| OVERVIEW
The warm and salty river was giving us a range of “jellyfish,” from comb jellies, to moon jellyfish, to a rather rare lion’s mane jellyfish. Young-of-year fishes dominated the catches of students as they learned the role of the river as a nursery. It is the season to get out and get wet!
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
 7/24 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Students from the Westhab Community Group program (ages 6-15) went seining this afternoon at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak. Despite the tide being low and the inshore shallows being muddy, we managed to haul our seine with spectacular results! The highlight, in addition to American eels, Atlantic silverside, hogchokers, mummichogs, large white perch, and 109 moon jellyfish, was a lion’s mane jellyfish. (Photo of lion’s mane jellyfish courtesy of Sheetal Sukhija)
– Gabrielle Carmine, Shreeda Segan, Michael Treus, Vanessa Vazquez, Tiny Crenshaw
[The lion’s mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), the largest known species of jellyfish in the world, is quite uncommon in the estuary. They use their stinging tentacles to capture prey such as fish and smaller jellyfish. The tentacles of larger lion’s mane jellyfish can reach 100-feet in length and they can attain a bell diameter of over six-feet, although most are far smaller. Exactly ten years ago (July 2008) swarms of lion’s mane jellyfish were reported in the Hudson River off Manhattan’s west side. Tom Lake]
NATURAL HISTORY ENTRIES
7/21 – New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: My wife called to me this morning to come see a bald eagle. The adult bird was perched in the top of an aged mulberry tree at the southern edge of our 1.3 square acre Rabbit Island. The eagle seemed to be taking in all the activities on the river, apparently enjoying its viewing perch. It remained in the tree for 15 minutes, just 30 feet from our front door.
– David Cullen
[This adult eagle was one of the pair from bald eagle nest NY459A, directly across Wappinger Creek from Rabbit Island. High winds from a massive storm destroyed the nest on May 15. The adults have been rebuilding the nest, giving us hope for 2019. Tom Lake]
7/21 – Hudson River: Young-of-year is a label we frequently use to describe the multitude of recently hatched fauna in the Hudson River each spring through fall. The progeny of shad, river herring, striped bass, blue crabs, and many others, are present by the millions. We note young-of-year fishes as a way of documenting year-class strength and creating a historic record of length-at-age, often measuring their dimensions as millimeters-long (mm).
– Tom Lake
[Note: one inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)]
7/21 – Kowawese, HRM 59: A strong south wind was blowing upriver through the Hudson Highlands sending waist-high rollers onto the beach. It took three of us to handle our 85-foot seine as the wind was making it into a sail, and the current was dragging us out. On every pass until the last, the net was filled with sand and gravel. Finally, we caught a lull in the wind, or a change in the tide, and had a clean haul. As we slid the seine onto the sand, it pulsated with more than 200 fish, including four young-of-year herring species: Atlantic menhaden (78-90 mm), alewives (49-67 mm), blueback herring (29-46 mm), and our first American shad of the summer (66-67 mm). Elsewhere in the net, were young-of-year smallmouth bass (73-76 mm) and striped bass (47-51 mm). The river was warm and brackish at 82 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and 2.5 parts-per-thousand (ppt) salinity.
– Tom Lake. Michael Balabayev, Esteban Cuertas
7/21 – Fort Montgomery, HRM 46.5: It was an idyllic morning at Mine Dock Park. Two immature bald eagles were trying out their wings off Manitou Point; they made a couple of half-hearted dives at the water and took frequent breaks in the scrubby pines by the tracks. An adult eagle circled overhead the entire time. A peregrine falcon was perched on a cable right near the east tower of the Bear Mountain Bridge. It only stooped on one bird but missed, and then flapped its way back up to the cable to resume its post as “toll taker”. An indigo bunting took its usual morning position on the very top of a lone tree on the top of the west side of the railroad cut. Its feathers were all puffed out to dry off the dew, and it sang the entire time I watched. I could have stayed out and watched the river all day.
