A Project of the Hudson River Estuary Program
Compiled by Tom Lake, Consulting Naturalist
Overview
This summer is becoming known for exotic or rarely encountered fishes, such as gray snapper, inshore lizardfish, Spanish mackerel, lookdown, and crevalle jack, with more likely to come. The autumn monarch butterfly migration has begun as have the hawk watches, monitoring the southward stream of raptors.
Highlight of the Week
 8/27 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak could not help getting into the water with our seine on this beautiful day. Our catch across six hauls of the net included five fish species, Atlantic Silversides (high count at 188), young-of-year Atlantic Menhaden and striped bass, naked gobies, and a spectacular 130 millimeter (mm) inshore lizardfish. Blue crabs, moon jellyfish, and comb jellies rounded out an impressive catch. (Photo of inshore lizardfish courtesy of Elisa Caref)
– Elisa Caref, Jason Muller, Katie Lamboy
[The terete-shaped body of the inshore lizardfish (Synodus foetens) looks like a brightly striped and mottled cigar. With tooth-studded jaws, they are a voracious apex predator with a reptilian look. Inshore lizardfish lurk in sandy shallows, burrowing in the bottom sediments to ambush passing prey. They favor the temperate and tropical inshore marine waters of the Atlantic from Cape Cod to Brazil, and can grow to 18-inches. Larval lizardfish are carried into the Hudson Estuary on summer flood tide currents; juvenile lizardfish are found in late summer and fall in brackish water as far upriver as Croton Point (HRM 35). Tom Lake]
Natural History Entries
8/24 – Beacon, HRM 61: The very productive blue-crabbing experience of others at Long Dock far overshadowed my very modest fishing results today. I caught, measured, and released two small channel catfish (12-13-inches) in a full day of fishing. Bites were few and far between. Rather than using crab traps, members of a family group caught crab after crab on fishing lines baited with pieces of raw chicken scraps. The process involved putting out baited lines, letting time pass, then slowly reeling in and netting the crabs that were reluctant to let go of the bait even as they neared the surface. The only positive fishing sign during my own session was the sight of an occasional carp rolling at the surface once the incoming tide was well underway.
– Bill Greene
 8/24 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Two families seined with the River Explorers program at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak today, catching young-of-year Atlantic menhaden and striped bass, as well as Atlantic silverside and blue crabs. (Photo of seining courtesy of Tom Lake)
– Katie Lamboy
[A Treatise on Seining
Even a casual reader of the Hudson River Almanac will discover that seining is a common theme, most often pertaining to fisheries research and education.
A seine is a net with a float-line on top, a lead-line on the bottom, and tight meshes in between. The word seine is French, from the Latin sagëna, which means a fishing net designed to hang vertically in the water, the ends of which are drawn together to enclose the fish. Those referenced in the Almanac range in length from 15 to 200-feet-long, four to eight-feet in depth, and a mesh size from quarter-inch to three-inches depending upon its use. They are an excellent tool used to sample an area and collect aquatic animals without injuring the catch. Haul seines, long nets that required a boat to set and many strong arms to help haul, were used in Hudson River commercial fishing from Colonial times until the last decade of the 20th century. They have since been outlawed; in the hands of competent fishers, they were simply too efficient.
Students often ask, “Why do we seine?” Seining is like a mystery. Seining is a doorway into the river we cannot otherwise see. We seine for knowledge, for the magic of discovery. The anticipation renders seining like a romance. As the net comes in, the experience can be akin to opening a birthday present. Most of all, seining is like reading a book and, for some, a page-turner. Tom Lake]
 8/24 – Brooklyn, New York City: I read a July 23 entry in the Hudson River Almanac (July 20-26) that mentioned the gray triggerfish. I thought you might be interested to know that last year (June 25, 2018), while banding young osprey chicks, we (DEC) found a desiccated triggerfish in an osprey nest in Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge. (Photo of gray triggerfish courtesy of Philippe Guillaume)
– Barbara Saunders
[Gray triggerfish seem desiccated on their best day. They are not known for their culinary qualities; the adult osprey may have brought the fish to the nest and found no takers. Tom Lake]
 8/25 – Hudson River Estuary, HRM133-25: The results just arrived for our third-annual Hudson River Fishermen’s Association’s (NJ) August 17 Catfish Derby, a charity event in support of our youth angler and scholarship programs. While the derby spans the entire estuary, it is operated at eight weighing stations across 108 miles: Coeyman’s Landing Marina, Coeymans, Riverview Marina, Catskill, Roundout Yacht Basin, Connelly, Riverfront Marina, Newburgh, Haverstraw Marina, West Haverstraw, Croton Yacht Club, Croton-on-the Hudson, Westerly Marina, Ossining, and Piermont Pier, Piermont. Baits included night crawlers, chicken and beef liver, cut herring, peanut bunker (menhaden), hot dogs, and pepperoni.
