Happy International Cat Day, UESiders!!
Nicely book-ended with National Spoil Your Dog Day on Saturday!!
Best ever vamps to the week ahead:
Throughout August: Movies on the Czech Center Rooftop
321 East 73rd Street, 8pm
A wonderful Czech cinema line-up, heavy on great animation… A delightful setting… A cash bar offering refreshment… One of the UESide’s laid-back annual summer pleasures!! $10. For the schedule and more…
Saturday, August 10th: 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!!
Most happy to say, the Master Knife Sharpener will be with us, too!!
Market Manager Ciana offers up this invitation/daunting challenge on offer at her table: “Guess the number of kernels the ear of corn chosen at total random and win a special Greenmarket prize!! Then check out our great new collection of corn recipes!!”
Last week’s recycling totals: 76 lbs. batteries; 21 lbs. cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges; 4 pair eyeglasses; 14 compost bins; 50 bags of clothes
We’re talking a 14 bin record!!
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…
Saturday, August 10th: Leather Arts and Making Books with Italian Artisans
The New York Public Library Shop, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, 10am
A trio of artisans from Italian leather company Natalzia describe and demonstrate old-world techniques for crafting various handmade leather products from journals to bags to pouches!! Free. Just show up…
Saturday, August 10th: Town Hall’s Broadway Sings
Bryant Park, Sixth Avenue at 42nd Street, 7-8pm
Come hear the songs that Broadway made famous and sung than a host of Broadway veterans!! Free. For more…
Sunday, August 11th: 92nd Street Greenmarket
First Avenue at 92nd Street, 9am-3pm
Compost Collection, 9am-1pm
At their tables and ready for another gangbuster Sunday market will be American Pride Seafood, Sikking Flowers, Meredith’s Bakery and Ole Mother Hubbert (with truck repaired) and Phillips Farms!!
Look for the Master Knife Sharpener, too!!
(Norwich Meadows and Halal Pastures will taking the weekend off in observance of Dhu al-Hijjah.)
Tomatoes… Corn… Over-size bunches of basil… Cauliflower… Chocolate milk… Best oatmeal cookies… Clams… Peaches and apricots… Can’t get enough!!
Last week’s recycling totals: 18 lbs. batteries; 9 lbs. cords, corks, cellphones and cartridges; compost bins: TBA
Given the fantastic number of shoppers last Sunday, who knows how many bins were filled??!!
And then:
Saturday, August 17th: National Thrift Shop Day
Across the City
Join thrift shops and thrifty people across the nation in celebrating National Thrift Shop Day!! Always great and useful finds lurking out there… Plus when we purchase vintage and/or used wares this August, we can pat ourselves on the back for shopping sustainably!!
Saturday, August 24th: “Captain Marvel” in John Jay Park
John Jay Park, Cherokee Place & 77th Street, 7:30pm
Can’t stop summer movies under UES stars!!
Looking toward autumn:
Saturday, September 14th to Sunday, September 22nd: National Drive Electric Week
And to recommend where electric vehicle charging stations should be sited on the UES…
Saturday, October 19th: Global (Birding) Big Day
All Over NYC
Can last year’s identifying of a total of 6,331 feathered species on a single day be surpassed??!! We’ll be trying and here’s how you and yours can join in…
As ever, a bit of activism:
If you think threatened – especially by plastic pollution – sea turtle habitat should be protected…
Should you support Congress passing a bill encouraging use of bird-friendly building materials – like windows which kill a billion of our feathhered friends a year…
Or if you oppose development of a copper mine in Montana’s Cabinet Mountain Wilderness…
Or if you believe pipelines should be prohibited in or near endangered habitats…
For those few who’ve yet to express displeasure with proposed changes to the SNAP food program, City Harvest/Feeding America’ve just fielded a new petition…
And miscellaneous miscellany:
During his 75th birthday week, Smoky the Bear’s spreading the word about campfire safety...
Origins of the modern kitchen and the woman who pioneered its design…
A host of GrowNYC recycling volunteer opportunities…
Latest innovation by our NYS DEC: The DECinfo Locator with lowdown of every description on NYS’s many, impressive outdoor and recreational resources…
The Kosciuszco Bridge joins the Tappan Zee in the deep…
Anerobic digesters likely headed our way…
Portland, Oregon’s airport’s expanding its Green Plate Program… Serving food on reusable plates and with reusable utensils…
Canada’s just established two sweeping Arctic ocean sanctuaries…
Fossils (as in dinosaurs) of the Army Corps of Engineers…
In an era of zillion-story sliver buildings with multi-floor voids… Why not bone up on how to understand NYC’s municipal zoning code…
The life journey of our recycled plastic, glass and steel…
Not just robo call tips for seniors… Robo call tips for one and all…
A bear cub… Ospreys… Shellfish… Plenty of critter action by NYS Conservation Officers…
That while our Forest Rangers have had many a rescue on their hands…
Baking bread with 4,000-year old yeast…
In the “eeek!” category:
Beware of squirrels inclined to nip visitors to Battery Park (and how to proceed on the off-chance)…
NYC’s most rat-infested hoods… (Oh, yeah. The UES could do better…)
Moving on to the greater world of friendly animals:
As in fun facts about pandas…
One very real joy of being a birder…
The Times headline puts it just right: “The Mandarin Duck is AWOL. Enter the Hudson River Beaver“!!
