Green Guru Network

OVERVIEW

The ruby-throated hummingbirds were back. This is always a welcome sign of early May since it coincides with many of their favorite flowers blooming. Another early May arrival, one you can almost predict to the day, is the Baltimore oriole. Naturalist and ecologist Aldo Leopold described the oriole's flash as "like a burst of fire." Their brilliant orange-and-black plumage brightens the spring landscape.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

5/4 - Minerva, HRM 284: I hiked nine miles on four different trails in Essex County today. I found a black-backed woodpecker nest location and, as usual, the male was doing all the excavation work. The female foraged nearby and called to the male. It is quite remarkable to watch how hard the male black-backed woodpecker works, non-stop all day. I also found a yellow-bellied sapsucker nest site. An American bittern vocalized from the marsh along the railroad bed in Minerva. Ruffed grouse seemed to be everywhere and I had to stop several times today while driving to wait for grouse to stroll across the highway.
     - Joan Collins

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES

5/3 - Newcomb, HRM 302: The bird chorus this morning was full of warblers and thrushes. New arrivals included black-throated green, black-throated-blue, black-and-white, and Nashville warblers along with Swainson's thrush and a least flycatcher. While the birds are arriving and faring well in this great spring weather, the same cannot be said for the small mammals in this area. Last year was a big year for small mammals but the lack of fall food (mostly beech nuts) caused the populations to plummet around October. Earlier in the week I spent some time with a graduate student from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) who has been trapping small mammals in the Huntington Wildlife Forest. Three nights of trapping, 168 traps per night, and not a single small mammal was captured. It is not looking like it will be a very good summer for small mammals or all the creatures that eat them such as coyotes, bobcats, owls, hawks, and weasels.
     - Charlotte Demers

[More than a few Almanac contributors have commented on the near absence of chipmunks and squirrels in the lower Hudson Valley this spring. Tom Lake.]

5/3 - Round Top, HRM 113: As I stood on my deck this morning I could see and hear that spring was here. Shadbush was in full bloom; the "Tom" turkeys were gobbling; the first hummingbird zipped past my head to the feeder; and the phoebes were hard at work making a nest on the side of a log beam on the house. I love that little bird and always look forward to seeing them.
     - Jon Powell

[A common thread for Almanac entries is a reference to Hudson River miles (HRM). These give context to each entry, that is to say where in the watershed the entry occurred. For research and navigation purposes, the Hudson River is measured upriver from the Battery (HRM 0) at the tip of Manhattan, in the Upper Bay of New York Harbor: The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee Bridge is 28, Albany 145, the Federal Dam at Troy, at the head of tidewater, is about 153, and Newcomb, at the foot of the High Peaks of the Adirondacks, is about HRM 302. While cities and bridges make convenient points of reference, river phenomena do not always occur at such neat and tidy intervals, so we see many references to places in between. While these designations are not exact, they do allow us to create a mind's eye picture of points on the river and in the Hudson watershed. Tom Lake.]

5/3 - Fourmile Point, Greene County, HRM 121: Tyler Kritzman caught a 41 lb., 45.74 inch long striped bass in the Hudson on a live river herring.
     - Tom Gentalen

5/3 - Kowawese, HRM 59: The northern gateway to the Hudson Highlands was dotted with small fishing boats and the beach was lined with anglers catching and releasing 15-17 inch long striped bass. [NYS striped bass regulations are one fish, at least 18 inches long, per day.] Amidst this sportfishing frenzy, we hauled our small beach seine and caught many small white perch and spottail shiners, none of which would have had sufficient size to serve as bait for the bass. But we were satisfied to find out who was home in the river today. The water was 59 degrees Fahrenheit.
     - Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

[Kowawese Unique Area is a 102-acre park directly on the Hudson River in New Windsor, owned by New York State and managed by the Orange County Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation. Tom Lake.]

5/3 - Garrison, HRM 51: It was School Forest Day for the Garrison school district. In addition to seeing carpets of trout lily and Canada mayflower leaves, one of the first graders found the smallest red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) I had ever seen. It was about two inches long, three-eighths inches wide, and had extremely fragile-looking limbs. After giving everyone a quick look, we put it back where it was found, hopefully not too traumatized by all the attention. We also heard woodpeckers drumming and the first blue jay I had heard this season. [Trout lily photo by Rhea S. Rylee, courtesy U.S. Forest Service.]
     - Susan Butterfass

5/3 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: A too-brief walk on a beautiful morning yielded two meadowlarks on the main landfill, sun hitting their yellow breast during their telltale flight. Great horned owls have again bred successfully on the Point.
     - Larry Trachtenberg

5/4 - Newcomb, HRM 302: I had a first-of-the-season species today: Nashville warbler at a marsh along Route 28N. Black flies emerged today!
   - Joan Collins

5/4 - West Hurley, HRM 93: While visiting a friend this morning, I spotted the largest wild turkey I had seen in a long time. We watched it casually walk down a hill and right behind it was a hen. They were obviously together with no other rivals in site. Now we will wait to see what comes later on this summer.
     - Roberta S. Jeracka

5/4 - Town of Poughkeepsie: In an odd bit of housekeeping, I watched the male eagle bring a fish to nest NY62 this morning, and then remove a gray squirrel. Fifteen minutes later he brought another fish. A very active day.
     - Jay Meyer

5/4 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 35: This morning - warm, sunny, sweet-smelling - seemed to be a good time to put out a hummingbird feeder, just in case. This afternoon, one day earlier than last year, a plump male zipped up to the feeder, made the circuit of the blooming flowers, and took a perch on the fence.
     - Robin Fox

5/5 - Catskill, HRM 113: Bait anglers were catching and releasing American shad on herring rigs in Catskill Creek.
     - Tom Gentalen

["Herring rigs" are usually multi-hook Sabiki rigs, a series of six small hooks, each on a short individual dropper line. The dropper lines are tied to a longer leader, about 6 inches apart. A sinker is tied to the end of the leader and the rig is then jigged in the water attract river herring. Most of the river herring taken in this manner are used for striped bass bait. No take of American shad is allowed in the Hudson and its tributaries hence the release of this species when caught unintentionally. Tom Lake.]

5/5 - Palisades, HRM 23: I arrived at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory this morning in time to see the orchard oriole (first spotted last week) fly from the pond area and alight in a tree. Meanwhile, the resident Canada geese were out with their four tiny goslings. The song of the male red-winged blackbirds dominated the morning air, but a phoebe also sang relentlessly from a power line, as did a warbling vireo as it foraged in the top of an oak tree. The tree swallows had now firmly occupied the nest box, having evicted a pair of chickadees that had been there earlier in the season. I came upon the orchard oriole again low in a small tree. As I moved closer I noticed he wasn't alone - a female orchard oriole was also in the tree.
     - Linda Pistolesi

5/6 - Newcomb, HRM 302 : A week with no rain and warm air temperatures resulted in some inhospitable conditions for our amphibians. While we have seen some green frog egg masses, spotted salamander egg masses have been few. Spring ephemerals continue to bloom including the red trillium and sessile-leaved bellwort. Shadbush (Amelanchier arborea) and witchobble (Viburnum lantanoides) were blossoming and added some beautiful contrast to the forest with their white blossoms. I love witchobble this time of year; it's so showy and bright, but I will be cursing it in a month as it grabs for my feet, usually resulting in a few tumbles to the ground.
     - Charlotte Demers

5/6 - Town of Poughkeepsie: Watching bald eagles, at least for me, never gets old. Even after watching the pair in nest NY62 for thirteen years, there is always something new, something different. They are a perfect reflection of the river, the estuary, where we suppose that every day is different, when many forces collide to make each moment unique. The adult male came in from the river this morning with a fish. At a distance, through 10x binoculars, it appeared to be a foot-long river herring. The adult female was perched on a limb above the nest. The male brought the herring to the female and then left. It was a gesture that - in humans - might be seen as a gift. Twelve feet below the nestling peered up as if to ask, "And where is mine?"
     - Tom Lake

5/7 - Manhattan, HRM 7.5: While biking on the Greenway bike path through Riverside Park, just north of the West 100th Street access path, I noticed a few Canada geese drifting south on the ebb tide along the rocky bank, feeding on bits of vegetation in the shallows. There were two families: one a pair of adults with three goslings; the other an adult pair with seven goslings. The goslings were small and short-necked, with fluffy light brown feathers, the very definition of cute. The youngsters clearly knew which adults were their parents, and which were mere friends.
     Farther from shore, I noticed a cormorant diving for its dinner. It came up with an eel that it struggled to control. It kept the eel in its bill, but was having difficulty. After a while the eel stopped resisting and the ormorant dropped it briefly in the water, as if to take a quick breather. Then the cormorant grabbed the eel's head with its bill and started to swallow. The cormorant pointed its head up to the sky, making its neck as straight as possible, as the eel slid down. In just seconds most of the fish was inside except for a few inches of the eel's tail that didn't seem to fit. The cormorant looked incredibly uncomfortable with the eel's tail poking out of its mouth. Over the next five minutes or so I watched the cormorant drift south, periodically lifting its bill to the sky, trying to finish the job. Eventually the bird was too far away to see clearly, and I never saw the cormorant finish the meal.
     - Kaare Christian

5/8 - Minerva, HRM 284: I was out early this morning - first through the woods, then to the pond - and enjoyed a small spring-like festival of delights. The woods, a mix of deciduous hardwoods and conifers, were still very open, with buds just swelling and a little green showing. I spotted a single yellow-rumped warbler and an ovenbird (both singing), and a wild turkey gobbling off in the not-too-far distance. At the pond I heard a song sparrow, red-winged blackbirds, Canada goose, and our annual nester, a pied-billed grebe with its pretty unmistakable call. Blooming along the pond was leatherleaf; in the nearby woods were purple trillium, wild oats, and shadbush, all flowering.
     - Mike Corey

5/9 - Town of Poughkeepsie: A half-inch of rain fell for the second straight day. With air temperatures in the high 60s, hypothermia was not an issue for the eagle nestling in NY62. The heavy rain filtered through the nest and poured down the trunk of the tuliptree. While eagle nests are sturdy, they are also porous, and this allows for a nest cleaning every time it rains. Nests with eaglets can accumulate much offal, from leftovers to excrement, and a good rinsing from time to time serves them well.
     - Tom Lake

5/9 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: We had a much needed rainfall, nice and slow, inch-and-a-quarter. I would gladly have received twice that amount. Our soil was dry as much as eight inches down. The first of the wild columbine bloomed today and, as I admired it, the first bullfrog of the season began his serenade just across the road. [Wild columbine photo by Clark Reames, courtesy U.S. Forest Service.]
     - Christopher Letts

5/9 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 35: So far, there is only one hummingbird in my yard. It's the plump male that arrived five days ago. He whizzes around to the feeder, checks all the flower buds, and sits on the fence as if waiting. Every now and then, the mood changes, and he starts to flirt with, joust with, and challenge a clothes pin that I had left on the fence last fall. The pin is about the size and color of a resting hummingbird, and it's clipped at the top of the fence in a "perched" position. The little bird swoops, darts, jabs, and whirls in familiar hummingbird motions. While the behavior is a bit bizarre, it is also quite charming.
     - Robin Fox

5/9 - Croton Point, HRM 35: For the last three early mornings, there has been a lingering single red-throated loon just off the swimming beach at Croton Point. This seems quite late to me? I was also fortunate to hear a singing orchard oriole this morning.
     - Larry Trachtenberg

[According to the Birds of North America Online, red-throated loon migration peaks in April in Massachusetts, late April in inland Ontario. This bird was a bit late, but I can recall seeing them along the Massachusetts coast - not far away as the loon flies - into the latter half of May. Steve Stanne.]

SPRING 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS

May 18: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Conservation Planning for Woodland Pool Wildlife with Laura Heady of the Hudson River Estuary Program, Gretchen Stevens of Hudsonia, and Larry Federman of Audubon, at Roeliff Jansen Community Library and Rheinstrom Hill Audubon Sanctuary [Columbia County]. For municipal board members and interested residents, a program focused on the value of woodland pools and how to protect them in your community. For information and registration, visit the Columbia Land Conservancy website or call 518-392-5252, x207.

June 2: 2:00 PM
8,000 years of history and ecology at Clinton Point program at Zion Episcopal Church, Wappinger Falls [Dutchess County]. Join NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake as he leads a journey through time from the first of us to live along the river to the arrival of Europeans, with a focus on the people and their lifeways. For information: mailto:lake@sunydutchess.edu

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 Steve Stanne, education coordinator at DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program. Share your observations by e-mailing them to trlake7@aol.com. 

To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), go to DEC's Email Lists page, enter your email address, and click on "Submit." A page listing available subscription topics will appear. Scroll down; under the heading "Natural Areas and Wildlife" is the section "Lakes and Rivers" with a listing for the Hudson River Almanac. Click on the check box to subscribe. While there, you may wish to subscribe to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed, or to other DEC newsletters and information feeds.

The Hudson River Almanac archive allows one to use the DEC website's search engine to find species, locations, and other data in weekly issues dating back to October 2003.

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.

USEFUL LINKS

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's high and low tide and tidal current predictions are invaluable for planning boating, fishing, and other excursions on and along the estuary.

The Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System [HRECOS] provides near real-time information on water and weather conditions at monitoring stations from Manhattan to the Mohawk River.

Historical information on the movements of the salt front is available on the U.S. Geological Survey's Hudson River Salt Front website.

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.

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Welcome to the Hudson River Almanac in its new format. Now that it is being sent out via DEC's new newsletter delivery system, you will not be able reach us by replying to this message. If you'd like to contribute observations or contact us, please click on our names below to send an email. In addition, you may now manage your Almanac subscription yourself; see the information in the footer a the end of this issue. We hope you enjoy the Almanac's new look!
     - Tom Lake, Hudson River Almanac compiler; Steve Stanne, Education Coordinator, Hudson River Estuary Program

OVERVIEW

Sandhill cranes, uncommon seasonal visitors to the Hudson Valley, made multiple appearances this week. It is difficult to know if these were migration or storm-related occurrences. In the water, herring and glass eels continued their inland migrations and the winter-to-spring landscape gained much color.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

4/18 - Poughquag, Town of Beekman, HRM 71: Four sandhill cranes landed in a swampy field near my house. They stayed a half-hour, probably eating peeper frogs. They blended perfectly with the brown grass but those red heads stood out like beacons. When they took flight, one made a distinctive bugling sound. Just beautiful!
     - Patricia Mackay

4/18 - Croton Point, HRM 34.5: Jim Bourdon observed and photographed a sandhill crane this morning (9:00 AM) taking off from south side of the landfill and flying east toward the Croton River. A couple more may have been seen flying out to the river.
     - Anne Swaim

[Sandhill cranes have an impressive 6-8 foot wingspan. Most breed in summer from the prairies of central Canada north to the Arctic tundra, but - starting in 2003 - nesting has occurred at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in central New York State. Edward Howe Forbush (1858-1929) believed sandhill cranes were common in the Northeast during migration in colonial times, but were likely extirpated by the early 1700s. Tom Lake.]

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES

4/12 - New Paltz, HRM 78: I awoke at 1:15 AM to an unusual noise on our back deck. When I peered out of our door there was the backside of a huge (estimated 300 lb.) black bear. It was sitting on its rear legs, its front legs upright, and its head facing away. Our two dogs began barking and the bear exited into our woods. The feeder support was bent but our bird feeder was untouched. Guess it's time to bring in the bird feeder. This is only the second bear we have seen in 28 years of living here.
     - Bob Ottens

[From New York State Conservationist magazine, April 2013: Bird feeders attract bears, particularly in the spring after bears emerge from winter dens. Bears will stay near homes and camps for a longer period of time if feeders are available. Consider removing bird feeders by April 1.]