The winning fish was a 29.25-inch channel catfish caught by Kevin Peter below the Troy Dam. Second place was a 27.25-inch channel catfish caught near the docks in the Haverstraw Marina by Ed Paul. Third place was a 27″ channel catfish caught by Pat Murray who was fishing in Haverstraw Bay. The youth division winner (under 16 years-old) was a 21-inch channel catfish caught by Matteo Dinis at the Croton Yacht Club. While hundreds of catfish were caught, only the 151 largest were measured and released (most were channel catfish with some white catfish). Other fish caught and released included white perch, freshwater drum, American eels, bluefish, common carp, and striped bass. (Photo of channel catfish courtesy of Pat Murray)
– Scott Havner
8/25 – Bedford, HRM 35: There was no real flight taking place on our first day at the Bedford Audubon Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch, just a few migrants here and there throughout the day. Of the 19 raptors, broad-winged hawks were the high count with nine. Non-raptor observations included four ruby-throated hummingbirds and a monarch butterfly.
– Richard Aracil, Carlotte Catalano, Karen Troche, Pedro Troche
[The observation point for the Hawkwatch at Chestnut Ridge is at an elevation of about 770 feet, with a 180-degree view oriented to the east. Birders have been observing migrating raptors from Chestnut Ridge since at least 1978. Tom Lake]
*** Fish of the Week ***
 8/25 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 37 is the bluespotted cornetfish (Fistularia tabacaria), number 128 (of 229) on our watershed list of fishes. If you would like a copy of our list, e-mail trlake7.
The bluespotted cornetfish, a salt-water species, is an extremely rare visitor to our watershed. The most recent record (432 mm) was caught in 2015 by Cynthia Fowx of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, from the East River under the Manhattan Bridge. The bluespotted cornetfish is from the same taxonomic order as the pipefishes and seahorses (Syngnathiformes) and quite closely resembles them in body type. They can also be mistaken for needlefish (Belonidae). Bluespotted cornetfish feed on small fishes, crustaceans, and squid and can reach four-feet in length. They occur widespread in the Western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Brazil but are seasonal visitors in their northern range. (Photo of bluespotted cornetfish courtesy of Cynthia Fowx)
– Tom Lake
8/26 – Bedford, HRM 35: We had very low numbers of migrants today at the Bedford Audubon Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch with no real flight taking place. We spotted a few non-migrating red-shouldered hawks, broad-winged hawks, and a couple of osprey. Of the eight raptors seen, broad-winged hawks were high count with eight. There were no non-raptor observations of note.
– Richard Aaracil
8/26 – Stony Point, HRM 40: For almost 15 years, we have spent an August day paddling in the shallows of the Hudson River to check for the presence and health of wild celery (Vallisneria Americana), a submerged aquatic plant. The Stony Point marina has been our monitoring site for many of those years and although we found few plants this year, we were treated to an afternoon with nature. The marina pilings were topped with an assortment of birds including an immature bald eagle, an elegant belted kingfisher, and an osprey that launched into the air repeatedly to dive for fish. At one point a large carp moved by our canoe stirring up the bottom sediments followed by a school of Atlantic menhaden swarming in front of us, their dorsal fins cutting across the water’s surface.
– Margie Turrin, Brent Turrin
 8/26 – Brooklyn, New York City: The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and Nyack College Fishing Club held a Brooklyn Bridge Park Fishing Clinic this evening at the park’s Pier 5. Using sandworms and clam strips with spinning rods, participants caught 13 impressive fish including striped bass (13.5 to 23-inches), and smaller oyster toadfish and black sea bass. The water temperature was 78.7 degrees Fahrenheit (F.), and the salinity was 22.41 parts-per-thousand (ppt). (Photo of striped bass courtesy of Christopher Girgenti)
– Isa Del Bello, Christina Tobitsch, Lhana Ormenyi, Haley McClanahan, Shad Hopson, Peter J. Park
 8/27 – Albany, HRM 150: Our Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club counted ten common nighthawks in late evening from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Discovery Center, and for the second night in a row we also had a fly-by American woodcock. (Photo of common nighthawk courtesy of Scott Stoner)
– Scott Stoner, Denise Stoner
[The common nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) is a medium-sized crepuscular or nocturnal bird within the nightjar family, whose presence and identity are best revealed by its vocalization. Their southward migration intensifies in late August. – Rich Guthrie]
8/27 – Bedford, HRM 35: Very little migratory flight took place today at the Bedford Audubon Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch. A couple of bald eagles, a broad-winged hawk, and a red-tailed hawk were the only ones seen migrating. There were also four non-migrating osprey. Non-raptor observations included a monarch butterfly.
