Happy National Bagelfest Day, UESiders!!
So perfect for us New Yorkers!! (We’re planning on at least one toasted poppyseed topped with a mass of vegetable cream cheese!!)
And for you marguerita fanciers, it’s also National Tequila Week!!
Just starters for the coming week:
Saturday, July 27th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
82nd Street between First and York, 9am–2pm
Compost & Clothes Collection, 9am–1pm
With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard Honey, Sikking Flowers, Samascott, Ole Mother Hubbert, Cherry Lane, SunFed Beef, Alewife, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gayeski Farms!!
Look for the Master Knife Sharpener, too!!
And Market Manager Ciana shares these critical words, ““Corn. Tomatoes. Squash. Peppers. Peaches. Basil. Broccoli rabe. Garlic. ” And then again reminds us, “Market hours are 9am-2pm!!”
Bring ’em, we say!!
Last week’s recycling totals: 22 lbs. batteries; 6 lbs. cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges; 12 compost bins; 37 bags of clothes
Yes, even on a 90-plus-degree day, you still filled 12 bins!!
Sunday, July 28th: 92nd Street Greenmarket
First Avenue at 92nd Street, 9am-3pm
Compost Collection, 9am-1pm
With tables ever more laden with summer bounty will be American Pride Seafood, Sikking Flowers, Meredith’s Bakery and Ole Mother Hubbert’s, Norwich Meadows, Halal Pastures and Phillips Farms!!
No Master Knife Sharpener this Sunday, but fingers crosssed for next!!
Market Manager Supremo Margaret echoes MM Ciana’s wisdom: “Corn. Tomatoes. Squash. Peppers. Peaches. Basil. Broccoli rabe. Garlic. ”
We hear you, Margaret!!
Last week’s recycling totals: TBA
Saturday, July 27th: “Honeyland” Screening
Quad Cinema, 34 West 13th Street, 5:15pm
This year’s Sundance most-honored doc detailing the touching conflict between traditional and newly-minted beekeepers in the mountains of Macedonia. Film followed by Q&A with the filmmakers and the president of the NYCBeekeepers Association!! For the trailer…
Sunday, July 28th: 92nd Street Greenmarket
First Avenue at 92nd Street, 9am-3pm
Compost Collection, 9am-1pm
With us will be American Pride Seafood, Sikking Flowers, Meredith’s Bakery and Ole Mother Hubbert’s, Norwich Meadows, Halal Pastures, Phillips and Sun Fed Beef Farms!!
No Master Knife Sharpener, but fingers crossed for next Sunday!!
Market Manager Supremo Margaret shares this thought: “When it’s too hot to cook, Greenmarket’s the perfect solution!! Our markets are full of fruits and vegetables so fresh they need no cooking. On Sunday stop by to the info tent at 92nd st to taste summer squash with a cool, raw, crushed tomato sauce.”
(Halal’s tomatoes and squashes are a must!! Check out Phillips beautiful chives!! Fingers crossed, Mother Hubbert has chocolate milk!!)
Last week’s recycling totals: TBA
(We’re betting on at least 4 1/2 bins!!)
Wednesday, July 31st: Rat Academy Pest Management Seminar
St. Francis de Sales, 135 East 96th Street, 6-8pm
Get up to speed on safe and effective methods for rat prevention!! Win free rodent-resistant garbage bins in the R.A. raffle if you sign up to attend!! Truly jam-packed with useful – if not vital – info!! To register…
On to August:
Throughout August: Movies on the Czech Center Rooftop
321 East 73rd Street, 8pm
A wonderful Czech cinema line-up (especially “Laika”)… A delightful setting… A cash bar offering refreshment… One of the UESide’s annual summer pleasures!! $10. For the schedule and more…
Sunday, August 4th: Kids Forest School
North Woods, Central Park, 9am-12pm
Last week’s horrible heat wave caused cancellation of the School’s July date, but it’s back on for August!! As per our original twig, “Experience a one-hour class in which instructors Sarita and Stephan of Upper Manhattan Forest Kids will lead you and your children – six and older – through nature-themed activities (like rock collecting and chalk drawing), sing-alongs, and storytelling in one of Manhattan’s most scenic forests!!” Made possible by the Natural Areas Conservancy. Free and, needless to say, previous reservations will be honored! For more and to register…
Tuesday, August 6th: Night Out with the 19th Precinct
Carl Schurz Park, 86th Street at East End Avenue, 5:30-8pm
Live music!! Giveaways!! Food, refreshments and sweet treats!! Arts & crafts!! Activities for all ages and pets!! But most of all, a chance to get to know the great people of Precinct 19 and build a stronger, safer community!!
