| OVERVIEW
Weather has always been a part of the Hudson River Almanac, from sunrises to sunsets, droughts and blizzards to hurricanes. But this week was unique: Tornadoes. Highlights included a visit from a seldom seen songbird and possibly some bottlenose dolphins.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
5/12 – Manhattan, HRM 7.5: A Kirtland’s warbler, one of only 5,000 estimated to be in the United States, was spotted this afternoon in Central Park by Kevin Topping. Kirtland’s warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) was nearly extinct 50 years ago but is now showing signs of recovery. They are one of the rarest songbirds in North America, and this sighting was only the fourth ever in New York State.
– Tom Lake
NATURAL HISTORY ENTRIES
[Correction: In last week’s Hudson River Almanac (5/10), I mistakenly referred to the Bronx Botanical Garden as to where the lilacs were beginning to bloom. Of course, I meant to say the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Tom Lake]
5/12 – Ulster County, HRM 82: I paddled past bald eagle nest NY394, across from Rogers Point, just after sunrise. One adult was on the edge of the nest, and the other was on a branch a short distance away. After ten minutes, they both flew away. This was similar to my notes from last year: On May 19, I saw the nestling over the edge of the nest for the first time and by early June it had begun “branching.”
– Dale Becker
[As eagle nestlings grow and discover their wings, they find that with vigorous flapping they can gain some rise. From that first lift-off comes the realization that they can move from branch-to-branch and up and down in their nest tree. We call this branching. Over time this activity gives them the instinctive confidence that will help them when they take their first real flight. Watching eagle nestlings branching reminds me of children at play on the climbing apparatus of modern playgrounds. Tom Lake]
5/12 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We started our River Explorers spring seining program at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak today. Staff and volunteers went seining and caught three native fishes, including three white perch, one striped bass, and a mummichog.
– Elisa Caref
5/13 – Minerva, HRM 284: Our shadbush (Amelanchier canadensis) began blooming today. I think it’s late, but by gosh, they are indeed flowering. Here’s a milestone: the blackflies were out and yesterday the females began biting!
– Mike Corey
5/13 – Coxsackie, HRM 124: I found a “runt” common loon at the Coxsackie Boat Launch on the Hudson River at Coxsackie this evening. It was still in “winter” or immature plumage. It was with two adult common loons in breeding plumage for direct size comparison. It was clear that the “runt” was not a red-throated loon, but I was really hoping for an exotic species such as the Pacific loon.
– Rich Guthrie
5/13 – Selkirk, HRM 135: It was a Mother’s Day treat this morning: The hummingbirds had finally arrived. Both males and females were at the feeders, and the territorial battles were on. I cannot get over how fast and ferocious these little birds are.
– Roberta Jeracka
[For more information on Bears and Bird Feeders, and what you can do to prevent human-bear conflicts, please visit DEC’s website: http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/94709.html ]
 5/13 – Dutchess County, HRM 76: We went to see the Dutchman’s breeches on the slopes of a ravine threatened by mile-a-minute vines. The ravine overlooks an unnamed stream that feeds Sprout Brook. It was a bit late, and the flowers had been blown by the string of hot weather in recent days. We did see a small clump of toothwort and wake-robin. There were barely any flowers of troutlily, though the leaves remained. Later in the year, cohosh will decorate with its blue berries – it was just beginning to flower. Above our heads on a tree branch was the reddest of signs, a scarlet tanager that conveniently lingered. (Photo of scarlet tanager courtesy of Deborah Tracy-Kral)
– Sue Mackson
[Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) is an invasive, noxious vine native to eastern Asia, first introduced to North America in 1890 and then established in the 1930s. Tom Lake]
5/13 – Hunter’s Brook, HRM 67.5: Three “Toms” and a Cathy picked the eel fyke today, and not surprisingly, the numbers were falling as the end of the season neared. Our tally was 40 glass eels, many with darkening pigment, and four elvers. The brook was a cool 54 degrees Fahrenheit (F).
– Tom McDowell, T.R. Jackson, Cathy MacKenzie, Tom Lake
[When glass eels, a juvenile life stage of the American eel, are still at sea, they are translucent. This is an adaptation to being in a marine environment where invisibility has a selective advantage. As they move inshore and ascend rivers, they begin to develop dark brown pigmentation, an adaptation to being in an estuary, where their color matches the bottom of the river. Tom Lake]
5/13 – Bedford, HRM 35: There were signs at the great blue heron rookery that hatching had begun. In one nest an adult stood up, leaned down, and seemed to regurgitate food. Through the openings between the twigs, I was able to see the movement of a nestling. The adult appeared to be picking out small pieces to feed to the nestling(s). Some herons were settled deep in their nest probably still incubating. Others were not as deep in the nests, a good indicator they were giving room for nestlings.
