Contributors

We asked our contributors: What’s your favorite Vineyard critter or plant species? Here’s how they answered. Randi Baird (photographer, cover, “Kelp,” page 52): “Wineberries! I discovered wineberries back in late July 2006, during the early years of Island Grown Initiative. I saw this hairy, burgundy, tall multi-cane stalk in the background, and was intrigued. Their flavor — similar to a raspberry, but a little bit tarter and a little bit juicier — is delightful. The following year I uprooted a dozen canes or more from a friend's dirt road and planted them. I look forward to their sweet, sour taste and slightly sticky, viscous texture every July. I have never seen them anywhere else in my travels.”

Geoff Currier (writer, “Cruising with Currier,” page 17; “No Nukes,” page 30): “Forget your pinkletinks and robins; nothing says spring to me like those first showy shadbush blossoms lighting up the woodlands. I even gave a shadbush to my wife for her birthday one year.”

Book author Laurie David (excerpt from Imagine It!, page 20), and Geoff Currier’s “Cruisin” partner, also loves the shadbush: “I now love the lowly shadbush, otherwise known as serviceberry! After reading that this native bush that is so important for the birds and bees is now in short supply in many backyards, I recently planted a bunch!”

Bluedot contributing editor and writer Mollie Doyle (“Right at Home with the Robinsons,” page 33, and “Room for Change,” page 40): “I love rambles daily with Stevie, my 10-pound mutt. While Stevie enjoys chasing deer, squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional osprey, I appreciate the never-ending change — oak trees masting, purple mushrooms pushing up, the brilliant appearance of a lady-slipper.”

Jeremy Driesen,

photographer (“Cruising,” page 17; “Carbon,” page 21; “Robinsons,” page 33): “Deer come into our yard from time to time, and it’s as though creatures from another world are paying us a visit. Their beauty and grace are magical.”

Wildlife biologist Luanne Johnson (“Field Notes,” page 14): “My favorite for July — the saltmarsh sparrow; they nest in the grasses in salt marshes, and manage to hatch and raise their chicks with the tides flooding just below their nests. If you are patient and quiet, you might see this little sparrow with orange markings on its face peer out from a clump of spartina before it flies low across the marsh in search of insects, or hear one singing its buzzy song from a tall clump of grass, or an old fence post in the marsh.”

Fae Kontje-Gibbs (illustrator, “Citizen Science,” page 26): “Go terns! Their pure white quickness. The clear angles of their wings and beak and tail. Watching them glide so effortlessly over the water. Their cry.”

Writer and photographer Sam Moore (“Farley Built a Small House,” page 42, and “M.V. Atlas of Life,” page 48): “Tree swallows are a favorite presence on the Vineyard. The flash of their glossy blue backs as they fly aerial encounters, and the sight of scruffy fledglings near a nest box in summer are signs of their tenacity, and often of thoughtful stewardship from the people who build and maintain places for the birds to nest.”

Kelsey Perrett (writer, “Citizen Science,” page 26): “Some of my favorite Vineyard memories are of rowing on the Tisbury Great Pond at night and watching the paddles churn up bioluminescence. So I have to give a shout-out to the little dinoflagellates that make those light shows possible!”

Lucas Thors (writer, “Bluedot Hall of Fame,” page 64): “My favorite animal on the Island is the turkey.

I love watching the look on people’s faces as they wait for them to cross a busy thoroughfare. Turkeys also love to eat ticks, which is a plus in my book!”

Catherine Walthers (writer, “Kelp,” page 52): “Look for the edible wild fruit autumn olives in the fall. It’s a tart-sweet red berry (nothing related to olives) with telltale tiny white spots. Kids love them, and they make a beautiful Vineyard cordial.”