and the temperature is right on for a spray skirt. And did I mention there is no one else out with you. Nirvana. Thorofare- (12/9) – I don’t think I had a single boat pass me as I kayaked from the boat launch to Calderwood Island. What I did see was maybe 50 Surf Scoter and at least 100-150 Oldtails. I could’ve kayaked across the backs of them and never got my paddle wet. It was just that good. I also spotted about 35 Purple Sandpipers on the small island just north of the Sparkplug...
Fluke trip to Brimstone – somewhere in the neighborhood of 70+ Harlequin Ducks
Leadbetter – Long-eared Owl pellet along trail.
Town Birds – we had a (seemingly) nice wave of Cedar Waxwings in early January, and there are a few Goldfinch and Tree Sparrows around as well. The male Black-capped Chickadees in the neighborhood were all belting out their “FEE-BEE” song when we got some (relatively) warm weather Thursday morning. Needless to say they have all shut their seedholes as we’ve had a cooler weather pattern settle in on us.
From the Ferry Wonderful yellow glow as ferry passed – over the past few months the ferry route has been lined (or at least a few have been seen each ride) with Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Oldtails, and Bonaparte’s Gulls. Three Red-necked Grebes (not often seen from the ferry), an immature Iceland gull has been seen with some regularity.
And all kinds of other stuff – Shrike on Greens’ and Lane’s (adult on Lane’s – usually see those immature).
See you ‘round.