– Jim Steck
5/14 – New Baltimore, HRM 131.5: While jigging with a light rod and light line for river herring at New Baltimore, I caught a freshwater drum. Catch and release.
– Richard Guthrie
 5/14 – Manhattan, HRM 9: This morning, from the Baylander IX-514 that is docked at the West Harlem Piers, Brian O’Hara, who works on the vessel, spotted a “pod” of what he believed to be dolphins swimming upriver. They were too far away to get a reasonable photo with his cell-phone camera, but he was able to make out that there were three of them.
The Baylander (IX-514) is a Vietnam-era, decommissioned U.S. Navy ship that was used to train helicopter pilots to land at sea. It is moored at the West Harlem Piers Park at 125th Street in Manhattan and has become a makeshift museum-by-the-river as well as a community gathering space and educational resource for the West Harlem community. (Photo of Baylander courtesy of Dartunorro Clark)
– Ira Gershenhorn
[These were likely bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), occasional visitors to the Hudson River. Bottlenose dolphins, as well as humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), have been sighted 20 miles downriver in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor outside the Verrazano Narrows.
If you see a live and apparently healthy marine mammal or sea turtle in the Hudson River, please let the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society know. If you have photos or video, please send them to sightings. However, if you see a sick or injured marine mammal or sea turtle, please call the New York State Stranding Hotline (Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research & Preservation) immediately (631) 369-9829. Kimberly Durham]
5/14 – Manhattan, HRM 1: We checked our research sampling gear in Hudson River Park at The River Project’s sampling station on the lighthouse tender Lilac at Pier 25 and found that our killifish trap had captured a large, 200 millimeters (mm), beautiful northern pipefish!
– Illusion Rivera, Shania Deonarine
5/15 – Norrie Point, HRM 85: Two classes of 6th graders from Brinckerhoff Elementary helped us sample the Hudson River at Norrie Point today. With violent storms promised for the afternoon, we were not dawdling. Across six hauls of our seine, we collected five species of fish, four of which were native to the river: tessellated darter, spottail shiner, golden shiner, and banded killifish. The nonnative fish was a small (55 mm) fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). The water was warming up at 64 degrees F.
– Ashawna Abbott, Tom Lake
[“Native” species, as opposed to introduced, is a theme we often discuss with students. “Introduced” can range from intentional stocking such as trout, to canal immigrants such as freshwater drum, to unintentional invasive species like zebra mussels. The benchmark for this bifurcation is the early 17th century. If a species was here when the first Europeans arrived, it was almost certainly native. Of the 228 species of fish documented for the Hudson River watershed, 176 are considered native (0.77). Tom Lake]
5/15 – Farmer’s Landing, HRM 67: The National Weather Service had us under a tornado warning. The rapidly approaching storm was coalescing into an ominous, black, wall cloud to the southwest. To the south, inky fingers were falling toward the ground portending possible touchdowns (tornadoes). Lightning was flashing here and there, backlighting the clouds. In the distance, thunder rumbled. Hail was hitting the river that had been whipped to a froth by the high winds – it sounded like buckshot. This was a massive storm of its own making. The wind fetching across the broad river was a steady 90 miles-per-hour (mph). Trees were snapping, and branches-to-limbs were flying horizontally past me. The air was electric, the rain was torrential, and the noise was deafening. I felt like a journalist imbedded on a battlefield.
– Tom Lake
[A wall cloud is a huge, localized, persistent, and often abrupt lowering of clouds from which tornadoes sometimes spawn. They typically form beneath thunderstorms and indicate areas of the strongest updraft within a storm. National Weather Service]
5/15 – Newburgh, HRM 61: At 6:15 PM, a tornado touched down three times in the Town of Newburgh. Two other tornadoes struck Putnam County, the strongest of which featured peak winds of 135 miles per hour. A fourth tornado touched down in Saugerties, 40 miles upriver.
– National Weather Service
5/15 – Yonkers, HRM 18: During today’s series of violent storms that swept across the river, we experienced some strong winds and our power got knocked out for a while at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak. However, our staff, along with 4th graders from Greenville School, toughened up and went seining. The students did not mind that our net caught just a single fish, a gorgeous killifish called a mummichog.
