Monthly Archives: May 2021

May 28, 2021 · 8:27 pm

NY 62 Bald Eagle Nestlings photo courtesy of Bob Rightmyer

May 21, 2021 · 7:13 pm

Happy International Bee Day, UESiders!!

We all totally love bees, of course, but check out the up close, personal and barehanded love of Texas “bee remover” Erica Thompson…

And how best should we more timid bee enthusiasts celebrate:

Have a bee breakfast that incorporates honey
Plant bee-friendly, nectar-bearing flowers in gardens, be those gardens on balconies. terraces or First Ave Islands
Maybe even visit a beekeeper to become acquainted with his/her work

(World Turtle Day is Sunday, May 23rd!!)

Moving further into the good news groove:

The Natural Areas Conservancy and NYC Parks have joined in a 30-year plan to preserve NYC wetlands!!

On the flip side, there’s:

The debacle that’s East River Park…

And the pair – as in a big fat two – charging stations to be installed on the UES…

Back to the bright and sunny:

NYC’s newest park – Little Island – opened yesterday!!

NYC’s first all-electric street sweeper!!

The USDA’s just announced up to $2M in grants for local governments’ community composting programs!!

Best news always is our 82nd Street Market:

Saturday, May 22nd: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

At their tables will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Maxima Total Market Manager Margaret adds:

“Dear Greenmarketeers,

So happy to say that Cherry Lane returns this Saturday!! (And, yes, that rumor’s still alive… That return could be accompanied with strawberries!!)

AND…

Whew!! Hudson Valley Duck will be back with us, too!! (Be sure to try their newest product: Sous vide duck breast!! It’s just great!! (Fully cooked and well-seasoned, all you have to do is just crisp up the skin in a pan, then slice and serve. It’s perfect over a salad of spring greens!!)

Masks for all remains the rule and those chalk and tape marks to help with safe distancing remain in place!!

BUT…

Yikes!! Parking was truly challenging last week with every single space taken up. PLEASE look for space on another block… Or, at least, the eastern end of 82nd!! Farmers and shoppers will both so appreciate it!!

Know you’ll enjoy your shopping,

Margaret“

May be an image of flower and nature — **Himalayan blue poppies in the rain, Valley of Flowers National Park, Uttarakhand, India**

Add these to your live-and-in-person UES events:

Saturday, May 22nd, 10am-12pm: It’s My Park Volunteer Project at Day at Thomas Jefferson Park. The great Green and Blue Eco Care’s at it again… This time spring cleaning-up/warm weather readiness at this wonderful Upper/Upper East Side park!! All park tidying equipment provided. Just sign up (a must: simonespalace@gmail.com )… And bring your well-masked self to the park entrance nearest 114th Street and Mount Pleasant Ave…

Sunday, May 23rd, 2pm: Rally to STOP the Tower on the Julia Richman Education Complex Steps, 317 East 67th Street. Think years of street-clogging construction resulting in a 334 foot commercial tower that shades St. Catherine’s Park and the Julia RIchman Complex the greater part of the any day is a pretty poor idea?? Then see you at this Sunday’s rally!! (Headcount’s essential, folks!!)

Saturday, May 29th, 10am-12;30pm:  Lemon Creek Beach Clean-Up. Hosted by the great NYC H2O, National Resources Protective Association, the American Association of Zookeepers at the Staten Island Zoo and Engines for Change. Lend a hand to get one of the last of NYC’s last ground-level creeks!! All equipment provided.  For more and to register…

Saturday, June 5th, 12-3pm:  Prince’s Bay & Lemon Creek Walking Tour. Hosted by NYC H2O, sponsored by CM Borelli and led by artist, photographer, and journalist Nathan Kensinger. Think landmarked houses, oyster middens, protected woodlands and NYC longest above-ground creek!! Free. For further details and reserve your place…

Moving on to the purely virtual:

Tuesday, May 25th, 4pm: City Council District 5 Candidates Forum on chneighbors.org. Hosted by Carnegie Hill Neighbors, Health Advocates, Civitas, the 86th Street Association, Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts and NY1’s Roger Clark. Council candidates weigh on District 5 issues ranging from the economic to just plain but all-important quality of UES life. To register and/or submit questions:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ny-city-council-district-5-candidates-forum-tickets-152429082489!!

