A Project of the Hudson River Estuary Program
Compiled and edited by Tom Lake, Consulting Naturalist
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Overview
The watershed was teetering on the cusp of real winter and the signs were plentiful: Snow geese, snowy owls, sandhill cranes, and winter waterfowl in migration. Seining the tidewater Hudson River was at its end, closing that look into the river for three months. Shortnose sturgeon reminded us of the amazing longevity of their species.
Highlight of the Week
 11/27 – Hudson River Estuary: Recently, while working on a two-year shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) stock assessment in the mid-Hudson River tidewater, we caught a shortnose sturgeon that had been tagged 26 years ago in the same location. The fish had been tagged during the last population estimate conducted by Mark Bain of Cornell University. At the time, the shortnose was 25.6 inches long and was estimated to be 15 years old. Upon recapture, it was 34.6 inches long, having grown approximately eleven millimeters (mm) per year (0.429 inches). Based on the length-at-age of the original capture, the shortnose was now likely to be more than 40 years old. (Photo of shortnose sturgeon courtesy of Amanda Higgs)
- DEC Region 3 Hudson River Fisheries Unit
[Shortnose sturgeon was the first fish listed as federally endangered with the enactment of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. They are the smallest of the three New York State sturgeons, rarely exceeding four feet in length and 18 lb. in weight. They reach maturity at around seven to ten years; growing very slowly, they rarely exceed four-feet long and 18 lb. in weight. The oldest known female reached 67 years of age and the oldest known male was 32 years.
Adult shortnose sturgeon migrate upriver from their estuarine freshwater wintering areas to freshwater spawning locations (the precise locations of shortnose sturgeon spawning and wintering locations are kept vague due to the possibility of exploitation. DEC Region 3 Hudson River Fisheries Unit]
[Twenty-six years ago, Everett Nack and I were tagging wintering shortnose sturgeon for Cornell University’s Mark Bain. On that cold Christmas Eve, we were out on the river near Rhinecliff in his big flat-bottomed jon boat. We were there to catch, tag, and safely release the federally endangered shortnose sturgeon as part of a stock assessment. We used two anchor gill-nets, each 200-feet long. We let each net soak for twenty minutes, hauled them in, tagged and released the fish, then reset the nets. We were on station for nearly five hours and tagged at least 40 shortnose sturgeon. The weather that day was calm but extremely cold. Initially, thermos bottles of hot coffee warmed us, but in the afternoon, we broke out Everett’s homemade dandelion wine and that helped stoke our furnace. The cold was so intense that the spray from the chop froze on our gunwales and our oilskins were coated with ice by the time we headed back to port. Tom Lake]
[One inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)]
Natural History Entries
11/25 – Manhattan, HRM 2: Our Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. Today’s pre-Thanksgiving holiday haul included one blackfish (265 mm), two black sea bass (55-82.5 mm), and one cantankerous 70 mm feather blenny (Hypsoblennius hentz).
- Siddhartha Hayes, Toland Kister
 11/26 – Saugerties, HRM 102: Part One of our saga of the seal at Saugerties.
A male harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), carrying a white tag on its rear flipper (#246) was rescued on April 28, 2018, from Lower Goose Island, Harpswell, Maine. The pup had been abandoned by its mother for reasons unknown, although it was suspected the pup may have been a premature birth. Medical rehabilitation followed at the Mystic (Connecticut) Aquarium Animal Rescue Program, where it was determined to be a male, and a satellite tag was applied before being released at Charlestown, Rhode Island, on January 17, 2019.
Once released, the satellite tag imagery revealed that the seal traveled 81 miles up the Connecticut River to the Holyoke Dam, the first impassable barrier. The seal then reversed its course exiting downriver into Fishers Island Sound, across Long Island Sound, to the Peconic Bays before going offshore. The seal then traveled down along the south shore of Long Island into the New York Bight and eventually into the Hudson River estuary.
Heading upstream into freshwater on August 21, 2019, he found a home in Esopus Creek at Saugerties, river mile 102. For 620 days, the male harbor seal, a marine mammal more than 100 miles from the sea, was faithfully monitored by Patrick Landewe, Saugerties Lighthouse Keeper.
Then, on April 24, on his third birthday, he mysteriously disappeared. In the days that followed, there were a few generic seal sightings downriver but nothing conclusive. Then, on August 25, after an absence of 123 days, a seal was once again spotted in Esopus Creek. He was back; his extended stay was now 768 days.
But where had he been for 123 days? Next week, the Part 2 conclusion of this mystery. (Photo of harbor seal courtesy of Michael Kalin)
- Tom Lake
11/26 – Manhattan, HRM 2: Our Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. We found that, overnight, we had collected one 290 mm adult “blackfish” (tautog), and young-of-year black sea bass (70-85 mm). All fish were measured, documented, and released.