4/12 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: Everywhere the forsythia was in full bloom. The otherwise brown, drab landscape was aglow in bright yellow. Those of us who used to set our nets in the river in spring would look for this day as a bio-indicator of the start of the strongest phase of the shad and river herring run. Now it is just another step in the coloring of springtime.
     - Tom Lake

4/13 - Hannacroix Creek, HRM 132.5: It was very surprising that we caught only two glass eels from our overnight set at Hannacroix Creek.
     - Thomas V. Danahy

4/13 - Croton Point, HRM 35: Some of the birds we saw at Croton Point today included: red-necked grebe, horned grebe, common loon (2), red-throated loon (12), Wilson's snipe, great egret, laughing gull (rare here), rough-winged, barn, and tree swallows, brown creeper, Cooper's hawk, pine warbler, golden-crowned kinglet, red-breasted nuthatch, and two meadowlarks on the landfill. At the mouth of the Croton River (HRM 34) we also saw American wigeon (2), green-winged teal (6), belted kingfisher, and many flickers on the move.
     - Charlie Roberto, Kyle Bardwell, Larry Trachtenberg, John Grant, Chris Drury, Peter Post

4/14 - Schodack, HRM 139: I noticed that dark-eyed juncos have lingered here longer this year than they usually do. Today at noon there were 36 of them feeding on my front lawn. They were likely fueling up for the trek back to their northern breeding areas. I have never seen this many at one time.
     - Mary Ellen Grimaldi

4/14 - Hannacroix Creek, HRM 132.5: In a more "usual" catch, we counted 106 glass eels and one elver in our fyke net from the overnight set.
     - Thomas V. Danahy

[Having already defined glass eels (see 4/7 - Black Creek), elver is the next life stage we encounter. These are, for the most part, last year's glass eels that have lingered in the tributary and matured to the point where they look like miniature adult eels, in both physical (body) characteristics and darker pigmentation. As glass eels are already a year old, these are minimally two years old, ranging up to five years old, with sizes ranging from 100-200 millimeters (mm) total length. Tom Lake.]

4/14 - Mid-Hudson Valley, HRM 75-65: The woods had a soft red glow as the red maples budded out. In wooded areas where forsythia was not present, they provided the only color to the gray-brown forests.
     - Tom Lake

4/14 - Crugers, HRM 39: When we hung our floral wreath on the front door two weeks ago we didn't realize that a house finch pair would decide to build their cup-shaped nest among the flowers. When we noticed it last week, we moved it from the door and hung it over the light nearby where it wouldn't be disturbed with people coming in and out of the house. We've been observing the female's head amid the flowers and wondered if she were perhaps sitting on eggs. Sure enough, we took a mirror today and spotted five light blue eggs in the nest.
     - Dorothy Ferguson, Bob Ferguson

4/14 - Croton River, HRM 34: We spotted seven to nine Bonaparte's gulls here today, including several in breeding plumage with full black head. By the time we left, Ann Swaim had the count up to 19, with more coming in. The green-winged teal count is now up to 25 birds.
     - Larry Trachtenberg, Charlie Roberto

4/14 - Bronx, New York City, HRM 15: I led my monthly walk at Wave Hill this morning and, although migratory songbirds were sparse, perhaps due to northwest winds, we had some nice sightings: a third-year bald eagle being dive-bombed by a greater black-backed gull that looked petite in comparison; a large V of double-crested cormorants headed north over the Hudson; a common raven flying across the Hudson making a "barrel-roll" as it flew overhead; a pair of calling fish crows; an osprey flying up the Hudson; palm and pine warblers; and both golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets.
     - Gabriel Willow

4/15 - Poughkeepsie, HRM 75: I had been wondering why days would go by without seeing any birds at my feeders. Then today I looked up in a tree over the feeders and saw a Cooper's hawk, and understood why.
     - Trish Taylor

4/15 - Town of Poughkeepsie: It was a busy morning at the eagle nest today (NY62). Except for fishing, both parents remained at the nest. The male perched five feet above while the female tended to nest maintenance; periodically she would bring branches to build up the nest. The male has played a more active role compared to previous years. For a change, the local nesting red-tailed hawks gave the eagles a break from their harassment and aggression around the nest area. Both parents participated in feeding of the chick today. Promptly at noon the female headed down river and returned with a freshly caught river herring. [Photo of eagle family by Terry Hardy.]
     - Tom McDowell

4/15 - Hunter's Brook, HRM 67.5: The late afternoon high tide had run up into Hunter's Brook. While the water was tinged yellow-brown, it was absolutely clear. A small school of alewives made their way up this tiny tributary of Wappinger Creek on the pulse of the tide. Milling about in the pools were pumpkinseed sunfish, a couple of rock bass, white perch, and at least one white sucker.
     - Tom Lake

[Identifying fish in their natural environment is a practiced skill. Short of snorkeling, which can be problematic in an estuary, the best way to identify fishes, especially in shallow water, is by developing a "sight image" based on their size, shape, color, swimming characteristics, and other behaviors. One of the best guides to this activity is C. Lavett Smith's Fish Watching: An Outdoor Guide to Freshwater Fishes (1994). "Smitty," as he is best known, is Curator Emeritus of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History, founder of our popular Hudson River Fish Fauna list, and an expert on the fishes of New York State. Tom Lake.]

4/15 - Croton River, HRM 34: A half-dozen Bonaparte's gulls were dipping and twirling in pursuit of some tiny morsels on the surface of the Croton River just inside Croton Bay, appearing much like phalaropes in their behavior. Whatever they were feeding on was not of interest to the mob of local gulls resting on the mud flats. Both rough-winged and tree swallows were feeding in the same area. An insect hatch? I had seen large caddis flies there a few days ago.
     - Christopher Letts

[In the last 19 years of the Hudson River Almanac, we have recorded eleven species of gulls in the watershed. Tom Lake.]
- black-headed gull
- Bonaparte's gull
- Franklin's gull
- glaucous gull
- greater black-backed gull
- lesser black-backed gull
- laughing gull
- herring gull
- Iceland gull
- ivory gull
- ring-billed gull

4/16 - Denning's Point, HRM 60: As we arrived we only got to see the end of the story: An adult bald eagle was flying out of the marsh at the mouth of Fishkill Creek, heading toward Denning's Point carrying a good-sized fish, pursued by an osprey. There was a good chance that the eagle was not the original "catcher" of that fish.
     - Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

[Pirates on the river! One of the best shows, often in the fall, is watching eagles watch osprey. While eagles are among the best hunters of fish, they frequently allow osprey to do the heavy lifting, then swoop down and steal their catch. Tom Lake.]

4/17- Greene County, HRM 112: Twenty-three people attended our first spring birding walk at the RamsHorn-Livingston Sanctuary. Highlights among the 43 species encountered included the nesting bald eagles with one nestling; a merlin and a sharp-shinned hawk passing through within five minutes of each other; a red-shouldered hawk; two blue-winged teal; and a few "out of habitat" species, including savannah sparrow and purple finch. We also had our first garter snake and Dekay's or northern brown snake seen at the sanctuary this spring.
     - Larry Federman

4/17 - Norrie Point, HRM 85: I stopped at Norrie Point on my way home from work and spotted a horned grebe fishing in the cove to the east of the education center. Later I went for a walk: Dutchman's breeches were starting to come out on the rocks and hepatica was at the height of bloom. At least two muskrats patrolled Indian Creek eating the emergent vegetation and four pairs of wood ducks wandered through last year's cattail stems. In the creek to the east of the railroad I found two red-breasted mergansers and a green-winged teal. Back along the river I had a treat: a beaver swam into the cove and climbed out of the water to munch on some brush. On the way home I had my final wildlife sighting of the evening and one of the surest signs of spring in the Hudson valley: a deer tick crawling up my arm.
     - David Lund

4/17 - Quassaick Creek, HRM 60: Today was Mount Saint Mary College's opportunity to check and clear the eel fyke. The tide was rising but had not reached the net. The flow to the river was 57 degrees Fahrenheit, about eight degrees warmer than the Hudson. We collected and released 311 glass eels and three elvers. We could see small groups of alewives roiling on the surface in the current along the far shore - females broadcasting eggs; males rushing to cover them.
     - Courtney Albright, Melanie Hofbauer, Roy Forster, Suparna Bhalla, Dharmhet Khangura, Tom Lake

[A fyke net is a collection device used most often for fish, but occasionally for turtles. Most are a series of hoops connected by mesh netting and leading to a "cod end" where captured fish accumulate. When used in a Hudson River tributary, fykes are set facing downstream to collect fish, such as eels, heading upstream. At the downstream opening, a section of netting is angled away on either side from the initial hoop to serve as a guide, encouraging fish to take the path of least resistance toward the mouth of the net. Tom Lake.]

4/17 - Edgewater, NJ, HRM 8.5: My spirits were lifted, just a bit today, by this year's first sighting of a barn swallow winging past my window as I looked out seeking and, surprisingly, finding, something to break the depressing monotony. This is right on time for the area, looking back through my journal.
     - Terry Milligan

4/18 - New Baltimore, HRM 131.5: For the past couple of weeks we have had a bluebird pair in our yard. The male defends his territory early each morning by attacking our window, apparently his "rival."
     - Jean Bush

4/18 - Black Creek, HRM 85: The DEC Hudson River Fisheries Unit's herring counters had a very exciting experience today in our inaugural year with this project as we watched an estimated 200 river herring spawning in front of us.
     - Courtney E. Albright

4/18 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: With the approach of spring, can "Bucky the Beaver" be far behind? Apparently Bucky, or one of his progeny, attacked Rabbit Island in a night raid and did a major amount of unauthorized pruning. Swimming into the Hudson from his lair somewhere in Wappinger Creek, he made a landing and cut down one of our white birch trees, leaving a two-foot-tall stump that looked exactly like a sharpened stake. He also did a significant amount of grazing on juniper bushes, three Japanese maples, and a weeping Alaskan cedar.
     - David Cullen

SPRING 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS

April 27: 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Family Fishing Day at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Family-friendly, all ages, free use of rods, reels and bait; wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 4: 9:00 AM
Discover Norrie Walk: Birding for Beginners with DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free. Family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 11: 1:00 - 4:00 PM
Family Fishing Day at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Family-friendly, all ages, free use of rods, reels and bait; wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 16: 7:30 PM
Tivoli Bays Talks: Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign. Jack Manno and Frieda Jacques will speak about the history and future of the Two Row Wampum, the title of a 400 year old treaty between Native Americans and the Dutch founders of New Netherlands. Tivoli Library, Tivoli [Dutchess County]. Free. Wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 18: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Conservation Planning for Woodland Pool Wildlife with Laura Heady of the Hudson River Estuary Program, Gretchen Stevens of Hudsonia, and Larry Federman of Audubon, at Roeliff Jansen Community Library and Rheinstrom Hill Audubon Sanctuary [Columbia County]. For municipal board members and interested residents, a program focused on the value of woodland pools and how to protect them in your community. For information and registration: http://clctrust.org/events/184/land-use-series-conservation-planning-for-woodland-pool-wildlife/ or call 518-392-5252, x207.

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@aol.com .

To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), go to DEC's Email Lists page, enter your email address, and click on "Submit." A page listing available subscription topics will appear. Scroll down; under the heading "Natural Areas and Wildlife" is the section "Lakes and Rivers" with a listing for the Hudson River Almanac. Click on the check box to subscribe. While there, you may wish to subscribe to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed, or to other DEC newsletters and information feeds.

The Hudson River Almanac archive allows one to use the DEC website's search engine to find species, locations, and other data in weekly issues dating back to October 2003.

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.

USEFUL LINKS

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's tide and tidal current predictions are invaluable for planning boating, fishing, and other excursions on and along the estuary. 

The Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System [HRECOS] provides near real-time information on water and weather conditions at monitoring stations from Manhattan to the Mohawk River.

Historical information on the movements of the salt front is available on the U.S. Geological Survey's Hudson River Salt Front website.

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.

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW  

The floral bio-indicators of spring were spreading up the valley: crocus, forsythia, daffodils, hyacinth, magnolia, and others. Soon to come will be shadbush, dogwood, and lilac. These blooms once marked the various stages of migratory fish runs. Today they simply brighten and sweeten the landscape.  

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

4/5 - Manhattan, HRM 12.5: Nadir Souirgi reported a Canada goose at Inwood Hill Park (see 3/31) that had a yellow neck band labeled "RY87." The Canada goose was originally banded on June 29, 2012, near Demarest, NJ.

     - Matt Rogosky, Bird Banding Laboratory, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD

[Demarest, Bergen County, NJ, is about ten miles, as the goose flies, northwest of Inwood Hill Park. Where that goose might have traveled in the intervening ten months is the intriguingly mysterious part of the story. Tom Lake.]

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

4/5 - Croton Point, HRM 34: The ancient magnolia on the site of the old Croton Point homestead near the beach on the south side of the Point had struggled into full bloom yet another year. Twenty-five years ago I spoke with Cal Greenburg about that tree. Cal was born in the old house, an Underhill family legacy and a fine dwelling. The house was bulldozed twenty years ago, but Cal said that the magnolia "looks the same now as when I was a kid." Without troubling the tree with a core sample there is no way to determine its age, but Cal's account would suggest that it was on the century path when he first knew it in 1950.

     - Christopher Letts

4/6 - Delmar, HRM 143: We had one black vulture flyover and one osprey at the NYSDEC Five Rivers Environmental Education Center this morning. Both were first-of-season for Five Rivers.

     - Scott Stoner, Denise Hackert-Stoner

4/6 - Town of Poughkeepsie: It has become very apparent that bald eagle nest NY62 has only one nestling this spring. If there was another egg, it likely did not hatch. That could have resulted from several causes including uneven incubation, a sterile or broken egg, or even raccoon predation. Over the last two days, Deb Kral, Sheila Bogart, and Terry Hardy have taken photos of Mama feeding the nestling what appeared to be "nestling-sized" pieces of fish.

     - Tom Lake

4/6 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: The relatively sunny days this week have made a liar of me. Daffodils began to show color overnight, and if the forecast for the next few days is on the money, we will have bouquets of daffodils in every room in a week. The first of the trillium, wake robin, were in bloom in sheltered beds. Always a spring favorite and common in Westchester woods a few decades ago, they have been extirpated by the "hoofed hordes" (white-tailed deer) invasion. They are safe only near the house. Over the past two days, peony shoots have thrust six inches up from the soil.

     - Christopher Letts

4/7 - Tillson, Ulster County, HRM 84: I heard, and then saw, a pileated woodpecker fly onto a tall tuliptree. As I watched, she began flapping her wings and circling the trunk flapping some more. Curious, I thought, but then another flew onto the trunk just below, and together they circled up the trunk, with the first one occasionally flapping. I took this to be a courtship ritual, though did not observe any mating.

     - Deb Weltsch

4/7 - Fishkill, HRM 61: We watched a raven hunt a wooded ridgeline of the Fishkill Mountains, mostly gliding on thermals, occasionally flapping, turning after several hundred yards and doubling back. It was onto something.

     - Tom Lake, Phyllis Lake

4/7 - Black Creek, Ulster County, HRM 85: Our eel fyke captured 960 glass eels overnight, a very high number.

     - Chris Bowser

[Freshwater eels have survived global cataclysms for millions of year but now some populations appear to be diminishing, even disappearing, worldwide and scientists are not quite certain why. While American eels are considered freshwater fish, they are born at sea and many of them spend much of their lives in tidewater. Glass eels are one of the juvenile life stages of the American eel; they lack pigment and are nearly transparent. They arrive by the millions in the Hudson and other estuaries along the East Coast each spring following a long journey from the greater Sargasso Sea area where they were born. This is a particularly vulnerable time for the tiny eels and little is known about this period in their life history. In anywhere from 12-30 years, depending upon their sex, they will leave the Hudson River watershed for the sea where they will spawn once and then die, or so we think. Tom Lake.]