Tuesday, May 25th, 6:30pm: Special Meeting of Community Board 8 on Zoom. Community comment on New York Blood Center and Longfellow Partners private application to create a “Life Sciences Hub” on the Blood Cener’s existing site in Community District 8.  To join the meeting… To view the previous April 27th meeting on the subject… Add this week’s May 13th meeting…To let CB8 know how you feel… And also express your opinion via CM Kallos’s survey…

Wednesday, May 26th, 1pm on Webex  Public Meeting on Toxic Chemicals in Children’s Products Law on Webex. Point of NYS pride that we now have such a law!! So what products and chemicals is this law designed to ban and how will it be enforced??  To register (required) and find out…

Wednesday, May 26th, Thursday, May 27th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social. One sure path to UES neighborly acquaintance… Knit… Chat… Share crafty tips… All you need to do is join in on zoom!!

On the June horizon:

Sunday, June 20th:  92nd Street Greenmarket Reopens!!
_{First Avenue at 92nd Street , 9am-3pm}

Returning for another great market season will be our friends at American Pride Seafood, Ole Mother Hubbert, Kimchee Harvest, Grandpa’s Farm, Halal Pastures, Meredith’s Bakery, Norwich Meadows, Phillips Farm and Sikking Flowers!! (WOW!! And maybe more!!)

Plus… The Jazz Foundation will be with us making Opening Day 2021 music that much better!!

Just remember to mask up!!

And on that very same June 20th day::

Sunday, June 20th, 10am-2pm: Shred-A-Thon – So Glad You’re Back Edition
_{^{Opposite the 92nd Street Greenmarket, West Side of First Avenue between 92nd & 93rd, 10am-2pm}}

Bring that paper on, UESiders!!

And bring it on wearing that mask and socially distancing!!

And, as always, keep in mind:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings.

NO HARDCOVER BOOKS. (But paperbacks are fine.)

May be an image of big cat and outdoors
Lounging (Attentively) in the Central Park Zoo by Jack Donaghy

As for the week’s diverting diversions:

Easy ways to show our love for NYS/NYC parks… Treehugger’s Best of 2021 Green Tech… Sew pouches for orphaned baby wildlife (scroll down)… What’s now in bloom in Carl Schurz… What to know now the 2021 camping season’s begun… NYTimes on “National Parks in a Hotter World”… That endless excavation at 63rd and York… How to begin birding… What our NYS DEC Forest Rangers have been up to… Conservation Officers have been busy, too… A vaunted UES deli… Sheep working on Governors Island… Gilded Age mansions once along Fifth Ave…

Off the beaten path but great:

Architecture of Greek Synagogues: Near & Far, Then & Now…

On to the Hudson River Almanac:

5/4 – Albany: On April 14, and again today, the DEC Region 3 Fisheries Unit used gill nets to capture shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River near Albany in order to surgically implant an acoustic tag. Cumulatively we netted 150 shortnose, a federally Endangered Species, with equal numbers of males and females. The tags are used to track their movements helping us to understand the areas of the estuary that are important to shortnose sturgeon.

The tagged fish are just one phase of a larger project to develop a population estimate for Hudson River shortnose sturgeon. The number of shortnose in the area we sampled on those two days was amazing; many of the sturgeon we found were in spawning condition. Among other species caught and released were American Shad and a huge walleye.

As the year progresses, the fish will move throughout the estuary and will be detected as they move past a river-wide array that will store date and time (like E-Z Pass for sturgeon). In the winter, we will use side-scan sonar to count and another array of receivers to monitor the movement of fish in and out of wintering areas. Funding for this project comes from the Hudson River Foundation and the Hudson River Estuary Program. – Amanda Higgs, Rich Pendleton, Dewayne Fox, Zoraida Maloney, Maija Niemisto

[The shortnose sturgeon were collected and tagged under a National Marine Fisheries Service Endangered Species Act Research permit # 20340. Amanda Higgs]

5/3 – Manhattan: The Inwood Hill Park crabapples near the Isham-Street entrance still had a few blossoms and, farther on, a flowering dogwood was in full blown. Along the path, foliage was lusher than in recent years, and there were now patches of common blue violets. Trees were fully leaved around the Gaelic Field, except for a few eastern redbuds; their leaves unfold later, and their branches were presently outlined in bright red blossoms.

