Saturday, May 7th: Jane’s Walk – Secrets of the East Harlem Waterfront

Happy Earth Day/Weekend/Week 2022, UESIders!!

And so many ways to experience in our great, ever-more-green-in-spite-of-all-obstacles NYC… 

But, first, for all those who haven’t yet voiced their support for restoration of our city’s compost collection program…

Back to Earth Day and its celebration:

FRIDAY, APRIL 22nd:  EARTH DAY 2022 AT UNION SQUARE!!
_12-7pm

Booths featuring dozens of environmental organizations…  Speakers live and virtual…  Music and more!!  For the complete rundown (where there’re also links to virtual Earth Days 2020 and 2021)!!

Then in, on and about our UESide home turf:

Saturday, April 23rd:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

Does it get any more Earth Day-ish and green than our great  Greenmarket??  Answer:  It does not!!

As ever and with us and bringing their wonderful regional vegs/honey/ fruit/baked goods/fish/poultry/meat/mushrooms/cheese/flowers (and more) will be the great folks/our friends of American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Hudson Valley Duck, Sikking Flowers and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Then proceed to:

Saturday, April 23rd:  Earth Day Everyday with Green & Blue Eco Care
_{Meet at Mojo Desserts, 177 East 100th Street, 11am-12:30pm}

Join G&B Eco Carers and great leader Simone as they tidy UES streets on a route from 100th to the NYC Ferry landing on the Esplanade/90th Street and a possible rendezvous with Billion Oyster staff!!  All equipment provided!!  To sign up…

Leaving plenty of time to hippity-hop a few blocks to:

Saturday, April 23rd:  Carl Schurz Park
_{All around the Park, 84th-90th Streets & York, 1-4pm}

Click on https://www.carlschurzparknyc.org/copy-of-cspc-earth-day-2022 for all great things going on at the park… (And free, of course!!)…

A good night’s sleep then:

Sunday, April 24th:  Randall’s Island Farm Day
_{Randall’s Island, 10am-1pm}

Celebrate Earth Day plus two days by volunteering  to restore the Island’s farm wetlands and marsh habitats!!  Or just bring the kids and enjoy the great, green RI environment!!  For more and to register…   

More UES earth consciousness/celebration to come with next week’s Arbor Day:   

Friday, April 29th:  Arbor Day Planting on Randall’s Island 
_{Randall’s Island Park (meeting place forwarded after registration), 9:30am-12pm}

And we quote, “Join us as we celebrate Arbor Day by planting native trees in the Park… Trees essential to a healthy environment, vital to our economy and that contribute greatly to our everyday lives.”  A garden/natural areas tour (with loads of great tree trivia) follows planting!!  To sign up…

And for citywide Earth/Arbor Day happenings: https://www.nycgovparks.org/events/earth_and_arbor_days

Here comes – believe it!! – May and more great live and in-person events:

Sunday, May 1st:  AM Seawright’s Spring Shred-A-Thon

_{York Avenue between 79 & 80th Streets,  10am-2pm}

Three cheers!! The CM’s partnering with DSNY to remedy our UESide shredding need!!

But, as ever, classic shredding protocols apply:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings.

NO hardcover books.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

Tuesday, May 3rd:  67th Street Library Branch Plant Swap
_{328 East 67th Street,  6-7pm (time tentative)} 

A neighborhood classic returns!!  Bring and share those extra  seedlings, cuttings and/or greenery that not longer fits your in or outdoor Eden…  And leave with a plant or plants you’ve been yearning for!!  Completely free, of course!!  More details coming here soon and you can check the Library’s events page…

_{Meeting location forwarded with registration, 11am}

And we quote, “Uncover the mysteries and little-known secrets of the East Harlem Waterfront with Jennifer Ratner, President of Friends of the East River Esplanade and owner of Art GenNYC as she shares anecdotes through the lens of art and history about the waterfront and a vision for its future.”  Free.  For more and to sign up… 

Saturday, May 7th:  Highbridge Walking Tour

_{High Bridge, 2301 Amsterdam Avenue, 11am-12:30pm}

Bryan Diffley, Project Manager of the Bridge’s renovation, relates the amazing history  of NYC’s oldest standing bridge, an engineering treasure constructed in 1848 that brought water from the Bronx into Manhattan via the Croton Aqueduct until 1958!!  . Organized by the great NYC H2O!!  Students & Seniors, $10…  Rest of us, $30…  For your tickets…

Saturday, May 14th:  Planting the Esplanade Pollinator Garden 2022
_{East River Greenway at 100th Street (across from the East Barrio Bait Station, Time TBA}

Join Green & Blue Eco Carers’ and Friends of the Esplanade refreshment of the Esplanade/Greenway Pollinator Garden…  A green space dedicated to native plants and the hearty NYC pollinators – like our native solitary bee – that nurture them!!  Stay tuned for more info…

Sunday, Mary 15th:  Flower Moon Walking Tour at Ridgewood Reservoir

Ridgewood Reservoir, 58-2 Vermont Place, Queens, 7:30=9pmFYI, May’s full moon is also a super moon and that that lovely bigger and brighter full moon makes for a perfect spring night to visit Highland Park.  Another great event from NYC H2O!!  Free but with only a couple spots left…  But a waitlist’s available.  For more and to register… 

Then there’re these great virtual events:

At Your Convenience:  “Design You Garden to Attract Pollinators” via Zoom

Missed iDig2Learn’s great live webinar with the equally Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Rebecca McMackin??  Lucky us, it’ll be on YouTube and available until June 15th!! Free.  Just click (yes, it’ll work this time!!)… 

Thursday, April 28th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social on Zoom 

UES multi-purpose knitting at its finest…  Community interests shared… Neighborly bonds formed…  And many a cast-on/knit/purl row completed!!   To RSVP… 

Followed with some Earth Day activism:

Should you support Congress banning poisonous PFA use in our food wrappers…

If you think soon-to-be-purchased new postal trucks should be at least 75% electric…

If you believe NYS should act to limit single-use plastics…

And should you not yet have expressed your wish that the mayor provide 1% of budget funding for our city’s parks… 

Time for some diverting diversions: 

NYS DEC’s Earth Week diesel truck emission blitz…   And new tech to pinpoint NYS’s abandoned, leaking oil and gas wells…  Eeek!!  Speaking of methane:  Newtown Creek and National Grid…Water – maybe – on a Jupiter moon… Congress and recycling legislation… Yet another great addition to our NYStatewide Birding Trail… PBS‘s outstanding Earth Week doc…  Boston’s curbside compost debut… Extending the lives of our valiant city trees… Trees as art…

