Nature & Science
As Vineyarders are bogged down in renewable energy regulations and the Cape Wind project languishes, some Island kids are well aware of what adults are just beginning to understand; “solar ovens/ and solar cars/ will make you all/ into stars/ . . . to prevent global warming/ you can turn off lights/ when it’s storming/ you don’t fly your kites.”
These rhyming, truthful lines are part of the Energy Rap, a song composed by the campers at Sense of Wonder Creations, a day camp in Vineyard Haven run by Pamela Benjamin.
By Lynne Irons
My chickens wish that we had a garden. It is not that they are avid vegetable eaters, although they do enjoy the produce leftovers that they get from our kitchencompost. Nor is it that they are looking to get a greenthumb. It is the protein from the garden that they desire.
I may have to change the name of this column to the raptor report. Great excitement on Chappaquiddick, first the Fowle family observed four merlins on August 14. Two were immature merlins. How did they know they were immature? One merlin was being fed by the adult female and the other was begging food and fluttering its wings. So the Chappaquiddick merlins fledged at least two birds!
Friday, August 15: Hot and sunny beach day. Clouds increase in the afternoon. Thunderstorms pass to the north and south of the Island in the afternoon. Sun shines occasionally through high altitude clouds. Sunset is muted. A severe, noisy thunderstorm arrives before midnight. Rain is heavy.
Conservation biologist Dr. Richard Primack will give a talk on climate change and bird migration patterns on Wednesday, August 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Polly Hill Arboretum. A favorite sign of spring is the arrival of the migratory birds we await each year. There are signs that these birds are returning earlier each year in Massachusetts. The evidence is in our own backyards.
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.