– Richard Aaracil
8/28 – Ulster Park, HRM 78: While pulling mugwort amidst our milkweed, a striped caterpillar caught our eye. It was hanging in the shape of a “J” on a stalk of mugwort. I stopped myself just in time from pulling it. The next day my anticipation was confirmed: a beautiful emerald chrysalis was hanging there. In a few weeks, a monarch of the last generation for this year should hatch, and soon after begin its long journey to Mexico.
– Peter Relson, Carol Anderson
8/28 – Little Stony Point, HRM 55: One of the cardinal rules of seining is know your beach: be aware of hang-downs, eddies, and optimum tides. While Little Stony point is an excellent low tide beach, we challenged what we knew today at high tide. We had to overcome getting far enough offshore without having the net lift off the bottom. With no wind or boat wakes, we survived and made a half-dozen hauls of our seine. Until the last, our net filled with spottail shiners (99-102 mm) and young-of–year striped bass (142-144 mm). As our final haul came in, we could see a large school of silver flashes that could have been any one of several species from anchovies to river herring. But these were a special catch to us above the Hudson Highlands: Atlantic silverside (63-88 mm). They are ubiquitous 50 miles downriver, but were like a shining light from the sea for us. The water was 80 degrees F. and the salinity was 4.0 ppt.
– Tom Lake, A. Danforth
 8/28 – Rockland County, HRM 39: DEC’s Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve and Hudson River Estuary Program staff did a survey of American eels on Cedar Pond Brook with volunteers, staff from Rockland County Soil and Water District, and a Cornell research assistant. We fished with our backpack electro-shocker above and below the first dam on the stream. Downstream of the dam we found more and smaller eels, while fewer but larger eels were found upstream. The smallest eel downstream of the dam was 70 mm; the largest eel caught above the dam was 649 mm.
Other fish caught included cutlips minnow, common shiner, blacknose dace, longnose dace, fallfish, white sucker, yellow bullhead, brown trout, pumpkinseed, bluegill, largemouth bass, and tessellated darter. (Photo of electroshocker courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
– Sarah Mount, Aidan Mabey, Nicole Laible, Brianna Rosamilia, Alison Rickard, Bob Schmidt, Rob Sturgeon
[Electro-fishing (or shocking) gear uses high voltage pulsed DC (direct current) passing from a cathode to an anode which temporarily stuns fish for capture. Fish experience galvanotaxis which causes the fish to involuntarily swim towards the electrical field. The size of fish being targeted determines the amount of voltage and amperage applied to the water. Smaller fish tend to be more difficult to stun than larger fish, due to the fact that the smaller fish have less surface area that can be affected by the electrical field. Generally, fish are released unharmed. Wes Eakin (DEC)]
8/28 – Bedford, HRM 35: There was virtually no raptor migration today at the Bedford Audubon Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch. The only non-vulture seen was a local broad-winged hawk spotted meandering northward. Non-raptor observations included a ruby-throated hummingbird near the observation platform.
– Richard Aaracil
8/29 – Green Island, HRM 153: At the head of tidewater, a new moon spring tide had drawn the river away in the ebb to reveal a stretch of dry shoreline we rarely see. I was here to collect “totems” – small beach stones whose shape suggests an animal – for an upcoming program. The tide had given me extra beach to work with and in just a half-hour I found three “bears”, two “eagles”, two “mountain lions”, and six “turtles”. Smallmouth bass were chancing entrapment in the tide pools and the river was 75 degrees F.
– Tom Lake
[To help establish a relationship and foster a commitment to nature in their children, some Native Americans encouraged their children at a young age to look for small, often water-worn, stones that are shaped like, or suggest, an animal as they walk through fields, along beaches, and across stream beds. It may take only a day or as long as a lifetime. This is much like seeing images in the clouds – one person’s eagle is another’s mountain lion. Once found, the children save that small stone and the symbolic “animal” becomes their life-long guardian spirit, a totem, a tangible connection to nature. There is a theory on human behavior that you will not destroy that which you love. Tom Lake]
8/29 – Bedford, HRM 35: There was very small movement of osprey noted today at the Bedford Audubon Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch with birds flying high and bee-lining to the southwest. A handful of broad-winged hawks and a bald eagle also seemed to be migrating. Aside from that, no real flight was taking place. Non-raptor observations included five ruby-throated hummingbirds including a leucistic individual that was completely white, as far as I could tell.