A Tree of Forty Fruit

Protection for Nevada’s endangered Dixie Valley Toad…  

History of American landfill (truly interesting!!)…  Wombat rescuers…  The official DSNY NYS guide to what we can recycle in our buildings…   Block Island and wind power…  A (female) Roosevelt Island basketball star…  A new, green drywall alternative…  Fitness equipment coming to the Esplanade…  Florida’s manatees…  Birding with a purpose…   NYS‘s 10th annual Greening of New York State Report…  A wildlife-friendly lawn…

_{A Baby Tamarind and Mom}

Moving on to the Hudson River Almanac:

4/2 – Brooklyn: In mid-morning, from Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, I spotted a small flock of raptor-like birds flying northwest toward Staten Island. The flock included two turkey vultures, a red-tailed hawk, and a bird that looked like a cross between the two. The mysterious visitor had a hawk outline and turkey vulture coloration of black with pale underwings. I sent a photo of the bird to my friends and passed it through a bird identification app. The app suggested it was a zone-tailed hawk (Buteo albonotatus). The bird departed quickly, chased away by one of the cemetery’s resident red-tailed hawks before heading west across New York Harbor. – Angela Panetta
                                                                     
                                                                    _{A Zone-Tailed Hawk}

[David Allen Sibley (2000) remarks how the zone-tailed hawk is incredibly similar looking, especially in profile, to the turkey vulture, with which it often soars. As serious birders remind us, check every bird; do not assume that a flock of look-alikes, are all alike. Tom Lake]

[This zone-tailed hawk sighting was a first for New York State. They are rare in the Northeast, typically seen only soaring over the Southwest U.S. or Central and South America. However, to some hawk watchers, this record was anticipated. Zone-tailed hawks, in very small numbers, have been documented from Virginia to Nova Scotia in four of the last eight years, as they expand their range in North America. Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

4/3 – Hudson River Watershed: It is that time of year again. Red fox kits are emerging from their dens to explore their new world after being kept inside with their mothers nursing for the first 4-5 weeks of life. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora. They are found across the Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe, and Asia, plus parts of North Africa. They share their sub-family, Caninae (from Latin canis meaning “dog”) with domestic dogs, wolves, foxes, and coyotes. The males are called dogs, the females are called vixens, and young cubs are known as kits. The species primarily feeds on small rodents, though it may also target rabbits, squirrels, game birds, reptiles, and invertebrates (Pringle 2017). As with reptiles and amphibians, vehicular traffic can represent danger for wildlife. Red fox and their kits may use roads to cross from denning sites to foraging locations. Cautious driving habits can save wildlife, including red foxes. – Tom Lake

A Red Fox Kit

4/6 – Manhattan:  Our Hudson River Park’s River Project staff, along with two Harbor School interns, checked our sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River Park. It was an exhilarating day for us given the meager catches of winter. Our crab pots held a 170 mm-long “blackfish” (tautog) as well as two juvenile black sea bass (55-60 mm). Our minnow traps caught several grass shrimp and isopods. It was an exciting first day on the job for our new high school interns. – Zoe Kim, Siddhartha Hayes, Toland Kister, Demolyn Ramirez, Juliet Wiley

A Black Sea Bass

4/6 – Manhattan:  Rainy weather is sometimes a bummer, but it does bring out a lot of the birds on the Island. Our Randall’s Island Park Alliance Staff spotted six egrets today at the Little Hell Gate Salt Marsh Inlet, including two great egrets and four snowy egrets, the most we’ve seen together in a long while. – Jackie Wu

Some of Those Egrets

4/8 – Manhattan, New York City: Our Randall’s Island Park Alliance Staff went seining today at the Water’s Edge Garden on the Harlem River. We were assisted by high school students from Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts. We didn’t catch any fish, but that did not matter! We caught many invertebrates including eleven comb jellies about the size of a peanut M&M and a colony of star tunicates.
                                                                    
                                                              A Lion’s Mane Jellyfish

Among true jellyfish, we caught at least 40 lion’s mane (Cyanea capillata) in three hauls of our seine. Their bells (umbrella) ranged from roughly the size of a half dollar to about the diameter of the lid to a pint of ice cream. These are the largest jellyfish in the world with some reaching more than a meter across with tentacles that stretch more than 75 feet, although those of that size are rare. Water temperature was 48 degrees F, salinity was 16.0 ppt, and the dissolved was 9.0 ppm. [Note: Ken Gosner’s Guide to Identification of Marine and Estuarine Invertebrates (1971) is the best source for taxonomic identification for the Lion’s mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata). Tom Lake]

Not forgetting our Earth Week Fish:

4/4 – Fish-of-the-Week for Week 167 is the longnose gar (Lepisosteus osseus), number 16 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes. 
                                                          
  A Longnose Gar

Gar have lived in North American waters for 50 million years. Fossil gar found in rocks from the Green River formation of western Wyoming are so like gar found today in New York waters that they are thought to be members of the modern genus Lepisosteus. Longnose gar is one of two species of their family, Lepisosteidae, found in the Hudson River watershed. The other is the nonnative alligator gar (L. osseus).

Longnose gar is a primitive-looking, extremely well adapted fish, whose evolutionary journey began several hundred million years ago. With a fusiform body, armor-like ganoid scales, long narrow jaws full of very sharp teeth, growing to six-feet-long, they have been described by zoologist Archie Carr as having a “Paleozoic leer.”

Found in eastern North America from Quebec to northern Mexico, longnose gar are primarily freshwater fishes although they can live in coastal marine waters (their type site, where first described, is Virginia). In New York State, they occur in relatively large lakes such as Lake George and Lake Champlain, as well as both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. They are a voracious lie-in-wait predator, essentially piscivores (fish eaters) but have been known to eat blue crabs in brackish water. The New York State longnose gar angling record was set by Michael Gatus in 2018, in South Bay of Lake Champlain, with a 14 lb., 10 oz, 52.25-inch-long fish (they are known to reach 72-inches and 50 lb).

A unique characteristic of gar is their ability to assimilate atmospheric oxygen allowing them to live in low dissolved oxygen conditions such as warm, shallow freshwater habitats. This is likely an evolutionary adaptation for survival in an aquatic world far different than today.

Their presence in the watershed is supported by a single 30-inch fish found impinged on the intake screens at the Roseton Power Generating Facility (river mile 66.5) in Orange County and recovered by Tom Lake in 1989. That gar was believed to have been a canal immigrant from Lake Champlain via the Hudson-Champlain Canal. In our watershed, longnose gar is designated as a nonnative, freshwater, Mississippi refugium, canal immigrant. However, given their present proximity to our watershed to the north, west, and south, it is not beyond the realm that longnose gar may have once been native to the watershed in the long-ago Pleistocene.

