Nature & Science
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.
I always do and I enjoy eating them too; there isn’t a nut around that doesn’t entice me. Hurricane Irene gave me and other nut lovers a gift of glut: nut glut.
Though the high winds toppled some trees, my black walnut tree held on straight and tall. What it did give up to the gusts was an early crop of nuts. Usually one must wait till later in the fall to harvest black walnuts.
Liz Baldwin, the assistant director of Biodiversity Works, Inc., e-mailed me that her camcorder for recording the movements of the otters, which is located at the west end of Crab Creek at Quansoo, is missing. Liz and Luanne Johnson have been working on the Island’s otter population for over a year! Liz doesn’t care that much about the camera, but wants the data. If anyone knows about the whereabouts of the camcorder please contact Liz at [email protected].
While tropical storm Irene did little damage inland save a good salt blasting and natural pruning of trees, the storm drastically reshaped parts of the Island’s coastline when it blew through last Sunday. At Wasque Reservation on Chappaquiddick, 22 feet of south-facing beach fell into the ocean in a 24-hour period. And around the Island conservation officials reported significant losses of beachfront and dramatically altered shorelines. Beaches that were wide ribbons of sand just last week are now nothing but rocks and boulders, and vice versa.
There are still a few weeks until the leaves begin to change color but this week, in the wake of tropical storm Irene many had already browned, died and made their way to the ground all around the Island. Along the trails at Wasque Reservation, what was a swaying panorama of pale green brush last Friday is now a cheerless vista of brownish-gray tinder. In town centers, trees are dropping crunchy leaves onto streets and cars, and the steady hum of leaf blowers can be heard.
Temperature: Precip.
Day Max. Min. Inches.
Fº Fº
August 26 82 69 .03
August 27 85 71 Trace
August 28 79 71 .03
August 29 77 61 .06
August 30 77 60 Trace
August 31 78 57 .00
Sept. 1 83 61 .00
Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 75º F.
Volunteer Edgartown shellfishermen worked the tides last week to transfer young bay scallops out of harm’s way at Cape Pogue Pond, after an algae bloom seen a year ago returned.
Cochlodinium polykrikoides, a single-cell dinoflagellate, staged a late-summer comeback in the large, pristine bay that lies north of the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick. The algae is not harmful to humans but can be toxic to shellfish.
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.