Sue Silva has a lifetime of experience with bugs. In some ways, she is a bug whisperer, as insects seem to flock to her side and her greenhouse, and she is often sharing with me the more interesting and unique ones that cross her path.

This has been an especially exciting fall for birders, both regionally and on the Vineyard. Since the last Bird News, the bird of the week, year and possibly the decade showed up at the always-birdy home of Penny Uhlendorf and Scott Stephens, off of Lambert’s Cove Road. Recognizing their visitor as a hummingbird, and not the usual one, Penny and Scott put the word out. Lanny McDowell responded first, camera in hand, and took a series of pictures that conclusively documented the Island’s first-ever Allen’s hummingbird.

The end of our darkest days is near — nearer, in fact, than you may have been lead to believe.

As of Friday, the sun is setting at 4:11 p.m., the earliest it will set on the Vineyard for the rest of the year. Sunsets will start getting later in the afternoon beginning on Dec. 15, when the sun will set at 4:12 p.m.

Following Hurricane Sandy’s blow to the south-facing coastline of the Vineyard last month, the Chilmark conservation commission is now facing a slew of plans for beach protection, including a request to move two homes and a shed now perilously perched atop the cliff at Stonewall Beach.

A total of 173 deer had been taken yesterday in the first week of shotgun season. The three primary deer check-in stations on the Island reported Thursday that the number of deer taken so far is about the same as in recent years. The two-week shotgun season for deer ends on Saturday, Dec. 8.

State wildlife forester Brian Hawthorne has been counting the deer checked in at the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest. Mr. Hawthorne said, based on what he has seen so far, the deer population is healthy and well-fed.

The state Department of Public Utilities has approved a 15‑year power purchase agreement between the electric company NStar and Cape Wind Associates, the company that plans to build a wind farm on Nantucket Sound.

The approval was announced this week following an eight-month adjudicatory proceeding.