On May 13, 1994, five dead longnose gar were recovered from an outwash area on the Saw Mill River in Yonkers (eight dead gar were reported there the day before). While it was possible that longnose gar were resident, albeit never reported there before, we viewed the likelihood with a great deal of skepticism.

On June 1, 1994, a day-long investigation of the Saw Mill River watershed was conducted by fish doctors C. Lavett Smith and Bob Schmidt, as well as Christopher Letts, and Tom Lake. Using gill nets, dip nets, and seines, the exhaustive sampling resulted in a collection of eight rather unremarkable resident species, but no evidence of longnose gar.

Subsequent analyses of the stomach contents from the five longnose gar, conducted by Norma Feinberg (Ichthyology Department, American Museum of Natural History), revealed partially digested striped bass and white catfish. In trying to contemplate where the gar may have encountered these species, we considered several possibilities: Sawmill River, Hudson River, Lake Champlain, Lake Erie, and the Chesapeake Bay system.

After much consideration of the various physical and chemical components of each system, the conclusion was that at least five of the eight longnose gar were likely dumped in the Saw Mill River by an angler returning from a trip to the Chesapeake Bay area, possibly the Potomac River where longnose gar are common (Hildebrand and Schroeder 1928:78). In the end, they were not from the watershed, but their appearance gave us a wonderful mystery to unravel and a memorable educational journey. – Tom Lake

And the gorgeous Earth Week Bird is:

                                                              The Ovenbird!!

As we green our wonderful earth and great Upper East Side,  

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week:  Nearly 50 billion pieces of litter are estimated to exist along U.S. roadways and waterways today, meaning each U.S. resident would need to pick up 152 pieces of litter to collect it all, according to the Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study.  

Eco Tip of the Week:  Turn those paper egg cartons into a seed starter trays!!

2022 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (1/7-3/25/2022 ) – 7,231 lbs.;   91st & York (3/13- 3/27/2022) – 1,634 lbs
2021 TOTALS at 96th & Lex (4/2/21-12/31/21) – 48.581 lbs/ (24.25 Tons) 
2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20):  12,522 lbs. (6.25 Tons)
2019 TOTALS:    43,417 Pounds  (21.7 Tons)
2018 TOTALS:  23,231 Pounds (11.65 Tons)

2022 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (1/7-3/25/2022 ) – 7,231 lbs.; 91st & York (3/13- 3/27/2022) – 1,634 lbs.2021 TOTALS at 96th & Lex (4/2/21-12/31/21) – 48.581 lbs/ (24.25 Tons) 2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20): 12,522 lbs. (6.25 Tons)2019 TOTALS: 43,417 Pounds (21.7 Tons)2018 TOTALS: 23,231 Pounds (11.65 Tons)

Happy Passover and Easter, UESiders!!

So what if it appears – as happened in spite of mid-week predictions of dry weather for last Saturday – there’ll be rain??!! 

We’ll be celebrating!!

And doing that celebration with plenty of Greenmarket deliciousness and flora:

Saturday, April 16th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm}

With us will be the great folks of American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Hudson Valley Duck, Sikking Flowers and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Maestra Manager Margaret’s elaborates:

“Dear Greenmarketeers:

Yes, Sikking’s back!!  And there will be flowers for Easter and Passover at 82nd Street!!Of course, all our hardy winter farmers will be at their tables, too…  So, absolutely, you can get everything you need for your holiday meals!!AND…If you’re looking to spice up whatever you are making…  Equip yourself with some horseradish from the Gajeski Farm!!  (But be careful…  It’s really strong!!)

As always, do respect the needs of our farmers for set-up and parking space…

See you at the market,

Margaret“

Fingers crossed we’ll also soon be celebrating:

Forward movement on the  NYC Big Clean-Energy Project!!

(L.A.’s just announced its County Sanitation DIstrict’s already achieved carbon neutrality…)

Moving on to more upcoming live/in-person happenings… Like a Shred-A-Thon:

FRIDAY, APRIL 22nd:  EARTH DAY 2022 AT UNION SQUARE!!
_12-7pm

Booths featuring dozens of environmental organizations…  Speakers live and virtual…  Music and more!!  For the complete rundown (where there’re also links to virtual Earth Days 2020 and 2021!!

Saturday, April 23rd:  Compost by Bike – An Earth Day Community Ride
_{Meet at Central Park West, 110th Street & Lenox Avenue, 9:30am-2pm} 

Join the Lower East Side Ecology Center’s great folks (compost collectors at Union Square and many another Manhattan site) for a 12-mile composting community ride from Harlem through Central Park to the East Village!! In celebration of Earth Day, they’ll then show you how NYC’s food scraps get recycled on a local level at 4 community composting locations!!  To register…

Saturday, April 23rd:  Bee A Pollinator/Earth Day Service Day
_{Queens County Farm Museum, 12-4pm}

Come to lend a hand sifting compost..  With the Farm’s spring clean-up of its Children’s Garden. mulching and weeding…  All topped of with an apiary talk by the resident beekeeper!!  Then leave with a compost giveback, Adopt-a-Worm composting tips,  a tractor-drawn hayride ($5/person), a self-guided scavenger hunt, and free giveaways!!  Think a day of service, learning and fun!  For complete details and to sign up…

Sunday, April 24th:  Randall’s Island Farm Day
_{Randall’s Island, 10am-1pm}

Celebrate Earth Day plus two days by volunteering  to restore the Island’s farm wetlands and marsh habitats!!  Or just bring the kids and enjoy the great, green RI environment!!  For more and to register… 

 Sunday, May 1st: AM Seawright’s Spring Shred-A-Thon

_{78th-79th York Avenue, 10am-2pm}

Eureka!! The CM’s partnering with DSNY to remedy our UESide shredding need!!

But, as ever, classic shredding protocols apply:

NO cardboard or plastic-handled shopping bags.

REMOVE paper clips and spiral bindings.

NO hardcover books.   (But paperbacks are fine.)