On the path up through The Clove, I was greeted by a very bold melanistic [black] gray squirrel. The foliage was luxuriant though dominated by invasive garlic mustard that has overrun much of the park. But wildflowers had spread as well, and there were scattered patches of violets, wild geranium, Spanish bluebells, as well as abundant lesser celandine and Virginia knotweed.

English and Spanish Bluebells: Features, Facts, and Problems - Owlcation — **Spanish Bluebells**

In the lower, wetter, part of The Clove, jewelweed was nearly a foot-high promising a prettier display than in recent years. Farther up, Dutchman’s breeches had finished their flowering. At the top of The Clove, a little patch of common hickweed had tiny flowers. Cleavers (bedstraw), with even smaller flowers, was greatly abundant, and the invasive Asian honeysuckle was budding everywhere.

A small east-facing alcove on the ridge that is sheltered and backed by a sun-warmed retaining wall, had a potpourri of wildflowers including a carpet of periwinkle, herb-Robert, celandine, cleavers, wild geranium, garlic mustard, Kenilworth ivy, and dandelion. Hanging above the retaining wall were big bunches of wisteria blossoms. At the west-facing Overlook, next to budding honeysuckle, lilacs were blooming.- Thomas Shoesmith

5/3 – Manhattan: The Randall’s Island Park Alliance Staff began the week with the end of the City Nature Challenge. We were out in the Little Hell Gate Salt Marsh in midday and caught a glimpse of a green heron flying past. We also saw a Baltimore oriole and a cardinal around the salt marsh where pickerelweed was popping up. The new growth was about an inch-high, still very tiny. There were brant hanging out about the Island, and a common yellowthroat was in our freshwater wetland. – Jackie Wu

5/6 – Manhattan: The Randall’s Island Park Alliance Staff began our season of water bird monitoring today. Highlights included a snowy egret at the Bronx Kill Salt Marsh, a great egret along the Bronx Kill Kayak launch, and another one that flew overhead while we were at the Little Hell Gate Salt Marsh. It was a great start to our heron monitoring for the year. – Jackie Wu

Great Egrets

5/7 – Manhattan: Twice this week, our Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked the sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. The combined catches were impressive, including two more lined sea horses (55, 80 mm). Normally they would have been the highlight, but a hefty adult blackfish (370 mm, 14.6-inch-long) was most memorable. They were joined by an immature blue crab (20 mm-carapace-width) and an adult white perch (210 mm). – Siddhartha Hayes, Toland Kister, Anna Koskol, Olivia Radick

[Blackfish is a colloquial name for tautog (Tautoga onitis) a rather common, bottom-dwelling fish of New York Harbor. Their common 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]

And our Fish of the Week:

5/5 – Hudson River Watershed: Fishes-of-the-Week for Week 119 is the silver lamprey (Ichthyomyzon unicuspis), fish number 1 (of 234), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

The silver lamprey is a freshwater, parasitic, non-native, cartilaginous fish (no bones) that can trace their ancestry back hundreds of millions of years. With a suction-disk mouth (no jaws) filled with small, sharp teeth and a file-like tongue, they use their raspy teeth to cut into a fish’s body and feed on their body fluids. They migrate into tributaries from the river to spawn over sand and gravelly bottoms where they spawn once and then die.

Silver lamprey are not native to the watershed and are believed to have found their way into the upper Hudson through canals from the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. They are nowhere common in the watershed and are seen only when they attach to a larger fish. Silver lamprey adults can generally grow to a length of 12 inches

The most recent appearance by this ethereal species in the watershed occurred in May 2020. Mike Papero caught a 33-inch northern pike in the Hudson River near Schuylerville (river mile 186) that carried a six-inch silver lamprey. – Tom Lake

One interesting Bird of the Week:

The Bee Basher – AKA Summer Tanager:

North America’s only 100% red bird!!

But we can be 100% green,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week: In 2021, there’re 443 functioning nuclear reactors worldwide.