– Elisa Caref
5/16 – Town of Wappinger: The high winds from the storm destroyed the “Bridge” bald eagle nest (NY459A). As nest monitors, we noticed the nest was gone. Along with DEC Bald Eagle specialist Meghan Oberkircher and Annie Mardiney of Wild Mountain Birds, we commenced a rescue operation for the two nestlings.
The pair of 42-day-old eaglets had fallen 75 feet to the ground during the massive storm. Meghan Oberkircher’s assessment of their condition was optimistic: “One of the nestlings was OK; the other had a broken leg on the upper part above its ‘knee.’ We took both nestlings to the Delaware Valley Raptor Center. The wildlife rehabilitator was going to try to put the healthy nestling into a foster nest and the injured nestling would likely have a lengthy recovery. Both were safely settled in with another nestling with a broken wing.”
– Gary and Mauricette Char Potthast
5/16 – Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: A day to recover. A microburst with 95 mph winds had come barreling through our neighborhood snapping off several 90-foot white pines, telephone poles, and collapsing all lines. It roared through our yard demolishing a 50-foot-wide path, snapping two silver maples, one a 40-footer, like matchsticks. They just missed our house. Two homes in the neighborhood had large trees crash through their roofs. Our power would be lost for more than two days and many others for much longer.
– Tom Lake, Phyllis Llake
[A Microburst is a localized column of sinking air (downdraft) within a thunderstorm that can cause extensive damage. Wind speeds in microbursts can reach up to 100 mph, or even higher, which is equivalent to an EF-1 tornado. Winds this high can cause major damage to homes and other structures and level hundreds of trees. National Weather Service]
5/16 – Bedford, HRM 35: We biked by the great blue heron rookery today. At least three of the nests had babies visible with several other nests showing feeding activity. The babies in one nest appeared quite well developed as they moved around and flapped their little wings.
– Rick Stafford, Cara Stafford
5/16 – Yonkers, HRM 18: A class of 4th graders from Scholastic Academy in Yonkers joined us today at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak to see “who” was home in the river. While our seining produced just a single Atlantic blue crab, that gorgeous decapod (ten “feet”) produced more than enough stories for the students.
– Elisa Caref
5/17 – Hudson River Estuary: Nine days ago, DEC biologists Rich Pendleton, Bobby Adams, and Russ Berdan went out to set gill nets over some hard substrate (gravel and bed rock). They were attempting to catch shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) in an area that our sonic tagging data showed to be important for them in the spring. The habitat seemed right for spawning, and their hope was to capture a fish in spawning condition.
They were successful in catching three shortnose sturgeon. The first was a female that was most likely spawning or had just spawned. The second was a male. The third fish was small, possibly immature. We hope to get permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service to collect eggs using “egg mats” to confirm spawning in that area. The shortnose sturgeon is an endangered species, and all research is conducted within the conditions of a federal permit.
– Amanda Higgs
5/17 – Town of Poughkeepsie: The two nestlings in bald eagle nest NY62, now 55 days old, were growing up quickly. They looked like miniature adults. There have been multiple daily food deliveries, including channel catfish, striped bass, river herring, and today a large goldfish. As the pair grows and begins “branching,” their appetites will test their parents’ ability to satisfy them.
– Tom Lake
 5/17 – Town of New Paltz, HRM 78: Rich Nord (Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club) counted four red-headed woodpeckers in Weston Swamp today. Peter Relson adds that the Weston Swamp has been very reliable for at least the past decade, and red-headed woodpeckers have successfully bred with as many as twelve fledglings recorded. (Photo of red-headed woodpecker courtesy of Deborah Tracy-Kral)
– Tom Lake
[In Ulster County, the red-headed woodpecker is listed by the John Burroughs Natural History Society Checklist as “local” in all seasons, but their distribution has been limited to the Humpo Marsh and Weston Marsh vicinity. They prefer large beaver impoundments where there is an abundance of dead or decaying trees. Their population has been increasing in Ulster County over the past decade, and they appear to be expanding their range northward although they are still a rarity in most surrounding counties. Rich Guthrie, Steve Chorvus]
5/17 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We held two programs for 4th graders from Seeley Place today at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak. Our catch improved from earlier this week as we captured an American eel, a blue crab, a striped bass, and a white perch.
