Ask an Island Expert: What is a pinkletink?
“Pinkletink” is a Vineyard name for a tiny frog, known to biologists as Pseudacris crucifer. I’ve never heard “pinkletink” used anywhere other than on the Vineyard; “spring peeper” is a more widely used common...
Ask an Island Expert: What exactly is a beetlebung tree?
By Abigail Higgins
Beetlebung: a beautiful tree with a wonderful name. Many people are not especially tree-aware, but everyone perks up when they hear “beetlebung.” It is a catchy name, and belongs to a native...
Ask an Island Expert: What bird makes those big nests on top of poles...
Those are osprey, or Pandion haliaetus, if you’re a biologist. A summertime resident on the Island, the osprey is a common nesting species and a much-loved part of our bird life. Under wholly natural...
This Was Then: Selim Mattar’s Dreamland
Brothers Selim and Meek Mattar immigrated to the U.S. as teenagers, about 1890. They were natives of the city of Beirut, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and today the capital of Lebanon, but...
Ask an Island Expert: Are those actual wild turkeys walking around?
Well, yes and no. They are turkeys, certainly: Meleagris gallopavo to ornithologists. But they’re better thought of as feral than as truly wild. Truly wild turkeys were wiped out on the Vineyard, and indeed...
Ask an Island Expert: Where can you find a snowy owl on Martha’s Vineyard?
At least one of these magnificent Arctic birds of prey turns up here most winters, and in so-called “irruption years,” when prey shortages or overpopulation drive large numbers of snowies south into the northern...
Join the club
The Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs has more and more become a place to gather, hang out, shoot pool, listen to music, grab a bite to eat from Mo’s Lunch, and sit with...
This Was Then: The Holmes Hole skyline
Behold Vineyard Haven — or as many of the locals still called it, Holmes Hole — as it appeared in the late 1870s. This photograph was taken on two plates from what is now...
Wild Side: The blue jay
For various reasons, I’ve stuck pretty close to home this winter, doing most of my naturalizing in or near our tiny yard in Oak Bluffs. This is not to complain: Like Henry David Thoreau,...