– Richard Aaracil
8/30 – Albany County, HRM 136: A group of eight birders visited the Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville this morning for the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club’s annual field trip. The water level in Myosotis Lake was surprisingly low, which meant there was a lot of excellent shorebird habitat. Killdeer were the most numerous, but we also had greater yellowlegs, solitary sandpipers, spotted sandpipers, and two Wilson’s snipes that were foraging in the shallow water with the other shorebirds. The other highlight was a great egret, a new species for Huyck in e-Bird, a green heron, uncommon at the preserve. The list of raptors was short and included bald eagle, broad-winged hawk, and a red-tailed hawk. We saw little in the way of migrating songbirds and even the local breeding warblers were mostly absent with just a single common yellowthroat. We found one bank swallow mixed in with the tree and barn swallows that were hunting over the lake.
– John Kent (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
 8/30 – Germantown, HRM 102: Monarchs were on the move from Canada. Many had been sighted in the Laurentians and in Montreal as well. Presently, there is a regular flow of monarchs and tiger swallowtails coming across my Germantown garden. (Photo of monarch butterflies courtesy of Tom Mitchell)
– Mimi Brauch
8/30 – Little Stony Point, HRM 55: A strong west wind was in concert with the downriver current (wind with tide) so the surf was only mildly ruffled. The late-night, new moon high-tide had left tiderows of wild celery and duckweed far up on the beach. We could taste the salt in the water (4.0 ppt) as seventeen of us eagerly awaited the seine to slide up on the sand. The sparkling Atlantic silverside (57-83 mmm) we caught two days ago were still there and were now joined by a small school of bay anchovies (46-49), sporting a similar broad silver stripe and another echo of downriver and saltier water. We also found dozens of tiny blue crabs, spottail shiners, young–of-year channel catfish (25 mm), and striped bass, and an impressive burnished-gold golden shiner (152 mm). The water was 81 degrees F.
– Tom Lake, Phyllis Lake
8/30 – Bedford, HRM 35: Once again, there was virtually no raptor migration at the Bedford Audubon Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch. The only migrants counted were a single American kestrel and a bald eagle. A pair of local red-tailed hawks were spotted going to a nest in a pine on the hillside across from the platform. Two monarch butterflies noted at the platform were non-raptor migrants.
– Richard Aaracil, Tait Johansson
8/30 – Piermont, HRM 25: I took a walk on Piermont Pier after work this evening. The tide was just beginning to come in and I found fifteen least sandpipers and two lesser yellowlegs on the north shore mud flats. A Caspian tern flew by vocalizing and, by comparison with a recording on David Allen Sibley’s App, I concluded it was an immature. Ring-billed gulls (at least 70) far outnumbered the greater black-back and herring gulls. Eight osprey were in the trees by the mouth of Sparkill Creek and from where I stood, I could see a blue-grey gnatcatcher, two willow flycatchers, and two autumn Baltimore orioles. However, the highlight came at the end of my walk, a common nighthawk, my first of the late-summer season.
– Linda Pistolesi
 8/30 – Queens, New York City: When I hauled up my minnow trap today at the World’s Fair Marina in Flushing Bay, I had an exciting catch: a young-of-year gray snapper (48.0 mm). (Photo of gray snapper courtesy of Peter Park)
– Peter J. Park
[The gray snapper (Lutjanus griseus), is a saltwater fish, a temperate marine stray also known colloquially as mangrove snapper. Gray snappers are found inshore from Cape Cod to Brazil eastward to the coast of Africa, with a center of abundance from Florida through the Caribbean. They can reach three-feet in length and 18 lbs. although most are far smaller. The gray snapper is an uncommon to rare visitor to the lower estuary in late summer and fall. Our most recent record from the estuary was in 2015 (80 mm) from The River Project’s Pier 40 in Manhattan.
Tom Lake]
Summer 2019 Natural History Programs
Saturday, September 7 (11:00 AM- 4:00 PM) (Please note the date change)
Hudson River Day (admission is free)
Croton Yacht Club, Croton-on-Hudson
Join NYSDEC fisheries biologist Amanda Higgs for a seminar on Hudson River sturgeon, as well as many other educators speaking on the river’s natural history. There will also be a fishing clinic and boat rides for the entire family.
For more information: dennis
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.
Saturday, September 21 (10:00 AM)
20th annual Hudson River Valley Ramble
Kowawese Unique Area, New Windsor (off Route 9W)
Join us on the beach at low tide as we investigate through sampling (with nets), Hudson River aquatic life in the shadow of Storm King Mountain at the northern gateway to the Hudson Highlands.
For more information, e-mail: trlake7
The Hudson River Valley Ramble offers programs throughout the month of September. For more information, visit: https://www.hudsonrivervalleyramble.com/ramble
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. |
