| OVERVIEW
Two of the dependable joys of the first week of May are the return of Baltimore orioles and ruby-throated hummingbirds. The number of Hudson Valley bald eagle nests with two nestlings had risen to at least seven. The woods were filled with wood warblers, the river was filled with herring, and the forests were decked out in the brilliant white of flowering dogwood – springtime on the Hudson River.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
 5/7 – Norrie Point, HRM 85: Several hauls of our seine at the Norrie Point Environmental Education Center cove resulted in a handful of small fishes as well as a delightful surprise: a small turtle the size of a cookie! After the mud was gently brushed off, the keeled carapace and beautiful reticulated patterns revealed a juvenile northern map turtle (Graptemys geographica). A few photos later, we placed it back in the cove. (Photo of map turtle courtesy of Chris Bowser)
– Ashawna Abbott, Jim Herrington, Chris Bowser
NATURAL HISTORY ENTRIES
5/5 – Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), a native species, was in full bloom acting as a brilliantly colorful segue to the last of the shadbush in the forest. A cursory check showed that the new oak leaves were now “the size of a squirrel’s ear.”
– Tom Lake
[Before the arrival of Europeans to the Hudson Valley, the cultivation of maize, or corn, was important for Native People. There is much lore regarding the time to plant corn. Ethnographic (oral) tradition among many Northeast Indian tribes suggested planting corn when the new oak leaves were the size of a squirrel’s ear. But what is the size of a squirrel’s ear? One spring I decided to find out. I spent the month of April driving around the Hudson Valley measuring the ears of road-killed gray squirrels. I measured 116 x 2 ears each. It turned out that the average ear size was 20.6 millimeters (mm), or 0.82 inches-long. This might apply to different oaks in different areas, but for the Hudson Valley, it was probably the white oak (Quercus alba). In most years the prime date arrives in early May and is probably related to soil temperature, rainfall, and perhaps some other factors. Tom Lake]
[Note: one inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)]
5/5– Putnam County, HRM 54: While within the Clarence Fahnestock Memorial State Park yesterday, I spotted a raptor soaring that looked different than what I would normally expect. It had a distinctive look with straight pointed wings, both dark and light coloration, and a fanned tail. My first impression was Mississippi kite as I watched it circle twice before losing sight of it. I’ve seen several Mississippi kites in New York, but the last two were some time ago in 2012 in Sterling Forest State Park. I didn’t have binoculars with me when I saw it, but mentioned that I may have seen a kite to a few friends.
Coincidentally, today Alan Wells reported a Mississippi kite 25 miles Southwest at Stony Point in Rockland County. Viewing his images has helped confirm my suspicion that I had seen a Mississippi kite. Alan commented that the kite was, “very falcon-like with completely black tail; white trailing edge patches on wings; body more-or-less uniformly light below and darker above; black mark through and below eye.”
– Jesse Jaycox
[The Mississippi kite (Ictinia mississippiensis) is a graceful, falcon-like, merlin-sized raptor of the southern United States, from Virginia to Florida, west into Texas, occasionally wandering north to New England. From May 26 to June 6, 2012, we had six sightings of Mississippi kites, from Staten Island upriver to Coxsackie, HRM 124. Tom Lake]
5/6 – Denning’s Point, HRM 60: We didn’t have much luck fishing for striped bass, but we did catch a small white catfish. I remember fishing for white catfish in the nearby mouth of Fishkill Creek many years ago when they were common. However, they seem to be losing the battle competing with nonnative channel catfish so it was nice to see one again. As the tide receded, I noticed three Asian clam shells lying empty on the shoreline.
