It was a record year for hunting deer on the Vineyard. A preliminary total of 855 deer were harvested this past year by hunters from October through December, which is considerably larger than the 570 that were harvested last year in the county and the highest total in at least several years.

The Norton Point Beach breach may close as early as this year, an event that would bring to an end a dramatic, five-year phenomenon that has eaten away large chunks of the southeastern corner of Chappaquiddick, according to a top regional expert in coastal erosion.

The Harbor View Hotel closes down during the last two weeks of the year. But notice the lights blazing in the penthouse apartment. This is the home of Bob Carroll and has been ever since he sold the hotel in 1986. It was part of the contract that Mr. Carroll could build this penthouse and live in it until he died. And for two weeks each winter, during the holidays, he is the only soul alive in the hotel.

In 1996, there was one high school girls’ hockey program on the Cape and Islands. It started as a club team, composed of former figure skaters, enthusiastic pond skaters, and several field hockey players learning to translate their skills to ice.

Meet the Island’s most reluctant tourist, the ring-necked pheasant. Plucked from a bucolic life on a MassWildlife-sanctioned game farm in New England, in the fall they’re packed in cardboard boxes and given a one-way ferry ticket to the Vineyard. After a brief respite at one of the Island’s most picturesque properties half will be shot, others will be picked off by red-tailed hawks and the rest will likely succumb to the cold.

Mill Pond, the placid 17th century swan-dotted pond that graces the entrance to the village of West Tisbury, is the scene of a quietly growing conundrum in this rural town. Amid fears that the manmade pond — which averages a depth of a foot and a half — will soon fill in, West Tisbury is considering a variety of engineering options to retain its aesthetic appeal far into the future, while possibly improving the pond’s limited ecological function. But some see the effort to save the pond as misguided.

Tax bills are out in Oak Bluffs, the only town on the Island that has set its tax rate yet this year, and the result is a mixed bag. Some property owners report seeing only a slight change in their tax bill from last year, while others are experiencing mild sticker shock as they see their taxes rise.

“I was shocked,” said Oak Bluffs resident John Banks, who opened his tax bill last week and learned that the property assessment for his Sengekontacket home went up about 16 per cent, resulting in a tax bill that is about 22 per cent higher than last year.

On Jan. 15 more than 90 people gathered at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center for an afternoon of videos, music and discussions about the Occupy Wall Street movement. As participants gathered, pictures of “occupiers” from all over the world as well as many taken right here on the Vineyard, were shown on the large screen at the front of the community center’s main room. One of the many anthems of the Occupy movement, We Are The Many, written and sung by Makana, a popular Hawaiian troubadour, set the mood.

By TODD FOLLANSBEE

He was calling from the police station and he was crying. We had a bad connection, but it sounded as if he were in some awful trouble up in Canada. He didn’t want me to tell his parents, just wire the bail money right away so he could get out of those handcuffs. I don’t know if that’s right, but he’s my grandson.