- Zoe Kim, Anna Koskol
11/27 – Beacon, HRM 61: Our trek to the beach left footprints in the snow. There was a stillness in the air and a calm on the river that brought little comfort. With the air temperature just below freezing, our net stiffened in our hands until we set it in the warmer river (43 degrees Fahrenheit(F)). On our first haul, we netted two reliable, resident spottail shiners (80-82 mm). Then came several sets where the catch was measured in annoying Trapa natans seeds. Just before wrapping up, on our final haul, perhaps even our last of the season, we netted a few lost, lonely, laggard, but nonetheless beautiful, young-of-year striped bass (76-78 mm). In clearing the mesh, we remembered the lyrics from a Gordon Bok ballad, Mrs. MacDonald’s Lament:
When the wind's away, and the wave's away,
That crazy old fool will go down on the bay,
Dodgin' the ledges and settin' his gear,
And come back when the wind drives him in.
Yet he knows full well the fishin' is done ...
His credit’s all gone and winter has come,
But as sure as the tide will rise and run,
He'll go back on the bay again.
- Tom Lake, A. Danforth
[Gordon Bok is a folk singer-songwriter and was the first mate on the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater's maiden voyage, along with Pete Seeger, in 1969 from the Harvey Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, Maine to the Hudson River. Steve Stanne]
 11/28 – Delmar, HRM 143: In the early afternoon, several flocks totaling 500 snow geese flew high over the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center at Delmar. They were heading south! One of those sure signs of impending winter. (Photo of snow geese courtesy of Casey Kreider)
- Cindy Edwardson, Chris Edwardson (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
11/28 – Columbia County, HRM 129: It was overcast with intermittent rain in the late afternoon as I watched 200 snow geese and many hundreds of Canada geese feeding on a harvested cornfield near Kinderhook. They moved in and out of deep tractor ruts in the wet ground; some would fly up, circle, then come back to feed. Examining photos later, there may have been a greater white-fronted goose and a collared snow goose, possibly tagged 17E on light green.
- Nancy Kern (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
 11/28 – Hudson River Estuary: Recently, while working on a two-year shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) stock assessment in mid-Hudson River tidewater, Cornell University researchers Amanda Simmonds and Maija Niemisto, and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation researcher Kelsey Gustafson caught a 37-inch-long albino shortnose sturgeon. The sturgeon was measured and released. (Photo of albino shortnose sturgeon courtesy of Amanda Higgs)
- DEC Region 3 Fisheries Unit
[Albinism is widespread in the animal kingdom and is caused by the absence of melanin (pigmentation) in an animal (in this instance, a fish), resulting in white scales, skin, and pink eyes. McCardle 2012).]
 11/29 – Town of Stuyvesant, HRM 127: I came upon a male yellow-bellied sapsucker in the woods today. Males are much more colorful than females; a point of identification is their "waaa", almost mew call, and then spotting a white line along the bird's side. Sapsuckers are named for their love of sweet tree saps, obtained by drilling horizontal rows of holes. They frequently drink the sap which may contain insects. Sapsuckers raise young in my woods each year and frequent the same favored yard trees.
- Nancy Kern (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
11/29 – Millbrook, HRM 82: It was just getting light when two skeins of snow geese (50 birds) came over and landed on a grassy hillside and began feeding. There had to be choice forage on that hillside because they totally ignored a huge, adjacent, harvested cornfield.
- Tom Lake, B.J. Jackson
11/29 – Yonkers, HRM 18: The staff at our Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak began our final week of river sampling for the season. With river temperatures dropping (46 degrees F) and many of the migrant fishes headed to the sea, our expectations were dwindling. Salinity had recovered a bit to 5.4 parts-per-thousand (ppt), and the dissolved oxygen (DO) was a very healthy 10.8 parts-per-million (ppm). Our catch was meager but satisfying: six, bright young-of-year striped bass (95 mm).
- Jason Muller, Michael Castro
11/30 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak conducted a morning seine on our final day of 2021. Again today, our only fish were seven young-of-year striped bass (75 mm). Crustaceans surprised us with eight sand shrimp and a grass shrimp. Our final invertebrate was a small (20 mm) soft shell clam (Mya arenaria). The water temperature was 45 degrees F, salinity was 5.8 ppt, and the DO was 10.9 ppm.
- Jason Muller, Bella Biane
11/30 – Yonkers, HRM 18: On the afternoon of our final day of the season, our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak seined both the river and the Beczak tidemarsh. After five hauls and no fish, it was time to stow the seine. Our final catch was comprised of only invertebrates: comb jellies, moon jellyfish, and grass shrimp. River temperature had fallen to 44 degrees F, salinity was 5.1 ppt, and the DO was 10.9.
- Jason Muller, Anna Mitchell, Rebecca Wilson, Ishika Joshi, Kiki Quiros, Rachel Lynch
*** Fish of the Week ***
 12/1 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 149 is the pearl dace (Margariscus margarita), number 50 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes. If you would like a copy of our list, e-mail - trlake7@aol.com.
The pearl dace is a member of the Carps and Minnows family of fishes (Cyprinidae). With 35 members, Cyprinids comprise 15% of the total Hudson River watershed fish species. Their common name comes from their coloring. Males have a pink tinge that sets off their pearly gray background color. C. Lavett Smith considers them “One of the prettiest fishes in New York State.”