– Jesse Jaycox
[Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) is native to the fresh waters of eastern and southern Asia. They were introduced to the West Coast of North America around 1930 as a food source and are now widely distributed throughout the waters of North America, particularly the eastern U.S. NYSDEC]
 5/6 – Westchester County: After a long cold winter, the morels (fungi) appeared about two weeks later than usual. We found a few poking up that could have used another day or two to grow, but after losing out on that gamble to deer, squirrels, and other foragers over the years, I have stuck to the lesson to pick while the picking is good. [Larry Tractenburg recently reported coming upon a similar treasure trove of morels elsewhere in Westchester County.] (Photo of morels courtesy of Ed McKay)
– Hope McKay, Hunter McKay, Ed McKay
[The exact location of this entry is left vague on purpose. Foragers would rather give you their car keys than disclose a location where prime mushrooms were appearing, and morels (Morchella sp.) are among the choicest. These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to a network of ridges that make up their cap. Morels are prized by gourmet cooks, particularly in French cuisine. Tom Lake]
5/6 – Bedford, HRM 35: Last week the great blue heron rookery had three nests with a single heron standing. Today there were seven herons standing guard with the remaining nests still incubating. At this stage the nestlings are defenseless and there will always be a guardian present to protect them while their mate is off hunting for food. From time to time, they will attend to the nestlings, rearrange some of the nesting material, and look around for their mate to return.
– Jim Steck
5/6 – New Paltz, HRM 78: We put out our hummingbird feeder early this morning and had our first customer within 15 minutes – a female Baltimore oriole! We’ve never seen orioles on these feeders before, but this one immediately recognized the food and was well practiced in how to access the nectar. She kept helping herself to the feeder all day.
– Jason Taylor
5/6 – Newburgh, HRM 61: Downing Park in Newburgh has the highest concentration of wood ducks I’ve found in the Hudson Valley. Today I watched a hen wood duck with its raft of seven ducklings swim past. Sadly, many will succumb to snapping turtles.
– Tom McDowell
 5/6 – Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: Baltimore orioles were calling from the woods and our ruby-throated hummingbirds were back, both males and females. We had our “thistle” and suet feeders relatively close to our hummingbird feeders, and those feeders have produced some interesting visitors. Yesterday a male/female pair of purple finches took turns along with chipping sparrows and gray catbirds. Today we had a gorgeous male rose-breasted grosbeak. The grosbeak was new for me; perhaps the seeds in the suet was the lure. (Photo of rose-breasted grosbeak courtesy of Caroline McDonald)
– Phyllis Lake
5/7 – North River, HRM 263: We just got back yesterday from winter down south and put out our hummingbird feeders. Today we had a male stop by, two days earlier than last year. Another pleasant surprise was an indigo bunting at another feeder. My friend and neighbor, the beaver, appeared to be healthy as we watched both hooded and common mergansers swimming on the river. It was great to be back!
– Marion Fuller
[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 ]
 5/7 – Millbrook, HRM 82: I came upon a family group of hooded mergansers swimming on the East Branch of Wappinger Creek where it runs through the lowlands of the Cary Institute of Ecological Studies. As I watched them, I saw the hen apparently having a serious conversation with her brood. She then took off with the ducklings following along. Soon they began to stray. But, when three muskrats came swimming toward them, they quickly went back to Mama. (Photo of hooded mergansers courtesy of Carol Pedersen)
– Carol Pedersen (Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club)
5/7 – Beacon, HRM 61: The carp were back today taking my bait, and I managed to hook, land, measure, and release three. The largest weighed 12 pounds 13 ounces. Of the four channel catfish I caught, the two largest weighed more than four pounds each. The largest of the catfish showed a couple of fresh talon wounds on its head – probably from a bald eagle or an osprey. The apparent abundance of large channel catfish and common carp seemed to bode well for continued good spring fishing.
– Bill Greene
5/7 – Croton Point, HRM 35: We hosted sixty 5th graders from Friend’s Seminary School in Croton-on-Hudson for an ecology program that included seining at Mother’s Lap, a small cove on the north side of the Point. Our 12 sweeps of the shallows produced only four fish, but they were good ones. The first was a banded killifish. When I scooped some water out of the river for the killifish, we found two live glass eels (each 50 mm) in the bottom of the bucket. That was real serendipity. Our fourth fish was a yearling river herring, last year’s hatch (87 mm).