4/7 - Poughkeepsie, HRM 76: As with Black Creek, nearly ten miles upriver, our eel fyke caught high number (200) of glass eels overnight.

     - Chris Bowser

4/8 - Town of Poughkeepsie: The eagle nest (NY62) was left alone for fifteen minutes this afternoon. The lone nestling was truly alone. Is this common?

     - Jay Meyer

4/8 - Hudson Highlands, HRM 55-45: You could not help but look at the river as our Metro North commuter train sped south to Manhattan. Beneath the gray "opaqueness" of the Hudson, thousands, probably many thousands, of American shad were pulsing up the river with the rising tide and current as they have since there has been an estuary. But for the first time since humans have resided in the valley, it is only a rumor. The era of authentication - for many millennia, fishers catching shad - is past.

     - Tom Lake

[According to those who once worked the river in springtime 75 years ago, there was a nearly continuous presence of shad nets from the Upper Bay of New York Harbor north at least one hundred miles to Columbia County. As the story goes, from any shad net you could see the poles or floats of the next. However, signiiicant declines in the Hudson's shad populations (and those of many other Atlantic coast rivers) led to closure of the Hudson's commercial and recreational shad fishery after 2009. Tom Lake, Steve Stanne. Photo from NYS Archives.]

4/8 - Fishkill Creek, HRM 60: At morning high tide at the confluence of Fishkill Creek and the Hudson, an adult bald eagle was perched at Hammond's Point and an immature was perched across the bay at Denning's Point. They were biding their time for the tide to drop and improve hunting prospects. In the late afternoon low tide, an adult and an immature bald eagle (same eagles from the morning?) were standing on the mud flats in the bay alongside the out-flowing trickle of the creek. Each was using its beak to tear apart an alewife clamped down in the mud.

     - Tom Lake

4/8 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: Red maples were in flower, and cabbage white butterflies were fluttering around. A carpet of robins sang, skirmished, and poked for breakfast, watched by a wave of kestrels that had come in overnight. Flocks of brown-headed cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds were moving by, and I had the impression that they had crossed the Tappan Zee within the hour. On the way off the Point, I stopped to recover my gloves, hat, and jacket, stashed behind a tree after the temperature climbed what seemed like 20 degrees Fahrenheit in an hour.

     - Christopher Letts

4/8 - Scarborough, HRM 32: The Tappan Zee was flat as glass. An osprey (the "fish hawk") could clearly be seen out on Scarborough Light in the Tappan Zee, an "inland sea," now teeming with shad, herring, and striped bass. Fishing would be good.

     - Tom Lake

4/8 - Queens, New York City: I encountered my first mourning cloak butterfly "attack" for the year. The beast was trying to drive me off the fire break trail at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

     - Dave Taft

4/9 - Town of Knox, HRM 146: Today marked our unofficial date for spring: The last of the ice was gone from the ponds; a pair of Canada geese had taken up residence in the marsh and have a nest on top of one of the muskrat mounds; red-winged blackbirds and robins were about; and the frost was gone from most of our fields.

     - Pat Price, Bob Price

4/9 - Columbia County, HRM 116: I headed south looking for coltsfoot in bloom. After crossing into Columbia County, I found them growing, just yellow flowers and stems, alongside the parking pulloff for the Lewis Sawyer Preserve. The leaves, whose shape gives the plant its name, arrive later.

     - Wilma Ann Johnson

4/9 - Ravena, HRM 133.5: It is wonderful to still have sunshine after getting home from work as the days lengthen. With air temperatures in the high 50s, late afternoon yard work becomes more pleasant. Hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips were emerging around my house; the crocuses were blooming; and the air was full of sounds. Off in a marshy area across the road I could hear a massed chorus of spring peepers. From every direction birds were filling the air with songs.

     - Larry Roth

4/9 - Kowawese, HRM 59: By mid-morning the near-shore shallows had warmed to 50 degrees F on a day when the afternoon air temperature would reach the mid-70s. It was a delightful blue-sky spring day. We hauled a seine just off the beach across the sandy bottom and caught spottail shiners, a Hudson River staple. While the catch was meager, there was no better place to be on a day like this than knee deep in a cool river with a sampling net in our hands. [Photo by Tom Lake.]

     - Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

[Seines are commonly mentioned in Almanac observations pertaining to fisheries research and education. A seine is a net with a floating seamline on top, a lead seamline 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 15-250 feet long, 4-8 feet in depth, and mesh sizes from a quarter-inch to nearly three inches (measured diagonally) depending upon application. They are an excellent tool that is used to sample an area and collect aquatic animals without injuring the catch. "Haul seines," very long nets that require 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 are simply too efficient. Tom Lake.]

4/9 - Crugers, HRM 39: It seems like overnight green things are emerging from the ground and the tightly-curled buds of practically every flowering spring plant have exploded open: forsythia, pussy willow, red maple, and more. Spring has arrived and we can really enjoy those hours of extra daylight! I've also been seeing crows flying with beaks full of twigs and other less-identifiable objects. Their breeding season approaches.

     - Susan Butterfass

4/9 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: A vesper sparrow, seen recently, was still present near the model airplane field along with 12-20 savannah sparrows and a field sparrow. Other birds seen in the general area included American kestrel, killdeer, robins, starlings, song sparrows, northern flickers, Carolina wren, white-breasted nuthatch, red-bellied woodpecker, turkey vulture, and greater black-backed gulls.

     - Sean Camillieri

4/9 - Westchester County, HRM 30: I took a short walk around Rockefeller State Park this morning hoping to see my first warblers of the season. I was rewarded with 26 palm warblers and two pine warblers as a bonus. Most were found in a short stretch along the Pocantico River Trail. A male eastern bluebird, electrically-brilliant in the morning light, was icing on the cake.

     - Greg Prelich

4/9 - Staten Island, New York City: Despite a slow start this spring on Richmond Creek, the glass eel migration had at last kicked in. The warmer water temperatures and upcoming new moon brought 952 glass eels to our fyke net over the past two days. In total, we have captured 2,572 eels to date this year.

     - Rob Brauman

4/10 - Columbia County, HRM 127:

The lavender hepatica

Does not know

That it is small;

That it is pretty.

It pushes its way

Up through leaf mulch

In the woods

And comes to full flower.

This ephemeral

Simply is

In THE NOW

Of a sunny, spring day.

     - Wilma Ann Johnson

4/10 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: At 2:25 AM, a brief but fierce storm rolled across the river with thunder, lightning, high winds and heavy rain (half-inch in 30 minutes). At times like this I lie in bed and think of the ten-day-old nestlings in the many eagle nests in the Hudson Valley and hope that every one of them is safely tucked under their mother's wing. I also remember the resiliency of the species, one that has been enduring under these conditions long before we walked the land, and I feel comforted enough to go back to sleep.

     - Tom Lake

4/10 - Beacon, HRM 61: I was able to spot a school of river herring under the Tioranda Bridge at the head of tide on Fishkill Creek.

     - Jerry Goodman

4/10 - Quassaick Creek, HRM 60: Our first day (after an overnight) of glass eel fyke net sampling on the Quassaick resulted in 2,917 glass eels!

     - Zoraida Maloney

4/10 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: Forsythia and blackflies were in bloom, rough-winged swallows had returned, and the marmorated stink bugs had emerged from their winter hiding places. It was nice to note that there appear to be fewer of them this year - so far.

     - Christopher Letts

[The brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) has made quite an impression in many areas of the Mid-Hudson Valley in the last couple of years, invading homes, businesses, schools, garages, and automobiles, often in overwhelming numbers. Also called the shield bug, they are invasive insects native to Asia and introduced in the northeast in the 1990s. They are considered agricultural pests since in large numbers they can suck plant juices and damage crop production. Tom Lake.]

4/10 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 35: A call from a friend sent me hastening to the Croton waterfront where I took on a cargo of a dozen large river herring (alewives), some of them more than a foot in length. Herring roe and a dandelion salad sounded very good, and a lot like spring.

     - Christopher Letts

4/10 - Upper Nyack, HRM 31: The first broad-winged hawks of the season arrived today at (over) the Hook Mountain Hawk Watch.

     - Steven Sachs

4/10 - Staten Island, New York City: A very quick walk into the woods was just what the doctor ordered. I found my target: a beautiful patch of woodland with blooming bloodroot I've come to know. As if to make spring that much more obvious, a palm warbler perched, tail bobbing, in a flowering red maple above it all.

     - Dave Taft

4/11 - Beacon, HRM 61: We spotted four red-breasted mergansers early this morning at Madam Brett Park on Fishkill Creek. Also seen was a kestrel, bald eagle, osprey, ruby-crowned kinglets and, near the factories on the creek, rough-winged swallows coming out of the building.

     - Aimee LaBarr

4/11- Beacon, HRM 61: This evening I just saw lots of white suckers at the falls below the Tioranda Dam at Madame Brett Park on Fishkill Creek. They were all about a foot-and-a-half long, dark gray backs, orange sides and pale bellies. I saw about a hundred or so in the hour I watched them making their way up the steps.

     - Jerry Goodman

[This is the prime spawning season for white suckers. They move into the Hudson River tributaries in early-to-mid-April, ascending upstream seeking the right (gravelly) bottom substrate with a modest current, usually above the reach of tide, to lay their eggs. During the breeding season, male white suckers develop a reddish stripe down each of their body. Tom Lake.]

4/11 - Queens, New York City: While at Jamaica Bay Wildlife refuge this afternoon doing some barn owl box maintenance, I managed to get in some birding on the East and West Ponds. The notables were, on the East Pond, green-winged teal (14), snowy egret (23), great egret (13), black-crowned night-heron (43), northern shoveler (37), and laughing gull (4) – on the West Pond, great egret (7), greater yellowlegs (3), and palm warbler (3).

     - Andrew Baksh

SPRING 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS

April 27: 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Family Fishing Day at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Family-friendly, all ages, free use of rods, reels and bait; wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 4: 9:00 AM

Discover Norrie Walk: Birding for Beginners with DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free. Family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 11: 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Family Fishing Day at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Family-friendly, all ages, free use of rods, reels and bait; wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

May 16: 7:30 PM

Tivoli Bays Talks: Two Row Wampum Renewal Campaign. Jack Manno and Frieda Jacques will speak about the history and future of the Two Row Wampum, the title of a 400 year old treaty between Native Americans and the Dutch founders of New Netherlands. Tivoli Library, Tivoli [Dutchess County]. Free. Wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

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@aol.com .

To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), go to DEC's Email Lists page athttp://www.dec.ny.gov/about/65855.html , enter your email address, and click on "Submit." A page listing available subscription topics will appear. Scroll down; under the heading "Natural Areas and Wildlife" is the section "Lakes and Rivers" with a listing for the Hudson River Almanac. Click on the check box to subscribe. While there, you may wish to subscribe to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed, or to other DEC newsletters and information feeds.

Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives.

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. For a free, no-obligation issue go tohttp://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html 

USEFUL LINKS

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62  NOAA's 2013 tidal current predictions are at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents13/cpred2.html#NY .

For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website athttp://www.hrecos.org .

Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey: http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html .

Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website athttp://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@catskill.net

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW

One of the many visual joys of spring is the migration of thousands of snow geese from their wintering areas in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Their flight to far northern breeding grounds takes them through the mainly rural Wallkill River Valley, replete with old cornfields and numerous wetlands. In the wake of a late winter storm, many flocks of migrating red-winged blackbirds arrived in the Hudson Valley.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK  

3/9 - Orange County, HRM 49: I estimated that there were 2,000 snow geese, a Ross' goose, and three tundra swans here today. A few green-winged teal, many Canada geese, and some mallards were also present on the farm ponds. One of the snow geese, a greater snow goose, had a yellow neck collar: TC85. I reported the code to the bird banding lab and received a report on its banding. [Photo of flying snow geese by Matt Zeitler.] - Jesse Jaycox [Jesse Jaycox's greater snow goose, a female, had been banded on the South Plain of Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada, on August 15, 2011, nearly nineteen months ago. Tom Lake.]

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES  

3/6 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: At the top of the flood tide in early morning, in advance of another winter storm, an east-northeast wind had whipped the river into a froth - wind against tide, wind against current. - Tom Lake 3/6 - Annesville Creek, HRM 43.5: A number of immature bald eagles were fishing here today, and the fishing looked good. - Scott Craven

3/6 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: As I walked through the oak woods on the hill behind the park office, I saw something shiny on the ground ahead. It turned out to be a glistening, fresh gizzard shad, about a foot in length. Blood welled from two finger thick puncture wounds, one on either side of the fish. No eagles were nearby, but I did not doubt how the fish had arrived here. - Christopher Letts

3/7 - Orange County, HRM 49: I estimated that there were four to five thousand snow geese at in the ponds here today. However, there was no sign of the pink-footed goose we had been seeing here for a while. - John Haas

3/7 - Haverstraw Bay, HRM 43-38: I counted only five bald eagles this morning. Three were perched in a small tree at the marina on the north side of Dogan Point, one soared over Stony Point, and a single adult was in command of the top of the navigation tower in Peekskill Bay. - Christopher Letts

3/8 - Poughkeepsie, HRM 76: The first glance out of my window to check the storm today included a delightful cast of characters: many crows and dark-eyed juncos, a downy woodpecker, a few cardinals, a Carolina wren, a tufted titmouse, a goldfinch, and a flock of house sparrows - eight species before 8:00 AM. Black-capped chickadees and a white-breasted nuthatch arrived a bit later - ten species by 10:00 AM! - Art Filler

3/8 - Pleasant Valley, HRM 75: Despite the snowstorm that blew through last night leaving several inches of snow, today I heard my first red-winged blackbirds calling in the trees in my wetlands. I also have skunk cabbage coming up - a good omen. - Kathy Kraft

3/8 - Verbank, HRM 75: The mallards returned to our pond this week. Every year, one female and two males come to the pond in our backyard. They try to nest and lay eggs but because they leave the eggs on the ground the crows usually get them. - Audrey Walker

3/8 - Gardiner, HRM 73: There were more than 300 red-winged blackbirds this morning in our apple trees, on our lawn, and crowding our feeders. Looks like it's time to take the feeders down! - Rebecca Houser

3/8 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: The winter storm dropped six inches of snow, closed the schools, and lowered visibility on the river to a couple of hundred feet. Snow continued to fall, pushed by a strong northeast wind. Not long after first light, the woods filled with red-winged blackbirds, both males and females. Scores attacked the feeders and were disappointed when they discovered no sunflower seeds, only thistle and a finch mix. The males' brilliant red epaulets were hidden; the time to flash their colors would come later once breeding territories were established. - Tom Lake

3/8 - Blooming Grove, HRM 55: During the winter storm, our bird feeders and the ground underneath were covered with grackles. There was such a swarm of them, at least fifty or more. Once frightened, they would swarm into the trees and allow the other birds such as cardinals, doves, red-winged blackbirds, and all the usual smaller birds to get to the seed and suet. They left later in the day. - Carol Coddington

3/8 - Peekskill, HRM 43: After the snow abated, two female red-winged blackbirds and a juvenile were among the birds under the feeders. It made me wonder whether they were migrating through and stopped over because of the storm or whether they had arrived earlier in the season and intend to stay at a wetlands or field nearby. - Carol Capobianco

3/8 - Crugers, HRM 39: After the storm, our area was a winter wonderland with snow-capped tree branches and shrubs and many cardinals, chickadees, and nuthatches at the feeders. Suddenly, a flock of red-winged blackbirds and grackles, the first of the season, joined the crowd on the olive tree outside our window. - Dorothy Ferguson, Bob Ferguson

