A project of the Hudson River Estuary Program, compiled by Tom Lake Consulting Naturalist
Overview
Selecting a Highlight of the Week has been particularly challenging this spring. We had two this week, a white pelican and a Pacific loon. A valid argument could be made for either (if the Pacific loon had been in breeding plumage, it might have been the winner). But, the white pelican wins on presentation.
Highlight of the Week
 5/2 – Kingston, HRM 92: I found another highlight tonight, in a spring of highlights, by the Kingston Lighthouse: An American white pelican was perched on a channel marker at the mouth of Rondout Creek. (Photo of white pelican courtesy of Jim Yates)
– Jim Yates
[White pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are a large bird (nine-foot wingspan) of the Great Plains on up through central Canada. While every year or so, one or more turn up somewhere in the Northeast, they are a rare sighting in the Hudson River watershed. Pelicans are strong flyers with the ability to soar at great heights, covering long distances. Their presence here generally occurs when blown off course, either in migration or drawn here from the Great Lakes area by nor’easters. Rich Guthrie]
Natural History Entries
4/26 – Annandale, HRM 99: I was fishing the lower reach of a small tributary below the first waterfall to the head of tide. Casting in cramped quarters along the bank, I was able catch and release six gorgeous smallmouth bass, one of which pushed three pounds.
– Bob Schmidt
** Fish of the Week **
Spring has arrived, and consequently, there is no shortage of incredible stories to tell. And, while there is no longer an excuse to run our Fish-of-the-Week feature as a filler, we have received nice comments and much encouragement to continue. This is our 20th week, and until a good reason pops up …
4/26 – Hudson River Watershed: This week’s entry is the butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus). Butterfish are classified as a temperate marine stray and is the only member of its family (Stromateidae) in our watershed. Butterfish are number 212 (of 228) on our watershed list of fishes. If you would like a copy of the list, e-mail: trlake7.
[The butterfish is a small (6-10 inches), rather rhombic-shaped, silvery fish lacking pelvic fins. They are found in the lower estuary when the river warms, and salinities rise, and they will frequently linger in the Upper Bay of New York Harbor well into autumn. Butterfish are an important forage species for high-end predators such as bluefish, striped bass, summer flounder, marine mammals, and birds of prey. Their common name may, in part, be derived from assessments like one from the Nova Scotian Institute of Science (1939) who describes them as “… one of our best table fish, fat, oily, and of delicious flavor.” Tom Lake]
 4/27 – Kingston Point, HRM 92: A dozen Caspian terns and 4-5 Bonaparte’s gulls were flying around and perching near the Kingston Lighthouse. A couple of bald eagles chased them up a few times until an osprey caught a fish, after which the eagles changed their focus. One of the eagles went after the osprey forcing it to drop the fish whereupon the other eagle grabbed it. (Photo of caspian tern courtesy of Jim Yates)
– Jim Yates
[Caspian Tern is listed as “occasional” in spring, and “rare” in late summer in Ulster County. However, multiple individuals have been recorded more regularly in recent years; the apparent increase in sightings may be a reflection of more birders out in the field with easier access to electronic reporting resources. Steve Chorvas]
4/27 – Norrie Point, HRM 85: The Carp Anglers Group led a clinic on carp and rudd fishing at Norrie Point this morning. In addition to catching many big beautiful carp, they educated attendees on fishing techniques, the importance of keeping the river clean, and how to safely handle and release fish. Fishing was a challenge with a high tide and high winds (consistently 20 mph), but we had a productive day with eleven carp, an 8-pound channel catfish, and several rudd in the 1-2 pound range. The four largest carp weighed from 17 pounds 2 ounces, to 12 pounds 9 ounces.
– Sam Williams, Chris Bowser
Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) are nonnative having been introduced to North America from Europe in the Hudson River at Newburgh in 1831 (Boyle 1969:89). They are the largest member of our largest family (34) of fishes (Cyprinidae). Carp are often hybridized and domesticated as an ornamental variety called koi. – Tom Lake]
4/27 – Brooklyn, New York City: Naturalists from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy hauled up a Billion Oyster Project-research-oyster cage and were pleasantly surprised to find three tautog, six skilletfish, and five young-of-year oyster toadfish. The combination of the cage being undisturbed all winter and the dense layers of mud on the oyster clusters seemed to make the bottom ideal habitat.
