Nature & Science
By LYNNE IRONS
Tree Tour
Polly Hill Arboretum continues its free winter walks series tomorrow, when collections and grounds manager Tom Clark will lead guests on a tour of plants of interest. The walk begins at 10 a.m. and runs for a little over an hour. Meet at the visitor center and dress for the weather. For details, call 508-693-9426.
Cliff Walk
On Sunday, Dec. 13, at 1 p.m. Islanders of all ages are invited to join a walk led by Isaac Taylor and Brendan O’Neill to the Gay Head Cliffs, north side, to learn about erosion and accretion from the Vineyard Conservation Society.
Walkers will have the opportunity to enter the Gay Head Light and enjoy the view from the top. Participants should meet at the lighthouse at 1 p.m. Parking is available nearby. The walk is free and family friendly — cider and cookies will be served.
The Bird Line (508-696-7577) would often languish unattended were it not for Happy Spongberg, who always keeps an alert eye open in the productive habitat near her home off Tea Lane in Chilmark. This week, Happy reports not one but two yellow-bellied sapsuckers, an adult male and an immature bird, on the same pine tree. The pair, reports Happy, were climbing in a spiral around the tree “like the stripe on a barbershop pole,” with the adult bird occasionally taking a swipe at the youngster, just to be sure everybody knew who was in charge. Sapsuckers are not exactly rare on the Vineyard, and they do linger into the early winter and sometimes beyond. But they are never common; two in one day is unusual, and two in one tree is the kind of thing that makes one go home, make a cup of tea and feel content.
Nothing is just a hop, skip or a jump away if you are a springtail.
Compared with the distance it had already come, the little turtle’s voyage from Martha’s Vineyard to Woods Hole was short. The only unusual thing was, it went by ferry.
Shellbey, the juvenile Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle, was in bad shape, you see. Made lethargic by cold and battered by the weekend’s storm, it was washed up injured on the Island’s north shore.
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.