A 105-acre greenbelt area around the town of Tisbury will see a small expansion thanks to a purchase by the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. The land bank announced this week that it has bought a three-acre lot in Tisbury abutting its Wapatequa Woods Reservation.

The planets Venus and Mercury are close buddies this week but they part company later in the month.
    

There is a lot more to cheer about on the waterfront this spring when it comes to recreational fishing than a year ago. The fish are here and the list of species is long.

Atlantic mackerel showed up in April. This is a fish we call precious today, although decades ago it was a common spring fish.

Friday, May 31: Clear cloudless morning. The hottest day of spring. Unusually and unexpected warm morning. Temperature in the high 70s by 9 a.m. Temperature rises with the sun to 85 degrees. Hazy August skies. In late afternoon fog creeps in across an open field in West Tisbury. Damp. Fog horn sounds late at night.

With some luck, anglers might come across a school of weakfish running, or more likely swimming.

The bird is a very small one, measuring around five inches. In flight one cannot help but notice its long seven-inch wingspan. Well camouflaged for its choice of habitat, this bird creeps around tree trunks, has a brown back speckled with white, a tail and rump the color of an old-fashioned brick and a white belly.