You almost have to be in a bank vault not to hear the volume of eager bird song these days. From goldfinches to mourning doves, catbirds to cuckoos, just about all of the nesting species which annually choose the Vineyard as a seasonal home announce themselves with some sort of call. Woodpeckers use a favorite sounding board to resonate their presence, while shorebirds, terns and gulls are more apt to utter cries or whistles.

Clouds of bees bounce off a kitchen window in Chilmark. In Edgartown they cling together by the thousands and form a small pillow on the top of a house. This is bee swarming season, and apiarist Neil Flynn of West Tisbury has his hands full.

May and June are the busiest times for bees, according to Mr. Flynn. The flowers are in bloom and many bee colonies are on the move.

A project to build an experimental blue mussel farm off the Vineyard has cleared a thorny bureaucratic hurdle and may begin as soon as a month from now.

Believed to be an innovative and key leg of a movement to revive the fishing industry here, the project has the backing of state, local and federal funds.

But a requirement for an archaeological survey at the deep water site was threatening to delay the project, and late last week Rick Karney, director of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, was hopping mad.