-Christina Tobitsch
4/28 – Albany County, HRM 143: We birded Black Creek Marsh Wildlife Management Area at first light this morning. With no wind to interfere, we could hear bird song from a good distance away and the marsh turned out to be quite active.
In nine different locations, we heard American bittern, by far the highest number we could recall in recent years. Rails were well represented, including no fewer than eight Virginia rails (including a pair tending to a nest), two common gallinule and by far, the biggest surprise was a conservative tally of five sora (rails) vocalizing. Other marsh birds included a green heron, at least ten marsh wrens, and two Wilson’s snipe were heard winnowing in flight. A pair of great horned owls called in a duet, the female hooting first and the male replying at a lower pitch.
– Tom Williams, John Kent (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
 4/28 – Town of Poughkeepsie: The two 36-day-old nestlings in bald eagle nest NY62 had grown to chicken-size and were becoming very interactive with each other. (Photo of bald eagle nestlings at NY62 courtesy of Bob Rightmyer)
– Jon Badura
[We have documented fledge dates of NY62 nestlings for 19 years. The overall bald eagle average for leaving, or flying from the nest, occurs between 72 and 90 days after hatching. For NY62, that would make the probable first fledge to occur between June 3 to June 21. For NY62, the 19-year average is 79 days. Tom Lake]
 4/29 – Saratoga County, HRM 182: I did a short survey on Saratoga Lake this afternoon to see if I could pull a cliff swallow “out of the air” from all the other swallows. I wasn’t able to accomplish that, but it turned out to be much more interesting than I thought. I spotted two drake red-breasted mergansers, several buffleheads, two horned grebe, and what I thought at the time was a red-throated loon. It was a Pacific loon! (Photo of Pacific loon courtesy of Steve Walter)
– Ron Harrower (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
[Pacific loon (Gavia pacifica) breed in the Canadian Arctic and winter along the West Coast south into Mexico. They are smaller than common loon with a shorter bill. Pacific loon are considered an accidental visitor (stray) to the Northeast. From 2000-2019, there have been a few dozen records from Maine to Cape May, NJ but only about a dozen from coastal New York. Tom Lake]
 4/29 – Newburgh, HRM 61: The DEC Hudson River Fisheries Unit electro-fished the Hudson River today looking for striped bass to tag as part of our annual spawning stock survey. The tagging is mandated coast-wide by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and helps develop mortality rates for spawning adults (similar to the way life insurance tables are developed).
If you catch a tagged striped bass, it is important to call in the tag number. Visit our website for more information http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/37211.html. Or call 845-256-3009. (Photo of striped bass courtesy of Amanda Higgs)
– Jess Best, Amanda Higgs, Kyle Martin, Colleen Parker
4/29 – Beacon, HRM 61: My ninth fishing excursion of the spring resulted in two carp and four brown bullheads. The two carp measured 25-inches (8 pounds) and 20-inches (3 pounds). The brown bullheads were also beating up on the striped bass anglers on Long Dock Pier, stealing their expensive blood worms.
Entertainment was provided by two immature bald eagles chasing each other, eventually south toward Denning’s Point. One eagle, pursued by the other, carried a small fish before dropping it into the water. The second eagle swooped and scooped it up, and the chase began the other way.
– Bill Greene
[This behavior is like a game of tag that immature bald eagles frequently play (adults are far too “mature”). We have seen them play the game in many places in all seasons with fish, sticks, conifer cones, clams, even chunks of ice. It seems to be practice for the day they will begin pirating fish from osprey. Tom Lake]
4/29 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We went seining with Greenville School this morning at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak. In eleven hauls of our net, we caught six mummichogs (killifish), including one of the largest and most gravid (with eggs) I have ever seen, one each striped bass and white perch, and two shore shrimp. The river temperature was just under 60 degrees Fahrenheit (F).
– Katie Lamboy, Elisa Caref
4/29 – Yonkers, HRM 18: This afternoon at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak we seined with after-school students from Lincoln High School in Yonkers. In five hauls of our net, we caught two striped bass, two mummichogs, and our first young-of-year Atlantic menhaden.
– Katie Lamboy, Elisa Caref
4/29 – New York City: Over the last four days, hundreds of citizen scientists contributed nature observations as a part of an international competition called the City Nature Challenge. The results page from the four-day event cited more than 25,000 observations including no fewer than 1,600 different species. Unsurprisingly, some of the most abundantly documented species were invasives, such as garlic mustard, mugwort, and Japanese knotweed.
