Did you ever wonder if the shorebird known as an oystercatcher actually catches oysters? In my experience, oysters aren’t very swift and they tend to prefer deep water. Let’s suppose that one of these long-legged and long-billed birds does get hold of an oyster, then I have to ask myself how does it manage to open the oyster. Humans can open an oyster but you need a tool of some sort and you will most likely stab yourself just as often as you succeed in stabbing the oyster when you first start out. The ratio of human strength and size to oyster strength and size is at least 100 times greater than the ratio of bird to oyster.

Trustees of Reservations superintendent Chris Kennedy tells me that he has seen them do it. He couldn’t be too specific about how they accomplish this feat since these birds like to work and eat in private. There is a pair nesting near the jetties so beach traffic has been rerouted in that area to give them the privacy they also prefer in nesting.

Chris says it looks as though there will be lots of plovers and terns raising families on the reservation this year. That of course is great news for some and bad news for others. The Trustees have put much thought and effort into trying to accommodate both avian and human need for access to the beach. They didn’t create the laws that govern protection of wildlife on the lands that they steward and yet they are bound by those laws.

This Saturday, Slip Away Farm celebrates its fifth annual Memorial Day weekend pig roast. All are welcome. Festivities begin at 4 p.m. and donations are welcome to help cover expenses. Bring your own beverages. Because parking is always a challenge please carpool.

The Chappy Community Center has found very qualified and capable individuals to fill the positions of assistant and head sailing instructor for the 2017 summer season. Sign up information and forms are on the CCC website. Enrollment is on a first come basis. So don’t wait another minute to get the kids signed up. Same goes for tennis instruction. Long-time tennis instructor Donna DeFrances is back for her 22nd year with the CCC. Donna is a US PTA certified tennis pro. She was the director of tennis at Seaview Tennis in Florida for 16 years before moving over to the Breakers Hotel, where she has been a tennis pro for seven years. She has mentored Chappy players as they have pursued their teaching certificates. Donna is a master of doubles strategy as well as stroke form. Sounds as if she could be just what you need to get your name on the Plumb memorial trophy.

Folks have been asking about the wooden posts that have been installed throughout the newly-graveled portion of the ferry point parking lot. They are positioned at intervals of five parking spaces apart. At each one of these posts will be a narrow vegetated island about four feet wide to delineate the diagonal parking pattern. In the case of a paved surface, lines would be painted on the immovable surface. With a gravel surface painting doesn’t work. The purpose of the posts is to protect the future vegetation that will be planted in the green islands. When asked by one of the ferry captains what the posts are for, a person involved in their installation replied that they are for mooring boats during extremely high tides.

He meant to be funny, but there is actually some truth to that possible need. Many years ago I needed to get my small keel sloop out of the water as a hurricane bore down on the island. I had no trailer for that boat at the time, only a wooden cradle with sled-like runners. I had been depending on John Bettencourt to do the hauling for me, but he was already working around the clock as the storm approached. I floated the cradle out to the sailboat, shoved it beneath the hull and lashed them together. Then I used my truck to pull the cradle and sailboat up onto the beach and across the parking lot to the highest ground. During the hurricane of 1938 the storm waters surged over the ferry point and I thought that it would be prudent to tie the boat to something. At that time my only choice was a rather spindly cedar.

Send Chappaquiddick news to peterchappyferry@gmail.com.