I really wowed her with my aerial flight and super sputtering call. Sometimes I get dizzy flying that zig zag pattern, but it gets me a mate every time. It was a nice nest we built, on top of a utility pole in the open country in Idaho. My spouse helped me collect weeds, twiglets and grass which we fashioned into a nest the shape of a cup. We even lined the nest with feathers and animal hair to make a soft cushion for the eggs. My spouse laid four beautiful eggs which were off white with speckles of lavender, black and brown. Almost 20 days later the eggs hatched and for the next 16 days I barely remember a thing. My mate and I were so busy feeding the young I barely got any sleep! Our youngsters finally fledged and flew the coop. Now it was our turn to relax and to catch up on our sleep and feed ourselves.

By LYNNE IRONS

Let me get a couple of business items out of the way. I hate it when I tell a lame joke and no one gets it but me. To wit: last week I meant to call my old donkey an asinine along the lines of equine, bovine, porcine, feline and canine but my editor quoted me as saying he was an ass. Even she thinks I am hopeless.

Alec Gale had a great summer. With the economic engine in the country not powering, his entrepreneurship is helping to propel the Island’s oldest industry; Mr. Gale helped a number of Menemsha-based commercial fishermen make a living this summer.

Friday, Sept. 5: Bright and sunny summer day. Temperature in the 80s. A perfect beach day without the crowds at State Beach in Edgartown. Solitary strollers search the shoreline for shells. Sailboats under tow are taken from Edgartown harbor as preparations for approaching storm pick up speed. Increasing clouds in the afternoon.

The fishermen will begin lining up with their fish well before the 8 a.m. Sunday opening of the weigh station at the foot of Main street in Edgartown. Many of the anglers will be sleep deprived, having not slept but a few hours overnight.

More binds the five candidates running in next Tuesday’s Democratic primary for state representative than separates them. They are unanimous in their support of Barack Obama for President. Gay marriage gets a thumbs-up across the board. They all wear suits. On the issues that will face the incoming state representative, there is a lot of common ground too. Each candidate supports better pay for teachers, local farming initiatives and development of alternative energy.

With bacteria levels in Sengekontacket Pond lower than anticipated this summer, Edgartown shellfish constable Paul Bagnall is advocating that parts of the pond reopen to shellfishing as soon as next summer.

“I am pushing for the reopening of certain areas of the pond,” Mr. Bagnall told the Friends of Sengekontacket at their annual meeting this week. “And I don’t anticipate opposition.”

If you had to pick the worst example of marketing defeating morality, it would be hard to go past the bottled water industry.

People spend some $7 billion buying the product each year. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans consumed some 31.2 billion liters of it in 2006, mostly packaged in plastic.

The blue Vineyard sky on Sept. 11, 2001 was cloudless and bright. And everyone still remembers that searing blue sky.

The striped bass is fun to catch and good to eat. It’s also enigmatic, historically prone to wild fluctuations in numbers and to inexplicable disappearances from area waters. And with the annual Island fishing derby opening Sunday, the old question is being asked again: where are all the fish?

Cooper Gilkes 3rd, an Island fisherman for more than 50 years and the owner of Coop’s Bait and Tackle in Edgartown, is concerned, for catch numbers seem to be in sharp decline.