– Christina Tobitsch
4/30 – Saratoga County, HRM 182: I spent an hour at Riley Cove this evening looking for the Pacific loon reported yesterday by Ron Harrower. While I had no luck with that loon, I did see three common loons. Other waterfowl included at least seven red-necked grebes, three horned grebes, a male black scoter, a drake redhead, a few ruddy ducks, and a dozen long-tailed ducks.
– Greg Recer (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
 4/30 – Indian Kill, HRM 85: It’s always nice to see an osprey along the river, but today was a special treat. I spotted two ospreys circling a beaver pond on the Indian Kill (Enderkill) just east of the railroad tracks. One of them spotted a fish and dropped to the water before reappearing, flying low across the railroad tracks to the mouth of the creek, carrying a fish [possibly a brown bullhead] in its talons. The osprey circled for a bit, uttering the occasional “cheep,” until the second osprey came over. At that point, the osprey with the fish disappeared over the bluff toward the campground, and the fishless osprey went back to hunting over the beaver pond. (Photo of osprey courtesy of Jim Yates)
– David Lund
4/30 – Sleightsburg Spit, HRM 91.5: I watched a dozen to fifteen ospreys hunting tonight. Across four hours, there was not a single moment when one of them was not diving for fish. Goldfish continued to be the fish-of-the-season as no fewer than six were caught by the osprey. Five bald eagles were dispersed along the shore, perched and waiting for opportunities. A highlight in the mix was a Caspian tern accompanied by nine Forster’s terns.
– Jim Yates
4/30 – Yonkers, HRM 18: This afternoon, we seined with a group of students from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak. We collected some bivalves and a white perch in eight hauls of our net.
– Katie Lamboy, Elisa Caref
5/1 – Hudson River Estuary: Our DEC Hudson River Fisheries Unit believes there may be a new spawning area for shortnose sturgeon. This is serious news given that the shortnose sturgeon is an endangered species. We deployed egg mats in an area where last year, we captured a gravid (with eggs) female as well as a male. So far this season, however, eggs have not appeared on the mat. Giving us some hope were the two male shortnose sturgeon we captured in that location yesterday. They measured 717 and 590 millimeters (mm) fork length (FL). Although the collection of eggs would be a definitive indicator that spawning is occurring there, it was good to find adult sturgeon, marking the second year that they were occupying the area during the spawning season.
– DEC Hudson River Fisheries Unit
[Sturgeon are measured as fork-length (FL) rather than total-length (TL). Sturgeon have a heterocercal tail (caudal fin), an ancient adaptation, that features an extended upper lobe. Measuring the snout to the fork in the tail at the base of the lobes provides a more consistent number. Tom Lake]
[Note: one inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)]
5/1 – Haverstraw Bay, HRM36: On the last day of our spring monitoring for juvenile Atlantic sturgeon, we collected a seven-inch butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus). After a steady diet of sturgeon and striped bass, it was fun to see something different.
– DEC Hudson River Fisheries Unit
5/1 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We seined with students from Celia Cruz High School in the Bronx today at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak. Our catch reflected quality over quantity: Across ten hauls of our net, we caught four gorgeous striped bass.
– Katie Lamboy, Jay Muller, Elisa Caref
5/2 – Saratoga County, HRM 170: Our Thursday Birders found a glossy ibis this morning at Round Lake Preserve. We found the ibis chilling in a swale with Canada geese, with hundreds of swallows swarming over the lake, including a few cliff swallows.
– Naomi Lloyd (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
5/2 – Saratoga County, HRM 182: This afternoon, our Thursday Birders surveyed Saratoga Lake (no Pacific loon). The lake was like glass, with no wind for once, and we found a good diversity of waterfowl, including lesser scaup, ruddy and long-tailed ducks, red-breasted mergansers, both horned and red-necked grebe, and a black scoter. A conservative count of common loons was at least 30 birds.
– Naomi Lloyd (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
5/2 – Greene County: The tide was very low, even slack on a gray morning, and the water was cold so I had my wet suit on. No one else was on the river. I visited what we believe is a “new” NY203 bald eagle nest. There was a single bird on the new nest, and it looked much the same as when I visited a week ago. I didn’t see any other eagles on the island, and it looked like they were still on eggs. Being late in the incubating season, it could be another clue that this breeding pair may be transplants from the earlier NY203. I stopped by the abandoned (original) NY203 but could not discern any activity.