Thursday, August 8th: Newtown Creek Walking Tour
Meet at 1164 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, 6:30-8:30pm
Commencing in Greenpoint, Brooklyn… Former colonial center and 19th Century industrial powerhouse… Crossing Newtown Creek and the Pulaski Bridge to once gritty Hunters Point, now awash in luxury housing construction… See and learn what was and is before it’s gone!! Organized by the great NYC H2O!! $20. For full detail and tickets…
Thursday, August 8th: Mappy Hour – The New NYC Nature Map
Arc’teryx Soho, 169 Spring Street, 7-9pm
Get the lowdown on the NYC Nature Map… The Natural Areas Conservancy’s new interactive web map of our city’s amazing 20,000-plus acres of natural spaces and how these marvelous green places can be enjoyed!! Sponsored by Arc’teryx and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. Free. For more and to register…
Saturday, August 10th: Great Hudson River Fish Count
All Along the Hudson, Throughout the Day
And we quote, “Fresh upriver and salty at New York City, the Hudson estuary and its watershed are home to more than 200 fish species. During this family-friendly event, participants are invited to explore the amazing variety of slippery, wriggly, and fascinating creatures usually hidden below the river’s surface.” Plus all the fish are released!! For the complete rundown…
Saturday, August 10th: East Harlem Beautification Day
Meet in front of the East Harlem Tutorial Program, 2050 Second Avenue at 105th Street, 3-6pm
Join the Green and Blue Eco Care Club, Partnership for Parks staff and amazing volunteers in a fun-filled afternoon learning the basics of street tree care, creating some art and making new friends!! Tools and supplies provided. Yes, indeed, tree stewardship is sweeping our far East Side!! See you there!! For complete details…
As ever, a bit of activism:
If you believe Congress should continue its support of our public libraries…
Then a bit of miscellany:
How to best store that fabulous Greenmarket summer produce…
How to quick-pickle those fabulous Greenmarket vegetables…
Or a Greenmarket berry sorbet…
Okay, not exactly green or green gossip, but Gloria Vanderbilt’s earliest (and brief) UES home on 72nd is for sale…
The NYC DEC site that lets us check water quality where we’d like to be swimming…
And NYS bodies of fresh water that may be afflicted with harmful algal blooms (HAG)…
Yes, animals:
Should you wondering how a service animal is legally defined…
Wonderful firefly info thanks to Carl Schurz Park’s July newsletter…
Many a bird cam view available on explore.org… (One of our favorites being the puffinburrow.cam!!) (FYI, puffins feed their young’uns some of our American Seafood faves: haddock and hake!)
If trees “speak” to each other through their roots, why wouldn’t baby birds be communicating even while still in their shells…?
Calling all Citizen Scientists!! NYState’s soon to field its annual Wild Turkey Survey!!
The Hudson River Almanac nevver fails:
7/16 – New York Harbor, Lower Bay: At least one humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), possibly two, were spotted swimming around Raritan Bay off the south side of Staten Island this morning. The whale came within 100 feet of a fishing boat where anglers watched it for at least 30 minutes. They estimated it to be the size of a large SUV.
A Humpback Whale
In late autumn 2016, a humpback whale cruised into the Upper Bay of New York Harbor from the Verrazano Narrows to the George Washington Bridge for six days feasting on Atlantic menhaden before returning to the open ocean. (Photo of humpback whale courtesy of Tom Collins)
– Tom Lake
[From 2007-2009, Cornell University did an experiment listening in on the underwater acoustics of New York Harbor, where, to the astonishment of many, they discovered at least six species of whales vocalizing from the Statue of Liberty to just past the Verrazano Narrows. Biology-online.org]
7/13 – Brooklyn, New York City: Our staff from Coastal Classrooms of the City Parks Foundation caught a northern sennet in our seine today at the mouth of tidal Coney Island Creek in Kasier Park, on the north side of Coney Island. – Luis Gonzalez
A Barracuda
[The northern sennet is a barracuda, one of two members of the family (Sphyraenidae) in the estuary. Northern sennet max out at 18-inches-long, hardly the great barracuda (S. barracuda) that can get to more than six-feet-long. Northern sennet are found in coastal waters from Cape Cod to Florida and with tooth-studded jaws, are an apex predator in their own right. – Tom Lake]
7/15 – Manhattan, New York City: Our Randall’s Island Park Alliance staff and interns conducted our first harbor-heron monitoring of the month this morning. The wind was nearly nil and the air temperatures eventual rose to 82 degrees Fahrenheit (F) by midday. Across our ten survey points on the coast of the island, we spotted a few great egrets flying overhead, one snowy egret flyover, multiple double-crested cormorants flying and sitting out on rocks, as well as various species of gulls and swallows. We also noted an osprey wheeling overhead at one of our northern points.
With a summer group from Teacher’s College, we went to the east side of the island (Water’s Edge Garden Beach) in the afternoon and did three seine hauls in the Harlem River. The group collected three northern pipefish, 24 Atlantic silverside, and one each winter flounder, Atlantic tomcod, and white perch. Invertebrates included shore shrimp, sand shrimp, and mud dog whelk snails. The water temperature was 77 degrees F, and the salinity was 25.0 parts-per-thousand (ppt), about 72-percent seawater. – Jacqueline Wu
7/17 – Manhattan: Today was Pollinator Monitoring Day at Randall’s Island Park Alliance. There was barely any wind (highest was 1.5 miles-per-hour) and the air temperature was more than 90 degrees F. We spotted flies, wasps, butterflies, bees, and beetles. Most of the butterflies were cabbage whites (Pieris sp.), although we also saw a monarch butterfly. Most bees were carpenter bees, but there were also honey bees and bumble bees. – Jacqueline Wu
As for the Fish of the Week:
7/18 – Hudson River Watershed: The mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) is number 116 (of 228) on our watershed list of fishes. (If you would like a copy of our list, e-mail trlake7@aol.com.)
A Mummichog
Mummichogs are one of five killifishes (Cyprinodontidae) on our watershed fish list. They are a small fish, rarely exceeding 100 (mm) in length, and are found in coastal waters and estuaries from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Florida. Together with its close relative, the banded killifish (F. diaphanus), they are common in the lower Hudson River estuary. Part of their diet consists of insect larvae, especially mosquitos, and they have been used as a biological control in urban areas with high mosquito densities.
The name mummichog has a Native American origin, and is generally interpreted, at least with Algonquian speakers, as “going in crowds.” This describes the schooling predilection of most killifishes to travel in large numbers, particularly young-of-year. Native Americans did not have a written language, or at least of the type recognized by Europeans. Theirs was an oral tradition, featuring stories, storytellers, and elders who were the keepers of the stories. Therefore, mummichog is a phonetic representation of the native spoken word. – Tom Lake
Yours in evergreenness,
UGS
