Hudson River Almanac 7/7/18 - 7/13/18
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent this bulletin on 07/20/2018 02:00 PM EDT |
| DEC Delivers - Information to keep you connected and informed from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation |
| Share or view as a web page || Update preferences or unsubscribe |
|
|
OVERVIEW With near-record warmth this month, many of us were finding reasons to get in the river. Students were following their teachers into the tidewater classrooms which made it even better. As is usual for early summer, the focus was on baby fish, reminding us of the river’s incredible species diversity. HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK 7/11 – Columbia County; HRM 138: The Moordener Kill was abundant with the stunning metallic-green bodies of ebony jewelwing damselflies (Calopteryx maculata). The females were perched on nearby stream vegetation, occasionally opening their wings to give us a better look at the bright, white, oval patches on the tips of all four wings. We watched two males rousting about above the shallow stream. They seemed to be going at each other head on, and when they came together, all eight wings of both damselflies appeared to be twirling around, much like a pinwheel spinning in a garden. We wondered if this behavior was supposed to attract the females. It certainly attracted our attention. NATURAL HISTORY ENTRIES 7/7 – Bedford, HRM 35: It was a sunny day at the great blue heron rookery. At 75 degrees Fahrenheit (F), the heat was not too intense. The remaining nestlings appeared to be more comfortable than they had been on recent sweltering days. There was no branching activity today; preening and waiting for food to arrive was all they seemed to be interested in. A month ago, I had a count of 44-nestlings; now we were down to about 29. Even with the storms knocking down a few trees, it has been a successful year for the herons. 7/7 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We had our free River Explorers Program today at the Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak. Eleven students, aged 5-12, went seining with us. We began at mid-tide and caught bluefish as well as moon jellyfish and comb jellies. As the tide neared high, we took our smaller 20-foot seine into the Beczak Marsh. In just one haul, we caught 22 mummichogs (20-40 millimeters (mm)), all young-of-the-year (YOY). [Note: one inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)] 7/7 – Brooklyn, New York City: Our seining program this morning at Pier 4 beach in Brooklyn Bridge Park resulted in an impressive and diverse catch. We caught more than 70 Atlantic silverside (30-110 mm). We found this number surprising since we had barely caught any this season. The rest of the catch included winter flounder (50 mm), pipefish (180-190 mm), skilletfish, tautog (120 mm), and YOY striped bass. Among the invertebrates were Asian shore crabs, eastern mud snails, common periwinkles, and shore shrimp. Salinity was 24.0 parts-per-thousand (ppt). 7/8 – Beacon, HRM 61: Summer's heat sometimes creates a lull in fishing, so today’s results from Long Dock Park were very welcome. I caught and released ten channel catfish and one carp. The channel catfish were all small at 1-2 pounds. Although small as carp go, I'd estimate this one was about 8 pounds. 7/8 – Putnam County: Thanks to some due diligence, we gained access to our favorite southern Putnam park to check on chanterelles [choice mushrooms]. The trail was lovely and in places totally blanketed with ferns. The desired mushroom spot was devoid of fungi, but we discovered nice young fruitings of blue-staining Boletus sensibilis. 7/9 – New Baltimore, HRM 131: A Caspian tern flew southbound past New Baltimore this evening. I heard it calling from some ways away as it approached, and it continued calling after it passed. There has been a noticeable up-tick this year in the numbers of Caspian terns in the area.
[Periodical cicadas (Magicicada sp.) have a life cycle of 13 and 17 years, one of the longest-lived insects. They live underground as nymphs feeding on sap in tree rootlets before emerging simultaneously in large numbers at dusk. The nymphs crawl up the nearest tree trunk and moult overnight into their adult form. Female cicadas are drawn to the male’s buzzing call, mate, and then disperse. The females cut slits in tree branches into which they deposit their eggs. Trees will have a brownish look to them as some of their branches and leaves die. Adult cicadas live for three to four weeks and are eagerly consumed by birds and other animals. Borror and White (1970)]
7/9 – Manhattan, HRM 1: We checked our research sampling gear in Hudson River Park at The River Project's sampling station on the lighthouse tender Lilac at Pier 25 and were rewarded with four adorable oyster toadfish (50-65 mm), four tautog (185-260 mm), and a spider crab! 7/10 – Albany, HRM 145: The air temperature today reached 90 degrees F. This was the eighth day in the last eleven where Albany’s air temperatures reached or exceed 90 degrees F.
