Green Guru Network

Dan Shapley

Riverkeeper

On Saturday, May 11, more than 1,380 volunteers removed over 36 tons of trash from more than 70 shorelines, and planted 300 trees and shrubs.

We are incredibly proud of you for making the 2nd annual Riverkeeper Sweep live up to its mission as a the biggest day of service for the Hudson River.

As part of the Waterkeeper Alliance SPLASH series, presented nationally by Toyota, we’re connected to volunteers and advocates nationwide, all stepping up this spring and summer to highlight ways we can make our waterways healthier for wildlife, and safer for swimming, fishing and drinking.

The bottom line: Our river, its estuary and its watershed are cleaner today, because of YOU!

So what’s next? Stay involved. The Riverkeeper Sweep happens once a year but the river needs you all year round.

Do you want fish that are abundant—and safe to eat? Do you want water that is consistently safe for swimming?

Working together, we can make it so.

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

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

OVERVIEW
Winter brings a focus on birds and that was particularly true this week with the annual Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Census. Yet it was not all eagles, as birds come in many flavors from owls to winter finches and waterfowl. Collectively they provide us with a ready-made measure of the season. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
1/7 - Clinton Corners, HRM 85: When I came into work at Upton Lake Christian School today, there were six crows at my bird feeders, but they were mobbing something. It turned out to be a long-eared owl that was sitting on a window sill of the school. Two red-shouldered hawks were mobbing the owl as well. The owl stuck around for several hours, allowing many students and staff members to see the bird. What a way to start the day and also a great science sighting for my classes. (Long-eared owl photo by Matt Merchant.)
- Jim Clinton

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES
1/1 - Newcomb, HRM 302: We began the New Year with air temperatures maxing out in the teens and eighteen beautiful inches of snow on the ground. Our feeder birds included a large flock of common redpolls and American tree sparrows, as well as a male and female northern cardinal. It appears that the cardinals are here for the winter. I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen a cardinal in Newcomb, so having a pair settling in for the winter is noteworthy. Other species at the feeder were the usual suspects, as well as a sharp-shinned hawk that gave a new meaning to the term "bird feeder."
- Charlotte Demers

1/1 - Coxsackie, HRM 124: I came across an enormous flock of snow buntings on River Road just north of the Village of Coxsackie. Getting a number on the size of this swarm was difficult because they were so flighty. I'd put a conservative estimate at around 600. They just kept flowing onto the road surface and shoulders until the next vehicle went by. Then they'd flow out as a black-and-white ribbon cloud rising and dipping across the fields. There were a few horned larks mixed in.
There were several Lapland longspurs on Flint Mine Road today and very dark savannah sparrows were there as well. Doing a little research on that species leads me to believe these birds might be from the northeastern Canada population, or from the Hudson Bay-Manitoba populations known, respectively, as "Labrador" savannah sparrow and "Churchill" savannah sparrow.
- Rich Guthrie

1/1 - Ulster Park, HRM 87: Three flying squirrels visited our feeder today to say "Happy New Year," following a couple of strong-wind nights without them.
- Peter Relson

1/1 - Wappinger Falls, HRM 67.5: While I wait for my first of the season, Tammie Carey had a common redpoll at her feeder today.
- Tom Lake

1/1 - Town of Warwick, HRM 44: Charlie Roberto, Kyle Bardwell and I spent a few hours in Black Dirt Country. A short eared owl was at Indiana Road (good New Year’s Day bird)!  We also had five rough legged hawks (both bark and light phases), at least a dozen harriers (including three "gray ghost" males, one killdeer, 200+ horned larks with about 30 snow buntings mixed in, five or six common redpolls (a lifer for Kyle and me), and lots of white-crowned and some savannah sparrows.  (Short-eared owl photo by Charlie Roberto.)
- Larry Tractenberg

1/1 - Westchester County, HRM 43-34: I found nine bald eagles along this reach of the river south of China Pier in Peekskill. It was a pretty sure sign that the recent snowy, cold weather had dislodged birds from farther up the Hudson Valley and sent them on down to us.
- Christopher Letts

1/1 - Croton Point, HRM 35: I took a walk around Croton Point this morning and stopped to watch a female northern harrier hunting over the fields. Waterfowl seemed sparse; there were a few mallards and a drake bufflehead on the west side of the point.
- Steve Seymour

1/1 - Croton Point, HRM 34: The great Aldo Leopold called it "goose music" and who could argue? For the past two days, flock after flock of Canada geese has announced themselves, appeared, passed over, and crossed the river, on their way to Delaware Bay (my guess). These were large flocks, almost always well over 100 birds, and not interested in stopping for a snack. On the model plane flying field there was another New Year's pleasure: two dozen horned larks wheeled in and poked through the grass only a dozen yards from me. It has been several years since I had the pleasure, and I took a long fifteen minutes just to watch.
- Christopher Letts

1/2 - Schodack Island, HRM 135: While aboard the 12:05 PM Amtrak south from Albany, I saw a cluster of bald eagles - immatures and at least one adult - crouched on the broken ice between Schodack Island and the east bank of the river.  I could not get a good count from the train but my guess is that there were six, maybe more.
- Barbara Heinzen

1/2 - Germantown, HRM 108: I came upon a flock of about twenty snow buntings feeding on the roadside in mid-afternoon. They moved a bit like starlings and shore birds, stopping to feed, rising and flocking, landing again, and repeating that behavior for the half mile or so that I was able to follow them.
- Mimi Brauch

1/2 - Staatsburg, HRM 86: As I approached the first small bay just down from the Mills Mansion at the Mills-Norrie State Park, I looked up to see an adult bald eagle gliding across just above me and beyond the nearby trees. When I reached the beach I looked back to see that the bird was now perched in a tree overlooking the river. A little while later a second bald eagle, this time an immature, flew over as I walked through the forest.
-  Jamie Collins

1/2 - Hyde Park, HRM 80: While leaving the Culinary Institute in late afternoon, I spotted two bald eagles straight overhead. One was an immature and the other was an adult. As they flew together and flapped their big wings, they seemed to be playing, with a little bit of tossing and turning in the air, little bits of the acrobatics that we'd seen so many times with winter eagles.
- Andra Sramek

1/2 - Walden, HRM 65: As I stepped out for my late night star-gazing, I was delighted to hear the loud plaintive call of great horned owls in nearby trees. It was too hazy for stars, but the owls' calls were reward enough in the frigid air. "Who's Awake? Me, too!" went back and forth, sometimes with one refrain starting up before the other had finished. I couldn't locate the silhouettes, but the conversation was fascinating.
- Patricia Henighan

1/2 - West Point, HRM 51: As I snow-shoed up the trail to Redoubt #1, I spotted lots of tracks in the snow but no wildlife other than squirrels. On the way down, however, I spooked a platoon (seven) of white-tailed deer returning from a raid in Highland Falls. About half of them raced up the hill toward Stony Lonesome; the others jumped over the cyclone fence and returned to the village.
- Dick Renfro

1/2 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: On this, the coldest morning for at least a year, I tried to walk fast (walk fast; stay warm) but there were distractions. On the landfill, a kestrel, a harrier, and a dozen meadowlarks were all worth my attention. An immature bald eagle flapped past with lots of white on its breast and a white mantle, probably a three-year-old. Near the model plane flying field, same place as yesterday, I found two dozen horned larks. I do not recall seeing them here before this year. Close by were a dozen pipits, another kestrel that was perch hunting, and another harrier rocking and rolling in the stiff breeze.
- Christopher Letts

1/3 - Selkirk, HRM 135: Out at the woodshed this morning it was three degrees below zero. The sky was clear with the third quarter moon heading west. It also appeared that the Hudson River was frozen from shore-to-shore. It was very cold.
- Roberta S. Jeracka

1/3 - Ulster Park, HRM 87: As I drove to work, paralleling a small, half-iced stream, an angular black shape caught my eye. Was it a duck? Was it a crow? No, it was a mink on the ice just next to the open water. It rested a little and then picked up a small fish that was on the ice, presumably freshly caught, and scampered away.
- Peter Relson

1/3 - George's Island, HRM 39: I had not prepared well for the bitter cold this morning (ten below zero) and ended up doing my morning rounds behind the steering wheel. My nine-mile eagle survey of the Westchester County shoreline came up empty. At George's Island, I spotted a kettle of eight black vultures - flap, flap, flap - slowly rising in what must have been a very weak thermal.
- Christopher Letts