– Elisa Caref
 5/18 – Croton Point, HRM 34.5: A cattle egret, considered “rare” in Westchester County, showed up today at Croton Point. At about the same time in May 2014, I came upon a cattle egret at Croton Point that had been seen several days earlier at Piermont ten miles downriver. Three months later, the cattle egret was again seen downriver at Piermont. (Photo of cattle egret courtesy of Larry Trachtenberg)
– Larry Trachtenberg
[Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) were originally native to parts of southern Spain and Portugal, tropical and subtropical Africa and humid tropical and subtropical Asia. Cattle egrets were first sighted in the Americas on the boundary of Guiana and Suriname in 1877, having apparently flown across the Atlantic Ocean. The species first arrived in North America in 1941. Cornell Lab of Ornithology]
5/18 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We held two more programs today at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak for 4th graders from Seeley Place. Our catch included Atlantic blue crabs, mummichogs, white perch, and a shore shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.).
– Elisa Caref
5/18 – Manhattan, HRM 1: We returned to our research sampling gear in Hudson River Park at The River Project’s sampling station on the lighthouse tender Lilac at Pier 25. In our crab pot we found two beautiful tautog (195, 230 mm), as well as a tiny juvenile Atlantic blue crab.
-Siddhartha Hayes, Toland Kister
SPRING 2018 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
Sunday, June 9, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Seminar on Fishing for Carp!
Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg
The Hudson River Research Reserve and the Carp Anglers Group will conduct a hands-on seminar to teach and promote the sport of angling for common carp (Cyprius carpio)
Free. All equipment provided. Angling is wheelchair accessible.
Information www.carpanglersgroup.com or James Herrington 845-889-4745 x109
Free Trees for Streamside Planting
The Hudson River Estuary Program’s Trees for Tribs program offers free native trees and shrubs for planting along the tributary streams in the Hudson River Estuary watershed. Our staff can help you with a planting plan and work with your volunteers. Since 2007, Trees for Tribs has provided more than 40,000 native trees and shrubs for planting along 20 miles of stream with the help of more than 9,000 local volunteers. We are now accepting applications for spring planting projects.
For more information about the program or to download an application, please visit the DEC website at: HudsonEstuaryTFT.
Hudson River: Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Program
Do you fish for striped bass in the Hudson River? You can share your fishing trip information and help biologists understand and manage our striped bass fishery.
– Here’s how it works: Fill out a logbook provided by us whenever you fish on the Hudson River (by boat or shore). Record general location, time, gear used, what you caught (or if you didn’t catch anything) and return the logbook when you are done fishing. You’ll receive an annual newsletter summarizing the information in addition to the latest news regarding regulations and the river.
– Whether you catch-and-release or take home a keeper, you can be part of the Cooperative Angler Program. Join today by contacting: Jessica Best 845-256-3009 jessica.best
HUDSON RIVER MILES
The Hudson is measured north from Hudson River Mile 0 at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee 28, Bear Mountain 47, Beacon-Newburgh 62, Mid-Hudson 75, Kingston-Rhinecliff 95, Rip Van Winkle 114, and the Federal Dam at Troy, the head of tidewater, at 153. The tidal section of the Hudson constitutes a bit less than half the total distance – 315 miles – from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the Battery. Entries from points east and west in the watershed reference the corresponding river mile on the mainstem.
TO CONTRIBUTE YOUR OBSERVATIONS OR TO SUBSCRIBE
The Hudson River Almanac is compiled and edited by Tom Lake and emailed weekly by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program. Share your observations by e-mailing them to trlake7.
To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), use the links on DEC’s Hudson River Almanac or DEC Delivers web pages.
Discover New York State Conservationist – the award-winning, advertisement-free magazine focusing on New York State’s great outdoors and natural resources. Conservationist features stunning photography, informative articles and around-the-state coverage. Visit the Conservationist webpage for more information.
USEFUL LINKS
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration online tide and tidal current predictions are invaluable when planning Hudson River field trips.
For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from sixteen monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website.
DEC’s Smartphone app for iPhone and Android is now available at: New York Fishing, Hunting & Wildlife App.
NY Open for Hunting and Fishing Initiative: Under Governor Cuomo’s Adventure NY initiative, DEC is making strategic investments to expand access to healthy, active outdoor recreation, connect more New Yorkers and visitors to nature and the outdoors, protect natural resources, and boost local economies. This initiative will support the completion of more than 75 projects over the next three years, ranging from improvements to youth camps and environmental education centers to new boat launches, duck blinds, and hiking trails. Read more about the Adventure NY initiative. For more information on planning an outdoor adventure in New York State, visit DEC’s website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor.
Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC’s website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4920.html.
Copies of past issues of the Hudson River Almanac, Volumes II-VIII, are available for purchase from the publisher, Purple Mountain Press, (800) 325-2665, or email purple |
Hudson River Almanac
