What’s a heath hen? There was a time on the Vineyard when that question could easily be answered. Sad to say, that era ended around 1932 when the last heath hen was seen on the Island.

This coming Thursday, June 2 at 5:30 p.m. a film memorializing these extinct birds will be shown at the Federated Church in Edgartown. The movie is called Lost Birds and it is a documentary directed by Todd McGrain, a professor of art at Cornell University.

Isaiah Scheffer is hopeful about the future for those who love to go bay scalloping, oystering and quahaugging in Chilmark. Recent successes in all three fisheries may be due to Mother Nature, but another key ingredient is some labor-intensive, progressive shellfish restoration work. Mr. Scheffer recently gave a talk and slideshow at the Chilmark Free Public Library about that ongoing work.

Pearl Buck Returns

Once the weather turns warmer and the grey, spring skies blow blue and clear the Vineyard beckons to one and all. Time and the grave cannot even thwart the faithful. Pearl Buck is headed our way.

That’s right, on June 1 at 7 p.m. Ms. Buck will be reading from her short story collection East and West at the Vineyard Haven Public Library. Okay, the legendary author of The Good Earth may bear a resemblance to the actress Diane Quaid, but the words will be her own.

Is there a better place for a garden party on the Island — or anywhere for that matter — than the Old Mill in West Tisbury? Ponder the question while perusing plants you can buy for your own garden, sipping lemonade and nibbling a cookie when the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club hosts its annual plant sale and open house at the Old Mill on Memorial Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 28 and 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Oak Bluffs residents rejected both proposition 2 and 1/2 override questions on Thursday’s special election ballot.

A total of 559 residents turned out to reject one override that would have restored $230,000 in cuts to the town’s road paving program, and another that would have to restored $254,000 in cuts to hire a town finance director, two teaching aides at the Oak Bluffs school, an animal control officer and an assistant for the shellfish department.

The first ballot question was defeated 376-182 and the second was defeated 387-170.

For spring taste buds craving something new, there are a slew of options across the Vineyard. Jerk chicken from a food truck near the airport, artisanal cheese and smoked meats in Edgartown and healthy smoothies in Vineyard Haven are just a few of the choices that weren’t here last summer.

Irie Bites, a food truck operated by Melody Cunningham and Peter Simon, will be parked at every Nectar’s show this summer, so concert-goers can cap off their night with savory Jamaican jerk chicken.

By NICK MOORHEAD

Imagine Tom Petty crossed with Carly Simon and a dash of Jack Johnson and you have Erich Luening, rock artist and well-known Islander. And this weekend he will release Red Flags, his debut solo album. A decade in the making, the CD has a stellar guest list that includes Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, who is also Mr. Luening’s childhood Island friend.

By NICK MOORHEAD

Originally designed to be accommodated in a palace chamber, music under the heading of chamber music has over the years moved out of the palaces and into the hearts and minds of the masses. Well, masses may be a slight exaggeration when comparing chamber music lovers to the throngs flocking to Lady Gaga. But gather all the fans and all the audiences of the past few hundred years or so and this specialized art form rises to the top of the music charts.

There’s been a lot of talk about breaches on the Island: in the great ponds, at Norton Point, and at the Cape Pogue gut, for example. But this column is about a different kind: Dutchman’s breeches.

It is awfully early in the gardening year to be facing discouragement. I leave flats of perfectly beautiful seedlings sitting here and there.