We took the students through the process of deciding if this river herring was an alewife, an American shad, or a blueback herring. Superficially, they look almost the same. It takes some observation and measurement. Eventually, the size of its eye, the length of its nose, the angle of its jaw, and the color of its stomach lining (black) convinced us it was a blueback herring. We were then able to tell the story of how this blueback herring likely hatched early last summer halfway across New York State in the Mohawk River. While almost all baby bluebacks travel to the sea in the fall, following the adults, this one chose to be a little different. The students saw real science in action.
– Gracie Ballou, Aidan Mabey, John Phillips, Tom Lake
[At the end of our day, we held the traditional “eel race.” The eel race is best held on a sandy beach, preferably with a gentle slope to the water. Buckets, a quarter-full of water, are lined up a short distance apart, parallel to and about ten feet from the water’s edge. An American eel (trained “racing eel”) is placed in each. A group of eager students are assigned to each entry. Competing groups give their eels honorary names like Eelie, Slimy, or Snakey, which makes cheering much easier. Today’s eels were named “Slime-Son” and “Hip Hop.” At the chosen moment, the buckets are tipped over. The length of the race is a product of factors such as distance to travel, gradient of the beach, how well we watered the “race track,” wind velocity, barometric pressure, enthusiasm of the cheering fans, and each individual eel’s competitive nature. With luck, and in about ten seconds, there is a winner. Today the eels raced nose-to-nose, and in the end “Slime-son” prevailed. Tom Lake]
5/7 – Staten Island, New York City: We took a quick walk on the beach this evening, overlooking the Lower Bay of New York Harbor, and came across a nesting killdeer. The female picked a tough spot for the nest right next to the trail that leads to the beach. She was so close to the trail that she immediately went into her “injured” display to distract us. Hopefully, her eggs will hatch soon and she and her brood will be on their way.
– Sean Gannon
5/8 – Coxsackie, HRM 124: I was kayaking at low tide this evening when I happened upon a seal. I had slowed to watch a bald eagle nest on Rattlesnake Island (looked like two nestlings) when I heard a splash. I turned to see a seal watching me. It was a harbor seal, quite dark with gray spots. I began paddling again, but the seal kept surfacing in front and then behind my kayak. Either the fishing was good or it was messing with me!
– Kelly Halloran
5/8 – Ulster County, HRM 85: Riverkeeper’s Habitat Restoration manager George Jackman and I met John Bowermaster and crew on Black Creek to talk about diadromous fishes and tributary restoration. It was good timing – the river was alive with migrants. A DEC glass eel team had just emptied their fyke net that had 304 glass eels and a dozen elvers. Everywhere we looked we could see alewives holding in the current, and every once in a while, the creek would explode in a spawning frenzy. Black Creek should be something of a model for other Hudson tributaries – the alewives were not bunched unnaturally under a dam but instead were using the entire creek freely for their spawning.
– John Waldman
5/8 – Putnam County, HRM 51: A strange-looking creature on the far side of a field in Philipstown Park in Garrison turned out to be two jake turkeys (immature males), locked in a shoving match, necks entwined, like little sumo wrestlers. One eventually prevailed, first pressing his vanquished opponent to the ground and then bopping him on the head with his wing for good measure. The winner then puffed himself up and did a victory dance around his defeated foe. So much for good sportsmanship.
– Ed McGowan
5/8 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our schooner, the Mystic Whaler, was docked at the Yonkers city pier as we continued our 23rd spring season working with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. The city paint crew showed up to paint the floating dock and found a Canada goose in her nest on the dock incubating four eggs. The goose showed immense patience, and the painters showed immense caution, as they painted around her and her nest. The goose seemed fine with the arrangement.