Saturday, May 7th:  Jane’s Walk – Secrets of the East Harlem Waterfront
_{Meeting location forwarded with registration, 11am}

And we quote, “Uncover the mysteries and little-known secrets of the East Harlem Waterfront with Jennifer Ratner, President of Friends of the East River Esplanade and owner of Art GenNYC as she shares anecdotes through the lens of art and history about the waterfront and a vision for its future.”  Free.  For more and to sign up…

Sunday, June 27th:  A Community Walk at Ridgewood Reservoir
_{At the Ridgewood Reservoir, 58-2 Vermont Place, Queens, 1-3pm}

Organized by the great NYC H20 and led by Assistant Director Join David Chuchuca and local community garden organizers, it’s our chance to explore this incredible natural resource right in the heart of NYC!!  Sponsored by CMs Holden, Reynosa and Diaz.  Free.   For more, directions and to sign up… 

Well over the horizon but:

Wednesday, June 15th:  Electri-fiction to Electrification – Overcoming Barriers Conference
_{NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South, 1-5pm}

This year’s conference tackles the remaining barriers holding us back, lessons learned from the few that have made the leap and how we can accelerate progress now.  Organized by Urban Green.  Members $55.  Non-members $75.  For more details and to register…

Add some great virtual events:

At Your Convenience:  “Design Your Garden to Attract Pollinators” via Zoom

Missed iDig2Learn’s great live webinar with the equally Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Rebecca McMackin??  Lucky us, it’ll be on YouTube and available until June 15th!! Free.  Just click… 

Wednesday, April 20th, 4pm:  Birdsong Essentials – Enjoying Songbirds This Spring via Zoom

Spring into the season of cascading whistles, trills and, chirps a cascade of whistles, trills, chirps and other bird-made melodies!!  Learn how to identify those sounds and the bird who make them and more…  Wisdom imparted by  American Bird Conservancy experts!!  Free.   To register…

Wednesday, April 20th, 4-5pm:  BIrds, Bees & A Second Silent Spring Webinar

The NRDC’s Dan Raichel and Dr. Nicole Miller of National Audubon explain the science behind neonicotinoid pesticides or “neonics,” their surprising prevalence in our environment, and their unprecedented threats to our American soil, water, plant life and biodiversity.  Free.  To register…

Thursday, April 21st, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social via Zoom 

Meet a bunch of wonderful neighbors who share your community interest and – you bet – your knitting passion…  To RSVP… 

Thursday, April 28th, 6-7:30pm:  Cooking with Food Scraps Virtual Workshop via Zoom

Lower East Side Ecology Center and the Mulberry Street Library present how we can not  only reduce food waste but in the greenest and most delicious way!!  Free.  To sign up…

Thursday, April 28th, 6:30-8pm:  The Nature of Oaks – The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees with Douglas Tallemy via Zoom

The great TreesNY hosts 90 minutes with reigning treeman/ecologist Dr. Tallemy…  Need we say more??  Free (and will be available for later viewing) but donations welcome (either way)!!  To join in…

Wednesday, May 18th, 6-7pm:  Be a Park Steward & Make NYC Greener Webinar

Curious about the ways you can help preserve and sustain our city’s parks and urban forests? Partnerships for Parks (PfP) and NYC Parks Stewardship present an introductory webinar on how you can help!!  Free, of course.  Further details and sign on… 

And now for some virtual, NYC-centric activism:

Friday, April 22nd, 10am:   City Council Committee on Parks and Recreation Hearing on Equity via Online

Should you believe our parks have long been under and inequitably funded and that this is a state-of-affairs the mayor should address, you can testify virtually and live…  Or submit written testimony…  And/or virtually attend…  For further details…

On to some old-school, generalized activism: 

If you think the EPA should not only ban Roundup but use of the “drifting” pesticide Dicamba… 

And if you also believe Amazon should end selling bee-killing neonic pesticides… 

Returning to the subject of NYC Parks…  If you think our NYC budget should include the promised 1% funding for our parks…

And now for the latest installment of diverting diversions: 

The Easter Parade route…  Help transcribe the newly released 1950 Census…  UES construction/alteration naughtiness…   NYS voting ease for the blind expanded…  Job opportunities at the NY Horticultural Society…  Ancient (yes, ancient!) origins of the Easter Bunny…

Volunteer at Beyond Pesticide’s Earth Day Union Square table…  How ’bout a career in the composting industry...  How climate change affected ancient humans…   How UK scientists protest fossil fuels…  Satellite pix revealing old growth logging…  Plastic pollution facts…  The world biggest bee…  Mushroom chat…  Fiddlehead fern lore (scroll down)… Many a great event from NYC H2O, for example:

And now for the Hudson River Almanac:

3/31 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak made our usual set of seine hauls this morning. What our catch lacked in numbers, was made up by quality. The star of the morning, in addition to 31 comb jellies, was a lined seahorse measuring 82.5 millimeters (mm).

Our only previous lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus), taken at the Beczak Center by our crew, was on April 25, 2009. That one measured 51 mm. Salinity at Yonkers had been unusually low all spring until today when it read 9.1 parts-per-thousand. Lined seahorse literature (Christmas & Waller, 1973) cites the low end of their preferred salinity at 10.0 parts-per-thousand (ppt). Apparently, that value is negotiable.

Later, our staff checked our glass eel fyke net that we had set out overnight in the Beczak tidemarsh. We found an impressive number of glass eels (113), three lovely winter flounder, and a mummichog. The river temperature was 43 degrees Fahrenheit (F), the salinity was 9.1 ppt, and the dissolved oxygen was 11.05 part-per-million (ppm). (Photo of lined seahorse courtesy of Jason Muller)
– Jason Muller, Ruby Alcorn, Annie Bingham

[The lined seahorse is a small to palm-sized fish that swims in an upright position looking much like the Knight piece in a game of chess. They are poor swimmers, as fish go, and use their prehensile tail to wrap around stationary objects such as vegetation, crab pots, pilings, ropes, or other holdfasts to maintain their place in the face of strong currents. The seahorse is also a master of camouflage and a voracious ambush predator. It can change its color in seconds to match its background and await potential prey. Male sea horses are notable for their brood pouch in which they carry fertilized eggs (250-300) deposited during a long process, one at a time (Beebe, 1932), by the female. In one of the rare instances in the Animal Kingdom, it is the male that take the eggs to full term and gives live birth. Tom Lake]
                                                                              
                                                        That Sea Horse!!

3/25 – Hudson River Watershed: Recently, more than sixty stalwart volunteers of the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project compiled migration data from across eight counties in the watershed. They counted sixteen species of 2,263 amphibians (1,619 live/644 dead), in the migration of forest amphibians to vernal pools. In addition, they assisted 1,484 salamanders, frogs, and toads across roads. Highest numbers were counted for spring peeper (602 live/243 dead) and spotted salamander (400 live/145 dead), with lower numbers of wood frogs (154 live/24 dead).
                                                                       
A Spring Peeper 

You can find more information about the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project in the NYSDEC press release at https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/124870.html or by visiting the project website at https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/51925.html. – Laura Heady, Emma Clements

3/29 – Hudson River Watershed: Our use of Hudson River miles (HRM) in the Almanac is a way of giving entries and observations a geographic context within the watershed.

