West Tisbury animal control officer Joan Jenkinson feeds the Mill Pond birds twice a day. When she noticed that a cygnet had been seriously injured, bitten by a snapping turtle, she took unusual steps to nurse the little swan back to health.

It is hard to believe that the harvest moon approaches. This is the full moon poets love. Next Tuesday, the Harvest Moon rises in the east over Chappaquiddick.

The Harvest Moon is in the zodiacal constellation Aquarius, the water bearer and moving closer to the zodiacal constellation Pisces. These are constellations we associate with autumn, the closing out of summer.

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the first day of autumn. The moon doesn’t just mark the end of the growing season, it presages shorter days and longer nights.

An unlikely location will serve as the backdrop for one episode in a new Discovery Channel TV series set to film on Martha’s Vineyard next month.

Traffic concerns, official appointments and herbicide application topped a full agenda as Tisbury selectmen met Tuesday night.

New regulations aimed at curbing mortality rates among striped bass are focusing on the larger, spawning females whose numbers have fallen in recent years. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is collecting comment.

The fall 2014 election season begins in earnest next week, as Vineyarders join voters statewide in going to the polls for the state primary. Polls will be open in all Vineyard towns from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Vineyard Medical Care (formerly Vineyard Medical Services) is on track to blaze new trails after a recent change of ownership brings with it an added focus on clinical research, including into tick-borne illnesses and laboratory diagnostics.

Edgartown’s bustling aquaculture industry is on hold this week, with Katama Bay oyster farms temporarily closed because of reported cases of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp). The state Department of Public Health and Division of Marine Fisheries announced the closure, which is expected to last one week, on Wednesday.

An animation released this week by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission shows development over time since 1660. Revised commission calculations predict that the Island won’t reach buildout until the year 2089.

In the midst of dire news about declining fish stocks, the developing oyster farming industry on the Vineyard offers a rare opportunity for optimism.