1/3 - Croton Point, HRM 34.5: A week ago Kyle Bardwell and I got a great photo of a barred owl perched on a broken snag with light snow falling. We had been seeing barred owls there on and off since end of November, as well as some eastern screech owls and resident great horned owls. I stopped to look today but could not find the barred owl. There were pipits and a kestrel on the landfill as well as a hunting harrier. 
- Larry Trachtenberg

1/4 - Beacon, HRM 61: It was bitterly cold this morning as I took a walk along the Klara Sauer Trail. As I walked north along the trail an adult bald eagle went flying south toward Denning's Point. Close by a pair of ravens were being very vocal as they circled around the area and a short time later two black vultures came gliding over heading east. Upstream on Fishkill Creek at Madam Brett Park, I was treated to two more bald eagles, an adult and an immature, circling the sky above me. The immature had an almost completely white tail and a lot of white feathers across its belly and all over its wings, likely a three-year-old.
- Jamie Collins

1/4 - Fishkill, HRM 61: Many birds had flocked to my feeders this morning and several were busy feeding on the seeds on the snow-covered ground. Suddenly, there was a flurry of feathers as birds were flying every which way in their attempts to flee a sharp-shinned hawk that had silently descended into their midst. One unlucky dark-eyed junco was unable to reach cover fast enough.  The sharp-shinned hawk briefly held its prey to the snow, and then carried it off to have its meal.
- Ed Spaeth

1/4 - Beacon, HRM 61: Five crows, quietly roosting in the bare trees along the train tracks at Riverside Park in mid-afternoon, all went into a frenzy - squawking loudly and mobbing a red-tailed hawk that came to roost nearby. The hawk was unperturbed and totally ignored them.
- Ed Spaeth

1/4 - Croton River, HRM 34: In a span of thirty minutes, five bald eagles flapped over. The dim light precluded the chance to determine their ages. A pair of hooded mergansers decorated the far shore of the Croton River.
- Christopher Letts

1/5 - Croton Point, HRM 35: The flock of horned larks seemed to favor the south end of the model plane "flying strip," attracted to the closely cropped grass. At least, that is where I have found them half a dozen times over the past few days. At least one kestrel and two harriers were still present, as well as many pipits.
- Christopher Letts

1/6 - Staatsburg, HRM 86: We've been enjoying four common redpolls - one male and three females - at our feeders, a first in 23 years of backyard feeder watching. While the numbers of house finches are back to what they were in the early 1990s, we have at least one male and one female with one eye swollen shut, an indication that the conjunctivitis that made them disappear for about ten years is still around. We're wiping down the feeder every day, hoping it helps keep the infection from spreading.
- Linda Lund, David Lund

1/6 - Pleasant Valley, HRM 75: We took advantage of this beautiful winter day to do some cross-country skiing at the Taconic Hereford Multiple Use Area, an activity which we sorely missed last year. I was thrilled to see the usual little visitors on the snow - winter stoneflies and snow fleas. There were some areas where the springtails made the snow dark with their presence.  Watching them hop about is, for me, just as much fun as skiing!
- Cornelia Harris

[Members of a group of insects called springtails, snow fleas (Hypogastrura nivicola) have a little forked tail (furcula) that they fold under their body and use to spring up many times their body length. Their bodies contain a protein that acts as a natural antifreeze, allowing them to be active on top of snow where on warm days they're easy to spot, looking like animated bits of black pepper. Tom Lake.]

1/6 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 35: A trim shape flew straight to perch in one of the oak trees that Hurricane Sandy left standing at the edge of my property.  Facing into the sunlight, I saw only a silhouette and could not identify the bird. The shape of the body and its pointed head, beak, and overall size, suggested a Cooper's hawk.  There were quite a few in the nearby woods.  As I flipped through my field guide it left, just as a huge bird took off from the edge of the reservoir. The bird slowly flapped its wings a couple of times into a shaft of sunlight.  A big eagle! With a white head and white tail feathers, it was an adult. It gained height and headed off toward the Hudson.
- Robin Fox

1/6 - Croton Point, HRM 34.5: The Point was not as active today as it had been in the past couple of weeks. Two kestrels were on the landfill and four common goldeneyes were feeding far off the swimming beach. That, plus half a dozen horned larks near the flying field, was all that I could say grace over this morning. 
- Christopher Letts

1/6 - New York Harbor, Lower Bay: A New York Harbor eco-cruise for New York City Audubon yielded a rich assortment of species. It was a two-hour trip out past the Verrazano Narrows to Swinburne and Hoffman Islands and back. It was unseasonably warm and calm as we sailed through Buttermilk Channel, stopped in Erie Basin in Red Hook, and then continued out through the Narrows. Erie Basin yielded several brant, gadwall, red-breasted mergansers, buffleheads, and a great cormorant. Near the Verrazano Bridge, we had a red-throated loon and a peregrine falcon. Along Hoffman Island we encountered several more buffleheads, some greater scaup, and three fly-by Bonaparte's Gulls. I was surprised to spot great numbers of long-tailed ducks at Swinburne Island, at least 40 birds, most of which were males. We also spotted two or three red-throated loons and a couple of common loons, and were treated to close views of several adult northern gannets flying right by the boat. The highlight: at least a dozen harbor seals bobbing curiously around the boat.
- Gabriel Willow

1/7 - Hudson River Valley: Today was the 35th annual New York State Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Census. It was sunny with a blue sky and only the snow on the uplands could masquerade the white heads and tails of adult bald eagles. Since the bald eagle was de-listed as an endangered species in 2007, coupled with an apparent strengthening of their numbers in the Northeast, there does not seem to be quite the sense of urgency in verifying their presence. However, this does not deter from our love of the count. Our final tally for the day would be 33 eagles from river mile 102 south to 34. From experience, given the vagaries of human observation and limited access to many areas, that number probably represented fewer than half of the eagles in attendance across those 68 miles.  
- Tom Lake

1/7 - Saugerties, HRM 102: Half an hour after high tide this morning, five bald eagles (three adults and two immature) were clustered together on an ice floe in the cove northwest of the Saugerties Lighthouse. Meanwhile, two more adult eagles perched together in a treetop on the jetty southwest of the lighthouse, watching a flock of common mergansers in the mouth of Esopus Creek. We had seven eagles total, all within a few hundred yards of the lighthouse.
- Patrick Landewe

1/7 - Stanfordville, HRM 84: I tag-teamed with my friend Adrienne today searching for eagles because we both bird the same area and knew our birds appear at various times throughout the day at our local pond. Our final count was two adults and two immatures. While the pond is now frozen, it is surrounded by a stocked game preserve of which - no doubt - the eagles take advantage since they are twenty miles east of the Hudson River.
- Debi Kral

1/7 - Annandale-on-Hudson, HRM 99: Right after Hurricane Sandy, a lone snow goose appeared just off Buttock's Island in Tivoli South Bay. It looked pretty bedraggled, and stuck it out through the fall and into December. Bard College students enjoyed seeing the bird and photographing it. I went out today along the South Bay hoping without much hope that it would still be there. It wasn't. I stood on the island enjoying watching two immature bald eagles as they scared up ring-billed gulls and one great blue heron. I walked south and there, to my amazement, was the snow goose, loitering near the mouth of the Saw Kill.
- Susan Fox Rogers

1/7 - Poughquag, Town of Beekman, HRM 71: I saw two immature bald eagles off Route 216 today. A few weeks ago, we spotted an adult bald eagle on a deer carcass in the same field. The area is over the mountain from Nuclear Lake and Whaley Lake in Pawling, where eagles are regular visitors.
- Patti Mackay

1/7 - Hudson River, HRM 68-58: The thermometer read 35 degrees Fahrenheit at dawn with a clear sky and light winds. A good day for counting eagles, if they were here. The first handicap of winter eagle counting is open water. Floe ice draws the birds from their often hidden niches in riverside trees and gets them out where they can be seen and counted, but there was no ice on the estuary today for at least the first 80 miles upriver. Across ten miles and over two hours, I found four adults, all of whom could have been local birds from at least two nests in that reach of the river.
- Tom Lake

1/7 - West Point, HRM 51: I was out walking along the river at noon when I spotted four common loons out on the river off the South Dock.  There were two groups of two, widely spaced. 
- Doug Gallagher

