With local positivity rates of the Omicron Covid-19 variant reaching close to 25 percent, East Hampton Town has announced five additional vaccination clinic dates in February. Those previously offered in January have been booked up.

The Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center has become one of the first educational institutions here to announce a pause on in-person attendance following the holiday break, with planned closures Monday and Tuesday.

Starting in January, the Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons will become a vaccination site operated in partnership with Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. It replaces the Parrish Hall vaccination site near the hospital and will allow for three times as many appointments each day.

During the 101st Audubon Montauk Christmas Bird Count, 125 species were spotted, the rarest a western kingbird found by Mike McBrien just off Fernwood Drive. The birds are great, but so are the people, some of whom have returned to take part in the count for 50-plus years.