– Scott Craven
[“Toll taker” is a euphemistic term used to describe the predatory habits of peregrine falcons on the bridges that span the Hudson River. In the case of the Bear Mountain Bridge, the narrowest of the spans, the short flight over water is favored by migratory songbirds each autumn, but the “toll taker” ensures that it comes with a price. Tom Lake]
7/21 – Bear Mountain, HRM 46: I was enjoying a break from the stormy weather and enjoying a view of the Hudson River when a tree branch fell right beside me. On the branch was an unusual caterpillar. I took photos and sent them to an entomologist friend. He got back to me immediately and excitedly exclaimed that it was an Abbott’s Sphinx (Sphecodina abbottii), a native moth in its 5th instar. He explained that it would soon pupate before overwintering underground. The last verified sighting of this species at Bear Mountain State Park was in 2013, so I felt very privileged to have found this interesting creature.
– Jesse Predmore
7/21 – Westchester County, HRM 44-43: The Hudson River was like glass, not a ripple, as I kayaked on Peekskill Bay. This was my annual check of the osprey nest on a navigation tower, and it seemed to have at least one nestling. The adults made it clear that my presence was not welcome, so I did not stay long.
– John Hallinan
[The osprey nest on the light tower in Peekskill Bay was first noticed in 2013. If these are the same osprey, this would be their sixth season. Tom Lake]
7/21 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our River Explorers Program at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak had ten students today, ages 5-9. The highlight of our Saturday program is always seining and our effort was rewarded with an amazing 332 moon jellyfish! The fish we caught – Atlantic silverside and blueback herring – seemed secondary.
– Gabrielle Carmine, Toni Jackson, Sam Collins-Zaluda, Nat Urmson, Cindy Ishak, Hafeza Hassain.
 7/21 – Yonkers, HRM 18: The Hudson River sloop Clearwater hosted a delightful Citizen Science Sail, dodging an unsettled forecast and sailing with just a headsail under a strong breeze. Captain Nick and crew set the otter trawl in 25 feet of water, and we caught a bonanza of fishes, including several dozen young-of-year Atlantic tomcod and striped bass, a half-dozen spotted hake, blue crabs of varying ages and sexes, a handful of larger striped bass, and two oyster toadfish. One of the toadfish was a tiny juvenile that easily fit on a quarter! But the real story of the day was hogchokers, 575 of them at final count. Clearwater educator Manny joked that the river bottom must be plastered with hogchokers. (Photo of hogchoker courtesy of Chris Bowser)
– Chris Bowser
[We once offered a thesis, “that the bottom of the river was carpeted with hogchokers.” This came from an observation Chris Letts and I made in the 1980s after we completed an otter trawl in Haverstraw Bay. We could barely lift the bag out of the water, at which point we asked the question, “How many hogchokers could fit in a five-gallon bucket?” (The five-gallon bucket has long been a standard unit of measure for rivermen.) The answer was 957 hogchokers. Note: No hogchokers were hurt during this experiment. Tom Lake]
7/22 – New Paltz, HRM 78: I felt a change in the character of summer this past week, above the Wallkill River flood plain. With a few exceptions, the songbirds had stopped singing, leaving the woods and fields oddly quiet. The loudest begging of fledglings in our yard was past. Now the young starlings and grackles were foraging with the adults, the young woodpeckers had stopped squeaking and followed their frazzled parents, fat young robins probed the lawn by themselves, and blackbirds were beginning to flock up. Only the blue jay fledglings still whined and fluttered in the woods. Now the birds’ main job would be to fatten up and survive until the next breeding season. The ones that successfully survive the winter, and then find a suitable place to nest next spring, will again delight us with their songs.
– Lynn Bowdery
 7/22 – Queens, New York City: We went seining today at Fort Totten-Little Bay Park in northeast Queens. The morning tide was fully high. Our catch featured young-of-year fishes, including striped bass (some as small as 25 mm), bluefish, winter flounder, northern kingfish, and spot, a small saltwater drum. The most common fish in the net was Atlantic Silverside (Menidia menidia), far too many to count, ranging in size from young-of-year (20 mm) to adult (120 mm). The salty water was 27.0 ppt and the water temperature was 70 degrees F. (Photo of bluefish courtesy of Tom Lake)
– Peter Park, Andrew Wu
7/23 – Stockport Creek, HRM 121.5: Today’s canoe trip was a real throw of the fléchette [dart] at the weather dartboard, but we managed to get on and off the water in between downpours. It was perfect timing for the group of young students who participate in the Youth Outdoor Education Program sponsored by Columbia County Sportsmen’s Federation. Students who paddled the Stockport Creek with the Hudson River Estuarine Research Reserve and River Haggie Outdoors were treated to eagles, osprey, and a white-tailed deer that we watched swim across the creek in front of us.