– Kaare Christian
5/2 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our 9-11 grade students from the Bio-Chem program at Saunders High School in Yonkers checked our glass eel mop four times in the last ten days. In a typical roller-coaster cycle of abundance and scarcity, catches ranged from a high of 175 glass eels on 4/23 to a low of 15 on 4/25. Surprisingly, across the ten days water temperature fell from 66 to 54 degrees F.
5/3 – Saugerties, HRM 102: The striped bass fishing season was in full swing. My cousin’s son, Dustin, was shore fishing when a bald eagle swooped down and snagged a 22-inch striped bass from the river. Struggling with its heavy load, the eagle it made it to a nearby tree limb. As Dustin moved slightly to get a better view, the eagle dropped the now headless fish at his feet. It was now ready for our table. True story!
– Mario Meier
5/3 – Saratoga County, HRM 57: Despite some rain, I had a productive three-hour visit this morning at the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve looking for migrant songbirds. I started at the main entrance and walked toward the Mohawk River and to the spruce circle area. Highlights included eleven warblers, including Blackburnian, magnolia, chestnut-sided, yellow, black-throated green, black-throated blue, yellow-rumped, black-and-white, American redstart, northern waterthrush, and ovenbird. Among other songbirds were blue-headed vireo, warbling vireo, rose-breasted grosbeak, cedar waxwing, ruby-crowned kinglet, blue-gray gnatcatcher, and gray catbird. A Virginia rail was calling from the reeds along the river.
– John Hershey (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
 5/3 – Piermont, HRM 25: We went out in early morning to see if there might be some big striped bass around. However, we only managed to catch eight big white catfish up to 19.5-inches. But, no striped bass. We did miss a big run-off which may have been a monster striped bass, but it got off and we were left just wondering. (Photo of white catfish courtesy of Peter Park)
– Peter Park, Darrin Kaloz
5/3 – Albany County, HRM 143: Neotropical migrants flooded my yard in Meadowdale today. I added a whopping 19 species to this year’s yard list, including such beauties as Baltimore oriole, scarlet tanager, black-throated blue warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, ruby-throated hummingbird, and Blackburnian warbler. I had more chimney swifts pass overhead than I had ever seen. The white-crowned sparrow count was now up to five.
– Larry Alden, Penny Alden
Spring-Summer 2019 Natural History Programs
Wednesday, July 10 – Thursday July 11 (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM)
2019 Teachers on the Estuary and Living Environment Institute
Wonders of Wetlands (15 credit hours for NYS certified teachers and administrators)
Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, 56 Game Farm Road, Delmar, New York
Join us this summer as we explore the Wonders of Wetlands. Teachers will spend two days gaining valuable knowledge and learning new curricula. We will use interdisciplinary approaches with the guidance of experts like EPA Award Winner Chris Bowser.
Cost: $50.00 for materials, supplies, and refreshments (light dinner on Thursday)
To register, e-mail drew.hopkins
Tuesday, August 20 – Thursday August 22 (9:00 AM – 4:00 PM)
2019 Teachers on the Estuary and Living Environment Institute
Amazing Watersheds (22 credit hours for NYS certified teachers and administrators)
Five Rivers Environmental Education Center, 56 Game Farm Road, Delmar, New York
Join us this summer as we explore amazing watersheds. Teachers will spend three days gaining valuable knowledge and learning new curricula while using interdisciplinary approaches to explore watersheds. Some easy hiking on trails is involved.
Cost: $60.00 for materials, supplies, and refreshments (dinner provided on Wednesday)
To register, e-mail drew.hopkins
Saturday, September 14 – 1:00- 4:00 PM
Science on the River
Norrie Point Environmental Education Center, Staatsburg
We would like to invite you to our open house featuring hands-on, interactive demonstrations, displaying scientific research and discovery on the estuary and in the Hudson Valley. Activities, with educational games and crafts, will be targeted towards both young and adult audiences.
For more information, email maija.niemisto or call 845-889-4745 x109.
Hudson River: Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Program
You can share your fishing trip information and help biologists understand and manage our Hudson River 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 from 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 for the season. 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, or call 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 Almanacor 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. |