– John Eginton
5/9 – Schodack Island State Park, HRM 135: Students and parents from Fort Ferry Elementary School had several thrills and adventures today. An adult bald eagle patrolled the shoreline as we seined, watching for an opportunity to grab one of our fish. The eagle flew back and forth giving the group a great close-up look. Then, we had a swimming chipmunk! He held his little head out of the water as he navigated around, bobbing up and down under the floating docks. Then, a local angler, fishing off the sea wall, caught a whopping 22-inch striped bass. The students were impressed as we carefully released it back into the river.
– Fran Martino
 5/9 – Stanfordville, HRM 84: I was watching what I thought was a territorial squabble between three yellow warblers, but one was wearing a black cap! It was a Wilson’s warbler on its way from its wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America to breeding grounds in Canada. (Photo of wilson’s warbler courtesy of Deborah Tracy-Kral)
– Deborah Tracy-Kral
5/10 – West Haverstraw, HRM 38.5: We seined this evening to collect fish for use on the schooner Mystic Whaler, doing education programs under Clearwater’s auspices. The tide was high, and we made three short pulls as a thunderstorm was bearing down on us. Thus our catch was small: three yearling blueback herring, three white perch, and a spottail shiner.
– Steve Stanne, Cara Lee
[There is a chance these blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) were wintering in the Hudson, but there is also some otolith microchemistry data to show that some of these herring are coming back into the river from the ocean. It’s possible they were already schooling with the larger adults and following them in from the sea. Bobby Adams]
5/10 – Bronx, New York City: The lilacs at the Bronx Botanical Garden were starting to bloom. The Cherry Esplanade was glorious, as were the crabapples in the Osborne Garden. In the Native Flora garden, some oaks and pitch pines were flowering. The moss pink (Phlox subulata) was stunning and the wild geranium and columbine were suddenly wonderful. In the woodlands, thanks to heart-leaved groundsel (Packera aurea), the beds were paved with gold. – Thomas Shoesmith
[Lilacs (Syringa sp.) are a part of Hudson River lore. When commercial shad fishermen plied their gill nets on the Hudson, they noticed that the shad migration upriver from the sea came in a measured progression. Beginning in early April, the ratio of male or buck shad, to female or roe shad, was 2:1. By late April into early May, the ratio shifted to 1:1. By mid-May, the lilacs were in bloom and it again changed to 2:1 roe shad. This would be the last of the run, the season was ending, and the big roe shad were dubbed “lilac shad.” Tom Lake]
 5/11 Town of Poughkeepsie: The two nestlings in bald eagle nest NY62 were now 49 days old and already at least half the size of Mom and Dad. The majority of their diet had been Hudson River fishes, a testament both to their quantity and quality. (Photo of bald eagle nestling courtesy of John Badura)
– John Badura
[While we frequently highlight bald eagle nest NY62 as an example of how the nesting season is going, the same progression, nestlings-to-fledglings, is occurring in bald eagle nests all over the Hudson River Valley. Tom Lake].
5/11 – Beacon, HR 61: I arrived at Long Dock at the top of the ebb tide, and my timing was good because I caught two carp right away (one was 7.0 pounds). After that, for the next six hours, it was all brown bullheads (catfish). There was also a lot of “bait-stealing,” a sign that the golden shiners were at work.
– Bill Greene.
5/11 – Westchester County: Yet another Hudson Valley bald eagle nest had two nestlings! That made at least seven. This nest had been designated as NY430 (Yorktown). I managed to see into the nest from a distance today and spotted them. By size and plumage, I would guess they were 4-5 weeks old. The attentive parents were hard at work feeding their energetic youngsters.
– Joe Scordato
SPRING 2018 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
Wednesday, May 23, 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Fishing the Hudson River
Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg
Would you like to try your hand at fishing in the Hudson, a river that has 228 different kinds of fish? Join our family-friendly angling program, sponsored by the DEC Hudson River Research Reserve and I Fish NY.
Free. All equipment provided. Angling is wheelchair accessible.
For more information contact 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 |