2021 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (from 4/2/2021): 4/2 – 2 bins, 55 Drop-Offs; 615 lbs.; 326 lbs.; 4/9 – 2 bins, 93 Drop-Offs, 480 lbs. (+47.4%); 4/16 – 3 bins, 136 drop-offs, 621 lbs. (+29.4%) ; 4/23 – 3 bins, 100 Drop-Offs (-1%); 615 lbs.; 4/30 – 135 Drop-Offs, 4 bins, 908 lbs. (+47.6%)
2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20): 294 bags; 12,522 lbs
2019 TOTALS: 43,417 POUNDS (21.7 TONS)
2018 TOTALS: 23,231 POUNDS (11.65 TONS)

Eco Tip of the Week: Black plastic items can’t be recycled. Why? Because recycling facilities sort plastics by bouncing a beam of light off them. Since black plastic absorbs light, it can’t be sorted and goes straight through the system and off to landfill or incineration. (In our/UESide case, to waste-to-energy in far away PA.) So, bottom line, toss!!

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May 14, 2021 · 6:16 pm

Dear UESiders,

So, how ’bout this:

Sunday, June 20th: Shred-A-Thon – “So Glad You’re Back” Edition

_{^{92nd Street Greenmarket, West Side of First Avenue, between 92nd & 93rd, 10am-2pm}}

Bring that paper on, UESiders!!

And bring it on wearing that mask and socially distancing!!

And, as always, keep in mind:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings.

NO HARDCOVER BOOKS.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

Adding to the good news (although we can ask why it’s not a total ban with reversion to ye olde paper straws):

Our great NYC’s passed a bill limiting use of plastic straws!!

Plus:

Another just-passed NYC bill addresses reducing food waste in NYC schools!!

To our north:

America’s first large-scale wind power development – off Martha’s VIneyard – is now approved!!

Back on the UES, 82nd Street and our Greenmarket:

Saturday, April 24th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

At their tables will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Ultima Mega Manager Margaret puts us further in the loop:

“Dear Greenmarketeers,

This Saturday will be Nolasco’s last of the 2021 season at 82nd Street and, no question, they and their wonderful produce will be missed… And please tell them so!!

Could you be wondering who, come May 22nd, will be occupying that SE corner of our market??

Cherry Lane, that’s who!!

Yes, Lou and the gang will be back… And it could well be that they’ll be returning with 2021 strawberries!!

But back to this Saturday… Think asparagus, rhubarb, spinach and salad greens!!

And, fyi, Tutu will be taking time off with Siobhan expertly filling in…

As ever, do keep those masks on while you shop and respect the chalk and tape marks that help us all keep a safe social distance.

And, as always, keep in mind that parking outside the Saturday market area makes for a safe and efficient early morning market set-up!!

Enjoy the spring shopping,

Margaret“

Two actual, live, UES events this weekend:

Saturday, May 15th, 9:30-11:30am:  Esplanade Clean-Up and Gardening Event. Join Green & Blue Eco Care and Esplanade Friends for some spring Esplanade tidying and pollinator-friendly planting!! Tools, gloves, grabbers and seed provided. Just sign up (simonespalace@gmail.com)  and get your 18 or more year-old self over to the Esplanade at 96th!!

Saturday, May 15th, 10am-12pm:  Free Youth Fishing Clinic at the El Barrio Bait Station, The Esplanade at 100th Street. Hosted by Esplanade Friends and made possible by Sea Grant. Two groups of ten lucky kids – one at 10am and another at 11am – learn the basics of the fishing art!! Free and with all fishing gear provided. Girls welcome, too, of course!! FYI, fisher-kids under 14 must attend with a parent who’ll be responsible for that fishing rod. And all participants need to register whether or not they’ll be fishing. To reserve your place…

Followed by some great virtual happenings next week:

Tuesday, May 18th, 6pm: Nature Appreciation in Local Parks on Facebook. Hosted by AM Rebecca Seawright with guest Leslie T. Sharp, author of “The Quarry Fox”, Catskill resident and NYState backyard wildlife devotee and expert. Three ways to register (a must) or 212-288-4607 or SeawrightR@NYAssembly.gov!!

Wednesday, May 19th, 2-3pm:  Native American Code Talkers: A Lasting Legacy via Zoom. Hosted by the Museum of the American Indian. Maybe you’ve seen the 1940’s film, but William C. Meadows of Missouri State University goes deeper on Native American “code talkers” and the key role they played numerous WWII campaigns.

Thursday, May 20th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social. Such a lovely, down-home NYC couple of hours. Knit… Chat… Share your handiwork… A classic UES community gathering!! All you need to do is join in on zoom!!