1/7 - Westchester County, HRM 43-34: With a reporter and photographer in tow, we canvassed the nine-mile reach of the river from China Pier south to the Croton River counting eagles. We began at Croton Point where five eagles had night-roosted: two adults, two immature, and a three-year-old on the verge of adulthood. At Oscawana, another three-year-old flew past, 100 feet over the water and moving fast. At George's Island, a bird came in from the east and perched on Dogan Point. The spotting scope revealed the dingy white head and tail of yet another three-year-old. At Verplanck, an adult was perched in a tall locust alongside a residential driveway not 150 feet from our viewing station. Across the river over Stony Point in Rockland County two more eagles wheeled over the treetops. At Lent's Cove in Peekskill, an adult was perched in a riverside oak. Finally, we pulled into the parking lot at China Pier in Peekskill, more to see the great cormorants than for any other reason, but there were two immatures circling high over Peekskill Bay. It was a pleasant morning with thirteen bald eagles.
- Christopher Letts

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

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
The year ended with ten days of winter birds, emerging ice, and feelings of renewal right around the corner. The impetus for avian migration came from a mid-week snowstorm that left up to fifteen inches of snow in the watershed. 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
12/22 - Milan, HRM 90: There have been several bobcat encounters, both sight and sound, along the quiet road where I live. The latest was at 7:00 PM this evening when a neighbor reported that as he was driving home he had to stop because two bobcats appeared to be playing together on the road.  He was able to watch them for awhile before one moved quickly off the road into the brush and was followed shortly by the second cat.
- Frank Margiotta

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES
12/22 - Wappinger Falls, HRM 67.5: I watched for a while as a gorgeous hen common merganser repeatedly dove on what I assumed were fish. She finally surfaced with a pumpkinseed sunfish in her serrated bill.
- Debi Kral  

12/22 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: It was well after dark and snow flurries were in the air. The trees along the pathway were listing from the strong northerlies and from them I could hear one of the most haunting sounds of the season: winter winds rushing through conifers. 
- Tom Lake

12/23 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: I was driving home in mid-afternoon when I spotted a flight of vultures. I was able to both count (22) and identify them (black vultures) as they flew from northwest to southeast. What a nice Christmas present!
- Andra Sramek

12/23 - Hammond's Point, HRM 60: From the window of our speeding commuter train we were able to spot two immature bald eagles lounging in a cottonwood near the mouth of Fishkill Creek. Were these winter birds or locals? There had not yet been any real motivation for Canadian eagles to move this far south for the winter.
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson

12/23 - Croton Point, HRM 36: While there is nothing like a flock of bluebirds to lift the spirit, a flock of 40 American pipits will suffice. I walked the bathing beach and picked up a dozen splits of stove wood, washed down from who knows where, to be burned in the wood stove when I have time to watch the fire and consider the matter.
- Christopher Letts

12/23 - Bronx-Westchester County: The Bronx-Westchester County Christmas Bird Count tallied a preliminary total of 126 species that tied for the highest number seen on this 89-year count. Three new species were found: the barnacle goose in Van Cortlandt Park; a magnolia warbler at Wave Hill in the Bronx; and two clay-colored sparrows, one in Pelham Bay Park and one at Marshlands Conservancy in Rye.
- Michael Bochnik

12/23 - Brooklyn, New York City: A morning sea watch at the boardwalk at 35th Street in Coney Island was fairly interesting, although there wasn't a ton of diversity. The recent influx of long-tailed ducks continued as I watched about 350 fly west toward Gravesend Bay, and saw many others in the water and flying around. I also had two separate razorbills fly by close to shore, heading west
- Doug Gochfeld

12/24 - Town of Esopus, HRM 87: On Christmas Eve we were driving north on route 9W and received a lovely gift from nature: an adult bald eagle was flying in lazy circles 150 feet above the roadway. We watched it from our car for about 30 seconds. Then the bird dipped its wing, nodded its head in our direction as if to make a greeting, and soared off toward the river.
- Mark Moriarty, Linda Moriarty

12/24 - Stanfordville, HRM 84: I had stopped by Tamarack for some landscape pictures when I spotted a red-tailed hawk sitting high in a tree. Suddenly, a huge bird seemed to come out of nowhere and started flying toward me: an immature bald eagle. The hawk, on territory, flew over to drive the eagle away. What a thrill to watch! Both birds returned to their "corners": the hawk to its tree on the north side; the eagle to the "eagle tree" (a big oak) on the south side of the pond.
- Debi Kral

12/24 - Croton Point, HRM 34.5: A kestrel that I had been seeing for a while was hunting this morning on the windward edge of the landfill. When a special bird stays this long in the season, I always hope that it will winter.
- Christopher Letts

12/25 - Fulton County, HRM 209: On my way to the North Country, I was rewarded with excellent views of thirteen pine grosbeaks in Queensbury this afternoon. The birds had been reported in the general area, feeding on the numerous crab apple trees surrounding the Queensbury Middle School.
- Derek Rogers

12/26 - Rensselaer County, HRM 135: Three snow geese were present at the intersection of Schodack Landing Road and Muitzeskill Road where many had been reported earlier in December. We also counted five northern harriers hunting the nearby fields (four females and one male).
- Jesse Jaycox

12/26 - Rhinebeck, HRM 90: There had been very few birds and very few species at the thistle feeder beyond my deck, but this morning there were three common redpolls eating together - a welcome change from the chickadees, juncos, and occasional goldfinch. Maybe I just happened to look out the window at the right time.
- Phyllis Marsteller

12/26 - Rhinecliff, HRM 88: We were sitting in the car alongside the tracks and the Hudson near Rhinecliff when two gorgeous adult bald eagles flew twenty feet over us. I fell out of the car, tangled in the seatbelt, trying to take a photograph. I had never been that close.
- Debi Kral

12/26 - Red Hook, HRM 96.5: While on the Ulster-Dutchess Christmas Bird Count, my birding partner and I spotted a merlin at Greig Farms. There was also a female northern harrier "quarter-hunting" over the fields. The merlin landed on a utility pole and, at first, with a sidelong glance, I thought it was a pigeon (is that why it was once called the pigeon hawk?). As I got out of the car to double-check, the bird, clearly a merlin, took off southwest across the fields in very swift, direct flight. We lost sight of it but took off in the direction of the bird to try to relocate it. Later we found it perched high atop a tall tree, tearing apart an unidentified songbird.
- Fred Baumgarten

[Merlins are one of three falcons that we see with regularity in the Hudson Valley. In the 1934 edition of the Roger Tory Peterson Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America, the merlin is referred to as the eastern pigeon hawk. The two others are the peregrine falcon (duck hawk) and the kestrel (sparrow hawk). Peterson offered these common names as a guide to each falcon's preferred prey size. Tom Lake.]

12/27 - Newcomb, HRM 302: Yesterday's storm dropped at least fifteen inches of snow on the High Peaks of the Adirondacks.
- Charlotte Demers

12/27 - Rensselaer County, HRM 139: The bird feeders in Stephentown were mobbed following the snowstorm. Common redpolls have been present for a week or more and have been increasing in number from two or three to now more than 40. They are usually at the feeder first thing in the morning and then gone for the rest of the day. But today they hung around all day. We counted 42 common redpolls with ten to twelve house finches and a few chickadees, juncos, and goldfinches mixed in. In addition to feeding on sunflower seed, the redpolls were stripping catkins from the white birch tree next to the feeders.
- Jesse Jaycox

12/27 - Milan, HRM 90: We got about seven inches of snow with a coating of ice from the storm. The usual suspects were at the feeders: juncos, cardinals, blue jays, hairy, downy, and red-bellied woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees, brown creepers, crows, and one wild turkey. Turkey numbers have been way down this year. I keep the feeders full - it's a full time job with the squirrels.
- Marty Otter

12/27 - Wappinger Creek, HRM 67.5:  I counted fourteen common mergansers, an even split of hens and drakes, on Wappinger Creek. There was a very thin icy covering across most of it.
- Jamie Collins

12/27 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: We received four inches of extremely heavy, wet slushy snow from the storm on Rabbit Island. The wooden handle of a snow shovel snapped in half under the weight. The storm contributed to a very high river level at high tide. Hooded mergansers circled around the island and rested on the rock swale at the south edge.
- David Cullen

[Like hurricanes, nor'easters can cause storm surge and storm tides. As shown by the green line in this graph from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's tide gauge at the Battery in New York City (visit http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/geo.shtml?location=8518750; in Products column click on Preliminary Water Level), the December 26-27 nor'easter pushed a five foot storm surge into the estuary. Fortunately, the surge peaked at low tide; flooding would have been more severe if the surge had occurred at high tide. Steve Stanne.]

