Happy September/October Days of Good News, UESiders!!
Beginning with how great fall is at our UES Greenmarkets:
Every Saturday: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
82 Street between First & York Avenues, 9am-2pm
With us will be American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Sikking Flowers, Hudson Valley Duck and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Cherry Lane, Ole Mother Hubbert, Valley Shepherd, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!
(Yup, Hudson Valley Duck’s still away… They’ll be back on October 8th!!)
Every Sunday: 94th Street Greenmarket
First Avenue & 94th Street , 9am-3pm
At their tables be American Pride Seafood, Meredith’s Country Bakery, Ole Mother Hubbert, Grandpa’s, Halal Pastures, Norwich Meadows, Phillips and Green Life Farms!!
(Does it get any better having first of fall Brussels Sprouts and summer tomatoes both available??!!)
And Manager of Managers Margaret adds:
“Dear Greenmarketeers:
This time of year the markets are so full of beautiful products! this is one of only a few weeks when summer and fall intersect and we have the best of both seasons available.
Forecast for this weekend is a bit wet with expected remnants of hurricane Ian but its never too wet to stop by the market for some fresh local produce!
Don’t forget the Sunday market is now on First Ave and 94th Street!!
Margaret“
THEN… The event so many’ve been waiting for:
Saturday, October 8th: Free/No-Cost Community Shredding
York Avenue between 78th & 79th, 10am-2pm
A stone’s throw from the 82nd Street Greenmarket and near match to market hours!! Bring on those bags of paper!! Spread the word!!No hardcover books, but paperbacks are fine…
Yippee!!
Fall also brings a ton of great events and volunteer opportunities:
Throughout October: NYC H2O Talks, Walks and Beach Clean-Ups
All Over NYC, Active and Online
The group’s name says it all… If it’s New York City and water, NYC H2O’s leading the charge in knowledge and caring!! To check out all they’re up to just this coming month alone…
October 1st to October 31st: Archtober
Live and All Over Town
The annual festival of architecture and design begins!! We’re talking hundreds of events, tours and exhibitions organized by more than 80 NYC partners and sponsors across the five boroughs and beyond!! (Our fave: Building of the Day!) For complete details and registration…
Saturday, October 1st: Roosevelt Island Fall Festival for the Arts – Celebrating Diversity
Meditation Lawn (across from Blackwell House, 500 Main Street, 10am-5pm
A day commencing with…
LIKELY RAIN DAY CANCELLATION… WITH RESET ON SUNDAY, 10/2
Then:
Saturday, October 1st: Green Grass Opening at Aycock Park!!
The Alice Aycock Pavilion, East River Esplanade at 60th Street, 12:30pm
EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN!!
Immediately followed by:
Saturday, October 1st: Music with the Funky Soul Jazz Band
The Alice Aycock Pavilion, East River Esplanade at 60th Street, 1-4pm
EVENT CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN!!
Sunday, October 2nd: The Great Staten Island Lanternfly Hunt
Conference House Park, 298 Satterlee Street, Staten Island, 12:30-2:30pm
Yes, NYC’s getting down on the latest voracious invasive insect to hit American shores!! Materials, tools and instruction provided!! ( Prior to lanternfly decimation, there’ll also be a volunteer beach cleanup from 10AM – 12PM.) Organized by the great NYC H2O!! To sign up for either or both…
Thursday, October 6th: Banjos for US Stars – An Evening with Rosťa Čapek and Ned Luberecki
Czech Center/Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street, 7pm
Czechs and Bluegrass music?? A Czech who creates banjos played by Bluegrass greats?? You bet!! And the UESide’s Czech Center’s giving us the chance to spend an evening with that very Eastern European gentleman who creates instruments coveted by the greats of the bluegrass world and one of those bluegrass greats!! Free. For more and tickets…
Friday, October 7th: Sunset Yoga on the Esplanade
The Alice Aycock Pavilion, East River Esplanade at 60th Street, 6-8pm
Sorry to say, but Friends has had to cancel!! Stay tuned for a new date…
Saturday, October 8th: The New York Times Food Festival
Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center, 11am-7pm
And we quote, “Savor bold ideas from the sharpest minds in food, including Ina Garten, Padma Lakshmi, Danny Meyer, Eric Wareheim, Kwame Onwuachi, Rick MartÍnez and Times food journalists!! Take the Tour de Fried Chicken!! Enjoy Donuts With Friends!! Try some of the best dishes in the city!! The table is set. Let’s eat!!” Tickets $40… For reservations…
Saturday, October 15th: Art on the Esplanade Debut!!