Our starting point is the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan, which is Hudson River Mile 0 (HRM). However, we also recognize that the greater “Hudson River” travels eleven miles southeast of the Battery, through the Upper Bay of New York Harbor to the Verrazano Narrows and the sea, ultimately out to into the Hudson Canyon, a deep abyss in the ocean floor carved out by ancestral glacial meltwater eons ago.

Moving upriver from the Battery, notable bridge locations include the George Washington (HRM 12), Mario Cuomo-Tappan Zee (28), Bear Mountain (47), Newburgh-Beacon (62), Mid–Hudson (75), Kingston–Rhinecliff (95), Rip Van Winkle (114), and the Federal Dam at Troy at the head of tidewater (153).

The tidewater reach of the Hudson constitutes a bit less than half the total distance (315 miles) from the Battery to the origin of the river at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks. Entries from points east and west in the watershed, such as the Wallkill, Mohawk, and Battenkill rivers reference the corresponding latitudinal river mile on the main stem. – Tom Lake
 

4/1 – Hudson River Estuary: The 2022 Hudson River recreational striped bass season opened on April 1st in waters upriver from the George Washington Bridge. Regulations for creeling recreationally caught striped bass is limited to fish caught within a slot size of 18-28 inches total length (no fish smaller than 18” or greater than 28” may be kept). Total length is defined as the distance from the tip of their nose to the tip of their caudal fin.
                                                             
                                                          Jessica Best and a bass

In concert with the season opening is the opportunity to participate in the Hudson River Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Program. You can share your fishing trip information and help biologists understand and manage our Hudson River striped bass fishery. For more information you can contact hudsonangler@dec.ny.gov or go to: https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/remediation_hudson_pdf/hrcoopanglerelogbook.pdf – Jessica Best


                                Jessica and One Ridiculously Huge Hudson River Striped Bass

On to the actual UGS Fish of the Week:

3/27 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 166 is the permit (Trachinotus falcatus), number 180 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes. 
                                                               
A Permit
The permit is one of six members of the Jack family (Carangidae) documented for the Hudson River watershed. Others include crevalle jack, round scad, Atlantic moonfish, lookdown and banded rudderfish.

In the Atlantic, Permit, a tropical-looking fish, range from New England to Brazil, including the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Immature permit are not uncommon in brackish water. They are found in near-shore shallows, channels, over flats and along sandy beaches, and around reefs, usually solitary or in small schools. They likely spawn offshore in Gulf Stream waters.

Their caudal fin is deeply forked, and their body is compressed laterally, making them seem tall and thin when viewed head on. Relating to the shape of the caudal fin, their trivial name, falcatus, translates from Latin as “sickle-shaped.” In Florida, and throughout the Caribbean, permit are esteemed gamefish reaching 45-inches-long and weighing 50 pounds.

While permit is considered rare in Chesapeake Bay, Briggs and Waldman (2002) consider juvenile permit as “common in summer” in the New York Bight along sandy beaches. In our watershed, they are designated as a temperate marine stray.

There are few and scattered records in the Hudson River estuary. Permit was added to our fish list in August 1989, when Chris Letts and Tom Lake caught a young-of-year (YOY) of 27 mm at Dobbs Ferry. Later that month, they also caught a small permit (28 mm) on the beach at Sleepy Hollow. Eleven years later, September 2000, the same educators caught a third YOY (28 mm) on the beach at Nyack Beach State Park.

The final two documented permit (all five taken from the Tappan Zee) occurred in autumn 2002 on the beach at Englewood (NJ). Third-grade students from the Willard school helped Tom Lake and Chris Letts manage their 50-foot seine to catch northern kingfish, bluefish, and Atlantic silverside. Then came the surprise, plopping out of a clump of wild celery, two permit (60, 78 mm) the largest we had seen in the scattered thirteen years we had caught them. The students then witnessed one of permit’s magic tricks: The small silvery fish, much alive, made a sudden color change to near-black. In a marine environment, this would confuse a predator as the fish dissolved into dark shadows.

 And This Week’s Very Great Bird:

                                                                   The Great Blue Heron!!

Stay tuned for dates and Manhattan locations for GrowNYC’s annual compost giveaway!!

Green and ever greener,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week:  Since 1990, an estimated 420 million hectares of forest have been lost to deforestation and destruction. Though deforestation rates have slowed in the past few decades, it is estimated that 10 million hectares of forest were lost annually from 2015 to 2020.

Eco Tip of the Week:  Plastic Easter baskets, Easter basket “grass” and foil candy wrappings are not recyclable!!  Toss!!