Thursday, May 20th, 3:30-4:30pm:  “Volunteering Is Ageless” on Zoom. Hosted by the Volunteer Referral Center and Health Advocates for Older People. Of course, responses to other New Yorkers’ needs by folks of every age have been just amazing over Covid days… But there’s always more to do…  To register and learn about a ton of great new ways we – of every age – can lend others a hand…

Thursday, May 20th, 6pm:  Ruppert Park Scoping Session via Zoom or Facebook.  Thanks to $2.4 allocated by CM Kallos, beloved but crumbling Ruppert Park begins what hopefully will result in the brilliantly designed, nurturing city oasis UESiders deserve!! Not entirely sure Parks is up to the challenge, but let the scoping/first step begin!!  To attend…

(Of course, we UESiders can cover 2 to 3 events in a single afternoon!!)

Tuesday, May 25th, 4pm: City Council District 5 Candidates Forum on chneighbors.org. Hosted by Carnegie Hill Neighbors, Health Advocates, Civitas, the 86th Street Association, Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts and NY1’s Roger Clark. Council candidates weigh on District 5 issues ranging from the economic to just plain quality of UES life. To register and/or submit questions: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ny-city-council-district-5-candidates-forum-tickets-152429082489!!

NY City Council District 5 Candidates Forum image

Tuesday, May 25th, 6:30pm: Special Meeting of Community Board 8 on Zoom. Community comment on New York Blood Center and Longfellow Partners private application to create a “Life Sciences Hub” on the Blood Cener’s existing site in Community District 8.  To join the meeting… To view the previous April 27th meeting on the subject…  Add this week’s May 13th meeting…  To let CB8 know how you feel… And also express your opinion via CM Kallos’s survey…

In the virtual/in-person combo folder:

Both in abundance at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum!!

Of course, there’s volunteerism in the great outdoors:

*Helping NYS biologists keep NYS’s striped bass population in the pink…

*Combatting the invasive spotted butterfly…

*And the equally destructive spotted lanternfly…

*Or assist migrating amphibians – seeking love – cross country roads…

   Mother red fox relocating her kits courtesy of Deborah Tracy Kral

Pretty darned diverting diversions:

Feral cats on the job at the Javits Center and The Hermitage Museum…  NYC’s vintage buildings from a new perspective…  The language of flowers…  Visions for Governors Island…  Macy’s plan for Herald Square…  Dealing with critter garden pests…  Native American recipes…(scroll to page 31 and Whole Foods has bison!)…  How the Finger Lakes Trail came to be (scroll to page 18)…   NYS’ river otters’ return (scroll to page 12)..  Long eared owls and their feathery faces… Then there’s Barry, Central Park’s own barred owl… Birding by subway…  Letting the Mississippi “run”…  Bees on America’s prairie…  And bees of our eastern forests…  Big time mining lithium from old car batteries…  Interpol, an app and stolen art…  How to make the delicious Hungarian cottage cheese cake…

So impressive how many East Harlem blocks of street trees the great Green and Blue Eco Care volunteers have planted with sunflowers… Check ’em out:

And from the Hudson River Almanac:

4/25 – Manhattan: I was running along the Hudson River Greenway path when I noticed that my tiny morel mushroom patch had borne fruit once again. I discovered this spot by chance two years ago and checked periodically in the spring last year with no luck. This year, after spotting one morel I was able to find and forage eleven in total. I am not a mushroom expert, but luckily morels have only one look-a-like, and with a little attention, they are easily verifiable using online resources. I can’t help but wonder how many other morels go undetected in New York City each spring. – David Maggiotto

Morels
Those Morels

[The exact location of the morel patch is intentionally left vague to protect the fungi from over-harvesting. Foragers would rather give you their car keys than disclose a location where prime mushrooms were appearing. Tom Lake]

[Eating some species of wild mushrooms can cause sickness and even death. Despite widespread beliefs to the contrary, there is no general rule that allows you to distinguish between a poisonous mushroom and one that is safe to eat. Wild mushrooms should only be considered for consumption after being identified by an expert mycologist, and even then, only in moderation with samples of fresh specimens retained and properly stored to aid in identification whenever poisoning is considered a possibility. – Steve Rock

4/27 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked the sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. We were excited to see an adult tautog (230 mm) and a northern pipefish (165 mm) that had been collected in one of our crab pots.
Tautog
A Taurtog