12/27 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 35: The much anticipated snow storm dropped slushy, wet stuff. The birds were feeding non-stop and the squirrels were racing through the tree tops as if they didn't want to get their feet wet.
- Robin Fox

12/27 - Manhattan, New York City: An unlikely American woodcock was seen dodging traffic and theater-leaving pedestrians this evening in the area of Manhattan's Eighth Avenue and 45th Streets.
- Keith Michael

12/28 - Milan, HRM 90: It has been awhile since we've had a large flock of common redpolls at our feeders. There were more than twenty birds in a feeding frenzy from feeder to feeder (thistle, platform, sunflower). They did not stay around long and were very difficult to check because of all the movement. I had one good look at an adult male: deep pink on the breast. Probably the others were first year, female and other males. It would have been nice to identify a hoary redpoll in with the nomadic flock.
- Frank Margiotta

12/28 - Verbank, HRM 82: I was heading home on Oak Summit Road when I had to quickly stop the car for a double-take: perched in a tree alongside the road was an adult bald eagle.
- Debi Kral

12/28 - Wappinger Falls, HRM 67.5: While walking to Wappinger Lake today, my wife pointed up to the sky at a bird and asked me what it was. I looked up to see an immature snowy owl gliding quite low above us, heading southward. It was low enough that I could see some barring on the underside of the wings and breast.
- Jamie Collins, Leena Collins

12/29 - Minerva, HRM 284: We received fourteen inches of nice dry snow from the other day's storm, on top of four inches of previous white stuff. Snow was needed and was very much appreciated here in the Gore Mountain region. It's snowing pretty hard again today and we have a fresh five inches on the ground with several more inches expected. The dogs and I, and our fine Korean student, Woo Seok, got out on the snowshoes this afternoon. It was Woo's first time on snowshoes and it was great (I highly recommend snowshoes whether you have a foot or only five inches of snow).
- Mike Corey

12/29 - North Germantown HRM 108. During light snowfall in the late afternoon, I was cross-country skiing along the Hudson south of Lasher Park. Cross country skiing doesn't make a lot of noise, but it was enough to disturb a large flock of Canada geese sheltering in the lee of the steep brushy bank. Alerted by their honking, I skied through the heavy brush to the bank to take a picture which, unfortunately, only disturbed them more. Upriver and downriver the geese barely moved, but right by me they went out about a hundred feet forming a perfect arc, with me at the center. There were far too many to count, but my best guess was 300.
- Kaare Christian

12/29 - New Paltz, HRM 78: It began snowing in late morning and birds started mobbing the feeders, knocking each other off the perches, so we threw black oil sunflower seeds on the ground as well. A very large flock of Canada geese was sitting in the snow in the Wallkill River flood plain, hunkering down waiting for the snow to stop.
- Lynn Bowdery

12/30 - Stanfordville, HRM 84: I have had a pileated woodpecker in my yard for the last couple of years. This morning he seemed to like the black cherry tree, feeding on some insects in the bark and making a large hole in it. I saw what looked like mating behavior last spring, with two large woodpeckers circling the tree, clinging to the bark.
- Nancy Clancy

12/30 - Town of Fishkill, HRM 63.5: While shoveling on a cold, windy, partly cloudy morning, I could hear Canada geese approaching from way overhead. I looked up to see, not the usual "V" formation of geese flying south, but an actual "W" of geese with two leaders pointing the way by being positioned right in the center. I've never seen anything like that. There had to be a couple of hundred birds. Fifteen minutes later a usual "V" formation was overhead with another flock heading south as well.
- Andra Sramek

12/30 - Orange County, HRM 44: We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon checking out several "hot spots," expecting that the recent cold and ground-covering snow would have brought in some long-expected arrivals. Near Goshen, we picked up two snow buntings flying in time with our car; they landed on the road's edge as we slowed down to enjoy them. In the Pine Island area we ran into a flock of 120 horned larks and with them seven snow buntings and two Lapland longspurs.
- Ken McDermott, Steve Schuyler

12/30 - Pleasantville, HRM 32: A large flock of vultures has made the historic district of Pleasantville its winter home, soaring overhead and roosting on trees and rooftops right in the center of town. We counted the flock as numbering at least 80. It contained a 50:50 mix of turkey vultures and the much more recently range-expanding black vultures that used to be a southern species. We wonder how so many individuals get enough to eat; they must range far and wide to find road-killed animals to scavenge.
- Joe Wallace, Sharon AvRutick

12/31 - Fulton County, HRM 209: A friend and I went to look for the pine grosbeaks [see 12/25] in Queensbury, checking several of the areas where they had been reported, but came up empty handed. We eventually found seventeen pine grosbeaks on a trail behind the Adirondack Community College before a sharp-shinned hawk flushed the birds away. Further on we saw several pine grosbeaks, many cedar waxwings plus one possible Bohemian waxwing, and a bluebird. A while later, twenty miles south at Northumberland, two birders reported seeing a greater white-fronted goose.
- Jesse Jaycox

12/31 - Kinderhook, HRM 135: Birding from our car in midday, we spotted a light phase rough-legged hawk perched in a tree at the side of the road. As we drove further on to a straightaway where we could turn, a flock of about 50 snow buntings fed at the road's edge before flying into an adjacent field. A little further on, a kestrel was perched on a telephone pole. When we finally returned to the rough-legged hawk, it lifted off, showing a pale belly, so perhaps it was an adult male.
- Danny Lynch, Clellie Lynch

12/31 - Hillsdale, HRM 119: Today and for the last week, we have had a small flock of common redpolls at our feeder. The sun glinting off that violet-red spot on their head is spectacular. We also were visited by a grackle that gulped a few pieces of suet and then moved on.
- Bob Schmidt, Kathy Schmidt

12/31 - George's Island, HRM 39: The white head feathers of a bald eagle are unmistakable, but a sighting from a hundred yards away, with the bird sheltered among branches, made it less certain. I did not want to paddle my kayak any closer to be sure and I was also thinking that it could be a patch of snow on a branch. But then an immature eagle flew over me and landed in the same tree, where the two birds began to speak "eagle" to each other.
- Stephen Butterfass

12/31 – Oscawana, HRM 38.5: We were so excited to spot our first bald eagle of the season at Oscawana Point today. Although the lakes and ponds have been frozen in this area, we didn't know if our winter eagles had arrived yet from up north, but are now hopeful that this was one of the visitors. Our sighting was a beautiful adult bird, silhouetted against the gray afternoon sky, as it perched on a high branch over the point. The river was serene and glassy, unlike yesterday's roiling white-capped water. What a perfect way to end 2012!
- Dorothy Ferguson, Bob Ferguson

12/31 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34:  The new snow on the Point was laced with coyote tracks from end-to-end. After a protracted delay due to warm weather, wintering eagles might be starting to move south. An immature was perched on the Point today. Three eastern meadowlarks were feeding up on the landfill as a kestrel watched from a well marker. The bathing beach was a barren, tide-swept, frozen moonscape, where several small flocks of pipits were foraging. A single snow bunting was having a lonely morning and a killdeer flushed ahead of me several times as I walked the length of the beach.
- Christopher Letts

WINTER 2013 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS
January 7-8
The thirty-fifth annual New York State Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Census. If you have the opportunity, e-mail us reports of any bald eagle sightings on these two days. Please specify date, location, adult/immature, as well as details and context if they add to the sighting. Tom Lake trlake7@aol.com

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 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

Riverkeeper

Today Riverkeeper released our second comprehensive report on sewage in the Hudson. We have been testing water quality along the 155-mile Hudson River Estuary since 2006 and have analyzed over 2300 samples to date.

We find that the Hudson continues to suffer from sewage contamination but the frequency and degree of contamination varies greatly location-by-location and at different times. You can see the water quality findings at each of our 74 Hudson sampling locations on our online database.

“How Is the Water?” compares regional water quality, in wet weather and dry, for the Capital District, Bear Mountain to Catskills, Westchester-Rockland and NY Harbor and the results may surprise you. We explain our water quality findings, discuss the different sources of the pollution, and provide concrete actions New York can take to reduce sewage contamination on our waterfronts. Take a look.

Summary of our key findings
 
View Full Report
    1. Water quality varies location by location.
    2. Water quality varies over time.
    3. Sites vary in both the degree (how high is the sewage concentration), and the frequency (how often does it occur) of contamination.
    4. Wet weather is a common trigger of sewage contamination.
    5. Sewage contamination is often higher near the shoreline and at the confluence of tributaries.

Riverkeeper’s Action Agenda
    1. Reinvest in Wastewater Infrastructure
    2. Enforce Existing Water Quality Protection Laws
    3. Improve NY State Water Quality Standards
    4. Engage Citizens in Local Solutions
    5. Start Frequent Water Quality Monitoring & Prediction
    6. Notify the Public of Sewage Contamination

Learn more
Support this program

 View Full Report

 

Compiled by Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

 

OVERVIEW

A major "blowout tide" produced some interesting observations, in particular an opportunity to see the bottom of the river where it is rarely seen. Huge flocks of blackbirds continue to move up the valley along the river, arriving days if not weeks early.