East River Esplanade at 101st Street, 11am
A waterfront mural in crochet created by East Harlem artist phenom Carmen and commissioned by Esplanade Friends… No questions, but we’re talking unique and wonderful art… And exemplifying our Esplanade’s unique beauty and the rich culture of the neighborhoods surrounding it!! Be there!!
Saturday, October 15th: City of Forest Day
Lighthouse Park, Roosevelt Island, 11am-3pm
Mulch 70 newly-planted baby trees under the ultra tree-wise guidance of Sam Bishop (AKA Mr. Trees) of TreesNY!! You’ll get to visit RI’s Monarch Pollinator Flower Beds, too!! To join in the fun just email idig2learn@gmail.com (with the word FOREST in the subject line)…
Sunday, October 16th: It’s My Park Day – UESide Edition
96th Street Esplanade Planter Stanley Isaacs Park, First Avenue & 96th Street, 11-1pm
Time to give the one and only UESide Park without a conservancy and the wonderful planter at the nearby Esplanade entrance some TLC… General weeding/tidying/soil cultivation/mulch-laying and planting native American bulbs and 9/11 daffodils!! Tools, bulbs and snacks provided!! Everyone and all ages welcome!! To sign up: uppergreenside@gmail.com or jeanesplanadefriends@gmail.com…
Saturday, October 22nd: MV4NY Ruppert Park Volunteer Day
Ruppert Park, 1741 Second Avenue at 91st Street, 10am-1pm
A day to cultivate, prune, plant and mulch… To enjoy arts, crafts, music and refreshments at a treasured UESide park!! Organized by its great partner stewards, the Moslem Volunteers4NY!! To volunteer…
Then there’re these great virtual senior info fairs:
October 25th, 26th and 27th at 2pm: Senator Krueger’s Virtual Senior Resource Fair via Zoom and Facebook
With this year’s subjects being “Reach Out Beyond Loneliness,” “Essential Movement for Older People,” and “Engage in the Arts”!! Free, of course. For more and to sign up…
How ’bout this for some activism:
If you believe you’ve found spotted lanternfly in New York… Take pictures of the insect, egg masses and/or infestation signs (include something for scale such as a coin or ruler) and e-mail to spottedlanternfly@agriculture.ny.gov!!
Moving on to the realm of diverting diversions:
UES schools among U.S. best… How to help migrating birds… What our NYS Forest Rangers have been up to up late… And the folks at NYS DEC… The U.S. Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Act is approved… Current UGS EV charging stations… The latest in corporate greenwashing… Controlling invasive aquatic pests… NYC’s harbor water quality… A NYTimes ladybug tale… “Zero”, Bloomberg’s climate-centric podcast… Giving trees a second life meets an apprentice/career opportunity… A new NYC storm surge/NYC harbor protection plan… One park, 24–hours… Much worth reading is Tom Lake’s – the Hudson River Almanac naturalist – memory of 9/11…
Time for Mr. Lake’s Hudson River Almanac:
9/13 – Loudonville: I found a black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) at The Crossings Park in Colonie, standing on a platform on the main pond. – Craig Driggs
A Black-Legged Kittiwake
9/14 – Loudonville: The black-legged kittiwake found by Craig Driggs yesterday at The Crossings Park in Colonie was still present today. The black-legged kittiwake is highly pelagic and is extremely rare inland, especially away from the Great Lakes. This is the first confirmed record for Albany County.
The bird allowed me to approach very close this morning, but it seemed unwell. By 9:19 a.m., the black-legged kittiwake had died. The bird was taken to the New York State Museum in Albany.
– Zach Schwartz-Weinstein
9/15: To begin the search for the bird’s cause of death, I visited the DEC Wildlife Pathology Lab to get an oral and cloacal swabbing to check for pathogens. It will return the kittiwake to the NYSM museum freezer where in a few weeks several appropriate museum specimens will be prepared. The pathology report will take some time. The NYSM only a few examples of black-legged kittiwake; this is an important addition to the collection. – Alison Van Keuren
[The only previous record for the eleven-county region was a bird seen flying up the Hudson River from Castleton-on-Hudson in March 1968. There are some records from farther north on Lake Champlain and they are spotted on occasion from the Onondaga Audubon Derby Hill Hawkwatch on Lake Ontario, but there really aren’t enough large bodies of water in the Albany Capital region to draw kittiwakes, which is why this one showing up on a tiny artificial suburban pond was so noteworthy. – Zach Schwartz-Weinstein
9/10 – Hudson River Watershed: Among indigenous peoples, full moons have long been labeled with fanciful names that are rooted in oral traditions, indigenous memories, and ethnographic accounts.
