Nature & Science
Tisbury Great Pond looked like a Japanese painting, flat calm with a fine mist hanging just over the surface. It was so quiet it was eerie. The silence was broken by the honking of a flock of Canada Geese. The birds rose up in a V-formation through the fog and headed directly towards my kitchen window, creating quite a din for such an early hour. At what seemed the last second, the flock sailed over the roof and headed towards Black Point Pond.
Island fish, like Island tourists, come and go with the seasons. Striped bass, bluefish, false albacore, bonito and scup and summer flounder all migrate.
Yet there is one species of fish that once were caught here year-round. Winter flounder stayed in Island waters through the changing seasons.
Next week the Chilmark Public Library is hosting a forum with a top New England authority on the raising of juvenile winter flounder.
For the casual fisherman, fishing the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby is like going from sandlot baseball to the major leagues.
COMSOG, the Community Solar Greenhouse of Martha’s Vineyard, is continuing a 21-year tradition of celebrating the arrival of the fall season by welcoming Island residents and their families to its Fall Harvest Festival on Sunday, Sept. 30, from noon to 3 p.m. at the greenhouse off of New York avenue in Oak Bluffs.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This old truism is making things difficult for the recently discovered native populations of Phragmites, also known as common reed or phrag.
The phrag we all love to hate is an invasive tall grass that is becoming the dominant plant along the upper edges of our salt marshes, growing so thickly that it crowds out any other plants, including cattails, sedges, wild flowers, and woody shrubs.
By LYNNE IRONS
Last Saturday’s rain made me so happy. There is nothing quite like waking up to that soft patter. It sure makes one’s bed enjoyable. I love the smell of rain especially on hot pavement. We are in desperate need of a slow, steady soaking.
Almanac
A comprehensive guide to weather and tides on the Island.
Vineyard Gardener
I guess this past week weather-wise is called a January thaw. We did not really experience it the last several years as December was unseasonably warm.
Farm & Field
Beige and brown and tan and black, with horns spiraled or semicircular or in undulating waves, a legion of goats marched up the hill toward us, bleating in anticipation of fresh grass and leaves.