The Vineyard is getting skunked! They are in high abundance this fall, ruling the night and leaving telltale tracks to be discovered during the day.

“They’ve come out in very unusually large numbers this year,” said Walter Wlodyka of Chilmark, who is particularly busy this fall, trapping skunks for clients all over the Island.

“It is not because of any unnatural reason. It is not because of people. It is due to weather, the abundance of food,” he said.

Nat Benjamin and his 50-foot schooner Charlotte are featured in the November/December 2012 issue of WoodenBoat Magazine.

Mr. Benjamin, who runs Gannon and Marine Railway with Ross Gannon and Brad Abbott, wrote the story, which is spread across 10 pages. His good friend and highly-regarded marine photographer Ben Mendlowitz produced a photo spread to accompany the article.

On Wednesday night everyone will be thinking of tricks and treats. On that night a one-day-old full Pumpkin Moon will grace the skies. This moon will be bright enough to cast shadows and contribute to the mystery and magic of the evening.

The moon will be in the zodiacal constellation Taurus, which means it is well placed in the zodiac to rise almost overhead late at night. Look for the moon rising in the east an hour or more after sunset. Look for a pumpkin orange color as it gets above the distant horizon.

A brilliant moon will dominate our evening skies in the week ahead. The month ends with a full moon. For the next week the gibbous moon moves through the zodiacal constellations Capricornus, where it is tonight. It moves onto Pisces, Aries and then finishes the month full in Taurus.

As the night sky shifts from summer to autumn and later winter, it is a good time to take note of the constellations overhead.

The 67th annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby ended tonight at 10 p.m. with the ringing of bells.

Even while he was growing up, Chris Melrose, a scientist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, knew that the currents on the Vineyard were pushing him towards marine science. A 1993 graduate of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, Mr. Melrose is today one of the leading scientists working on a global study of plankton. He works out of the fisheries science center in Narragansett Laboratory in Rhode Island.