Who knew bats feed on and pollinate agave… The same agave used to make tequila and mezcal!! Our friends at the Bat Conservation International, that’s who!! Thus, their preferred marguerita recipe…
And from the Hudson River Almanac:
7/28 – Brooklyn: We held a Brooklyn Bridge Park public fishing clinic today sponsored by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and the Nyack College Fishing Club. Using rods, reels, and bait donated by Jack’s Bait and Tackle on City Island in the Bronx, we fished from Pier 5 at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The fishing was extraordinary! Among the six species we caught, landed, and released were cunner (wrasse), scup (porgy), bluefish, and striped bass. High-hook was oyster toadfish with seven. The highlight of the day was four smooth dogfish (24-26-inches), a shellfish-favoring shark (Mustelus canis). The East River was 76 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and the salinity was 21 parts-per-thousand (ppt). – Peter J. Park, Isa Del Bello, Christina Tobitsch, Lhana Ormenyi, Haley McClanahan, Shad Hopson
That Scup
[In an effort to reduce the presence of lead in our environment, participants used Swivits concrete sinkers, a Staten Island based company. Peter Park]
[Scup (Stenotomus chrysops) is one of three porgies (Sparidae) in our watershed (marine and brackish waters). They are a common species along inshore waters well up into New England where they are known colloquially as “sand porgies,” reflecting their preferred habitat, broad sandy substrate. Scup can reach 18-inches in length. Tom Lake]
7/20 – Manhattan: On a day when the air temperature was near 100 degrees F, with a heat index approaching 110 degrees (real feel), Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the New York City Parks Department teamed up for a public program we called “Underwater Neighbors at Riverside Park.” We attracted 15 participants to Fort Washington Park, and they all got in the river to help us seine. Once we entered the river, with a southwest breeze off the water, it was approaching pleasant. As it was the season, our featured catch was a combination of abundant Atlantic silverside and Atlantic blue crabs. In lesser numbers were 100 millimeter-long (mm) young-of-year bluefish, a northern pipefish, and a northern puffer (30 mm). [Note: one inch = 25.4 millimeters (mm)] When the puffer went in the bucket for show-and-tell, it inflated up to the size of a ping-pong ball. – Eli Schloss
That Northern Puffer
(Pretty darned puffy little aquatic ping-pong ball, yes?)
7/28 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park visitors caught three small black sea bass (100-125 mm) on rod and reel during our public catch and release fishing program, Big City Fishing, at Pier 25 in Tribeca. – Olivia Radick
That Black Sea Bass
7/29 – Manhattan, HRM 2: Hudson River Park visitors caught two more small black sea bass (both 152 mm) on rod and reel during our public catch and release fishing program, Big City Fishing, at Pier 51 in the West Village. – Olivia Radick
8/2 – Manhattan, HRM 1: We returned to check our research sampling gear in Hudson River Park at The River Project’s sampling station on the lighthouse tender Lilac at Pier 25 and found four more oyster toadfish, ranging from young-of-year (25 mm) to an adult (255 mm). Sharing the crab pot were two tautog (220, 230 mm) and a single nervous blue crab. – Toland Kister
Happy New Yorker With a Smooth Dogfish
Last but far from least… The Fish of the Week:
7/30 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 33 is the gray triggerfish (Balistes capriscus), number 224 (of 229) on our watershed list of fishes. (If you would like a copy of our list, e-mail trlake7@aol.com.)
Our first gray triggerfish, captured in the Upper Bay of New York Harbor on 7/23, was added to our Hudson River Watershed fish list last week.
A Gray Trigger Fish
The gray triggerfish is a benthic (bottom) species; their body is laterally compressed(thin), and deep-bodied, not unlike a large dinner plate standing on its edge. They primarily feed on invertebrates, mollusks, and crustaceans. While the gray triggerfish ranges from Nova Scotia to Argentina, their center of abundance is coastal Maryland south to Florida and east to Bermuda. The gray triggerfish get its name from their spiny dorsal fin that can be used as predator-defense from being swallowed. They have a small mouth with a strong jaw and specialized teeth used to crush and chisel holes in their hard-shelled prey. Most gray triggerfish are less than 14-inches in length. – Tom Lake
See you in (the green UES) September,
UGS
This Week at The Markets 