 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

2/26 - Yonkers, HRM18: The Science Barge crew set our eel mop about 300 feet upstream from where the Saw Mill River meets the Hudson. Chris Bowser and his crew pulled the eel mop four days ago and found 3 glass eels. We pulled it today and got five. The water temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

- Bob Walters

[Freshwater eels have survived global cataclysms for millions of year but now some populations appear to be diminishing, even disappearing, world-wide 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; “glass” refers to their lack of pigment and near transparency. 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. This is a particularly vulnerable time and little is known about this period in their life history. In anywhere from 12 to 30 years, depending upon their sex, they will leave the Hudson River watershed for the sea, where they will spawn once and then die. Tom Lake. Glass eel photo by Chris Bowser.]

 

NATURAL HISTORY NOTES

2/23 - Blooming Grove, HRM 55: The first red-winged blackbird was at the feeder today. Several others were in the trees making their usual sound. From looking at past records, they occasionally arrive at the end of February but more often early to mid-March.

 

- Carol Coddington

 

2/23 - Cold Spring, HRM 54: It was another spring-like day with air temperatures in the 50s. The river was flat as glass, the breeze out of the south was warm, and the cardinals were busy singing their spring song, "birdie, birdie, birdie."

 

- TR Jackson, Tom Lake

 

2/23 - Rockland Lake, HRM 33: This glacially formed lake near the Hudson is always a good stopover to see winter ducks. Three days ago Pat and Bill Joel reported spotting two rafts of American coots, about fifty in each, and they were still on the lake today. The comical pairs of gadwalls - dabbling ducks that continually "tip up" to forage, males displaying their black rumps with each tip - were also still there.

 

- Tom Lake

 

2/23 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: The goose wars had begun. A paucity of proper nesting sites makes the competition fierce. Interlopers are shown no mercy; if honking and hissing and wing flapping don't get the message across, real violence can occur. Every year, hopeful pairs perch on the ridgepoles of the house and garage and honk their hearts out. The resident pair of Canada geese in Pine Lake ignores all of that, but if they glide down to the embankment or into the water, things get ugly fast.

 

- Christopher Letts

 

2/23 - Manhattan, New York City, HRM 5.5: The rufous hummingbird continued through today at the West 81st Street entrance to the American Museum of Natural History. Look for it at the feeder to the right of the entrance.

 

- Tony Lauro, Tom Burke

 

2/24 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: They arrived just after dawn and lasted all day, streams of them, red-winged blackbirds and common grackles, moving through the forest, often filling every branch in the canopy. The raucous sound was nearly deafening. By midday the grackles, both male and female, had taken over the feeders, making off with ten pounds of black-oil sunflower seed in ten minutes, necessitating a refill. The juncos and goldfinches had fled. A single white-throated-sparrow had mustered up enough courage to feed among the bullies. We tried to count those closest to us but lost it after 50. Another 250-300 waited in the trees. By sunset the stream of birds had stopped. Blackbird migrations of this magnitude are generally mid-March events.

 

- TR Jackson, Tom Lake

 

2/24 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: Tulips had pushed up 3-4" in the cutting gardens. Hardy cyclamen were in bloom. Maple syruping is a challenge and a mystery this year; the sap is just not running the way it should and at 50-60 degrees; what does run will sour in the pails in 24 hours. I should have tapped on New Year's Day. How's that for hindsight?

 

- Christopher Letts

 

2/24 - Oscawana Point, HRM 38.5: A snowstorm during the night transformed everything into a winter wonderland. As we surveyed the glassy gray waters of the Hudson at the Oscawana overlook this morning, we spotted a beautiful adult bald eagle skimming over the water in the inlet. Landing in tree, we thought it might have been feeding on something it caught but, with closer observation, saw that it was just staring out over the open water.

 

- Dorothy Ferguson, Bob Ferguson

 

2/25 - Philmont, Columbia County, HRM 120: That funny, Styrofoam-like snow called grapple, or grauple as spelled by some, piled up on the furry back of Loki, my husky-mix dog as we walked along Claverack Creek. Grapple are snowflakes that melt a bit, and then re-freeze before they hit the ground. They lose their six-sided flake shapes and turn into tiny balls, or pellets. It sounds a bit noisy when grapple snow hits the leaves that are still left on some of the trees.

 

- Fran Martino

 

2/25 - Pleasant Valley, HRM 84: I heard my first song sparrow singing in the woods this morning. That seems kind of early; I am guessing the warmer winter is playing a role despite the couple of inches of snow that fell yesterday. Nice to hear them!

 

- Kathy Kraft

 

2/25 - Wappinger Falls, HRM 68: While driving home late at night I spotted a pair of red foxes. I was in awe of their beautiful red fur and white-tipped tail. They were running into a yard and the lead fox moved quickly into some bushes. The second one stopped dead in his tracks and stared into my eyes just a few feet away. Then he turned and disappeared into the dark bushes. It was an incredible moment that I will never forget.

 

- Richard Alamo

 

2/25 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: The river was whipped to a froth in midday as the flood tide butted strong northwest winds gusting to 50 mph. Standing alongside the river in mid-afternoon, as the tide dropped and the current sped seaward, it was easy to get the feeling that the ebb tide might never stop.

 

- Tom Lake

 

2/26 - Bethlehem, HRM 138: I happened to walk down to the river at Henry Hudson Park this afternoon at the time of low tide, and it was by far the lowest I have ever seen. Apparently a blowout tide from the north-northwest winds of the last two days. The Albany river gauge got down to -3.55 feet. The record low there is -4.50 feet on March 8, 1986.

 

- John Kent

 

2/26 - Clermont, HRM 103.5: I was at the Livingston estate in Clermont and spotted two adult bald eagles perched on a tussock in the river, likely the same ones I have spotted at Cheviot, less than four miles upriver.

 

- Mimi Brauch

 

2/26 - Esopus Meadows, HRM 87: The tide was out at Esopus Meadows this morning, way out. We had never seen it so low. Even the lighthouse was surrounded by now-exposed river bed - a blowout tide. Two immature bald eagles were picking at things, perched on newly exposed logs. An adult eagle flew to a tree on our side of the river and called.

 

- Peter Relson, Carol Anderson

 

2/26 - Cornwall Bay, HRM 58: Extremely low tides, most often blowout tides, expose the many derelict docks and piers along the waterfront. Except on days like today, you might never know they were there. But this is essential summer habitat for largemouth bass, in some instances smallmouth bass, as well as other species. Some of the pilings were adorned with rusted artificial lures, bearing testament to anglers' efforts.

 

- Tom Lake

 

2/26 - Manitou Marsh, HRM 47.5: We had an extremely low tide today. The shoreline and shallows showed rocks not seen for a long time. The high tide of the day looked more like a normal low tide.

 

- Zshawn Sullivan

 

2/26 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: Granddaughters Thalia (6) and Sage (5) were helping me with the sugar bush chores, largely in the form of carefully sampling sap, from caught on the tongue to the almost finished product. There had been a hard freeze overnight and they were fascinated by the crunch of frost crystals underfoot. I told them how they were formed, and that people who study cold weather call them "pipcrakes." That turned out to be an extremely funny word to little girls, and I heard it used, often and variously, through the day. At lunch, "more pipcrakes, please" and later "have you seen my pipcrakes?"

 

- Christopher Letts

 

2/26 - Rockland County, HRM 36: Tiny Four Corners Pond, cradled in the woods of Sterling Forest, might not have warranted a second look except for the expanse of waterfowl on the mirrored surface. I counted forty brilliantly-colored hooded mergansers, the most I had ever seen in one place, along with eight ring-necked ducks, a dozen or more mallards, and two "psychedelic" wood ducks.

 

- Tom Lake

 

2/26 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM 34: The blustery wind of the last few days had cleared the sky for a late winter spectacle: The brilliant crescent moon with bright Jupiter above to her left, and Venus, shining and glorious, hanging below.

 

- Robin Fox

 

2/27 - Rhinebeck, HRM 90: As I was walking at dusk I heard the unmistakable call of a male woodcock in a brush lot. I could hear three or four birds as I listened. I hear them there every year, this year not so surprisingly earlier than in the past.

 

- Dan Seymour

 

2/27 - Pleasant Valley, HRM 84: At noon today, a pair of bluebirds came in to inspect our backyard nest boxes. Didn't they know that the forecast is for snow on Thursday?