[Comb jellies (Ctenophora) are often mistaken for jellyfish but differ in that they have no tentacles and do not sting. Like true jellyfish, comb jellies are translucent, gelatinous, fragile, essentially planktonic, drifting at the whim of the wind and current. They are peanut to walnut-sized, often occur in swarms, and are common in warm, brackish estuarine shallows. For a real treat, gently scoop a few with a wet, cupped hand, place them into a small clear container, and gently rock the water. Their rhythmic, symmetrical, and altogether graceful movements are enchanting. Two species, Beroe's comb jelly (Beroe cucumis) and Leidy’s comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi), are found in the estuary. Tom Lake]
[Young medusae (umbrella-shaped) moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) appear in the lower estuary in summer and early fall. They are true jellyfish, plankton feeders, with several hundred fringed tentacles that serve as sticky collectors of both phytoplankton and zooplankton. Adult moon jellyfish, with a pinkish umbrella up to ten-inches-across, are most commonly associated with ocean beaches. They are frequently stranded at the high-tide line and, while non-stinging, have startled many a beach walker who happened to step on one. Tom Lake] 7/10 – Manhattan, HRM 3-1: Over the last two days, our Hudson River Park Trust staff sampled the river for aquatic life at five locations off Manhattan’s West Side. These included Piers 25 and 26 in TriBeca, Pier 40 in the West Village, Pier 63 in Chelsea, and Pier 84 in Midtown. Our catch was very diverse and included American eels (one was 24-inches), oyster toadfish, white perch, shore shrimp, blue crabs, sea snails, and comb jellyfish. We also caught some hermit crabs, which is not typical for our traps. 7/10 – Manhattan, HRM 1: We checked our research sampling gear in Hudson River Park at The River Project's sampling station on the lighthouse tender Lilac at Pier 25. Our catch was a meager but spectacular haul with a single, gorgeous tautog, or blackfish (275 mm)! [Blackfish is a colloquial common name for tautog (Tautoga onitis) a rather common, bottom-dwelling fish of New York Harbor. Their colloquial name, blackfish, refers to the adults as they attain a deep, coal black color. Among their favorite foods are shellfish that they find in abundance in near-shore rocky areas. In the spirit of “you are what you eat,” blackfish, perhaps owing to their shellfish diet, are one of the most sought-after food fishes. Tom Lake]
7/11 – Kowawese, HRM 59: The presence of YOY alewives (56-65 mm) increased today as our seine caught hundreds of river herring. At this point in the season, alewives, that spawn earlier, were about 40% larger than the blueback herring. The ratio of blueback herring to alewives was near 50:50, about where we would expect it to be nearing mid-July. The range of sizes for striped bass (34-55 mm) reflected the protracted length of their spawning season. With their pointed and sharp dorsal and pectoral rays, the “stickers” in the seine came from a dozen or more YOY channel catfish. [Seining uncovers the cryptic nature of fishes. It is not birding. It is not butterflying. It is not identifying trees by their leaves. Those are all endeavors that are often easy and obvious. When I stand on a beach with students in springtime and extend my arms to points north and south, and tell them there are a million fish across that reach of the river, they must take my word for it. All they see is a blue-gray river. But then we haul a seine a hundred feet, slide it up on the sand, and out spills a hundred fish. You can almost hear them doing the math to incorporate the immensity of the river. Tom Lake]
7/12 – Little Stony Point, HRM 55: The wake from a succession of barges, tugs, and other deep-draft vessels sent breakers crashing up on the beach. Several times, we lost control of our seine as well as our footing and toppled into the water. Salinity had crept up a bit to 2.5 ppt. The scope of fishes in our net ranged from saltwater (bluefish (83-105 mm); Atlantic menhaden (76-78 mm)), to freshwater (largemouth bass (58-60 mm) and spottail shiners). YOY River herring dominated our catch with blueback herring (32-46 mm) and alewives (57-70 mm) in near equal numbers. Once again, there was a broad range in sizes of striped bass (24-57 mm).