– Fran Martino
 7/23 – Sullivan County: John Haas spotted an American anhinga at Morningside Park in Sullivan County today. This was only the fourth record of this species in New York State, a first for Sullivan County, and the first documented with photos. Witnesses included Scott Baldinger, Clay Spencer, Karen Miller, Ken McDermott, Kathy Ashman, Bruce Nott, Joyce Michelson and Rich Guthrie. (Photo of anhinga courtesy of Audubon)
– Ken McDermott
[The American anhinga (Anhinga anhinga) is a native waterbird loosely related to and somewhat resembling a cormorant in appearance and behavior (they share the same taxonomic order, Pelecaniformes). Their native range includes the Southeast U.S. and into South America. On occasion, the Almanac will note a wildlife occurrence that, while not directly in the watershed, is close enough and rare enough to mention. The American anhinga sighting qualifies. Tom Lake]
7/23 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Students from the Yonkers Public School Summer STEM Middle School Program visited the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak today. We braved the rain and were well rewarded. We caught a whopping 352 young-of-year blueback herring as well as bluefish, northern pipefish, white perch, Atlantic silverside, and 100 moon jellyfish. It was quite a way to start a rainy week!
– Elisa Caref
7/23 – 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 collected a tiny (35 mm, prehensile tail included) young-of-year lined seahorse.
– Clare O’Loughlin, Michelle Wu, Emma Palmer
7/24 – East Fishkill, HRM 66: Our gray fox came back again today, this time with two pups. Earlier this season we had only seen one. Our black bear ambled past as well this morning – beautiful as usual.
– Diane Anderson
[One of the joys of compiling and editing a natural history journal is the frequency of learning something new. In last week’s Hudson River Almanac, we noted that “Gray foxes are the only dog (canid) that can climb a tree….” Reader John Peters reminded us that the gray fox is the only canid in North America that can climb a tree. There is another, the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), native to eastern Asia that can also climb trees. Tom Lake]
7/24 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Twenty Yonkers Public School Summer Stem program students, grades 6-8, visited the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak today. It was high tide in the morning, so we hauled our net in the Beczak Marsh where we caught an amazing 455 Atlantic silverside as well as many blueback herring, mummichogs, striped bass, and moon jellyfish. This was one of our largest catches ever, and it really had the students excited.
– Jason Muller, Mateo Portune, Shannon Rooney
7/25 – Wappinger Creek, HRM 67.5: Over the years, we have come across six species of sunfish (Centrarchidae) in the tidewater Wappinger Creek: redbreast sunfish, pumpkinseed, bluegill, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and black crappie. Since it was the season of young-of-year fishes, we thought we’d investigate to see what was home. In the oppressive heat, cloying humidity, and during a moderate downpour, we seined around the massive beds of water chestnut, across sandy and muddy bottoms, and tripped over hidden concrete slabs from a former boat launch. Our quest resulted in young-of-year for four of the six. (We did not find smallmouth bass or black crappie.) Those we caught raged in size from 20 mm bluegills to 65 mm pumpkinseed. Our sunfishes seemed to be doing well. The creek was 78 degrees F.
– Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson, B.J. Jackson
 7/26 – 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 to see what had collected overnight. This was baby oyster toadfish season – we’ve been getting dozens in the traps – so, we were not surprised to find three young-of-year, all about 20 mm in length. (Photo of oyster toadfish courtesy of Elisa Caref)
– Alyssa De Falco, Michelle Wu, Siddhartha Hayes
7/26 – Schodack Island, HRM 135: Twenty-six students from JMU4Kids summer camp caught many fish during our seining experience at Schodack Island State Park, including river herring, spottail shiners, golden shiners, striped bass, and pumpkinseed sunfish. While it was another volatile weather day, it was also an ideal time for a lesson on lightning safety, educating students on how to react when a storm approaches.