3/9 - Milan, HRM 90: The red-wings were here in force, mostly males with a few females mixed in, grackles as well, and brown-headed cowbirds and starlings. What a ruckus! I watched a male cardinal feed a female cardinal one sunflower seed after another. A pileated woodpecker was excavating a nest hole in an old poplar. Spring is just around the corner. - Marty Otter

3/9 - Hyde Park, HRM 82: The first crocus popped out of my lawn this morning. Three more showed up by mid-afternoon. This seems much later than last year. - Peter Fanelli

3/9 - Beacon, HRM 61: While walking on Main Street in Beacon, we saw a peregrine falcon perched on the memorial stone in front of the VFW building, very close to the sidewalk. I approached to take a photo with my cell phone and he flew to a fence where he allowed me to snap some photos. - Victoria Lozier

3/10 - Minerva, HRM 284: Well after dark this evening I was greeted by the raucous sounds of a large herd of red-winged blackbirds hanging out in a sugar maple in the side yard. They only stopped briefly and then were off en masse in a northerly direction. These were the first migrants of the season. The maple is one of three I've got tapped in the yard and vicinity. The sap has not been flowing well but at least it's moving. We had a good 18" of snow in the open, somewhat less in the woods. - Mike Corey

3/10 - Ulster County, HRM 99: This morning, not long after dawn at Turkey Point, I watched two beavers swimming close together along the shore of the river. When they were closer to me, one beaver seemed to briefly climb onto the other's back. At this point the beavers separated with one heading straight out from shore, submerging for a distance of ten feet, while the other began vocalizing softly as it continued swimming downriver. I have often seen beavers while kayaking in tidal creeks and marshes but rarely in the main channel. Ten minutes later I saw the second beaver returning north along the shore. I can only speculate about the relationship between the beavers and the nature of this interaction. - Stephen Hart

3/10 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: For the last two mornings, I have counted five or six bald eagles perched on both sides of the Wappinger Creek outlet to the Hudson. With high tides in the morning, the eagles ceased their fishing activities. Immatures outnumbered the adults. Common mergansers were plentiful and I counted as many as twenty in the creek alone. The shoreline brush contained an abundance of red-winged blackbirds and an occasional bluebird. - Tom McDowell

3/10 - Orange County, HRM 49: Although the snow goose flock (see 3/9) took off this morning, they returned in about an hour. Numbers were down to about 1,000 birds but the Ross' goose was immediately spotted. They remained at the pond for the remainder of the morning and were still present when we passed by in early afternoon. We also spotted some tundra swans flying in and landing in a smaller pond next to the main pond. - John Haas, Renee Davis [Ross' goose is like a smaller version of the snow goose - same genus, different species. Their appearance in the East is sporadic. They are mainly found in western Canada, migrating south into areas west of the Rockies. Tom Lake.]

3/11 - Columbia County, HRM 113: There was a great view of the Catskills from the Ridge Road trail at the Olana State Historic Site. The face of the "Ol' Man in the Mountain" seemed to have a more prominent cheekbone that was well-defined with snow along the ridge of Indian Head Mountain. Indian Head Mountain makes up the head of the Ol' Man resting on his back. The Plattekill rises as his chest, and Overlook Mountain is his bended knees as the Ol' Man dips his toes in the Hudson River. - Fran Martino

3/11 - New Windsor, HRM 60: Today my pussy willows began to open up; my one snowdrop plant was in full bloom; and I noticed a robin on my lawn. Here comes spring! - Joanne Zipay

3/11 - West Point, HRM 52: We took some photos of a banded immature bald eagle today from a trail-cam we have set up. The picture quality was not good but the bird had a silver band on one leg [U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service} and a dark band on the other leg [possibly a NYS DEC blue band]. - Marnie Miller-Keas [This bird may have been a banded eagle from New York, but without a number from one of the two bands, it is not possible to trace or discover its origin. Tom Lake.]

3/12 - Saugerties, HRM 102: There was a small movement of salamanders tonight in extreme northern Ulster County, indicating the start of another vernal breeding season. I escorted a few spotted salamanders, one Jefferson complex, a four-toed, and several eastern newts across two local roadways. Two additional newts were victims of vehicular traffic but nothing compared to the carnage that a "Big Night" can produce on these same roads. A few spring peepers were heard vocalizing in a small wetland but no frogs or toads were encountered out on the roads this night. - Steve Chorvas

3/12 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 76: It started raining about 2:00 AM with the air temperature in the low 50s. By 3:00 AM, I started seeing a few frogs jumping across the road, even jumping onto what was left of snow banks. By 5:30, there were hundreds of mostly brown frogs jumping across and all over the road. I had to stop several times so I didn't hit groups of them. - Michael Paul

3/12 - Town of Fishkill, HRM 63.5: As I walked to my mailbox before first light this morning, I heard just one, a single spring peeper singing from the vernal pool over at Stony Kill Farm. By nightfall I heard an entire symphony of what sounded like thousands of spring peepers having come alive since early this morning. - Andra Sramek

3/12 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: In the colloquial parlance of farmers, today's storm was a "chicken soaker!" We had twelve and more hours of steady rain with almost two inches in the rain gauge. We needed it, and the spring flowers were responding already, with tulips and daffodils thrusting up out of the cold soil. - Christopher Letts

SEA LAMPREY RESEARCH PROJECT

I am planning on surveying for sea lamprey in as many Hudson River tributaries as possible this summer. If anyone has information on where they might be located please email me at tevans03@syr.edu . - Tom Evans  

SPRING 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS

April 6 - 10:00 AM Tivoli North Bay Walk with DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington. A two-mile hike along Stony Creek. Moderate difficulty. Free. Family-friendly, all ages. Meet in Tivoli [Dutchess County] at Kidd Lane parking area near the Stony Creek Bridge crossing. For information: 845-889-4745 x109. April 27 - 1:00 PM Family Fishing Day at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Family-friendly, all ages, free use of rods, reels and bait; wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

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 E-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@aol.com . To sign up to receive the E-Almanac (or to unsubscribe), send an email message to hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us and write E-Almanac in the subject line. Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives. The Hudson River Estuary Program has an e-newsletter! Stay connected by subscribing to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed.www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html 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. For a free, no-obligation issue go tohttp://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html  

USEFUL LINKS

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62 NOAA’s 2012 tidal current predictions are at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents12/ . For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website athttp://www.hrecos.org . Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey: http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html . Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website athttp://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@catskill.net

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW
Among the many signs of spring noted this week, we took particular notice of two: the first glass eels arrived in the estuary from the sea, and Hudson Valley bald eagles began incubating their eggs.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
2/26 - Yonkers, HRM 18: The Groundwork Yonkers Science Barge has been checking an "eel mop" in the mouth of the Saw Mill River for almost two weeks and today they shook out the first glass eel of the season, one perfectly transparent slithering sliver of life, which we cradled briefly on a Yonkers street corner, then slipped back into the chilly Saw Mill. Here they come!
- Chris Bowser, Bob Walters

[Freshwater eels have survived global cataclysms for millions of year but now some populations appear to be diminishing - even disappearing - worldwide and scientists are not quite certain why. While American eels are considered freshwater fish, they are born at sea and many of them spend much of their lives in tidewater. Glass eels are one of the juvenile life stages of the American eel. They arrive by the millions in the estuary each spring following a six-month to year-long journey from the greater Sargasso Sea area where they were born. Glass eels lack pigment and are nearly transparent. This is a particularly vulnerable time for them and little is known about this period in their life history. In anywhere from 12-30 years, depending upon their sex, they will leave the Hudson River watershed for the sea where they will spawn once and then die, or so we think. Tom Lake. Photo of glass eels by Chris Bowser.]

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
2/24 - Rhinebeck, HRM 90: This morning I literally drove over a curb while watching a peregrine falcon on a horizontal beam at the top of an electric utility pole on the west side of Route 9, beside a large undeveloped grassy, marshy area. I recognized the large black spot below its eye. I saw my first peregrine more than 20 years ago on a birding trip near Manahawkin, NJ. It was a life bird for most of us on the trip
- Phyllis Marsteller

2/24 - New Paltz, HRM 78: I had to swerve to avoid hitting a red-tailed hawk that was having a feast right in the middle of Route 299 just past Humpo Marsh. Upon my approach the hawk held up its wings and stretched out its tail feathers as if in preparation for flight. This gave me a perfect view of its red tail. However, I could not see what it had been eating. I presume that if it was road-kill, it must have been fresh. Upon my return an hour later, both hawk and carrion were gone.
- Annell Presbie

2/25 - Pleasant Valley, HRM 75: I heard my first song sparrow singing in my swampland this morning. It seemed a little early for them, but a welcome sound to my ears. Also the cardinals were singing in full force along with Carolina wrens. It almost sounded like a spring morning.
- Kathy Kraft

2/25 - Town of Poughkeepsie: I arrived at our observation post for eagle nest NY62 in mid-morning and found the male perched in a tree not far from the nest and the female sitting in the nest. The female remained in the nest during the entire eight hours that we watched. At times she seemed to strike a pose that might have indicated egg-laying.
- Tom McDowell, Terry Hardy


2/25 - Wappinger Creek, HRM 67.5: I spent two hours today near New Hamburg and part of that time I watched an adult and an immature eagle playing tree tag along the creek. A few gorgeous green-winged teals flew in to join some mallards that were only thirty feet away. Out on the river I counted at least four adults and four immature eagles on ice floes. [Photo of two male green-winged teal by Terry Hardy.]
- Terry Hardy

2/25 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: Black-oil sunflower seed is a magnet for cardinals. Not long after liberally sprinkling a pound of seed beneath the thistle feeders, they came. At one point we counted ten male cardinals perched in a small magnolia tree in the fading evening light, looking like a string of red Christmas bulbs. Two or three more were in the edge of the woods and several more were actively engaged in the seed. There seemed to be fewer than half that number of females.
- Tom Lake, Phyllis Lake

2/25 - New Windsor, HRM 60: My little suburban yard was quite suddenly full of an explosion of birdsong: cardinals, mourning dove, tufted titmouse, blue jays, sparrows, plus many other "cheeps and tweets" that I didn't recognize. It was a lovely noise. After dark, I was surprised to see two rather large cottontail bunnies on a neighbor's lawn where the snow had melted away. Signs of spring? I hope so.
- Joanne Zipay

2/25 - Peekskill to Poughkeepsie, HRM 44-76: I headed up the river on Metro North for the first time this winter and it was a beautiful clear morning for spotting eagles. The first ones appeared along with the first ice floes in Peekskill Bay, where two adults and three immatures held council on the ice. Another adult floated on an ice floe in the shadow of Storm King Mountain, and two more adults swooped by as we approached Beacon. By New Hamburg, the Hudson was almost entirely frozen over and one adult and one immature sat together in the middle of the river. Just past New Hamburg, before we reached Poughkeepsie, two adult eagles and one immature swooped directly over the train, making a baker's dozen for the day.
- Ann Pedtke

2/26 - New Baltimore, HRM 131.5: A cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii) was reported this morning in New Baltimore. 
- Richard Guthrie

[The newly recognized cackling goose is a smaller version of the Canada goose. Formerly considered the smallest subspecies of one variable species, recent work on genetic differences found the four smallest forms to be very different. These four races are now recognized as a full species: the cackling goose. It breeds farther northward and westward than does the Canada goose. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.]

2/26 - Saugerties, HRM 102: One first-of-season American woodcock was heard briefly vocalizing this evening in the hay fields at the northern end of the Town of Saugerties/Ulster County. Last year I heard three first-of-season woodcock in these same fields one day and two minutes later. Last year, aerial courtship displaying followed fifteen minutes after the first vocalizations. This year there was no displaying and only a few "peent" calls from one lone individual. Considering the disparity between weather and field conditions this year compared to last year's exceptionally mild season, the similarly in first detection dates is quite remarkable.
- Steve M. Chorvas

2/26 - Millbrook to Pleasant Valley, HRM 82-75: Along the way today in my travels, I counted a total of eleven black vultures and one turkey vulture.
- Adrienne Popko

[Black vultures have become quite common in the Hudson Valley and turkey vultures are so common they rarely invoke a mention. However, within the lifetimes of more senior birders, the presence of both species was noteworthy, per these excerpts from the Auk55: 521-522, July 1938, published by the American Ornithologists' Union:
Black and Turkey Vultures in Westchester County, New York: On the afternoon of May 7, 1936, following a week of steady southerly winds, I observed a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) near the town of North Salem, at the northern end of Westchester County. More interesting than the addition of another record of the Black Vulture to the very few existing for the State (where it is regarded as accidental or casual by Chapman), has been the phenomenal increase of Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura septentrionalis) in this county during the last decade. Until recent years the species was known from the region by only one record, in 1922. My first was in June, 1925. Since then the bird has become ever more frequently observed in northern Westchester County, until now it must be considered a common transient. Charlton Ogburn, Jr., Salem Centre.]

2/26 - Westchester County, HRM 44: I was driving in North Salem and caught sight of something very white in a tree. Was it snow? No, it was a leucistic red-tailed hawk that lives in the area. I've seen this bird before but this was the first time it stayed still long enough for a photo.
- Irene Marks

[Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited on a bird's feathers. As a result, the birds do not have the normal, classic plumage colors listed in field guides, and instead the plumage has several color changes, including: white patches where the bird should not have any; paler overall plumage that looks faint, diluted or bleached ; overall white plumage with little or no color discernible. Leucism affects only the bird's feathers, and typically only those with melanin pigment - usually dark feathers. Birding.about.com]

2/26 - Central Park, HRM 6: I found a first-winter-to-spring black-headed gull on the north end of the Central Park Reservoir today. It was mixed in with a dense group of ring-billed gulls resting on the exposed causeway not ten yards from the pump house. This is possibly the same one found recently by Tom Fiore, but definitely a separate bird from the one found by Ken Shama about a month earlier, which was a non-breeding adult. Today’s gull had dark red legs and a dark red bill that was blackish at the tip. It also showed brownish secondary coverts on folded wings. The head was not in moult and had ear spots and two blackish bands across the head. Gull numbers on the Reservoir were up; I estimated there were four to five thousand birds.
- Nadir Souirgi

2/27 - Columbia County, HRM 104: While in the Weed Mines area at Taconic State Park, I flushed an American woodcock. This is the first woodcock I've seen this year.
- Jesse Jaycox

2/27 - Town of Poughkeepsie: A nor'easter brought more than an inch or rain overnight and into the day. While the sides on eagle nest NY42 had been raised several inches during recent renovations, I could still see from an elevated vantage the female (N42) hunkered down, enduring the cold rain. She was incubating at last.
- Tom Lake

[Thus began Year 13 for this mated pair of bald eagles. Nesting has been successful in seven out of the last twelve years, producing eleven fledglings. Last year they began incubating on February 28 (their twelve-year average is about March 1). With good fortune and reasonable weather, we should have a hatch in 32-35 days (the 2012 hatching occurred in 31 days). Tom Lake.]

2/27 - Hopewell Junction, HRM 67: I noticed in open grassy areas an emergence of springtails (snow fleas). There had to be several hundred thousand per acre.
- Tom McDowell

2/27 - Peekskill Bay, HRM 43: I counted six eagles in several locations before I reached China Pier on the south side of Peekskill Bay. All floe ice had disappeared but the eagles were still present. There were eight more in Peekskill Bay; seven immatures and one adult had usurped the navigation tower, usually covered with cormorants. The adult held the top of the tower, and the young birds alternately perched on the rocks at the base or made short forays close to the water. The several dozen cormorants, both double-crested and great cormorants, seemed a little nervous as the eagles flew over them repeatedly, but the eagles seemed more interested in fish. One bird, a third-year "white extreme," with more white than brown, took what seemed to be a small fish under ten inches long, and flew off to eat it on the shoreline dock. In the fifteen years I have watched winter birds here, this is just the second time I have seen eagles on the tower.
- Christopher Letts

[White extreme is a color phase described for some three year-old bald eagles. As immature eagles approach adulthood, their plumage eclipses from mostly brown, to mottled brown-and-white, to a showy-white display with some brown (white extreme), to the final white head and tail of the adult. Peter Dunne.]

