Plans to develop a wind energy area in federal waters south of the Vineyard continue to move forward with the Bureau of Ocean Management (BOEM) releasing an environmental assessment and identifying five different configurations for the area.

At a public hearing last week, bureau representatives said the preferred option would be to develop an 877 square nautical mile area about 12 nautical miles south of the Vineyard, though smaller configurations are also on the table to address concerns about North Atlantic right whales and impacts to cultural resources and view sheds.

The Felix Neck Fall Festival is turning 22 this year. It takes place on Friday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (raindate Nov. 24). The event can be summed up with the words; Migrate, Hibernate, Adapt. There are hayrides, face painting, live music by The Flying Elbows, food, wreath making, crafts for kids and birds of prey.

Shifting sand at both Wasque and Lucy Vincent Beach has uncovered what may be parts of two shipwrecks.

Last Sunday afternoon, Andrew Orcutt of Edgartown and Albany was out walking the shoreline near Wasque and the Norton Point breach. He discovered remnants of what appeared to be a ship in the wash.

Despite stormy weather, the bay scallop season is under way and doing well, local officials and fishmongers report. But while fish markets are moving product, the weather hasn’t helped get either fishermen or consumers to the store.

“We’ve got plenty,” said TJ Giegler at Edgartown Seafood, on Cooke and Main streets. The retail price on the Island before press time was under $18 a pound.

The big producing towns this year are Edgartown and Chilmark. Tisbury and Oak Bluffs are slow. Aquinnah has yet to open, usually waiting until later in the month to do so.

Allan Keith and I have birded together or with other Vineyard birders for 50 years. Allan and I made a deal years ago that we would not talk politics and that has sort of worked. We do talk a good deal about birds, what we used to see in certain areas of the Vineyard, how the populations have changed and we always talk about species that should be on-Island that are not.

Now I know better.

Throughout my childhood, I only recognized cranberries as that deep red gelatinous blob that came out of a can on Thanksgiving Day.