 

- John Mort

 

2/27 - Town of Poughkeepsie: Just when we were ready to declare that the eagles were on eggs, they left the nest (NY62) unattended for ten minutes, a sure sign that they are not quite ready. The male was in the nest at midday but left and headed down river to the "24-hour deli" at Danskammer Point. The female flew in carrying a long train of soft nesting material, the consistency of which is used for the nest's "egg cup." She perched in the tip-top of a tamarack for ten minutes before circling into the nest with her final touch of preparation.

 

- TR Jackson, Tom Lake

 

2/27 - Newburgh, HRM 61: Bald Eagles on the Hudson - notes from Francis B. Robinson, February 27, 1922: "For over forty years, Andrew Templeton has watched the winter visits of the bald eagles to the Hudson River at Beacon and Newburgh, where the ferry between these cities keeps the water free from ice in the coldest days. When the days begin to soften, great fields of ice break off with the changing tides, and these the ferry cuts into small blocks and a eventually a big open space is formed where the gulls, mergansers and other ducks gather and wait the breaking up of the ice.

Every year that these conditions have prevailed, during the mild days of winter, a pair of bald eagles has come to the Hudson River and remained in the ferry pathway for several days, attracting much attention. It was some surprise to me in passing over on the ferry (February 24) to find eight bald eagles on the ice - six mature birds and two immature.
Crows appeared like chickens beside their hens, but later, when we had a pair of eight-power glasses on the birds, we were unable to discover that they found any food, although mergansers were diving and splashing not far away. The eight birds were here for one day only but the pair now here have been leaving every evening before dusk for the Highlands south, flying toward Storm King Mountain. The two mature bald eagles are yet with us, but the gathering of eight birds on the river seems of enough importance to me to report to Bird-Lore, for it seems as if the protection of these birds was now bearing fruit."

 

- Robert DeCandido

 

2/27 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: Red-winged blackbirds were singing and displaying; grackles were cackling in the trees, and (oh, happy day) a bluebird, perched and facing me, the bright light of morning full on it. The blue, red and white coloring was exquisite; the light made the blue of the head seem iridescent.

 

- Christopher Letts

 

2/28 - Claverack Creek, HRM 120: Two exciting things happened today while training a new volunteer Stream Spotter for the Greater Stockport Creek Watershed. We had an incredibly long look at a fisher on the opposite side of the creek. The fisher walked with a fast purpose, and my guess would be it was a male judging from its size. Fishers are one of the few predators of porcupines, and their young are born around March-April. Keep your chickens locked up! We also saw the sub-imago stage of several mayflies that had lit on a rock. Very cool stuff - if I only had a camera.

 

- Fran Martino

 

2/28 - RamsHorn-Livingston Sanctuary, HRM 112.2: As if seeing mama eagle on her nest wasn't enough, five fox sparrows were hanging out near the bridge over the RamsHorn Creek. This is the same place I saw them in November. Early migrants or did they never leave? Approx ninety minutes later we watched two adult eagles over the RamsHorn marsh - one seemed to be chasing the other. They broke off the chase when the eagle doing the chasing turned to go after another adult eagle. All of this activity was under the watchful eye of the female sitting on the nest. The assumption is that her mate was doing the chasing.

 

- Larry Federman

 

2/28 - Town of Poughkeepsie: It became pretty conclusive today by early afternoon that the mated pair in eagle nest NY62 was incubating eggs. NY62 is only one of more than two dozen nests along Hudson River tidewater, and the timing for most is pretty much the same. Average incubation time is 32-35 days, so many of our nests will have "hatchlings" by April 1, coinciding perfecting with the arrival of alewives, river herring from the sea, that provide much of the sustenance for the baby birds.

 

- Debbie Sheehy, Dan Tatta, Tom Lake

 

2/28 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: Crow on my plate and pie on my face, that's the way I feel after an entire month in denial. Most of January was fine maple syrup-making weather but I simply could not credit that it would last. So I tapped my sugar bush just about the time I should have been taking down the pails and putting the evaporators away. We had low 20s last night and 60 degrees by noon today. The sap should have been running like a broken faucet, but instead, a very slow drip-drip. The sap that was flowing had darkened in color over the past few days. A look at the tree's canopy shows swelling, pinky-green hues. It was over. I doubt the final product will reach two gallons and it will be a dark and murky brew even after a final trip through a thick felt filter. The only consolation is that I will have lots of maple sugaring company.

 

- Christopher Letts

 

2/29 - Greene County, HRM 108: We walked out of our house on the Hudson this morning to an astonishing sight: There were at least sixteen immature bald eagles perched in our big trees overlooking the river, flying overhead, and perched along the water. They were all immature although one was nearly an adult with a white head but not yet a fully-white tail.

 

- John Delaney, Pat Delaney

 

[From December through February the Hudson Valley hosts significant numbers of wintering eagles from Ontario, Quebec, northern New England, and the Canadian Maritimes. At some point in late winter to early spring, these birds get the message that winter is waning and it is time to return to their now ice-free home territories. Many of these eagles were probably heading north and east. Tom Lake.]

 

2/29 - Town of Poughkeepsie: The mated pair was now seriously "on eggs," hunkered down in the nest when on duty. The female will incubate, on average, for about eighteen hours a day, including overnight. The male will take the other six. At 9:00 AM we watched the classic changeover as the male arrived to relieve the female. She flew off to feed, groom and rest.

 

- Debbie Sheehy, Dan Tatta, Tom Lake

 

2/29 - Verplanck, HRM 40.5: Driving home last evening I counted a flock of 23 mute swans feeding on Lake Meahagh. The mild winter prevented solid ice from forming on the shallow lake - it always had open patches of water - and we had no ice skating.

 

- Pat Korn

 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR GLASS EEL STUDY

The DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and National Estuarine Research Reserve seek volunteers to check fyke nets set in Hudson River tributaries and count the numbers of glass eels [immatures] caught. The project will run March to May, and will provide crucial baseline data on Hudson River eel populations. No experience necessary and training is provided. If you are interested in participating or would like to attend a training session, please contact Chris Bowser (chbowser@gw.dec.state.ny.us), Sarah Mount (sjmount@gw.dec.state.ny.us) or Zoraida Maloney (ztmalone@gw.dec.state.ny.us) or call (845) 889-4745. For more information, visit http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/49580.html

2012 Targeted American eel monitoring sites:

- Hannacroix Creek (Greene County)

- Saw Kill, Crum Elbow Creek, Fall Kill (Dutchess County)

- Black Creek (Ulster County)

- Indian Brook (Putnam County)

- Furnace Brook (Westchester County)

- Minisceongo Creek (Rockland County)

- Coney Island Creek (Brooklyn)

- Richmond Creek (Staten Island)

 

HELP US MONITOR HERRING MIGRATION

Spring is approaching and DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and Hudson River Fisheries Unit are recruiting volunteers for their 2012 Volunteer River Herring Monitoring program. Monitoring will take place from April 1 through May 31, during the annual river herring spawning migration from the ocean into freshwater tributaries. Volunteers are asked to look for signs of herring at a convenient site on the list below, at least twice a week for 15 minutes. No experience is necessary and training is provided. If you are interested in participating or would like to attend a training session, please contact us at r3hermon@gw.dec.state.ny.us or call 845-256-3172.

2012 Targeted River Herring Monitoring Sites

Rensselaer County: Poesten Kill, Vlockie Kill

Columbia County: Roeliff Jansen Kill

Dutchess County: Fallkill, Maritje Kill

Ulster County: Black Creek

Orange County: Quassaick Creek, Popolopen Brook

Westchester County: Sing Sing Brook

Putnam County: Foundry Brook

 

WINTER/SPRING 2012 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS

March 10 - 2:00 PM

Discover Norrie Walk: Winter Tree I.D. Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

March 17 - 1:00 PM

Meet the Naturalists Series No. 1: Creating Your Own Natural History Journal. Tom Lake, Naturalist, Hudson River Estuary Program. Grinnell Library, Wappingers Falls [Dutchess County]. Call to sign up: 845-297-3428.

March 29 - 2:00-3:15 PM

Stewardship of the Commons: Panel Discussion Evaluating Hudson River Valley Ecology, including Tom Lake, Naturalist, Hudson River Estuary Program. Performing Arts Center of the Student Center, Marist College, Poughkeepsie [Dutchess County]. Questions: Thomas.Lynch@marist.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 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 tohrep@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

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s 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 .