Happy  National Library & National Wildlife Weeks, UESiders!! Yes, and add to that happiness that the plan to lift restrictions on NYC building size’s been defeated up in Albany!!  Not only that but that dusty patch that was only days ago a fact-of- life under the Aycock Pavilion is now:                                                                                                                                           New Sod at Aycock Then there’re the 2 ice seal species that now have habitat protection...  And the Nevada toad now protected (scroll down from the seals)…  Also looking like – fingers tightly crossed – we might actually have a Saturday devoid of precip!!  And then, how ’bout these March UES composting stats: Every Friday:  96th & Lex Compost Drop-Off 96th Street & Lexington, 7:30-11:30am Date Drop-Offs Bins Weight (lbs) 2/25 185 6 1,292 3/4 235 9 1,658 3/11 235 8 1,674 3/18 180 6 1,282 3/25 200 7 1,335 TOTALS: 1,035 D-Os 36 Bins    7,241 lbs. 2022 to Date (1/7- 3/25/22) Total Drop-Offs – 3.231;  Total Bins Filled – 96;  Total Weight – 19,425 lbs. Every Sunday:  91st Street/Asphalt Green Compost Drop-Off York Avenue & 91st Street.  7:30am-12pm Date Drop-offs Bins Weight (lbs) 3/13   75 3 522 3/20  105 4 740 3/27 60 5 372 TOTALS:  240 D/Os 12 Bins 1,634 lbs.     2022 to Date (3/13- 3/27/22) Total Drop-Offs – 240;  Total Bins Filled – 96;  Total Weight – 1,634 lbs. Then there’re the developments at our great market: Saturday, April 9th:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket 82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm Tabling with us will be our friends American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!! And Incredibilia Mangeria Margaret weighs in on those developments:   “Dear Greenmarketeers, Looking like it will be a nice day this Saturday and we’re expecting all of our favorite farmers to make the trip down (or up) to NYC to attend the market!! Add to that, we’ve just received  confirmation that Sikking Farm with their marvelous fresh cut flowers is planning to return on April 16th…  Just in time for Easter and Passover celebrations!! But this Saturday, do stop by the manager’s tent to see what we’re sampling this week.  (No question, last week’s yogurt, granola & apple syrup was a hit!! Oh, yes!!  You remember, right?  As always, our wonderful farmers need all our help with parking outside the market area!! See you at the market. Margaret“ Pretty great, huh??!!  Then there’s: FRIDAY, APRIL 22nd!!:  EARTHDAY 2022 AT UNION SQUARE!! 12-7pm Booths featuring dozens of environmental organizations…  Speakers live and virtual…  Music and more!!  For the complete rundown (where there’re also links to virtual Earth Days 2020 and 2021!! Saturday, April 23rd:  Compost by Bike – An Earth Day Community Ride Meet at Central Park West, 110th Street & Lenox Avenue, 9:30am-2pm  Join the Lower East Side Ecology Center’s great folks (compost collectors at Union Square and many another Manhattan site) for a 12-mile composting community ride from Harlem through Central Park to the East Village!! In celebration of Earth Day, they’ll then show you how NYC’s food scraps get recycled on a local level at 4 community composting locations!!  To register… Saturday, April 23rd:  Bee A Pollinator/Earth Day Service Day Queens County Farm Museum, 12-4pm Come to lend a hand sifting compost..  With the Farm’s spring clean-up of its Children’s Garden. mulching and weeding…  All topped of with an apiary talk by the resident beekeeper!!  Then leave with a compost giveback, Adopt-a-Worm composting tips,  a tractor-drawn hayride ($5/person), a self-guided scavenger hunt, and free giveaways!!  Think a day of service, learning and fun!  For complete details and to sign up… Sunday, April 24th:  Randall’s Island Farm Day Randall’s Island, 10am-1pm Celebrate Earth Day plus two days by volunteering  to restore the Island’s farm wetlands and marsh habitats!!  Or just bring the kids and enjoy the great, green RI environment!!  For more and to register…   Next up, virtual events: Until 11:59pm, Sunday, April 10th:  Cast Your Participatory Budgeting Vote A million bucks to be apportioned among our hood’s improvement projects of your choice!!  And voting couldn’t be easier online…   (If you’re either 11 years-old or older or in the 6th grade, you’re an eligible voter!!)  Sunday, April 10th, 2pm:  Pilgrim Hill & Its Cherry Trees Tour via Zoom  Join Central Park Conservancy guides for a special seasonal – and virtual – visit to one of the park’s most eye-catching April destinations, Pilgrim Hill and its unequaled spring bloomers, the Yoshino cherry trees. Suggested donation, $10.  To sign up… Thursday, April 14th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social on Zoom  The weekly UES virtual classic that draws our hood’s abundance of neighbors who combine community interests and a love of knitting!!  To RSVP…  Wednesday, April 20th, 4pm:  Birdsong Essentials – Enjoying Songbirds This Spring via Zoom Spring into the season of cascading whistles, trills and, chirps a cascade of whistles, trills, chirps and other bird-made melodies!!  Learn how to identify those sounds and the bird who make them and more…  Wisdom imparted by  American Bird Conservancy experts!!  Free.  To register… Keeping our activist instincts sharply focused and honed: Want all our UES compost sites back??  No less an entity than GrowNYC – the folks who’ve for years orchestrated compost collection at our 2 markets, at 70th Street/Robbins Plaza, 96th & Lex and citywide –  is asking for our signatures to politely but vigorously request the mayor restore the NYC compost collection program in its entirety!!  To sign… Widening the lens: Should you believe yet another proposed fracked gas pipeline – this one running from West Virginia, through Virginia and on to North Carolina – should be cancelled out… Somehow, the widely supported NYS ban on gas in new construction – the All-Electric Building Act – with more co-sponsors than any other green legislation and vaunted in the Gov’s State-of-the-State has disappeared from the latest version of the new budget…!!  