2/28 - New Paltz, HRM 78: Heading west on Route 299, just past the Wallkill River in New Paltz, I spotted a bald eagle at the top of a tree. It stayed atop the tree moving its head back and forth, scanning the ground, even though several cars had stopped to watch it. Last year a bald eagle visited this tree and was seen over the course of three days. Since then I'd been on the lookout. Perhaps this was it.
- Annell Presbie

2/28 - Town of Poughkeepsie: Day 2 of incubation was a better one than Day 1. The female was sitting up a little higher in the nest (NY62). For a half hour we watched a steady procession of high-flyer Canada geese heading north in the blue sky. A few of the half-dozen flocks flew close enough to each other to appear that they were exchanging members - probably an illusion.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

2/28 - West Point, HRM 51: Along the river at the South Dock area today I spotted a banded ring-billed gull. It was a blue plastic band with white lettering "UT" on the gull's right leg and a small metal band on its left leg. Later, in the same area I saw a pair of killdeer.
- Doug Gallagher

2/28 - Orange County, HRM 46: A pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus), first reported two days ago by  Ken McDermott and Curt McDermott, was relocated today in New Hampton, Wawayanda.
- Rob Stone

2/28 - Croton Point, HRM 34: As the morning brightened, birdsong was rife; red-winged blackbirds and cardinals, mourning doves and titmice, song sparrows and Carolina wrens all gave voice. I checked on the nesting red-tailed hawks. As I watched, one of the pair came out of the nest tree and stooped on the dozen mallards swimming and feeding in a shallow puddle nearby. Thirty seconds of squawking and flaring wings and water splashing, and it was over. The hawk returned to its perch, the ducks settled down to preen.
- Christopher Letts

2/28 - Brooklyn, New York City: This morning, while workers were repairing the new artificial soccer fields on Pier 5 in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park (the bright green artificial turf had been blown up at its edges by winter winds), I watched a pair of red-breasted merganser shielded from the wakes of ferries in the cove between Pier 5 and the as-yet-un-remodeled Pier 6. I had never seen red-breasted mergansers in the area before.
- Robert Sullivan

WINTER 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
March 7 - 7:30 PM
Tivoli Bays Talks: Hudson River Wetlands with Erik Kiviat, executive director of Hudsonia. Tivoli Library, Tivoli [Dutchess County]. Free. Wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

March 9 - 2:00 PM
Discover Norrie Walk: Winter Birds with DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free. Family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

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 E-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@aol.com . To sign up to receive the E-Almanac (or to unsubscribe), send an email message to hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us and write E-Almanac in the subject line.

Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives.

The Hudson River Estuary Program has an e-newsletter! Stay connected by subscribing to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed. www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html

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. For a free, no-obligation issue go to http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html

USEFUL LINKS 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62 NOAA’s 2012 tidal current predictions are athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents12/ .

For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website at http://www.hrecos.org .

Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey:http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html .

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@catskill.net

HUDSON RIVER ALMANAC
February 10 - 16, 2013
Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW 
The diversity of natural history sightings is somewhat limited in winter with much of the wildlife having either migrated, disappeared under the ice, or burrowed underground. As a result, the increased presence of wintering bald eagles looms larger in our daily scan of the landscape. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
2/16 - Wappinger Falls, HRM 67.5: An adult red-shouldered hawk has been stealing suet out of a bird feeder that is only a few feet from our kitchen windows. [Photo by Rich Tallman.]
-  Rich Tallman

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES
2/10 - West Point, HRM 52: I put on my snowshoes today and went for a walk along a stream. Along the way, I came upon small insects, snow fleas, on the snow - another sign that winter is coming to a close and spring is on the way.
- Doug Gallagher

2/10 - Newburgh, HRM 61: We stopped at the Hudson River along the Newburgh waterfront today to check on the gulls. We were not disappointed. Our best guess at the number of gulls was about 7,500 birds, riding the ice floes down to Cornwall Bay and then flying back to Newburgh to start the ride over again. The highlight was three adult lesser black-backed gulls. The number of gulls was so great that we were sure that we missed some immature lesser black-backed gulls as well.
- Curt McDermott, Clara Montenegro

2/10 - Westchester County, HRM 39: As we were snowshoeing at Blue Mountain Reservation in the Town of Cortlandt, we came upon the largest and loudest pileated woodpecker we've ever seen. Down at the river at George's Island, as the sun began to set, we counted eight immature and one adult bald eagle in the trees at Dogan Point, with several more out on ice floes.
- Andrea Schechter, Herb Chong


2/10 - Westchester County, HRM 39-35: Despite the heavy overnight snow, my kayak was able to break through a light crust of ice on the water leading to the river at George's Island. As I paddled south, I spotted two adult bald eagles perched on Oscawana Point. As I passed, one of them flew over my kayak headed for the open water.
- Stephen Butterfass

2/11 - Milan HRM 90: I saw my first red-winged blackbird today at my feeder, followed closely by a female brown-headed cowbird.
- Marty Otter

2/12 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 74: Driving home today I spotted three vultures riding on the wind. I stopped my car to get a better look and saw that they were black vultures. There were the first black vultures I had seen in this area. I stopped at the nearby Millbank Town Park and again the three black vultures were circling overhead as well as two red-tailed hawks that appeared to be courting. It was here that I also spotted a red-shouldered hawk perched in a tree.
- Maha Katnani

[The black vulture was virtually unknown in New York State only a few decades ago. It, like so many other southerners, moved northward. It is now fairly common in the lower Hudson Valley. At times they can outnumber the more familiar turkey vulture which, itself, preceded the black vultures in moving northward. I remember reading in Henry Hill Collins’ book Wildlife of North America that you knew you were crossing the Mason-Dixon Line when you looked up and saw turkey vultures. Now, we can see them while crossing the Canadian border. Rich Guthrie]

2/12 - Wappinger Creek, HRM 67.5: With no expectations of seeing much, we drove slowly along the frozen-over Wappinger Creek tidewater. Then, between the trees, we saw them: two eagles, an adult and an immature, scavenging a dead white-tailed deer, frozen half-in and half-out of the ice.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

2/12 - Orange County, HRM 56: From the Route 9W parking lot, halfway across Storm King Mountain, we spotted two golden eagles perched on the hillside.
- Gerhard Patsch, Jesse Jaycox

2/12 – Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 35: There was a whole new crowd at the feeders this morning, a mob scene of blue jays and one red-winged blackbird. We could also hear spring peepers in the swamp nearby.
- Mimi Rosenwald

2/13 - Columbia County, HRM 122: On such a warm and sunny day, I thought I'd see some springtails dancing on the snow near the Kline Kill. Instead, I was treated to three male bluebirds that must have been able to find enough to eat during our mild winter. Maybe they were looking for springtails as well.
- Fran Martino

2/13 - Catskill, HRM 113: It was a late morning ebb tide and the current was racing downriver - a conveyor of ice in blocks and sheets, flat and on end, accompanied by a symphony of grunts, grinds, groans, and high pitched squeals. In the few open leads, a handful of common goldeneyes and greater scaup kept pace with the flow.
- Tom Lake

2/13 - North Germantown, HRM 109: In a replay of two weeks ago (see 1/29 - Chelsea) the inshore current had turned to flood while in mid-river the ebb current still raced furiously seaward. The point where they sheared was not well defined but rather a collection of ice floes rotating in place. In the backdrop were six immature bald eagles, three in the air and three in the trees across on Inbocht Bay.
- Tom Lake

2/13 - Saugerties, HRM 102: With recent "on-winters," ice fishing on tidewater has been a tricky proposition. The midday tide was near low and the ice had settled on the lower Esopus affording easy-on and easy-off. Alternating between a half-dozen holes cut in the six inches of hard ice, I hooked and landed seven yellow perch, only two of which were of a size worth keeping. Looking toward the mouth of the creek I counted seven other anglers all eagerly engaged.
- Tom Lake

2/13 - Town of Clinton, HRM 82.5: While walking in our backyard our son, Nathan, noticed a spotted salamander crawling across our snowy field (eight inches of snow). There are woodland pools nearby but we are not sure why the salamander was out in February, though it was a rather warm day (40 degrees Fahrenheit).
- The Burger Family: Sarah, Glen, Nathan, Dan, Laura Burger

2/13 - Hudson River, HRM 76-34: I took the 8:47 Metro North this morning from Poughkeepsie to Manhattan and counted a group of thirteen bald eagles half way between Beacon and Cold Spring, another group of fifteen between Garrison and Peekskill, and eight more between Peekskill and Croton. The first two groups were on a few acres of ice or perched along the shore. The total was 35 eagles, all ages, and I'm sure I missed some.
- Allan Bowdery

2/13 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 68: The Waterman Bird Club had a walk at Bowdoin Park today and we were fortunate enough to see a pair of adult bald eagles mating. Altogether we counted six eagles soaring overhead.
- Maha Katnani

2/13 - Newburgh, HRM 61: The gull count along the Newburgh waterfront today was estimated at 4,000 birds. They included two adult lesser black-backed gulls and a first-year Iceland gull.
- Curt McDermott

2/13 - Peekskill to Croton River, HRM 43-34: I wanted to see some eagles before the great spring "diaspora" began [wintering birds tend to start heading north by late February-early March]. Visiting four sites between China Pier in Peekskill and the mouth of the Croton River, I counted 47 eagles. Most were on the ice, flying close above it or squabbling in knots of two to five over who knows what. Adults outnumbered immature two to one. This is a savory time of year for eagle lovers. As the pulse of approaching spring beats more strongly, the birds become more interactive and so much more rewarding to the observer than eagles sitting on a perch for long periods. On one small floe off Verplanck, fourteen birds were squeezed close together. I always have to wonder, what is on the ice in all those miles of river that I cannot see.
- Christopher Letts

2/14 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: I've been accused of being a silly romantic when I relate stories of mated pairs of eagles "renewing their vows" in mid-February, particularly on Valentine's Day. And yet it recurs each year. Bald eagles mate for life and in the weeks before incubation begins, usually around March 1, the adults put on a show. The adult pair from eagle nest NY62 spent more than half an hour this afternoon cavorting in the air over the river in a display that could only be described as amorous.
- Tom Lake

[Eagle courtship is usually performed by breeding pairs in the days or weeks before the spring nesting season. Christopher Letts calls this aerial performance of grace and symmetry "sky dancing." Once, at Verplanck, we watched a courtship display over the river in a snow squall. Through a small break in the clouds came a shaft of sunlight and we watched that pair perform as though they were dancing on a sunbeam. On a Valentine's Day dawn at New Hamburg a decade ago, I watched a pair of eagles shadow each other over the ice with loop-de-loops and wing-touches. At the apex of a long arc in the sky they locked talons – one turned on its back in the air, the other mirrored it from above – and they went into a free-fall for more than a hundred feet before releasing and flaring out over the ice. At the climax of each acrobatic move they fell away in synchronized flight - flap-flap-glide - both wheeling and banking away in perfect form. It was like an exquisite ballet. At times they flew so close to each other that they cast only one shadow, drifting across the limestone face of Cedarcliff. Their effortless yet powerful wing beats moved them through the air as a single bird, communicating more through instinct than any utterance. Tom Lake.]

2/15 - Saratoga County, HRM 214: While conducting an eagle watch on the Hudson River near the Spier Falls dam in the Town of Moreau, we spotted two adult bald eagles. One had a transmitter antenna on it. It may have been the same eagle, banded bird E50, which I saw last year in the same tree.
- Gary Hill

[In the 1990s, DEC captured, fitted with a small radio transmitter, and released a number of wintering bald eagles in the Hudson Valley. The migration of these birds was tracked by satellite providing very detailed data of late-fall to early spring journeys from wintering locations in the Hudson Valley to breeding areas to the north and east, some as far away as northern Ontario, Quebec, and the Canadian Maritimes. The antennas and accompanying battery packs were very small and considered not to be a hindrance to the birds. However, battery life was limited and most if not all are now inactive. Tom Lake.]

2/15 - Chelsea, HRM 65.2: We counted six eagles, four adults and two immatures, out on the ice, drifting slowly upriver. Each of the six, on their own floe, was heads down and engaged in tearing up a fresh fish. These were "fish of a size," meaning they were not small white perch, eels, or bullhead catfish, the usual fare. We guessed they were gizzard shad. The eagles and fish had attracted dozens of ring-billed and black-backed gulls.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

[Gizzard shad are a favorite and readily available forage of wintering eagles. They are well known as a frequent victim of a phenomenon known as "winter kill" in the northern extent of their range. Studies have shown high mortality rates at water temperatures below 36 degrees F. Gizzard shad are not thought to be native to the Hudson River. They may have been introduced in the last half of the twentieth century either by immigration through the New York State canal system from the Midwest where they are native or inland from coastal waters. They are common in the Delaware River. J.R. Greeley of the New York State Conservation Department did not find them in the Hudson estuary during his 1936 biological survey. Tom Lake.]

2/15 - Newburgh, HRM 61: Gull numbers increased today to an estimated 10,000 birds. Floe ice made up about 65 percent of the river's surface. In late afternoon the incoming tide made conditions perfect, pulling the ice inshore with most birds on the edge of the ice. We identified an adult lesser black-backed gull and a first-year Iceland gull, possibly the same ones I saw a couple of days ago.
- Curt McDermott, Ken McDermott, Ajit Antony

2/15 - Orange County, HRM 56: Two golden eagles put on a magnificent aerial display this afternoon over Storm King Mountain and the Hudson River. I watched the eagles make several steep dives and sharp roller coaster upswings, followed by close acrobatic pairings and tumbling. The light of the setting sun and the snow-covered Hudson Highlands made for a memorable experience.
- Gerhard Patsch

2/15 - Croton River, HRM 34: It was a fantastic day, 54 degrees F and sunny. How can you beat a crystal-clear blue sky day while two adult bald eagles and one red-tailed hawk are riding the thermals overhead? And all of this as background to enjoying a walk along the Hudson River.
- Dianne Picciano

2/16 - Town of Poughkeepsie: This morning the mated pair at eagle nest NY62 was doing nest maintenance. The mating vocalizations had stopped and both were actively bringing in small twigs and dried grass. Unlike previous visits to the nest the female was now entering the nest and appeared content to just sit there. [Photo by Debra Tracy-Kral.]
- Tom McDowell

2/16 - Verplanck, HRM 40.5: I pulled over to the side of the road at Lake Meahagh to watch a beautiful adult bald eagle circle the lake twice and then head toward the Hudson.
- Susan Butterfass

2/16 - Crugers, HRM 39: I counted twelve red-winged blackbirds at the feeders this morning, a welcome sign of spring.
- Dianne Picciano

2/16 - Croton Point, HRM 35: We had a particularly nice encounter today at Croton Point. We spotted an adult bald eagle perched in a tree along the swimming beach. After a few minutes he started calling as a red-tailed hawk began its harassment. The hawk chased the eagle away and then perched on the same branch. We found the eagle again in a tree at the north point, Enoch's Neck. He took off, circled over our heads and out of sight, only to return followed by an immature. The two called and briefly interacted, grasping talons, before flying off.
- Sharon AvRutick, Joe Wallace

2/16 - Alpine, NJ, HRM 18: Twelve members the Hackensack River Canoe and Kayak Club hiked the Long Path atop the Palisades from Alpine to the State Line. The trail was packed snow, slush and mud but very passable. At Ruckman's Point we spotted a peregrine falcon flying out from the cliff top; it circled and returned to a perch at the point just north of us. After everyone got good looks at the peregrine, an immature bald eagle emerged from the woods, flew out over the peregrine and slowly circled the cliff's edge. Before the eagle was out of sight, three black vultures passed directly overhead and all landed on a common ledge about a third of the way down the cliff face. We also saw a sharp-shinned hawk, three red-tailed hawks, and multiple turkey vultures in the course of the afternoon.
- Bob Rancan, Herta Dousbout, Carole Baligh, Tom Babos, Joan Vieni

COLOR MARKED NORTHERN HARRIERS IN EASTERN NEW YORK
In conjunction with a study of wintering raptors DEC's Bureau of Wildlife is color marking a small number of northern harriers at three locations in eastern New York State this winter: Washington County Grasslands Important Bird Area, Coxsackie Flats in Greene County, and Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge in Ulster County. The marked harriers will have color dye on the underside of their primary and/or secondary flight feathers or the underside of their tail, in combinations that will allow for recognition of individual birds regardless of the site at which they were marked. Most individuals will also have a color leg band with a single white letter and number.
The purpose of the color marking is to gain information on the local movements of harriers in these important winter raptor concentration areas. DEC would appreciate receiving reports of any color-marked northern harriers at these sites or elsewhere. Please report the color and location of the marking, color and alpha-numeric of the leg band (if possible), sex of bird (adult male or adult female/juvenile), date, time, and exact location of the observation. If color marking is observed, but the exact location of the marking can't be determined, we may still be able to make individual identification based on the location of the marking and sex of the bird so please report inconclusive color marked birds as well. Please report color marked birds by e-mailing Mark­_NOHA@gw.dec.state.ny.us .