Among Mohican people, whose ancestral homeland lies wholly within the Hudson River watershed, the September full moon is known as the Falling Leaf Moon, Poneʔna-wueepukw Neepaʔuk in the Mohican dialect.
Tribal translations of full moons pre-date colonization and generally reflect the seasonality of the lunar phase. Moon phases, in fact, were used by indigenous people as measurements of time. – Larry Madden, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians
9/11 – Manhattan: Our Hudson River Park staff checked our research gear (pots and traps) that we deploy off Piers 40 and 26 in the Hudson River as part of our ongoing fish ecology survey. It is the time of the season for juvenile fishes and our minnow traps on Pier 40 were busy. One trap caught seven fish, two black sea bass between 50 and 65 millimeters (mm) long, and five oyster toadfish (40-65 mm). Several spider crabs were found inside and outside of our crab pots as well.
Our crab pots at Pier 26 likewise had a full house with four tautog (240-270 mm) and a black sea bass (150 mm). One minnow trap caught a juvenile oyster toadfish (115 mm). – Joe Kim
9/15 – Ulster County: I came upon a northern ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus) today amid a deciduous forest in the Town of Esopus. Reclusive and mostly nocturnal, these snakes are rarely seen during the day. Their glistening black back, golden belly scales, and distinctive ring around their neck points them out and helps identify this diminutive species. If you gently pick them up, they will coil around your finger. This one was a full 13 inches long, typical for a mature adult. – Mario Meier
Then there’s the Fish of the Week:
9/12 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 187 is the Atlantic silverside (Menidia menidia), number 126 (of 236) on our watershed list of fishes.
An Atlantic Silverside
The Atlantic silverside is one of four silverside species (Atherinidae) in our watershed. They are a marine species that is found along the coast in bays and estuaries from the Gulf of Sant Lawrence to Florida. With a rather small mouth, they feed tiny crustaceans along sandy-bottom inshore shallows and can reach six-inches-long (150 mm). Their most distinguishing characteristic if the broad band of silver that runs laterally from their pectoral fin the base of their caudal fin.
Atlantic silverside has long been a folkloric fish along Hudson River tidewater. They were captured in nets, taken to the kitchen, and “fried to a crisp and eaten whole” (Mervin Roberts 1985). In Bob Boyle 1969 classic The Hudson River, a Natural and Unnatural History, he writes of silverside using their colloquial name spearing, and recalls that they were “fried in cooking oil and sold in restaurants as whitebait”
While Atlantic silverside is by far the most common, on occasion the very similar inland silverside (M. beryllina) will show up on occasion (the two species are separated by dorsal fin placement (see C.L. Smith’s Inland Fishes of New York State, 1985:415).
Most recently, B.J. Jackson caught an inland silverside (68 mm) in a seine at Kowawese (river mile 59) on December 9, 2017. The species identification was confirmed in the lab. The water was 41 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and the salinity was 1.0 (ppt). Even though silverside (Atlantic) were still being caught 40 miles downriver, the parameters of this occurrence were far outside its literature. – Tom Lake
And This Week’s Remarkable Bird:
Don’t miss latest compost totals below!!
It’s also National Drive Electric Week,
UGS
Eco Fact of the Week: The NYC Oyster Project’s just passed the 100 million oysters restored to our NYC harbor mark!!
Eco Tip of the Week: Tie a knot in the top of that plastic dry cleaner bag and – presto – it’s a kitchen bin liner!!
July/August compost numbers coming soon, but here’s June:
96th Street & Lexington Avenue
Date Drop-Offs Bins Weight
6/3 198 6 1,352
6/10 200 6 1,296
6/17 190 5 1,177
6/24 209 6 1,318
7/1 225 7 1.410
1,022 30 6,553
Asphalt Green
5/29 145 4 1,077
6/5 195 5 1,252
6/12 202 6 1,450
6/19 171 5 1,044
6/26 85 6 1,272
798 26 6,095
This Week at The Markets 