No, not stopping the beat the compost drum: As our mayor/DSNY keep NYC’s compost collection program minimal in the name of cost, a first class PR firm seems to have been retained… And now for some (mostly) soothing diverting diversions:  Spring hikes in the Adirondacks for mature folks…  An introductory “How to Retrofit Your High Rise” course…  Smithsonian photo contest winners…  NYC H2O’s first chapter in its great new Storymaps series: “Exploring the Croton“ examining the history of NYC’s first watershed/reliable drinking water supply…   When a baby squirrel falls from its nest…                                                         NYS (really interesting) invasive species news…  A newsletter to get to know:  “Latest Buzz” from the New York Getting to know NYC Beekeeper Association…  The lowdown on rotisserie chicken…    “Get ticked off“ (as in ticks off!!)…   A national composting policy (!!)…  The Fish Flag Art Contest for kids 5-18…  What’s happening down at Solar One/Stuy Cove Park…  To bring the Puppetmobile to one of our UES parks…    Moving on to the Hudson River Almanac: 3/15 – Hudson River Estuary: Prior to 2010, today was traditionally the first day of commercial shad season, the first day when you were allowed to set or drift a gill net in the Hudson River for American shad. However, that did not imply that the fish would be there. American shad arrived from the sea at their own time, a time that primarily coincided with the right water temperature. Meltwater from late winter snowstorms, especially in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks, would suppress the warming of the river and push the date out. Once the river reached the mid-40s Fahrenheit, the males, or buck shad, would begin nosing up the river, a sinuous journey that allowed them to slowly acclimate to the lessening salinity. In the weeks that followed, more and more female, or roe shad would ascend the river, all heading above the salt to the freshwater reach to spawn from Hyde Park to the head of tide at Troy. Eventually, the run would even out, bucks and roe, before A Shad Fisherman 3/16 – Manhattan: Our Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our sampling and collection gear that we deploy off Pier 40 in Hudson River. Our pots and traps did not contain any fish today, but we did pull up grass shrimp, blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) and, for the first time in a while, a Beroe’s comb jelly! – Natalie Kim, Zoe Kim A Beroe’s Comb Jelly 3/17 – Staten Island, New York City: I watched, today, as double-crested cormorant repeatedly dived for fish in Wolfes Pond, a freshwater lake on Staten Island. One surfaced with a large gizzard shad clenched in its serrated bill. Tipping its head back, the bird began the long and tortuous task of swallowing the fish. – Rob Brauman That Double-Crested Cormorant 3/18 – Hudson River Watershed:  Full moon. Among indigenous peoples, full moons have long been labeled with names that are rooted in oral traditions, tribal memories, and ethnographic accounts. Among Mohican people, whose ancestral homeland lies within the Hudson River watershed, the March full moon is known as the Crow Moon (Kã’Kã’koowe keesok). Tribal translations of full moons pre-date colonization and generally reflect the seasonality of the lunar phase. Moon phases, in fact, are used by indigenous people as measurements of time. – Larry MaddenAs for the Fish of the Week: 3/17 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 164 is the Atlantic cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus), number 216 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes.  An Atlantic Cutlassfish!! The Atlantic cutlassfish is the only member of the snake mackerel family (Trichiuridae) documented for the watershed. They are found in circum-tropical and temperate waters of the world. In the Atlantic, they range from Cape Cod to Argentina, being much more common south of Chesapeake Bay. In our area, they are designated as a temperate marine stray. They favor muddy bottoms of shallow coastal waters, often entering estuaries and feeding on fishes, squid, and crustaceans. The Atlantic cutlassfish, with its large, fang-like teeth, looks like a creature from a nightmare. They are elongate, strongly compressed, with a strap-like body, silver to metallic blue, and a dorsal fin that runs from its head to the tip of its tail. From Greek, its genus translates to hair, and its trivial name to head, thus their other common name, largehead hairtail. Briggs and Waldman (2002) consider them rare in the New York Bight with two old records from Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn (1897 and 1901). There is one Hudson River estuary record, from Indian Point (river mile 42) 1985, a 165 mm (6.5-inches) juvenile. – – Tom Lake And This Week’s Mighty Fine Bird…  Make that 12 Birds of the Week…  The first of which is: The Green Kingfisher Doesn’t get better than spring green, UGS Eco Fact of the Week: Nearly 50 billion pieces of litter are estimated to exist along U.S. roadways and waterways today, meaning each U.S. resident would need to pick up 152 pieces of litter to collect it all, according to the Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study. Eco Tip of the Week:  Recycle those no longer needed crutches at the Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street!!2022 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (to date from 1/7/2022) – 7,231 lbs.;   91st & York (to date from 3/13) – 1,634 lbs. 2021 TOTALS at 96th & Lex (4/2/21-12/31/21) – 48.581 lbs/ (24.25 Tons)  2020 TOTALS (from 1/9/20-3/25/20):  12,522 lbs. (6.25 Tons) 2019 TOTALS:    43,417 Pounds  (21.7 Tons) 2018 TOTALS:  23,231 Pounds (11.65 Tons)