WINTER 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
February 26 - 7:30 PM
In the Beginning: The Hudson Valley. Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, Cornwall-on-Hudson [Orange County]. Join DEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake as we discover the ancestral roots and evolution of the Hudson River Valley. For information, e-mail Jackie Grantjgrant@hhnaturemuseum.org

February 28 - 7:00 PM
Shawangunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership Lecture Series: Eel Migration in the Hudson River. Join Chris Bowser of DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and Hudson River Research Reserve for a presentation about American eel migration and the efforts of citizen scientists to collect critical data about young "glass eels" entering Hudson River tributaries. This free program will be offered at Lecture Center Room 102, SUNY/New Paltz [Ulster County]. For information, e-mail: chbowser@gw.dec.state.ny.us

March 4 - 7:30 PM
Hudson Valley Eagles: Back from the Brink. Join DEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake for a discussion of the heartening story of the recovery of Hudson Valley bald eagles at a meeting of the Edgar A. Mearns Bird Club at the Washingtonville Middle School, 38 West Main Street, Washingtonville [Orange County]. For information, e-mail (lake@sunydutchess.edu)

March 5 - 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM
How’s the Hudson Doing? Teaching About the River’s Health, a workshop for educators, will address this question and offer field and classroom-tested ways of responding to it. Sponsored by Teaching the Hudson Valley and DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program, this free workshop will be held at the Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park [Dutchess County]. During the morning, speakers will offer a health exam of the Hudson, reviewing the status of PCB cleanup, progress made under the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, questions about emerging contaminants, and ongoing impacts and threats from non-native species. After lunch, provided free of charge, educators experienced in classroom teaching and non-formal programming will present activities exploring water quality, invasive species, and relevant topics like bioaccumulation of toxics. Advance registration is required, no later than Wednesday, February 27 (click here to register). For more information, contact Steve Stanne at spstanne@gw.dec.state.ny.us .

March 5 - 6:30 PM
Scenic Hudson Naturalists Lecture Series: The Lives and Legends of Hudson River Fishes. Scenic Hudson River Center, Long Dock Park, Beacon [Dutchess County]. Join DEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake as we take a close look at the 219 species that make up the Hudson River watershed's fish fauna. For information, e-mail Tom Lake lake@sunydutchess.edu

March 7 - 7:30 PM
Tivoli Bays Talks: Hudson River Wetlands with Erik Kiviat, executive director of Hudsonia. Tivoli Library, Tivoli [Dutchess County]. Free. Wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

March 9 - 2:00 PM
Discover Norrie Walk: Winter Birds with DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington at the Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free. Family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

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 E-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@aol.com . To sign up to receive the E-Almanac (or to unsubscribe), send an email message to hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us and write E-Almanac in the subject line.

Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives.

The Hudson River Estuary Program has an e-newsletter! Stay connected by subscribing to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed.www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html

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. For a free, no-obligation issue go tohttp://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html

USEFUL LINKS
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62 NOAA’s 2012 tidal current predictions are at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents12/ .

For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website athttp://www.hrecos.org .

Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey: http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html .

Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website athttp://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@catskill.net

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW
This was a week of eagles on ice floes, a report of an extremely rare bird, and a large "dog" harassing wild turkeys. These were mixed in with many quiet reminiscenses of the softer side of our natural world.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK 
2/2 - Norrie Point, HRM 85: Planning in advance for winter bald eagle viewing here is a guessing game. If we guess wrong and there is not enough ice - or too much ice - the eagles will be elsewhere. We guessed pretty well today; the river was two-thirds ice with plenty of large rafts and floes moving slowly upriver at the start of the flood tide. Fifty-one of us endured eleven degree Fahrenheit windchills to aim our binoculars and spotting scopes on nine bald eagles, both adults and immatures, on the ice and in the trees across the river. We watched a pair of adults busily refurbishing their nest, carrying twigs and small branches. The 140-foot-long Coast Guard cutter Sturgeon Bay made two passes not 200 feet off the dock, breaking up the ice.
- Paul Lewis, Dave Lindemann, Tom Lake

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
1/28 - Columbia County, HRM 122: My dog, Loki, and I took a walk along the shore of the Kline Kill in Ghent. Loki appeared to be "walking on water" as he waded in the stream. I could see his paws as he pranced about on frozen chunks of ice beneath a top layer of water about an inch deep. The Kline Kill, a tributary of Kinderhook Creek, is formed by the confluence of the Punsit and Indian Creeks. The Kline Kill is often confused with the Klein Kill, a tributary of the Hudson River where it meets the Roeliff-Jansen's Kill farther south near Linlithgo. Most locals pronounce the Kline Kill as "Kly-nee-kill."
- Fran Martino

1/28 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67.5: The Weather Channel could have saved the name for "Winter Storm Luna." A two-inch layer of new white snow was on the river, and the shoreline trees were coated with ice. Even in these times of climate change, it seems silly that such a soft and gentle snowfall can be called a winter storm. There were eagles on ice floes and eagles in the trees, a scene that has recurred every day recently.
- Tom Lake

1/28 - Peekskill, HRM 43: China Pier has always been one of my favorite places to see eagles, with the Hudson Highlands and the Bear Mountain Bridge in sight, and a ten-mile fetch to enjoy. The birds are not here when there is no ice, and that has been the case for a couple of years. Beginning this week, however, enough floe ice had accumulated and stabilized to attract the big birds, and this afternoon a dozen sat on the ice, singly and in groups of two or three. All but three were adults. This is perhaps the best place along the east side of the river to see interactions between eagles and with other birds.
- Christopher Letts

["Fetch" is a nautical and meteorological term usually used to describe an area of water over which wind can blow and strengthen unimpeded by islands, points of land, bends, or other obstacles. Tom Lake.]   

1/29 - Kinderhook Creek, HRM 128: My walk at the Patchaquack Preserve in Valatie had me thinking I was in a lumber yard. Wood chips were everywhere; some caused by pileated woodpeckers, others the work of beavers. The trail swings close to Kinderhook Creek, which was flowing at a high velocity. I heard the familiar tail slap of the beaver as I approached the stream, and wondered about the strength it took for the beaver to swim in such fast-moving water.
- Fran Martino

1/29 - Town of Poughkeepsie: Eagle nest NY62 was active today and, as expected, the mated pair has chosen their existing nest for the upcoming season. The pair remained at the nesting site for over an hour. Finally, the male, in his usual squawking fashion, headed upriver. A short distance away at the New Hamburg Yacht club (HRM 67.5) I watched two adult and three immature bald eagles riding ice floes on a flood current. They would ride the ice from the mouth of Wappinger Creek north to the yacht club, a quarter-mile, and then fly back and do it all over again.
- Tom McDowell

1/29 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: I just witnessed the oddest sight: Nearly a hundred snow geese in formation flew low under the clouds heading north along the river. They ought to have been foraging in the stubble of cornfields in Virginia or Maryland.
- Tom Lake

[While this sighting may have been an anomaly, it deserves some consideration. In the recent past, snow geese could be counted on quite reliably to return north around the vernal equinox (March 20). They would show up in riverside cornfields in Saratoga and Washington Counties and along the Hudson-Champlain Canal. It will be interesting to see if the pattern is changing. Tom Lake.]

1/29 - Chelsea, HRM 65.2: In early afternoon at the top of the ebb tide, three adult bald eagles, well offshore, were riding ice floes slowly upriver. Much closer to shore, where the current had already changed, two more eagles, one adult and one immature, were riding ice floes slowly downstream. It looked strange to see these birds, quiet on the ice, heading in opposite directions.
- Tom Lake 

["Mahicanituk" is a written approximation of an Algonquian word describing the Hudson that has been interpreted as meaning "river flows both ways." Since River Indians had only oral language, this word has been written with as many variations in spelling as in interpretation. The most common interpretation is that "flows both ways" refers to the four daily shifts in tidal current direction, two floods and two ebbs. But there is another interpretation that is never more obvious than with winter ice: As each tidal current slows, there is a brief period of time where the momentum associated with the volume of deep water takes longer to stop and turn than it does in shallow water where the lesser volume succumbs sooner. During that window today, the river and its ice flowed both ways, at once. Tom Lake.]

1/29 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: It had been some time since I last fished through the ice on Railroad Pond - almost two decades – and I walked onto the ice wondering what changes had occurred. Cutting my first line of holes near the dam, I noticed a green peeled stick frozen into the ice a few inches down. The finger-sized stick was cut at an angle on each end; it sure looked like the work of a beaver. Over the next hour I made my way toward the shallow end of the lake, and more sticks could be seen. There it was, a "live" beaver lodge, twenty feet in breadth, seven feet high, tucked up against a rocky headland (allowing no burrowing in from the back by predators), overhung by thick brush, and at a place where the old stream channel from Revolutionary War times had cut the deepest deep water for quick escape. Hundreds of peeled sticks of all sizes were strewn across the ice. This was a little wilderness experience only five minutes from the Hudson. Light was dimming as I walked off the ice with a full complement of dinner morsels; a full complement being all the fish I care to clean and am likely to eat at an evening meal.
- Christopher Letts

1/29 – George's Island, HRM 39: There was quite a difference in ice cover on the river below the Hudson Highlands. There was very little ice here and eagle activity was restricted to several perched immatures southwest of the boat ramp. Farther out in the river were some buffleheads that kept their distance, making photos difficult.
- Tom McDowell

1/29 - Stony Point, HRM 40: As the Rockland Audubon Society's recorder of rare and unusual birds, I received a report today from Doris Metraux: "This afternoon I was puzzled by something bright white in one of my shrubs. It was a white-winged junco (Junco hyemalis aikeni) giving me a frontal view. When he changed his location and briefly perched on a flowerbox I got a good look until one of the dark-eyed juncos became very belligerent and chased him away. He seemed quite a bit larger than the dark-eyed juncos, had a snow-white belly, a big bone-colored bill, black lores and was otherwise pale gray with a light brown wash on his back. He also had two very distinct wing-bars on each side."
- Carol Weiss

[In the 1970s the American Ornithologists' Union lumped what had been five species of junco, including the white-winged and our familiar slate-colored variety, into one - the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). Other southwestern forms are lumped together as yellow-eyed juncos (Junco phaeonotus). Not all taxonomists are happy with the current classification scheme, however, and given the junco's taxonomic history - described in scientific papers as "turbulent" and "a nightmare" - it may change again. Steve Stanne.]

[I checked sources for previous county records. The Oregon and pink-sided subspecies have been recorded sporadically but I could find no previous records of the white-winged form. According to Bull's Birds of New York State (1998 edition; ed. Levine), there are no known records of the white-winged subspecies from New York State. Its winter range appears to be restricted to the Great Plains and adjacent mountain states. Levine does mention that approximately two to three percent of dark-eyed juncos have white on the wings, but still can be separated by size (white-winged is larger). Alan Wells.]

1/29 - Manhattan, New York City, HRM 6: The Iceland gull previously reported was still present on the Central Park Reservoir this evening. It lingered at the periphery of a small flock of ring-billed and herring gulls. The vast majority of the remaining gulls took off for the night heading east and west.
- Nadir Souirgi

1/30 - Knox, Albany County, HRM153: With the temperature at 50 degrees F, a lone, shrill spring peeper was heard calling into the dark night on our beaver pond.
- David H. Nelson

1/30 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: It was an April-like day, with wind and some warmth (60 degrees F). And while the mild day loosened river ice, there was more if it; the tide was drawing floes from marshes, backwaters, and tributaries. Every open lead contained common mergansers with a few buffleheads and goldeneyes.  
- Tom Lake

1/30 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: Well after dark, following a wonderfully warm day, the fragrance of skunk was on the wind. The day had been a "wake-up" call and they were now out and about and up to no good.
- Tom Lake 

1/30 - Verplanck, HRM 40.5: While driving past the floodgate in Verplanck in extremely dense fog, I noticed a great blue heron on the edge of Lake Meahagh. He was standing on what was left of the ice, feathers soaked and head ruffled - a sentinel in the mist.
- Dianne Picciano

1/30 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: It was "thick o' fog" with visibility of less than 100 yards, but enough to see the water on Railroad Pond where I had ice fished less than 24 hours ago. The thought of a family of well-provisioned beavers snug in their lodge made me smile as I headed home to put more wood in the stove and enjoy this strangely weathered day. The back bay on Railroad Pond has another essential element: a deep bed of soil sediment deposited by the stream. That is where the beavers store their winter food, jamming the sharp ends of branches, leafy birch and alder, down into the mud, leaves waving in the light current.
- Christopher Letts

1/30 - Manhattan, HRM 13.5: At least fifty Canada geese were making their way across the football field near the inlet of Spuyten Duyvil Creek, foraging in the grass at Inwood Hill Park. On the water were three dozen mallards. Starting up the trail through the Clove, I startled a pair of mourning doves and watched one black-capped chickadee at a little mesh feeder hung from a branch. Atop the ridge I saw no wildlife except gray squirrels and a mockingbird, who had found a few red berries. The only other color in the woods was moss and ground cover, small carpets of garlic mustard and ivy punctuated by tufts of wild chives, and one small holly, which, as always, "groweth green."
- Thomas Shoesmith

1/31 - Albany, HRM 145: I enjoyed walking along the river when the meteorological phenomenon called "graupel" occurs. Graupel is not exactly hail, and not exactly ice, but can be described as somewhere in between: Drops of water freeze on a falling snowflake, turning the flakes into something that looks like tiny styrofoam pellets. It is very bouncy and noisy as it falls to the ground.
- Fran Martino

1/31 - Poughkeepsie, HRM 76: It had snowed and a flock of more than a dozen wild turkeys that roost in the trees were acting befuddled. A few began to fly up into the trees and then we saw why. A healthy gray wolf was frantically trying to capture a wild turkey on the green of the adjoining golf course. It had stealthily crept near and whirled on a potential meal. Losing that one it spun around and tried for another but the birds scattered. We were enthralled with the spectacle. Other neighbors have reported seeing this animal recently.
- Diana Salsberg

[After investigating this sighting, all parties ultimately agreed that this was probably an eastern coyote. Two separate teams of researchers studying the genes of coyotes in the Northeast have reported evidence that these animals that have for decades been thought of as coyotes are in fact coyote-wolf hybrids. The team headed by Roland W. Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum, studied coyotes from New Jersey to Maine. Jonathan Way, wildlife biologist with the Eastern Coyote Research consulting firm, examined coyotes around Cape Cod and Boston. Both teams found that the animals carry wolf and coyote DNA. The findings may explain why coyotes in the East like this one are generally larger than their western counterparts - that is, more wolf-like in size – and why they are so much more varied in coat color, as might be expected from a creature with a more diverse genome. As a result, we coyote fans like to refer to them as "woyotes." Tom Lake.]