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

ublisher, Purple Mountain Press, (800) 325-2665, or email purple@catskill.net

HUDSON RIVER ALMANAC January 24 - 31, 2012

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

<<<<<  OVERVIEW  >>>>>

Despite the still mild weather, many more bald eagles arrived in the Hudson Highlands this week from points north. Bobcat sightings - two this week - are uncommon; the rufous hummingbird - hanging on in Manhattan - is rare. Perhaps a sign of an early spring, several flocks of male red-winged blackbirds were back.

<<<<<  HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK  >>>>>

1/24 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: As I tramped through a couple inches of wet snow I was impressed by the number of deer tracks, and yet there were more coyote tracks everywhere I walked on the peninsula. One set was huge, as big as any coyote tracks I had ever seen - some as big as wolf tracks. When I looked up to the ridgeline, there were two of the bad boys, side by side, sitting in the snow, watching my slow progress. Cardinals were singing spring songs.      - Christopher Letts

<<<<<  NATURAL HISTORY NOTES  >>>>>

1/24 - Albany, HRM 145: As I was on my lunchtime walk along the Hudson in Albany's Corning Preserve, I saw a wooly bear caterpillar crossing the trail. I thought about what it meant when I saw it. Seeing one in late January kind of throws the whole folklore thing - predicting winters' severity - on its head. What would it even be predicting at this point? It was kind of an unusual one: the black band at the front was average width, but then the brown extended pretty much all the way to the tail with little or no black at the tail end. I don't know what that signifies. Anyway, there is no sign in the forecast models of a shift to a snowy weather pattern. I don't keep measurements, but I believe at my place in Bethlehem-Selkirk we have had less than ten inches of snow for the entire season so far.      - John Kent, NYSDEC Air Pollution Meteorologist

1/24 - Town of Poughkeepsie: For nearly two hours this morning I watched the mated pair from bald eagle nest NY62C. One perched on a branch above the nest for twenty minutes before flying down to an ice floe in the flood tide moving along the east side of the river.      - John Scott [This is nest refurbishing time for Hudson Valley bald eagles. The mild winter thus far has given them comfortable conditions to strengthen their nest and prepare for mating. By about March 1, most pairs will be incubating eggs. Tom Lake.]

1/24 - Town of Fishkill, HRM 63.5: As I passed by Stony Kill Farm I scanned the fields and saw what appeared to be a house cat just sitting on a hill. But it could not have been a house cat as it was far too large. I circled back and by now the animal was walking like a house cat, but I could see that it was large. I stopped to look at this creature: it had dark markings on "blondish" color fur. It was a bobcat.      - Wayne Theiss

1/24 - Furnace Woods, HRM 38.5: Several inches of snow had melted during the overnight rain leaving no more than an inch in sheltered locations. The prodigious tracery of small rodent tunneling was laid bare. It was most impressive; where there was snow, I could not find a square yard unmarked by the tapestry of tunnels. And the air was almost balmy, with the feel of late winter rather than the shank end of January.      - Christopher Letts

1/24 - Croton Point, HRM 34: A perched pair of bald eagles, spotted from my window of a southbound Metro North commuter train at a distance of some 200 yards, resembled weirdly misplaced Tootsie Rolls.      - Zach Rodgers

1/25 - Croton Point, HRM 35-34: There were more singing cardinals today, accompanied by clucking robins. A flock of male red-winged blackbirds passed over, two dozen of them, headed north. Off the bathing beach I spotted two pied-billed grebes diving for breakfast. The morning travels and observations yielded just three bald eagles. Apparently the recent winter storm was not potent enough to move more wintering birds south as far as Westchester.      - Christopher Letts

1/26 - Hannacroix Creek, HRM 132.5: There was still some snow on the ground this afternoon when I spotted four bluebirds sipping water at an opening in the ice on Hannacroix Creek near where it meets the Hudson. Their blue against the snow was especially striking. They were trailed by a flock of robins.      - Barbara Heinzen

1/26 - Norrie Point, HRM 85: I counted six adult bald eagles, three on the ice and three perched in riverside trees. Jim Herrington noted that earlier an adult flew in from Esopus Island, directly at the environmental center as if to come inside, before veering off at the last instant and flying over the roof.          - Tom Lake

1/26 - Manhattan, HRM 5.5: The rufous hummingbird in the shrubbery outside the American Museum of Natural History was still present this afternoon.      - Hugh McGuinness [The rufous hummingbird is an uncommon to rare stray in the Northeast. Their breeding range is from southern Alaska to northern California and east to Idaho. They winter in Mexico. Previous Almanac records have always been in late fall (2001-2002, 2006), from Yonkers and Manhattan. Eric Lind.]

1/27 - Town of Wappinger, HRM 67.5: A powerful-looking, stubby-tailed cat marched across the yards in our development this morning, wary, yet seeming to be in complete control of all he viewed. It was a bobcat.      - Carmine Mirtuono [It is possible that many of the mountain lion "sightings" in our area are actually bobcats. While mountain lions are substantially larger with a long tail, a bobcat is still very impressive, especially for observers who have never seen mountain lions in the wild. Tom Lake.]

1/27 - Poughkeepsie to Beacon, HRM 75-61: On my daily commute to Beacon I see many interesting things. Today I spotted three bald eagles, one immature and two adults, on separate patches of ice. I guess the ice just brings them closer to their breakfast.      - Tom O’Dowd

1/27 - Hudson Highlands, HRM 60-45: An inch of rain, torrential at times, erased most traces of snow in the Hudson Highlands. The warm air temperatures were loosening the ice in the backwaters and the ebb tides continued to draw floes into the river.      - Tom Lake

1/27 - Croton Point, HRM 34: I spotted yet another early flock of male red-winged blackbirds heading upriver today.      - Christopher Letts

1/27 - Palisades, Rockland County, HRM 23: Great rolling billows of condensation swept along the surface of the Hudson in mid-afternoon, the result of the warm winds connecting with the cool water surface. The dense white fog that resulted masked us from the eastern sides of the river and the nearby bridges (Tappan Zee and George Washington). One half expected a large sailing ship to emerge from the fog, bringing new visitors onto land.      - Margie Turrin

1/27 - Manhattan, HRM 5.5: I saw the rufous hummingbird in her usual area around the entrance of the Rose Center planetarium building this morning. She was resting and preening on the branches of a bare bush on the east side of the entrance, with short bouts of feeding at the yellow-green flowers of the ornamental plants on the west side of the entrance.      - Ed Gaillard

1/28 - Norrie Point, HRM 85: Out on a late morning walk, I passed the Indian Kill by the railroad bridge and watched it gurgling and racing downhill towards the estuary as it would on any spring day. Skunk cabbage shoots were popping up. On the river I saw a raft of common mergansers that have been between the marina cove and Esopus Island for a couple of weeks - twenty-five males and six females. I startled a female swimming under a dock in the marina and she shot out like a noisy arrow toward open water.      - Pat Joel

1/28 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: With the abundance of eagle sightings it hardly seemed worth adding several we have seen in recent weeks, until this morning. An immature bald eagle landed on a branch of a large red oak that leans out over the river just ten feet from our home. He sat with the wind riffling through his feathers, his body still speckled, not yet fully dark brown. We could see him although he could not see us through the tinted glass of the window. He sat and perused the river for a time then flew off across the Hudson. In our driveway later, I noted fairly large canine tracks in the soft mud - coyote.      - David Cullen

1/28 - Peekskill Bay to the Tappan Zee, HRM 43-34: The eagle-hunting hopefuls were from far away - central New Jersey and Queens - and had come to see Hudson River eagles. We began at the Croton River railroad bridge and by the time people were out of their vehicles three eagles were chasing each other over the tide flats. A big first-year bird was the aggressor (or initiator) with two adults. A near-shore raft of mixed waterfowl gave us three species of ducks, geese and swans. A single coot hugged the shelter of the railroad bridge. Perhaps the single survivor of the four dozen that arrived in October, it had learned of the one place that eagles could not reach it. Five miles upriver at George's Island, two adult eagles flew directly overhead and we spotted a red-shouldered hawk being harassed by a flock of fish crows. At Verplanck, an extraordinary look at a perched adult was made even better when another adult landed next to the perched bird. A flock of mixed cormorants, double-crested and great cormorants, at China Pier was the icing on the cake.      - Christopher Letts

1/28 - Pleasantville, Westchester County, HRM 32: Robins, robins, beautiful robins galore were munching on several ornamental apple trees that are (were) loaded with fruit. They were also chugging down water from my bird bath. Are these darlings wintering here or just hanging out while there is food? Whatever, they are a delight to see.      - Joan Coffey [Some species of birds, including waterfowl, raptors, and songbirds, have adapted to milder winters by modifying or cutting short their migration. Robins are a good example of a songbird that will move south only as far as necessary to find adequate food and comfortable surroundings. Tom Lake.]