Happy National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, UESiders!! Not only that!! Could possibly/maybe/they’re actually predicting that we could experience a non-Arctic Saturday/Market Day without precipitation??!! As we cross all fingers: Every Friday:  96th & Lex Compost Drop-Off 96th Street & Lexington, 7:30-11:30am 2022 to Date (1/7=2/28/22): Total Drop-Offs – 2.196;  Total Bins Filled – 60;  Total Weight – 12,184 lbs. Every Sunday:  91st Street/Asphalt Green Compost Drop-Off York Avenue & 91st Street.  7:30am-12pm  Week 1 – 1 Bin;  Week 2 – 2 Bins   Week 3 – 3 Bins!!  Poundage to come!!    Saturday, April 2nd:  82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket 82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm With us will be the great folks of American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey,  Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott,  Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd,  Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!! Can’t get enough spinach and arugula greens!!  Those wonderful eggs!!  Scallops!!  Yoghurt!!  Chicken pot pie!!  Mushrooms!!  Whole grain bread!!  Freshest herbs!! (You’re right!!  Uber Excellenta Market Manager Margaret is totally busy preparing for the coming wonderful, great, abundant spring!!) Then there’s: Closing: Sunday, April 3rd:  Puppets of New York Exhibition 1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street, 10am-6pm Yes, our last chance – at least for a while – to see Lamb Chop with your very own eyes and introduce younger family members/friends not only to the most classic but the art’s worldwide and centuries-long reach!!  Members, free.  Non-members, $20..  Senior non-members, $14.  Children, free.  For timed tickets (essential)…                                                                                                                        You Know Who!! FRIDAY, APRIL 22nd!!:  EARTH DAY 2022 AT UNION SQUARE!! 12-7pm Booths featuring dozens of environmental organizations…  Speakers live and virtual…  Music and more!!  For the complete rundown (where there’re also links to virtual Earth Days 2020 and 2021!! Saturday, April 23rd:  Compost by Bike – An Earth Day Community Ride  Meet at Central Park West, 110th Street & Lenox Avenue, 9:30am-2pm  Join the Lower East Side Ecology Center’s great folks (compost collectors at Union Square and many another Manhattan site) for a 12-mile composting community ride from Harlem through Central Park to the East Village!! In celebration of Earth Day, they’ll then show you how NYC’s food scraps get recycled on a local level at 4 community composting locations!!  To register… Saturday, April 23rd:  Bee A Pollinator/Earth Day Service Day Queens County Farm Museum, 12-4pm Come to lend a hand sifting compost..  With the Farm’s spring clean-up of its Children’s Garden. mulching and weeding…  All topped of with an apiary talk by the resident beekeeper!!  Then leave with a compost giveback, Adopt-a-Worm composting tips,  a tractor-drawn hayride ($5/person), a self-guided scavenger hunt, and free giveaways!!  Think a day of service, learning and fun!  For complete details and to sign up… Sunday, April 24th:  Randall’s Island Farm Day Randall’s Island, 10am-1pm Celebrate Earth Day plus two days by volunteering  to restore the Island’s farm wetlands and marsh habitats!!  Or just bring the kids and enjoy the great, green RI environment!!  For more and to register… Turning the page to virtual events: Wednesday, April 6th, 6-7pm:  Saving Edgar Allen Poe’s Cottage – A Case Study for the Lay Preservationist via Zoom Time and again, it’s been Joan/John Q. Public’s who’s stepped in to save NYC’s built history!!  But now and thanks to Historic District Council’s Lay Preservationist class, neighborhood defenders of architectural treasures can acquire the basic skill set so save the irreplaceable!!  Members and senior, $15.  Non-members, $20.  For further details and to sign up… Thursday, April 7th, 2-4pm:  AM Seawright’s Weekly Virtual Knitting Social via Zoom  Start with a wonderful bunch of UESiders, add their perspectives on local interests large and small and top off with a 120 minutes of productive and soothing knitting!!  To RSVP…  Thursday, April 7th:  Creating Urban Habitats (From Parking Lots to Parks) via Eventbrite Another winner from the great iDig2Learn…  This time out, Rebecca McMackin, Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park and ecological horticulturist, shares her knowledge on “how to create stunningly beautiful gardens that also provide a thriving wildlife habitat in the heart of an urban setting!!”  Co-presented by Cornell Tech and Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation!!  Free.  For further details and to register… Thursday, April 28th, 6-7:30pm:  Cooking with Food Scraps Virtual Workshop via Zoom Lower East Side Ecology Center and the Mulberry Street Library present how we can not  only reduce food waste but in the greenest and most delicious way!!  Free.  To sign up… Activism time: If you believe protections for the Florida panther should be maintained… Should you think the EPA should move to cut air pollution, protect communities from heavy vehicle emissions and address the climate crisis…   Next up…  Diverting diversions:   PBJ Day, all well and good, but then there’s how to construct and grill the perfect burger…  In search of wild figs…  “Godfather” locations in NYC…  Conqueresses(!) of whooping cough…  Norway’s winning Winter Olympics approach…  NYC‘s Starrett-Lehigh Building at 90…  Growing epic tomatoes…  Evolution of a NYC outdoor group…  Organic veggie seeds…   NYS April birding dates (scroll down)…  The NYBG’s Master Composter Class…  How best to help stranded seals (scroll down)…  Owlets hatching at the Cornell Lab… Moving on to the Hudson River Almanac: 3/16 – Town of Saugerties: Under warm sunshine, I encountered my first adult butterfly of the season today, a mourning cloak. The butterfly spent the better part of an hour imbibing on wet, muddy soil in my yard. It appeared to be tanking up for the first time after a long hibernation. – Steve Chorvas                                                                                                                   That Mourning Cloak Butterfly 3/19 – Hudson River Watershed. While the forecasted rain didn’t arrive until late and in some locations, was joined by thunder and lightning, the migration of forest amphibians to vernal pools continued tonight. More than sixty stalwart volunteers of the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project collected and submitted migration data from across eight counties in the estuary watershed. Similar to March 7, they observed a range of weather, from no rain to downpour, with most experiencing light rain. The average reported air temperature was 55 degrees Fahrenheit.                                                                                                                          A Spotted Salamander Preliminary data indicated that volunteers counted 16 species and 2,263 amphibians (1,619 live/644 dead), and assisted 1,484 salamanders, frogs, and toads across roads. They reported highest numbers for spring peeper (602 live/243 dead) and spotted salamander (400 live/145 dead), with lower numbers of wood frogs (154 live/24 dead) than observed earlier in the month, as they near the end of their mating season. Depending on local conditions, migration to breeding pools may continue on the next warm, rainy nights and in some locations, amphibians may already be leaving pools and returning to the forest. If you can, it’s best to avoid driving on these rainy nights of late winter and early spring, since many salamanders and frogs need to cross roads on their breeding migrations and even on low-traffic roads, mortality can be high.You can find more information about the Amphibian Migrations and Road Crossings Project in the NYSDEC press release at https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/124870.html or by visiting the project website at https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/51925.html.  – Laura Heady, Emma Clements 3/24 – Manhattan: Our Randall’s Island Park Alliance Staff did a bit of waterfowl monitoring today. We found a red-breasted merganser along the Bronx Kill, as well as a mute swan, mallards, and many gulls of mixed species. At least two of them were great black-backed gulls. Along the way, we came upon five Canada geese, a pair of buffleheads, and a double-crested cormorant. Dissolved oxygen (DO) in the Bronx Kill was 11.0 ppm and the salinity was surprisingly high at 24.0 ppt. – Jackie Wu (Check out this flock of buffleheads!!)                                                                       3/25 – Manhattan: It is nearing the season for the great northward brant migration to the Arctic. Many thousands winter throughout the Gateway National Recreation Area, in particular Sandy Hook (NJ). On my walk home today, I found eighty of them on the grass just north of the 103rd Street footbridge along the Harlem River. – Jackie Wu Then there’s the Fish of the Week being:3/21 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 165 is the orange filefish (Aluterus schoepfii), number 231 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes.                                                                                                                   An Orange Filefish The orange filefish is one of two members of the filefish family (Monacanthidae) documented for our watershed. They are a reef-associated marine species found from Nova Scotia to Brazil, including Bermuda and the northern Gulf of Mexico. In our area they are considered a temperate marine stray.Orange filefish are “paddle-shaped,” deeply keeled, strongly compressed, and overall olive-gray to rich orange, with large yellow blotches and red-orange spots. They share an almost magical trait with a few other fishes, in that they can change their color quickly to match their surroundings.Their stout first dorsal spine that they raise when they feel threatened, is a good diagnostic feature. They can get to 24 inches long but are generally smaller. Orange filefish prefer living in sea grass beds or other submerged aquatic vegetation; their small terminal mouth has specialized incisor teeth on the upper and lower jaw which they use to graze on a variety of plants, including algae and sea grasses.Briggs and Waldman (2002) tell us that orange filefish are uncommon in the New York Bight. We have just two records for the watershed from the American Museum of Natural History’s collection of fishes: August 1966 (no location or size documented), and September 1987 (149 millimeters[mm]) caught by Normandeau Associates at river mile 29. – Tom Lake The Bird of the Week never disappoints:                                                                                                       The Black-and-White Warbler  Happy availability of the 1950 Census, UGS Eco Fact of the Week:  Honey bees are an introduced species, not wild, don’t need protecting and are federally classified as livestock!!  It’s our native, pollinating bees that’re so endangered!!  (Thank you,iDig2Learn, for the heads up!!) Eco Tip of the Week:  Recycling of clean mascara wands has resumed!!  For new and improved instructions…  2022 Compost collected at 96th & Lex (1/7/2022 – 2/25/2022):  2,196 Drop-Offs; 60 Bins; 12,184 Tons  2022 Compost collected at 92nd & York (from 3/7/22):  TBA2021 TOTALS at 96th & Lex, 4/2/21-12/31/21: 223 bins’ 6.871 Drop-Offs, 48,581 lbs. (24.25 Tons)2020 TOTALS (All 4 UES Drop-Offs) 1/19//20-3/25/2020:   294 bins; 12,522 lbs. (6.25 Tons)    2019 TOTALS (All 4 UES Drop-Offs): 43,417 lbs. (21.7 Tons) 2018 TOTALS: 23,231 lbs. (11.65 Tons)