2/1 - Orange County, HRM 67: We did not expect to see much this morning; the eagle viewing had been disappointing so far this winter. From New Hamburg we looked through binoculars across the river along the mile-and-a-half reach from Danskammer Point north past Soap Hill to Cedarcliff. Our glasses only reached Soap Hill where we stopped: nine adult bald eagles. That was not the most remarkable part of it. Those nine birds were all perched on less than an acre of hillside. We concluded that these were probably wintering birds from points north and east, eagles with no axe to grind regarding territory. That hillside might also be a night roost. Today they were perched out of the wind (a 20 mph bone-chiller), facing the morning sun.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

2/1 - Denning's Point, HRM 60: Following two days of strong west-northwest winds, we had a mini-blowout tide. The tide was noteworthy not so much for its "blowout" as it was for how long it stayed low - nearly two hours. Four wintering adult eagles were perched at Denning's Point with another adult and an immature across the bay and the mouth of Fishkill Creek at Hammond's Point.  
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

[Blowout tides occur when strong, sustained north/northwesterly winds push seawater away from Atlantic coast, temporarily lowering sea level off New York and therefore in the Hudson too - essentially the reverse of storm surge. These Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System graphs show water levels at Hudson River Park's Pier 84 in Manhattan, and corresponding wind direction and velocity data from Piermont about 20 miles north. Reading the wind graph like a compass, the wind shifted abruptly to northwest early on January 31, and then more northerly on February 1. It clipped the midday high tide peak on the 31st, and kept tides lower than usual well into the first of February. Steve Stanne.]

2/1 - Hudson Highlands, HRM 47-35: An eagle census during my morning commute to work today produced more birds than any other morning this year: thirteen. They included one over Fort Montgomery, six on the ice at Annsville Creek, and one flying with a fish over Senasqua.
- Scott Craven

2/1 - Oscawana Point, HRM 38.5: I saw two beautiful adult bald eagles from the overlook at Oscawana. One was perched above the other, both enduring the blustery day, high above the whitecaps below.
- Dianne Picciano

2/2 - Tompkin’s Cove, HRM 41: We saw six bald eagles, three adults and three immatures, near the old Mothball Fleet memorial. We saw thirty here two years ago but saw none last year. We are so happy they are back!
- Kristy Bartholomew

[The "Mothball Fleet," or U.S. Navy Reserve Fleet, consisted of a number of Liberty and Victory cargo and troop ships that were used during World War II to ferry supplies and soldiers to Europe for the war effort. Following the war they were decommissioned and, from 1946 to 1971, anchored in the Hudson at Tompkins Cove. Tom Lake.]

2/2 - Pleasantville, Westchester County, HRM 32:  I was out with my dog near midnight. It had been snowing for a couple of hours, a dry snow that sparkled in the light. The cold night was hushed until I heard the deep hooting of a great horned owl coming from a neighbor's yard. This was only the second time in thirteen years that I've heard one. I went and got my sixteen-year-old so he could listen, too. Even the dog seemed to notice.
- Joe Wallace

2/2 - Croton Point, HRM 34.5: Our mid-day walk was uneventful until returning to our car at the small upper lot we noticed a crowd with cameras, long lenses on tripods, spotting scopes, and binoculars, staring up at one of the white pines. About twelve feet up on a branch, a barred owl was trying to ignore all the fuss.
- Stephen Butterfass, Ariel Butterfass

 

WINTER 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS 
February 26 - 7:30 PM
In the Beginning: The Hudson Valley. Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, Cornwall-on-Hudson [Orange County]. Join DEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake as we discover the ancestral roots and evolution of the Hudson River Valley. For information, e-mail Jackie Grantjgrant@hhnaturemuseum.org

March 5 - 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM
How's the Hudson Doing? Teaching About the River's Health, a workshop for educators, will address this question and offer field and classroom-tested ways of responding to it. Sponsored by Teaching the Hudson Valley and DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program, this free workshop will be held at the Henry A. Wallace Visitor and Education Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park [Dutchess County]. During the morning, speakers will offer a health exam of the Hudson, reviewing the status of PCB cleanup, progress made under the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, questions about emerging contaminants, and ongoing impacts and threats from non-native species. After lunch, provided free of charge, educators experienced in classroom teaching and non-formal programming will present activities exploring water quality, invasive species, and relevant topics like bioaccumulation of toxics. Advance registration is required, no later than Wednesday, February 27 (click here to register). For more information, contact Steve Stanne at spstanne@gw.dec.state.ny.us .

March 5 - 6:30 PM
Scenic Hudson Naturalists Lecture Series: The Lives and Legends of Hudson River Fishes. Scenic Hudson River Center, Long Dock Park, Beacon [Dutchess County]. Join DEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake as we take a close look at the 219 species that make up the Hudson River watershed’s fish fauna. For information, e-mail Tom Lake lake@sunydutchess.edu

March 7 - 7:30 PM
Tivoli Bays Talks: Hudson River Wetlands with Erik Kiviat, executive director of Hudsonia. Tivoli Library, Tivoli [Dutchess County]. Free. Wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

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 E-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@aol.com . To sign up to receive the E-Almanac (or to unsubscribe), send an email message to hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us and write E-Almanac in the subject line.

Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives.

The Hudson River Estuary Program has an e-newsletter! Stay connected by subscribing to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed.www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html

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. For a free, no-obligation issue go tohttp://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html

 

USEFUL LINKS
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62 NOAA’s 2012 tidal current predictions are at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents12/ .

For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website athttp://www.hrecos.org .

Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey: http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html .

Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website athttp://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@catskill.net

HUDSON RIVER ALMANAC
January 14 - 21, 2013
Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW
This was another week of counting wintering birds, both eagles and waterfowl, as means of estimating population trends and the effects of the season. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
1/20 - West Point, HRM 52: I was out for a walk this afternoon and spotted what I thought was an eagle flying over the river in front of the rugby field near the North Dock. It was a large black bird; wing tips were rounded with a straight leading edge and were flat in relation to the body. The bird would soar for brief periods, but it mostly kept pumping its wings to gain altitude.
- Doug Gallagher

[Doug's photos revealed an immature golden eagle. In recent winters, we have had one or more golden eagles wintering in the Hudson Highlands, specifically in the area of Crow's Nest and Storm King Mountain, just a couple of miles upriver. Tom Lake]

 

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES
1/14 - Dutchess County to Westchester County, HRM 60-34: Dense fog postponed our planned January 13 Lower Hudson Bald Eagle Roost Survey from Fishkill Ridge to Croton. Instead we went today, on an unseasonably warm afternoon. This synchronous count, now in its tenth season, involved thirteen observers distributed between six known night roosts. Despite the warm conditions and an ice-free Hudson, we recorded 47 eagles; we assumed they were both wintering and local birds. A larger proportion of the birds than usual were at inland roosts, with relatively few spending the night near the Hudson River.
- Barry Babcock, David Baker, Ken Comish, Melissa Gillmer, Lew Kingsley, Ed McGowan, Marnie Miler-Keas, Gerhard Patsch, Tracy Patsch, Pete Salmansohn, Joe Trapani, Jim Utter, Bill Wallace

1/14 - Bear Mountain, HRM 46: I usually welcome the sound of spring peepers as a sign that winter is nearly over, but not in the first week of January. A few solo callers were making themselves heard along the trail at the Bear Mountain Trailside Museums and Zoo, as well as halfway up Bear Mountain on a southern exposure.
- Ed McGowan

1/15 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: Somehow, the clear and crisp air of January brings a promise of springtime. Now that we are gaining daylight, the winter air seems to have a bright quality that engenders that promise. Red-tailed hawks are busy with their courtship and thoughts of mating. Twice today I watched an adult red-tail being pursued across the sky, mobbed by three or four crows. It is not an easy life being a raptor in a world of more maneuverable pests.  
- Tom Lake

[On January 10, sunrise occurred one minute earlier, not later as we stated in the last Almanac, for the first time since June 18. Tom Lake]

1/15 - Bronx, New York City: As I was on my way to work this morning, traveling north on the service road of the Bruckner Expressway in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, I made a turn onto Calhoun Avenue and inadvertently flushed an adult red-shouldered hawk that had been perched in a tree. This gorgeous raptor flew low, banked left, flew across the street in between two houses and then was gone. What a beautiful hawk. It had so much red on it as well as the classic black-and-white banding on its tail. It was truly beautiful in all its wildness.
- Orlando Hidalgo

1/16 - Cheviot, HRM 106: This morning I looked out on the river to the cottonwood on the jetty and saw, as usual, two eagles. Upon a closer look, they were both immatures instead of the usual adult pair. While I watched, one immature took off and an adult took its place. Later, the two adults were back, sitting very close, hunkered down in the treetop in the snow and fog. One reached over and seemed to be grooming the other. Courtship.
- Jude Holdsworth

1/16 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67.5: There are certain bird calls or songs that stop you in your tracks or mid-sentence if you are in a conversation. Among these, for me at least, are the bald eagle, common loon, canyon wren, and any of the wood thrushes. But perhaps chief among them is the raven, particularly since they are not terribly common. In midday, as I was clearing five inches of fresh snow, I heard a throaty "clack" and "croak." I looked up, and there was a black-as-midnight raven watching me from the crown of a black locust.
- Tom Lake

1/17 - Columbia County, HRM 124: Tramping in the woods with my friend Loki, I came upon a white, piebald white-tailed deer. She had a dark nose, but her coloration wasn't like a pinto pony - she was whiter. It was a thrill for me to see this creature.
- Fran Martino

[White and brown deer are commonly referred to as "piebald." White is a recessive color phase of white tailed deer; it is normally not albinism. Pete Fanelli.]

1/17 - Cheviot, HRM 106: I spotted a dozen greater scaup on the river today, along with two red-breasted mergansers.
- Mimi Brauch

1/17 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 71: This morning, along with all the deer and squirrel tracks in the snow, I saw red fox tracks. I had not seen our local red fox for several months, but it clearly paid a visit last night as the tracks came out of the woods, down the hill to my feeder area, and then across to Casperkill Creek where I lost them. This is the same path I have seen the fox travel many times in other seasons.
- Margie Robinson

1/18 - Germantown, HRM 108: I had brown cowbirds under my feeders this morning; among them were a male and several female red-winged blackbirds.
- Mimi Brauch

1/18 - Fishkill, HRM 61: My next door neighbor told me this morning that daffodils were coming up on the sunny side of his house.
- Lee Banner

1/18 - Fishkill, HRM 61: As darkness and the coldness of the night settled over the area, I was clearing some snow near my front door. The noise and proximity of this disturbed a small bird, likely a Carolina wren, from its nighttime roost in the balsam fir wreath on my front door. It flew to a nearby dogwood tree and waited for me to cease and desist before returning to its shelter in the wreath. Now assured of the bird's winter night refuge, I will not remove the wreath until spring.
- Ed Spaeth

1/18 - Westchester County, HRM 44: Driving home after dark tonight in North Salem, a bobcat crossed the road right in front of me. The big cat went up a hill and into the woods near a stream that empties into a nearby lake. Wow! It was a very large, muscular cat, yellowish in color with a short tail.
- Irene Marks

1/18 - Westchester County, HRM 35: While driving home through Croton-on-Hudson on Route 9A, a sweet little animal scampered out of the brush and darted across the road in front of me. At first I thought it was a small dog, but as it got closer, I could see that it was a red fox.
- Dianne Picciano

1/19 - Dutchess County, HRM 84-73: Today was the Waterman Bird Club's Waterfowl Count, part of the New York State Waterfowl Count. Thanks to a timely Rare Bird Alert sent by Barbara Butler, a highlight of the count, and a life bird for me, was a greater white-fronted goose that we spotted among several hundred Canada geese in a cow pasture in Amenia. We also saw a neck-collared Canada goose and submitted a report to the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Bird Banding Laboratory. We might eventually learn a little about the bird. We also counted 35 ringed-necked ducks on a small unnamed pond off Noxon Road.
- Deb Kral

[Adding "life birds" to a "life list" is a common activity for many naturalists. Typically these are compilations of related species, like postcards from one's travels through life. Some people keep bird lists, for others it is fish, flowers, insects, mushrooms, or fungi. Anyone can keep a list of almost anything that ultimately gives them a context and appreciation for the natural world. Tom Lake. Photo of white-fronted and Canada goose by Debi Kral.]

1/19 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: This past week was, indeed, "A Gathering of Eagles" on tiny Rabbit Island. We hosted as many as five bald eagles: two pairs of adults and one immature. All were perched in a single, tall basswood tree on the periphery of the island. On some days there were just one or two; on other days there were up to five at one time. My wife, now jaded, feels they have become as common as robins. They seem somewhat reluctant to pose for photos, but nonetheless, it is thrilling to look out the kitchen window and these glorious raptors sitting in a tree in our backyard. Thirty years ago, who would have suspected that there would be such a resurgence of eagles in our valley?
- David Cullen

1/20 - Wappinger Falls, HRM 67.5: With most of the ice gone at Wappinger Lake, I stopped by to see what was there. Among the waterfowl were many (more than eighteen) mute swans, twenty hooded and common mergansers, two pairs of gadwalls, and a hen bufflehead, away from everyone, diving by herself. An adult bald eagle circled high above. The highlight, however, was a drake red-breasted merganser.
- Terry Hardy

[Red-breasted mergansers are uncommon on small Hudson Valley ponds in winter, preferring saltier, big-water habitats in New York Harbor and along the coast. Steve Stanne. Photo of red-breasted merganser by Terry Hardy.] 

1/20 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: I was awakened at 4:00 AM by the shrill cries of coyotes in stereo. In the still and frigid air, even through closed windows, it sounded as though they were everywhere. In reality, it was likely a small group of four or five - family, extended family, a clan - and they were on the prowl.
- Tom Lake

1/20 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: We heard, then saw, a Carolina wren today: "Teakettle, teakettle, teakettle"...with a very weak "tea."
- Tom Lake, Phyllis Lake

[Carolina wrens are permanent residents, though they are less vocal at this time of year. According to the Birds of North America Online, "Although the decimation of [Carolina wren] populations by severe winter conditions is well known, severe winters have apparently been infrequent enough during twentieth century to allow for populations to expand and move northward. In addition, reforestation of eastern forests could have provided more available habitat. Further, individuals frequently inhabit urban areas where feeding stations have become common and which can be used to supplement natural foods, especially when natural foods become covered with snow and ice." The maps below, from the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas, shows how this species extended its range here over two decades. Steve Stanne.]