Free Trees for Streamside Planting For more information about the program or to download an application, please visit the DEC website at: www.dec.ny.gov/lands/43668.html . If you have questions about a potential planting site, please contact Beth Roessler at (845) 256-2253 or HudsonEstuaryTFT@dec.ny.gov. The Hudson is measured north from Hudson River Mile 0 at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee 28, Bear Mountain 47, Beacon-Newburgh 62, Mid-Hudson 75, Kingston-Rhinecliff 95, Rip Van Winkle 114, and the Federal Dam at Troy, the head of tidewater, at 153. The tidal section of the Hudson constitutes a bit less than half the total distance – 315 miles – from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the Battery. Entries from points east and west in the watershed reference the corresponding river mile on the mainstem. TO CONTRIBUTE YOUR OBSERVATIONS OR TO SUBSCRIBE The Hudson River Almanac is compiled and edited by Tom Lake and emailed weekly by DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program. Share your observations by e-mailing them to trlake7@aol.com. To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), use the links on DEC's Hudson River Almanac or DEC Delivers web pages. Discover New York State Conservationist - the award-winning, advertisement-free magazine focusing on New York State's great outdoors and natural resources. Conservationist features stunning photography, informative articles and around-the-state coverage. Visit the Conservationist webpage for more information. USEFUL LINKS National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration online tide and tidal current predictions are invaluable when planning Hudson River field trips. For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from sixteen monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website. NY Open for Hunting and Fishing Initiative: Under Governor Cuomo's Adventure NY initiative, DEC is making strategic investments to expand access to healthy, active outdoor recreation, connect more New Yorkers and visitors to nature and the outdoors, protect natural resources, and boost local economies. This initiative will support the completion of more than 75 projects over the next three years, ranging from improvements to youth camps and environmental education centers to new boat launches, duck blinds, and hiking trails. Read more about the Adventure NY initiative. For more information on planning an outdoor adventure in New York State, visit DEC's website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor. Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4920.html. Copies of past issues of the Hudson River Almanac, Volumes II-VIII, are available for purchase from the publisher, Purple Mountain Press, (800) 325-2665, or email purple@catskill.net |
Hudson River Almanac
7/9 – Town of Wappinger, HRM 67: The trill, chatter, grating, and clicking sounds of periodical cicadas authenticate the hot days of summer. We heard them for the first time today (89 degrees F). The last big year of their emergence was 1996, when their deafening noise and their leaf-gnawing destruction defoliated many stands of deciduous trees. Hundreds of small holes from the emerging nymphs, like divots from a golf shot, were evidence of their coming. At its peak, the trills and chatter were so loud that every dog in the neighborhood barked relentlessly, resulting in neighbors yelling “Shut up!” (To the cicadas, not the dogs.) Seventeen years later (2013) a somewhat lesser emergence along this reach of the river occurred and lasted forty-two days ending on July 3. At its height, the din was deafening and many if not most of the area hardwoods lost more than half of their leaves. (Photo of periodical cicada courtesy of Tom Lake)
7/9 – Little Stony Point, HRM 55: The common theme of this month – steamy – continued with high humidity and heat (92 degrees F) Immersing ourselves in the river (84 degrees F) was a relief. Despite virtually no rain in eleven days, the salinity was slow in rising at 2.0 ppt. Hundreds of silvery YOY fishes filled the seine. Blueback herring were again the dominant fish (36-45 mm), but for the first time this season we found YOY alewives (47-50 mm). Striped bass continued to suggest a good recruitment year (31-57 mm). Bluefish from the sea (88-92 mm) reminded us of the dynamics of the estuary. One of the small bluefish carried a parasitic isopod on its jaw. (Photo of bluefish with parasitic isopod courtesy of Tom Lake)
7/10 – Yonkers, HRM 18: In the morning, we went seining with 18 five-year-old students from Oak Lane Child Care Center. They were both excited and apprehensive to help us go seining. To them, the Hudson River was an enormous unknown, full of surprises just waiting to be discovered. Our catch included bay anchovies, white perch, blue crabs, moon jellyfish, comb jellies, shore shrimp, and a northern pipefish (a relative of the sea horse). We catch pipefish on rare occasions, so it was a treat to find one in our net! River salinity was higher than we would expect at 16.0 ppt. (Photo of comb jelly courtesy of NJDEP)
7/10 – Yonkers, HRM 18: In the afternoon, 20 students, ages 5-12, from the Lanza Learning Center, one of our community groups, arrived to go seining. They caught American eels, mummichogs, shore shrimp, and 213 moon jellyfish. The students were very excited to have caught so many moon jellyfish in only a couple hauls of our net. (Photo of moon jellyfish courtesy of S. Van Noort)
7/11 – Pine Bush, HRM 81: Monarch caterpillars of all sizes can be found on milkweed now from egg to those ready to form their chrysalids. (Photo of monarch butterfly caterpillar courtesy of Betty Boomer)
7/12 – Northeast Dutchess County: On the first of May we announced a new, for 2018, bald eagle nest that we named the Pine Tree Family (NY487). There were two nestlings. Today, I watched one of the two fledge, flying from the nest tree to one of the other pines. The second one may have been in the nest – the nest bowl was so deep that they could both be in it and still not be seen. This nest is difficult to view, so our best guess for a hatch date is April 14, making this fledge on Day 89 (the range is 72-90 days). (Photo of Bald eagle fledgling courtesy of Deborah Tracy-Kral)
7/13 – Orange County, HRM 56: I was able to assist an adult wood turtle safely across a back road near Washingtonville. These large turtles are one of my favorites because they look like a cross between a terrestrial tortoise and an aquatic turtle. Beautiful. (Photo of wood turtle courtesy of William Sherwood)
|
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation respects your right to privacy and welcomes your feedback | Update preferences or unsubscribe | Learn more about DEC Delivers. |
|
Connect with DEC:    
|
|
| Are you registered to vote? Register to vote or update your information online today or search your voter registration status.. | |
| Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor * Basil Seggos, Commissioner | |