4/30 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked the sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. At 65 degrees F and sunny, it was a gorgeous morning to go out and check our gear, and the fish certainly agreed. Our traps yielded two young-of-the-season blue crabs (10-20 mm), a white perch (185 mm), two northern pipefish (120-170 mm), a lined seahorse (65 mm), and a handsome little skilletfish (50 mm). – Siddhartha Hayes, Olivia Radick, Toland Kister

A Skilletfish

[Skilletfish are a small benthos-loving fish related to gobies and blennies. Like gobies, they have a pelvic suction disc leading to their other common name, clingfish (Hildebrand and Schroeder 1928). They find oyster reefs ideal habitat for both forage and safety. Their name comes from a dorsally-flattened body with a large, roundish head that altogether looks like a skillet. They are considered a temperate marine stray in the lower, brackish reach of the estuary. Tom Lake]

Then there’s the Fish of the Week:

4/25 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 118 is the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), number 28 (of 234), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

An Atlantic Herring

The Atlantic herring is one of nine herrings (Clupeidae) documented for the Hudson River watershed. These include the sub-family Alosinae of Hudson River herrings: American shad, hickory shad, alewife, and blueback herring.

The Atlantic herring, a marine species, ranges from the edge of the polar ice in Northern Labrador to North Carolina. Traveling in schools of thousands, they are one of the world’s most important commercial species. As plankton-feeders (copepods are a favorite), they can reach 17-inches.

Across their range, they spawn from summer into late autumn from Massachusetts Bay down along Cape Cod. Farther north, where they are known as sea herring, Bigelow and Schroeder (1957), notes that they spawn from fall into winter from the Gulf of Maine to the Nantucket Shoals. Briggs and Waldman (2002) found them common to abundant in Long Island Sound and they are not uncommonly taken in seines in the East River. They are known in the estuary from occasional catches as far upriver as Indian Point (river mile 42). – Tom Lake

And the Bird of the Week is…

The Eastern Phoebe

image of ...

We leave you with this moment of ultra-local, utterly green happiness:

While planting a street tree bed on First and 62nd this past Wednesday, we were totally shocked when a bumble bee buzzed by… Buzzed back… Circled the tree… Then settled – momentarily – on a young lobelia plant…

The first bee we’ve ever seen on First Avenue!!

No, can’t ever be enough green,

UGS

Eco Facts of the Week: Cities are essential in the fight against global warming because they’re/we’re responsible for about three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions globally and consume about two-thirds of the world’s energy supplies with just 17% of the 812 cities surveyed are implementing measures across all four of the top priority areas of building, transport, electricity grids and waste management. Fewer that half of all cities have a detailed plan for tackling climate-related hazards like extreme heat and flooding.

^{2021 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (from 4/2/2021): 4/2 – 2 bins, 55 Drop-Offs; 615 lbs.; 326 lbs.; 4/9 – 2 bins, 93 Drop-Offs, 480 lbs. (+47.4%); 4/16 – 3 bins, 136 drop-offs, 621 lbs. (+29.4%) ; 4/23 – 3 bins, 100 Drop-Offs (-1%); 615 lbs.; 4/30 – 135 Drop-Offs, 4 bins, 908 lbs. (+47.6%)
2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20): 294 bags; 12,522 lbs
2019 TOTALS: 43,417 POUNDS (21.7 TONS)
2018 TOTALS: 23,231 POUNDS (11.65 TONS)}

Eco Tip of the Week: So, Whole Foods at Union Square is once again collecting corks but don’t look for that erstwhile bin near the store’s exit… Corks now need to be taken to Customer Service!! (Nope and who knows why, but Whole Foods at Third and 88th never did and doesn’t now recycle corks!!)

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May 7, 2021 · 6:29 pm

Happy Soon-To-Be Mother’s Day, UESiders!!

And an equally massive Happy Nurses Day – yesterday but our thanks continue – to those who’ve now spent a valiant year-plus on the front line!!

Meanwhile and so perfect as we await resumption of compost collection at all our UES sites:

It’s also International/New York State Compost Awareness Week, May 2nd-8th and with the slogan, “Grow, Eat… Compost… Repeat”!!

It’s Air Quality Awareness Week, May 3rd-7th, too!!