1/20 - Town of Fishkill, HRM 63.5: I walked into the north gate of Stony Kill Farm this morning and was greeted by six bluebirds. They were flying and flitting by the free-running stream in the cow pasture, and sitting on top of the two closest bluebird houses. The morning sun made their blue-and-red feathers really stand out. While walking, I watched a red-tailed hawk soar and dip and glide with its red tail also glowing in the sun. A flock of starlings sitting in the black locust trees by the barn were cackling and singing their spring songs already. Could that be? As I headed off the property, a well groomed turkey vulture soared above, no more than sixty feet overhead. Such a nice way to start the day!
- Andra Sramek

1/20 - Westchester County, HRM 27: As my husband and I were returning from bird watching in Valhalla, we saw a very large raptor fly over our house. I grabbed my binoculars and - sure enough - it was an adult bald eagle flying over the Kensico Dam.
- Abbye Carsten, Bevin Carsten

1/21 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 68: Call it the "winter blues," or "seasonal affected disorder," or just being in need of a bright and cheery moment. I went to Bowdoin Park today for my dose and was not disappointed. In each of two brushy areas I perused I came up no fewer than a dozen bluebirds, foraging the last of the berries or hunting for other sources of calories. In a season defined by drabness, the soft yet vibrant blue of these birds, complemented by an even softer orange, can be very heart-warming.
- Tom Lake

1/21 - Manitou, HRM 47: Today was the first day with any ice floating by on the river's outgoing tide. The bird feeders were busy with all the usual suspects; I have had common redpolls on and off for a few weeks. The sharp-shinned hawk has been a regular visitor and I see evidence of the kills around the lawn. Its tactics lead me to believe it is a young bird because it isn't very stealthy, hiding in plain sight. Bald eagles are being seen daily, both adults and immatures.
- Zshawn Sullivan

 

WINTER 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
February 2 - 12:00 noon
Looking for Bald Eagles with DEC Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist Tom Lake at Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free; family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

February 7 - 7:30 PM
Tivoli Bays Talks: The Hudson River Estuary - Keeping It “Green” As It Flows Downstream with Emily Vail and Andrew Meyer of the Hudson River Estuary Program’s watershed outreach project. Tivoli Library, Tivoli [Dutchess County]. Free. Wheelchair accessible. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

February 9 - 2:00 PM
Discover Norrie Walk: Winter Birds with NYS DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington at Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free; family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

February 26 - 7:30 PM
In the Beginning: The Hudson Valley. Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, Cornwall-on-Hudson [Orange County]. Join DEC Hudson River Estuary Program naturalist Tom Lake as we discover the ancestral roots and evolution of the Hudson River Valley. For information, e-mail Jackie Grantjgrant@hhnaturemuseum.org

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 E-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@aol.com . To sign up to receive the E-Almanac (or to unsubscribe), send an email message to hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us and write E-Almanac in the subject line.

Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives.

The Hudson River Estuary Program has an e-newsletter! Stay connected by subscribing to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed.www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html

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. For a free, no-obligation issue go tohttp://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html

 

USEFUL LINKS
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62 NOAA’s 2012 tidal current predictions are at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents12/ .

For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website athttp://www.hrecos.org .

Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey: http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html .

Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website athttp://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@catskill.net

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

OVERVIEW
This week was marked by atypical winter weather and reports of wildlife's predictable response. The possibility of climate change effects weave their way into these discussions, as do reminiscences of the good old days when winters were winters.  

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
1/12 - Metro North Hudson Line; HRM 34-11: Glued to the riverside window of my commuter car, a nice clean one for a change, I could not help myself on the run from Grand Central Station in Manhattan to the Croton-Harmon station 33 miles north - I had to look. As it turned out, this was not a great run, the result of the mild winter - no ice on the river and very few birds to see. The days of great rafts of thousands of scaup and canvasback ducks are past. I had to be content with the river view and with fifteen species of birds. In a normal winter, I would have expected several dozen bald eagles to be riding the ice, soaring, or perched in trees. I was pleased to spot just one, as the train slowly rolled into the Croton-Harmon station.
- Christopher Letts

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES
1/8 - Norrie Point, HRM 85: In less than two hours at midday, I spotted four bald eagles: two adults flying up the river and then perched on the western shore, and two immatures chasing one another just south of Norrie Point.
- Jim Herrington

1/8 - Stanfordville, HRM 84: My backyard barred owl had moved on to a new day roost; it was such a delight to have him out there in plain view for a few days. Today's visitors to the feeders: a mob of common redpolls. They are so cute!
- Deb Kral

1/8 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 69: At midday from across the Hudson, I spotted one of the resident adult bald eagles perched at the edge of the river.
- John Scott

1/8 - Wappinger Creek, HRM 67.5: While traveling along Creek Road paralleling the tidal Wappinger, two bald eagles, one adult and one immature, flew upstream low over the water. It took me by surprise to see them flying so low and pretty exciting to see two in quick succession. I stopped to watch the immature fishing. I'm not sure what it caught but it was quite large and it took it up to a tree to eat.
- Jamie Collins

1/8- Croton Point, HRM 34: I counted 40 pipits this morning but no meadowlarks or horned larks. A kestrel and a peregrine falcon were hunting in the wooded area on the border of the marsh. Two white-tailed bucks walked the ridge-top - one a stout six-pointer, the other a ten-pointer that absolutely dwarfed the smaller buck.
- Christopher Letts

1/9 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: An immature bald eagle has taken up temporary residence in one of two trees on our island. For the past four days it spent time each day perched in either a red oak or a tall basswood on the north edge of Rabbit Island. Several times during the day the eagle has landed on a favorite branch, surveying the area and staying there for a period of time, departing only when I tried to get a picture of him with a long distance lens. Some thrill to see such a large predator just seventy feet away, behaving like it owned the place.
- David Cullen

1/9 - Croton Point, HRM 35: Common mergansers are, well, common here in winter. Several hundred are often to be seen, scattered along the river from Haverstraw Bay to Peekskill. During the last of the flood tide this morning, I spotted a concentration of birds a quarter mile north of Croton Bay in the main stem of the Hudson. There were hundreds of birds spread over a five acre area. At least three hundred common mergansers were diving, and hundreds of gulls were in the air and on the water, presumably to glean or steal what they could. At least two dozen black-backed gulls were there, the most I had seen since the herring run last spring. I could not tell what the food source was; perhaps something roiled up and concentrated by the force of the flood tide bumping out into the channel after forcing its way around the Point. Whatever the draw was to that spot, it was powerful. I did not see a single eagle in my travels today.
- Christopher Letts

1/10 - Saugerties, HRM 102: Counting the drifting brash ice in the channel, the river was about 50 percent covered, and much less than earlier in the week. There was still plenty of eagle activity around the Saugerties Lighthouse, but I haven't seen them congregate like they did three days ago, which made them easy to count.
- Patrick Landewe

1/10 - Town of Poughkeepsie, HRM 74: We watched a great blue heron today on our field trip to the grounds at Vassar College. The heron was so still we thought it had frozen. One of our bird club members spotted a merlin dining near the Observatory.
- Deb Kral

1/10 - Wappinger Fall, HRM 67.5: Taking a walk along Wappinger Creek, I was fortunate to see an adult bald eagle perched in a tree in the center of the creek where a backwater marsh juts out to meet the main stem. It sat, barely moving, apart from the occasional glance around the area. A small group of common mergansers with a single female hooded merganser went sailing underneath where the eagle was perched. Neither seemed concerned with the other's presence.
- Jamie Collins

1/10 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: This afternoon an adult bald eagle joined the immature on a branch in the large red oak just outside my office. That's five sightings in five days, making for some fabulous viewing.
- David Cullen

1/10 - Beacon-Newburgh Bridge, HRM 62.3: Just before sunset, while crossing westbound on the Beacon-Newburgh Bridge, I was able to clearly witness a perihelion, known to sailors as a "sun dog." This is a form of halo consisting of an image of the sun at the same altitude and some distance from it, usually 22 degrees. The halos are caused by the refraction of light by ice crystals in the atmosphere.
- Robert Anderson

1/10 - Fishkill, HRM 61: This morning at first light, for the first time, there were three white-tailed bucks in my back yard. One, a good looking six-pointer, was bedded down; then along came a smaller four-pointer and a "spike" (two-pointer). The six-pointer got up and jousted with the four-pointer, easily forcing him back while the spike looked on. Last year we had a good-sized six-pointer but a much bigger eight-pointer as well. It was the largest I had seen in 32 years at my house. That one was very husky with a big neck and would have field-dressed out around 225 pounds.
- Lee Banner

1/10 - Beacon, HRM 61: Sunrise occurred one minute later this morning for the first time since June 18. I counted 40 common mergansers, both hens and drakes, handsome birds. The real show was watching the males "scoot" across the water to drive off other males - breeding hierarchies were being established in January. All the while, an adult bald eagle was perched overhead in an old cottonwood. He was not bothered by my presence and the ducks were apparently not concerned by his. 
- Tom Lake

1/10 - Verplanck, HRM 40.5: We met with other Saw Mill River Audubon members at Steamboat Dock in Verplanck for an eagle monitoring program. We noted black-backed gulls, common mergansers, ring-billed gulls, greater scaup and many Canada geese. When we had just about given up on our eagle search, we noticed a gorgeous adult perched high in a tree over a house overlooking the river. None of us had seen it flying in, and it just seemed to appear from nowhere to make our search worthwhile.
- Dorothy Ferguson, Bob Ferguson

[This tree, an oak that stands to the rear of those viewing the river in Verplanck, has frequently, for a decade or more, provided such a "ghost bird" sighting. Birders become so intent on watching the river that an eagle will slip into the tree, not a hundred feet away, and seem to magically appear when someone finally turns around. Tom Lake.]

1/11 - Saratoga County, HRM 180: In December 2012, a report came into the NYSBIRDS E-birds List of a northern hawk-owl sighting in Saratoga County. The bird was seen briefly but then not again, until this afternoon. This would be the first northern hawk-owl in Region 8 since 2003 in Montgomery County.
- Will Raup

1/11 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: We stood alongside the Metro North railroad tracks and watched David Cullen's Rabbit Island bald eagle, an adult, perched in his red oak. Moments later and a mile upstream (Wappinger Creek) another adult bald eagle sat at the very edge of the ice not more than a hundred feet from a Canada goose and seven common mergansers.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

[This is an enduring mystery of avian predator-and-prey behavior: There are times when pandemonium will break out in flocks of waterfowl with even the suggestion of an eagle's presence. Then there are times when ducks and geese will show no signs of agitation with an eagle close at hand. There must be some form of predator-prey non-verbal communication indicating a well-fed raptor. Tom Lake.] 

1/11 - Chelsea, HRM 65.2: While sitting near the Chelsea Yacht Club, I saw one lone snow goose slowly drifting north with the incoming current. Its head only turned when it heard the unmistakable call of a kingfisher that kept moving from boat mast to tree and back.
- Andra Sramek

1/12 - Schodack Island, HRM 133: This afternoon, I watched a pair of bald eagles perched side-by-side, chirping eagle-sweet-nothings, and then later carrying a large stick to somewhere off in the distance to the east where, perhaps, they were building a nest.
- Rich Guthrie

[I have noticed over the last decade or more, that eagle pairs have been starting their spring housekeeping at their nests earlier and earlier. It used to be early February; now it is not uncommon to see them fussing about in mid-to-late December. I'm sure they sense minute changes much better than we do. Climate change? Tom Lake.]

1/12 - Farmer's Landing, HRM 67: Even in an age of sophisticated electronic navigation, fog horns from commercial vessels could be heard all day on the river. The warm air created an eerie "moorish" fog that rose off the snow fields along the river.
- Tom Lake

1/12 - Town of Fishkill, HRM 63.5: After splitting black oak into firewood, I ended up with a nice pile of flat-headed grubs that had been hibernating under the bark of the wood. I made a nice grub pile on my driveway; about 30 minutes later a flock of eight robins found them and gobbled them all down. Another minute later, all were gone: grubs and well-fed robins.
- Andra Sramek

1/12 - Blooming Grove, HRM55: I had a red-winged blackbird at the bird feeder this morning and it has been back several times. It was strange to see the snow on the ground, dense fog surrounding our area, and a red-winged blackbird on the feeder. What season are we in?
- Carol Coddington

1/12 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: Often in the past month the driveways and walks have been spattered with maple sap. All the twigs and limbs shattered by Hurricane Sandy were responding to the weather. If I planned to make syrup this year, the buckets would have been hung on New Year's Day. Yet, for many decades, local tradition was to tap on President's Day, more than a month later. Watching the ice go out in mist and fog, I wondered if I've blown my chances for this winter.
- Christopher Letts

1/13 - Farmer’s Landing, HRM 67: This was day two of the great fog. The water was 34 degrees Fahrenheit and the air twenty degrees warmer. We could hear the clear sounds of geese, ducks, and freight trains but could see nothing beyond a hundred feet.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

1/13 - Westchester County, HRM 43: I was coming back from walking the dog at Mohegan Lake at O-dark-thirty in the morning and heard a familiar sound: spring peepers in my front yard!
- Marnie Miller-Keas

1/13 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: On my way back from the compost pile today, I was peering and peeking, looking at all the beds to see what has been fooled by the weather. Daffodils were up as much as ten inches, and some tender perennials never completely died back. The big surprise came as I was filling the bird feeders yesterday and saw that a dozen or more snowdrops were up and booming. Climate change?
- Christopher Letts

1/14 - Farmer's Landing, HRM 67: On day three of the big fog, it now threatened to lift. A huge and low-hanging fog bank obscured the river for more than two miles from Chelsea north to New Hamburg. Well above the fog, blue sky was developing. The fog bank in front parted just long enough for us to spot a large raft of common mergansers, no fewer than 75 birds. On one end was a pair of common goldeneyes and on the other end a lone canvasback. In that brief interlude when the fog parted, we thought that we counted a dozen bald eagles scattered along a mile of shoreline from Soap Hill upriver to Cedarcliff. Through the binoculars, however, the "birds" revealed themselves to be small patches of snow nestled in the hillside.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

1/14 - Town of Fishkill, HRM 63.5: In mid-afternoon the air temperature topped out at about 50 degrees F. With the snow melting and the soil not even close to being frozen, I finished planting my 60 hyacinth and 30 daffodil bulbs, all of which I meant to plant in October.
- Andra Sramek

1/14 - Fishkill, HRM 61: On this relatively warm January night (44 degrees F), while in my yard in a heavily wooded area of the town, I could hear the low hooting call of a great horned owl. It had been nearly 20 years since I have last heard the "Hoo Hoo Hoo, Hoo Hoo Hoo" in my neighborhood. A while later as I emerged from my vehicle, I saw a medium-sized, rufous-colored bird flying across the beam of my headlights. It flew in the fashion of a whippoorwill in pursuit of insects from the white pines adjacent to the driveway. But, being January, it was more likely an eastern screech owl.
- Ed Spaeth

1/14 - Bear Mountain Bridge, HRM 46: What a foggy morning! A unseen ship had been leaning on its horn for about ten minutes as it worked its way north under the Bear Mountain Bridge when, seemingly out of nowhere, the Glorious Morning, a 500-foot-long dry bulk freighter came ghosting out of the fog. I heard her continue to grope her way north through the Hudson Highlands for a long time afterwards.
- Scott Craven

WINTER 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
January 19 - 2:00 PM
Discover Norrie Walk: Winter Wonders with DEC Naturalist Jim Herrington at Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free; family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

February 2 - 12:00 noon
Looking for Bald Eagles with DEC Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist Tom Lake at Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free; family-friendly, all ages. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

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 E-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@aol.com . To sign up to receive the E-Almanac (or to unsubscribe), send an email message to hrep@gw.dec.state.ny.us and write E-Almanac in the subject line.

Weekly issues are archived at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/25611.html . The DEC website's search engine can find species, locations, and other data in the archives.

The Hudson River Estuary Program has an e-newsletter! Stay connected by subscribing to RiverNet, which covers projects, events and actions related to the Hudson and its watershed.www.dec.ny.gov/lands/76018.html

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. For a free, no-obligation issue go tohttp://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html

USEFUL LINKS
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tide predictions are available online athttp://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=62 NOAA’s 2012 tidal current predictions are at http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents12/ .

For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from eight monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website athttp://www.hrecos.org .

Historical information on the movements of the salt front in the Hudson estuary is presented by the U.S. Geological Survey: http://ny.water.usgs.gov/projects/dialer_plots/saltfront.html .

Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website athttp://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@catskill.net