– Fran Martino
7/26 – Glasco, HRM 100: While walking along the river at the Falling Waters preserve, I saw what I thought at first were logs in the water, but then I realized they were moving faster than the current. I looked closer and saw two heads just above the water line, and I knew at once that it was a pair of river otters (Lontra canadensis) swimming downriver just a few feet away from one another. They seemed aware of me, but neither actively curious nor noticeably frightened. I lost sight of them behind some vegetation, and they didn’t reappear.
– Theresa Naske
 7/26 – Little Stony Point, HRM 55: Having had six-inches of rain this week, we expected a significant lowering of salinity. Therefore, we were surprised to find that the salinity had actually risen from 2.0 to 2.5 ppt over the week. We seined under the watchful eye of a black vulture and to the chatter of locusts, a song without melody but brimming with suspense. As expected, young-of-year fishes dominated our catch. Highlights included a summer flounder (60 mm) and bluefish (85-130 mm). The largest bluefish spit up the fore and aft ends of a two-inch-long striped bass. Blueback herring (44-48 mm) and another American shad (68 mm) – so few this season so far – were mixed in with baby channel catfish. The river was 83 degrees F. (Photo of summer flounder courtesy of Tom Lake)
– Tom Lake, Harry Gordon
7/26 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Students from the Yonkers Public School Summer Stem program, grades 6-8, went seining with us today at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak. Since it was high tide, we went seining in the Beczak Marsh. That proved to be the right choice as we caught 116 Atlantic silverside and 26 blueback herring, as well as mummichogs, striped bass, and a moon jellyfish. The students were excited to learn about fish “schooling” and how that can affect catches using a seine.
– Gabrielle Carmine, Sam Collins-Zaluda, Vanessa Vazquez, Michael Treus, Tiny Crenshaw
7/26 – 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 two more young-of-year oyster toadfish (15, 2.5 mm) as well as a handsome tautog (200 mm).
– Kirsten Rodek, Clare O’Loughlin, Emma Palmer, Siddartha Hayes
7/27 – Town of Stuyvesant, HRM 124: Students from a summer camp run by the Youth Department in the City of Hudson had a close-up look at a predator-prey experience during our field trip to Nutten Hook. During our seining adventure, a large male blue crab grabbed onto the caudal (tail) fin of a small river herring and would not let go. Blue crabs are tenacious. The students were doubtful when I talked about fish with two eyes on the same side of their head until we captured a right-eyed hogchoker. “Wow, she was right!” was their response.
– Fran Martino
7/27 – Germantown, HRM 108: Finally, an osprey had claimed the snag on the “island” off Cheviot Landing. What we now call an island is the eroded remnant of a long, earthen, commercial pier that once reached nearly half-way across the river. That snag had long been a bald eagle perch, used for hunting, feeding, and loafing. Now, it seemed to have been commandeered by an osprey.
– Mimi Brauch
[Two days later, normalcy returned. The osprey left the snag and a bald eagle took over. Mimi Brauch]
7/27 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our final group of students from the Yonkers Public Schools’ Summer Stem program came to the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak today. The students were excited to go seining because news had spread from other groups of the amazing aquatic life in the Hudson River. We went seining in the Beczak Marsh at high tide and caught young-of-year blueback herring and striped bass, as well as American eels, Atlantic silverside, blue crabs, comb jellies, and moon jellyfish.
– Elisa Caref, Sam Collins-Zaluda, Vanessa Vazquez, Michael T Stack, Will Christianson
7/27 – 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. Our baby oyster toadfish count had fallen to a single (15 mm) fish. However, the killifish pot gave us two gems, tiny young-of-year skilletfish, each no more than 10 mm.
– Justin Chen, Alyssa De Falco, Siddhartha Hayes
SUMMER 2018 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
Saturday, August 11
Sixth Annual Great Hudson River Fish Count
For more information on specific times and locations, go to https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/97891.html
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 planting projects.
For more information about the program or to download an application, please visit the DEC website at: HudsonEstuaryTFT.
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