Pearl dace inhabit a broad geographical range including the Atlantic Slope from the Hudson River drainage in Vermont and New York, south to the Potomac River drainage in Virginia; the upper Ohio River drainages in New York to West Virginia; Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, and Yukon Territory. In our watershed, they are considered periglacial, meaning that they were among the first fishes to move into the watershed as glaciers wasted away and lakes formed at the end of the last Ice Age 15,000 years ago. Brook trout, lake trout, and northern pike are among other periglacial fishes).
A spring spawner, pearl dace inhabits pools of upland creeks, small rivers, ponds, and lakes. They are usually found over sand or gravel. Pearl dace feed on copepods, chironomids, beetles, and filamentous algae. They range in size from 90-160 mm, the smaller number being an average size. (Photo of pearl dace courtesy of Konrad Schmidt)
- FishBase
 12/1 – Fort Edward, HRM 202: After watching the short-eared owls at the Fort Edward Grasslands today, I spotted two snowy owls at dusk as I was leaving. The first one I saw was perched on a wind vane in a field at the top of a hill. The second one flew past this bird. I followed that one and found it on a pole in the driveway of a nearby farm. It was more heavily barred than the first. (Photo of snowy owl courtesy of Curt Morgan)
- Rob Chapman (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
[Snowy owls are irruptive medium-to long-distance migrants, migrations that are extremely variable. Some North American snowy owls winter in southeastern Canada, the upper Great Lakes states, and New England just about every year. Winter numbers of snowy owls in the U.S. peak periodically, which may be attributed to lemming cycles farther north. During irruptive years, snowy owls can flush south throughout the lower 48 states, as far south as Texas and Florida in extreme years. All About Birds]
12/1 – Manhattan, HRM 2: Our Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. The first day of December brought us three young-of-year black sea bass (57-75 mm).
- Zoe Kim, Natalie Kim
 12/2 – Mohawk River, HRM 164: The two sandhill cranes at Halfmoon, reported yesterday, were seen again early this morning by me and others. They were fairly well-hidden behind the trees standing along the bank of the Mohawk River. They were feeding, preening, and even briefly dancing, as cranes do. (Photo of sandhill cranes courtesy of Eileen Ambro Stickle)
- John Hershey (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
[On the first day of December, more than 300 migrating sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) were spotted at the Northern Montezuma Wildlife Management Area–a record number–by Montezuma Audubon Center staff. These large, heavy-bodied, long-necked birds, known for their loud trumpeting calls, have only recently taken up residence in New York. In 2003, the first sandhill crane nest in the state was found in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex, and today, approximately six pairs may be nesting there." Naomi Lloyd, Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club]
 12/2 – Millbrook, HRM 82: On a brisk autumn day, we found a banded woolly bear caterpillar inching along through the multi-colored autumn leaves. The woolly bear is the larval form of the Isabella tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella). This caterpillar (33 mm) had three bands, from fore-to-aft: black-brown-black. We thought of the old, but perhaps not entirely discredited, belief (folklore) that the wider the middle brown section, the milder the coming winter will be. Conversely, the wider the black sections, the more severe the winter. Our woolly bear was dominated by its middle brown section (14 mm)–more than 42% of the caterpillar’s total length–flanked by two lesser black sections (10, 9 mm).
Is there science involved in reading the woolly bear’s bands? Beginning in 1948, Dr. C. H. Curran, curator of insects at the American Museum of Natural History, conducted wooly bear caterpillar research each autumn at Bear Mountain State Park. Dr. Park’s data suggests the wider the rusty brown mid-section, as a percentage of the total length, the milder the coming winter will be. The blacker, the more severe the winter. If we were inclined to believe, we would expect a somewhat mild winter. (Photo of wooly bear caterpillar courtesy of Tom Lake)
- Tom Lake, B.J. Jackson, T.R. Jackson
Fall/Winter 2021 Natural History Programs and Events
Hudson River Miles
The Hudson is measured north from Hudson River Mile 0 at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee 28, Bear Mountain 47, Beacon-Newburgh 62, Mid-Hudson 75, Kingston-Rhinecliff 95, Rip Van Winkle 114, and the Federal Dam at Troy, the head of tidewater, at 153. The tidal section of the Hudson constitutes a bit less than half the total distance – 315 miles – from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the Battery. Entries from points east and west in the watershed reference the corresponding river mile on the mainstem.
To Contribute Your Observations or to Subscribe
The Hudson River Almanac is compiled and edited by Tom Lake and emailed weekly by DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program. Share your observations by e-mailing them to trlake7@aol.com. To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), use the links on DEC's Hudson River Almanac or DEC Delivers web pages.
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Useful Links
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration online tide and tidal current predictions are invaluable when planning Hudson River field trips. For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from sixteen monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website.
DEC's Smartphone app for iPhone and Android is now available at: New York Fishing, Hunting & Wildlife App.
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