1/29 - Peebles Island, HRM 158: I spotted an adult bald eagle perched along the Hudson River at Peebles Island. Inland along the Mohawk River at Lock 6, I counted 50 gulls on the ice including multiple herring gulls, greater black-backed gulls, ring-billed gulls, and one juvenile Iceland gull.      - Jesse Jaycox

1/29 - Crugers, HRM 39: For the second time this week, a Cooper's hawk snagged a pigeon from the bird feeder. He came down like a bat out of hell and pounced on his prey. He sat on the pigeon for a long while, and then took off with his catch when the neighbor's cat approached.      - Dianne Picciano

1/29 - Queens, New York City: I saw a Eurasian wigeon at the south end of the East Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge today. Only a few feet away was a "Eurasian" green-winged teal (Anas crecca crecca), in the company of a pair of "American" green-winged teal (A. crecca carolinensis). Both of the "Eurasian" birds were males. The West Pond at the refuge held eight canvasbacks.      - Doug Futuyma

1/30 - New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: A strong north wind was creating a biting chill as we watched four eagles cavorting overhead, two adults and two immatures. They appeared very comfortable as the wind pushed and pulled them in a tight spiral. A large raft of common mergansers was in the river off Wappinger Creek with a few lesser scaup, goldeneyes, and buffleheads on the fringes.      - TR Jackson, Tom Lake

1/30 - Chelsea, HRM 65.2 I guess it is courting time again for the local bald eagles. Two immatures appeared right over our heads and started doing slow circles. They had identical markings and may have been nest-mates from our local nest (NY62C). They were soon joined by two adults who engaged the immatures. I have observed this behavior many times over the years but most of the time it is one adult engaging one juvenile.      - Ed Solan, Rodney Johnson

1/30 - Newburgh, HRM 61: Through my spotting scope from the west side of the river I found two immature eagles on the northwest side of Denning's Point. One had a sizable prey item that I saw it fly in with, but all I could make out was something "orange" (mallard legs?) hanging down. I had 6-7 mixed-age eagles at one time over the point.      - Jesse Jaycox [We should keep a sharp eye out for golden eagles as well. I have heard that the pair that has wintered in past years on Storm King Mountain may have returned. I thought for a second that two of the eagles I spotted at Denning's Point today may have been goldens, but more likely immature bald eagles. Anyhow, I lost them before I could get a real good look. Jesse Jaycox.]

1/30 - Hammond's Point, HRM 59: Two adult and two immature bald eagles, were nearly clutching each other as they rose in a turkey vulture-type spiral catching the cold wind rather than a warm thermal.      - TR Jackson, Tom Lake [Someone once said to me, rather derisively, "Eagles, eagles, eagles, how many eagles do you have to see before you can say that you have seen an eagle?" The answer is, as many as possible. While bald eagles have become somewhat common along Hudson tidewater in the last decade, I have yet to find anyone who has grown tired of sharing their observations. Tom Lake.]

1/30 - Croton-on-Hudson, HRM35: For the last few days I have seen a number of Cooper's hawks flying overhead. They seem to be very interested in the flocks of sparrows that take shelter in the trees. At times, when the sparrows are in flight, they sometimes seem to turn on the hawk, perhaps as an evasive maneuver.      - Bobbi Buske

1/31 - Staatsburg, HRM 86: I heard two tufted titmice calling today in their spring fashion. In the past I have heard them around the first of February, even when with the temperatures have been in the teens. A very heartening sound as they practice for the mating season competition.      - Dan Seymour

1/31 - Denning's Point, HRM 60: I was at the base of the Point watching the river at first light [hiking trails are closed Dec. 1-Mar. 15 to protect bald eagle wintering habitat]. I estimated that there were at least 200 common mergansers spread across a mile of mid-river. About thirty of them, in a small raft, were closest to me. From the opposite shore an immature bald eagle began a low, slow crossing heading directly over the mergansers. When viewing a group of diving ducks, it is common to see about one-third of them underwater at any one time and two-thirds on top catching their breath or swallowing their catch. As the eagle flew closer, the entire raft of ducks dove as one, and stayed down for nearly thirty seconds as the eagles passed over. By the time I left, the air temperature had risen to 57 degrees Fahrenheit and it felt like spring.      - Tom Lake

<<<<<  HELP US PLANT TREES ALONG HUDSON RIVER TRIBUTARIES  >>>>>

The Trees for Tribs initiative offers free native trees and shrubs and on-site assistance for qualifying streamside buffer planting projects. Streamside buffers of trees, shrubs, and grasses help to reduce pollution by slowing and filtering runoff into waterways. They also help to stabilize shorelines and absorb high velocity flows, reducing flooding and erosion. In addition, they are important for wildlife as a shoreline transition zone and travel corridor, not to mention increasing overall biodiversity. Applicants must provide volunteer labor for planting and long term maintenance. Applications and additional information about the Trees for Tribs program are available from Beth Roessler, Hudson River Estuary Program Stream Buffer Coordinator, at (845)256-2253, baroessl@gw.dec.state.ny.us or at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/43668.html .

<<<<<  WINTER 2012 NATURAL HISTORY PROGRAMS  >>>>>

February 4 - 1:00 PM Looking for Bald Eagles with Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist Tom Lake. Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. We’re hoping for ice; will the river otters return? Free. For information: 845-889-4745 x109 or trlake7@aol.com .

February 8 - 7:30 PM Why Did the Salamander Cross the Road?  Laura Heady, Hudson River Estuary Program. Katonah Memorial House, 71 Bedford Road, Katonah [Westchester County]; hosted by Bedford Audubon Society. Laura will discuss the importance of forest and wetlands in the Hudson Valley and the “Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings” volunteer project. Learn how you can get involved by witnessing spring migrations of salamanders, frogs, and toads; helping amphibians survive their overland travel; and conserving important habitats in your community. Free. For information: 914-232-1999; www.bedfordaudubon.org

February 18 - 1:45 PM The River Before George! [Washington]. Tom Lake, Hudson River Estuary Program Naturalist. Washington’s Headquarters, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, Historic Preservation, Newburgh [Orange County]. For information: trlake7@aol.com

February 25 - 2:00 PM Discover Norrie Walk: Woodpeckers. Norrie Point Environmental Center, Staatsburg [Dutchess County]. Free. For information: 845-889-4745 x109.

February 27 - 7:00 PM Why Did the Salamander Cross the Road?  Laura Heady, Hudson River Estuary Program. Albany County Cooperative Extension Office, 24 Martin Road, Voorheesville; hosted by Mohawk-Hudson Land Conservancy. See description for February 8. For information: 518-436-6346; mhlc@mohawkhudson.org

February 28 - 6:30 PM Why Did the Salamander Cross the Road?  Laura Heady, Hudson River Estuary Program. Scenic Hudson River center, Long Dock Park, Beacon [Dutchess County]. Part of Scenic Hudson’s Naturalist Lecture Series. See description for February 8. For information: Anthony Coneski, 845-473-4440 Ext. 273; www.scenichudson.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. 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  >>>>>

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s tide predictions are available online at http://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 at http://www.hrecos.org .

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 .

. 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

A Joint Presentation by Clearwater and Riverkeeper

November 30, 2011, 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Beczak Environmental Education Center
35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, NY

The public is invited to join representatives from Clearwater's Green Cities Initiative and Riverkeeper's Patrol Boat Program for presentations about water quality in the Hudson River and its tributaries, and what we can do to improve it.

The Hudson River has long defined the character and quality of life in our communities. In recent decades the Hudson has enjoyed a revival with increasing numbers of people wanting to live near it and recreate in it. However, our management of the river has not kept pace with its new role as a popular recreational destination.

Because the cities of the Hudson River Valley drive regional economic development and have high concentrations of diverse people and environmental concerns, Clearwater has developed the Green Cities Initiative. Clearwater will present its Green Cities programs, which include working with underserved communities in waterfront cities to include principles of sustainability into all phases of municipal and community planning.

For six years, Riverkeeper's Patrol Boat and its scientific partners have been testing the water for sewage

The Riverkeeper released it's long waited and highly informative "How's The Water" report August 9, 2011. On the warm and overcast Croton Point beach Paul Galley and John Lipscome were joined by New York State Senator Adriano Espaillat and New York State Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, press and activists to make public Riverkeeper's water monitoring results. The report focuses primarily on Enterococcus, a sewage indicating bacterium, with some surprising results. Newsday covers the story as does CBS local and Seatle PI.

Find up to date water quality test results for your part of the Hudson.