Shall we stay on the happy foot with news of this week’s market:

Saturday, May 8th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

WIth us will be our friends of American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Walnut Ridge, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Alta Ultimate Manager Margaret weighs in:

“Dear Greenmarketeers,

Asparagus should still be plentiful this week…

AND Gajeski may have rhubarb!!

(A combo that says to me there’ll be strawberries on our market’s tables soon!!)

There’ll be lots of great Mother’s Day presents on our tables, too… Including ingredients for the best of all gifts… Mother Day’s dinner prepared by her family!!

Do keep wearing those masks and observing that 6-foot social distance that’s been keeping us all safe and our market open!!

And one last reminder…

We really, really do need those few parking spaces on 82nd just west of the market so we can safely set up!!

Have a wonderful shopping Saturday,

Margaret“

Market Manager Tutu adds:

“Be thinking beautiful Mother’s Day/Sikking Flowers’ tulips, Greenmarketeers!!”

So what’s otherwise transpiring around the hood? Well…

Tuesday, May 25th, 6:30pm: Special Meeting of Community Board 8 on Zoom. Continued Discussion on New York Blood Center and Longfellow Partners private application by the New York Blood Center to create a Life Sciences Hub on their existing site in Community District 8. To join the meeting… To view the previous April 27th meeting on the subject… For some recent news coverage… And to express your opinion via CM Kallos’s survey…

Fervor re Gristede/Dag continuing illegal use of now banned plastic bags continues… Now with the request that folks also send complaints/requests for action to NYS DEC Commissioner Basil Segos (https://www.dec.ny.gov/about/407.html), AM Seawright (SeawrightR@nyassembly.gov) and NYS Senator Krueger (lkrueger@nysenate.gov)  Just a quick email on the order of “Please enforce the plastic bag law presently being violated by NYC supermarkets Gristede’s and D’Agostino”!!

Then there’s this:

Doubtless you’ve noticed the wonderful, vintage neon signage that, for decades, has brightened the Goldberger’s Pharmacy facade, NE corner of 65th and First (and the NW corner of the landmarked First Avenue Estates). Well, now it seems that building owner Stahl – the bunch that in hope of stopping landmarking of the York Ave portion of the Estate ripped off its architectural detail and painted the structure orange – is now and in the name of landmark integrity moving to remove Goldberger’s neon!!   Stay tuned…

Moving back to the plus side:

Been going on for more than a decade that we know and been plagued with misadventures (like blades being torn off by an inaccurately measured – as in a way too low – current speed/force), but the latest iteration of Verdant Power’s turbines are in the East RIver and sending clean, green electricity to the Roosevelt Island Gristede’s… With many more turbines and much more wattage to come!!

As for the week’s actual event agenda:

Saturday & Sunday, May 8th & 9th, 11am-6pm: Great Plant Sale, Sixth Street & Avenue B. This tip from great Green Park Gardener Kaitlin… We’ll be checking it out!!

Events strictly virtual:

Tuesday, May 11th, 6:30pm: A Talk by William Hoagland on the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 via Zoom. Pretty darned climactic given that theWhiskey Rebellion and its military suppression by President George Washington, brought the public career of Alexander Hamilton to a climax, established US sovereignty on the western frontier, and crushed a long American movement for greater democracy!! Hosted by the great NYC H2O. Free (but a donation would be nice). For more and to sign up…

Saturday, May 13th, 11am-12pm: 5th Annual Horseshoe Crab Festival. Hosted by NYC Audubon with the American Littoral Society, Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservanc,y the Gateway National Recreation Area and via Zoom. Amorning celebrating the annual arrival of the 400-million-year-old Atlantic Horseshoe Crab at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge!! It may be virtual, but you’ll see experts handle live horseshoe crabs, learn about their important ecological importance to shorebirds and medicinal value for humans!! Free. (There are some free in person spots available, too!) To learn more and/or sign up…

Thursday, May 20th, 6pm: Ruppert Park Scoping Session via Zoom or Facebook. Thanks to $2.4 allocated by CM Kallos, beloved but crumbling Ruppert Park begins what hopefully will result in the brilliantly designed, nurturing city oasis UESiders deserve!! Not entirely sure Parks is up to the challenge, but let the scoping/first step begin!! To attend…

Add this virtual & in person combo:

Through May 9th: Jane’s Walks 2021 via Zoom. From the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire to Vibrant, Sustainable Roosevelt Island to… Well, you get it, of course!! Free. For total info/the great line-up…

No end to diverse and diverting diversions:

Can’t recommend the USWR’s bi-monthly green newsletter highly enough!! Sign up!!… Latest on the (adorable) NYC Plover Project… UES’s home to 3 of NYC’s best taco eateries (we’re ignoring Food & Wine’s NYC pizza ratings!)… Secrets of our 90-year-old Empire State Building… Running 98.5 miles in Central Park… May classes from the NYBG… Art coming to Randall’s Island… Virtual tours, insights and more from the Folk Art Museum… Beavers saving salmon… The man who defended the apostrophe… An osprey in the hood… Where the monarchs go… Return of “The Science Guy”…

Hudson River Almanac time:

4/20 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park’s River Project Staff checked the sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park and found an impressive array of river life. Highlights included two very closely related species: lined seahorses (70, 95 mm) and a northern pipefish (185 mm). A gorgeous white perch (180 mm), and three blue crabs (20-115 mm) completed the catch. – Anna Koskol, Olivia Radick

Callinectes sapidus - Wikipedia Blue Crabs Really Are Blue!!

4/22 – Brooklyn: We celebrated a windy, chilly Earth Day by seining at Shirley Chisholm State Park on Jamaica Bay. Two hauls of our net collected 22 Atlantic silverside, two striped killifish, a mummichog, 28 sand shrimp, two blue crabs, a moon jelly, and an army of mud snails. Oystercatchers patrolled the shoreline while a kestrel pinpoint-hovered over the grasslands.

Moon Jelly Moon Jellies!!

It was appropriate on Earth Day to pay homage to Shirley Chisholm, a congresswoman and outstanding leader who reminds us that “Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on the Earth.” – Chris Bowser, Tiffany Yeung, Ciara Scully, Raymond Rogers, Andrew Meashaw

4/23 – Manhattan: “Syngnathid” season (seahorses and pipefish) continued as Hudson River Park’s River Project Staff checked the sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. Staff found three northern pipefish (120-180 mm) and a lined seahorse (55 mm). – Siddhartha Hayes, Toland Kister

Hello, Fish of the Week:

4/18 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 117 is the emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides), number 53 (of 234), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

The emerald shiner is a minnow, one of 34 carps and minnows (Cyprinidae) in the watershed. C.L. Smith called them “a fish of big waters.” They are a small fish never reaching more than 130 mm-long.

Emerald shiners are found across the northern reach of the Americas from the Saint Lawrence watershed through the Great Lakes south to Texas and then northwest to the Canadian Northwest Territories. They are not native to our watershed. J.R. Greeley’s Biological Survey of the Lower Hudson Watershed (1937) did not find them here and, in the Hudson, they are considered to be a Mississippi refugium/canal immigrant having found their way here via the New York State canal system sometime after 1937. Today they are common in the Mohawk River and are occasionally found in the estuary. – Tom Lake

Then there’s the Bird of the Week:

The beautiful Streamertail!!

Check out a month’s amazing 96th Street compost collection stats below…

Ever so and perpetually green,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week: Renewable energy – think wind and solar power – is the fastest-growing energy sector in both our state and our city!! (NYState law mandates that 70% of our electricity be generated by renewable sources by 2035!!)

2021 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (from 4/2/2021): 4/2 – 2 bins, 55 Drop-Offs; 615 lbs.; 326 lbs.; 4/9 – 2 bins, 93 Drop-Offs, 480 lbs. (+47.4%); 4/16 – 3 bins, 136 drop-offs, 621 lbs. (+29.4%) ; 4/23 – 3 bins, 100 Drop-Offs (-1%); 615 lbs.; 4/30 – 135 Drop-Offs, 4 bins, 908 lbs. (+47.6%)
2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20): 294 bags; 12,522 lbs
2019 TOTALS: 43,417 POUNDS (21.7 TONS)
2018 TOTALS: 23,231 POUNDS (11.65 TONS)

Eco Tip of the Week: Okay, seems Le Triage Wine did accept corks for recycling until the recycler changed policy and would no longer cover postage which quickly became a prohibitive expense for the shop. And so, the search for another collector/collection point resumes!!

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