Monthly Archives: March 2023

March 24, 2023 · 8:35 pm

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March 19, 2023 · 1:27 am

Erin Go Bragh, UESiders!!

May all the celebrants treat themselves to a – relatively – restrained but great time!!

AND…

May we UESiders enjoy another great day of shopping at our most excellent Saturday – hopefully rain-free – market:

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

Yes, and all our great regulars will be at their tables… American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Valley Shepherd Creamery and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

While our La Granda Maestra Manager Margaret luxuriates in well-deserved vacay time, these humble thoughts:

We’re thinking we’ll lean towards the Irish balliwick foodwise the rest of the weekend… Say split pea soup flavored with carrots and onion from Gayeski and Nolesco… Bacon/hamhocks from Haywood’s… Bread from – yup! – Bread Alone and butter from Ole Mother Hubbert… With in-the-cockle-family clams from American Pride!!

(That craterish hole in last week’s market info…?? A wait for lots of late-arriving details and not having sync’d Margaret’s vacation dates… Totally our bad… Thank goodness, every last table was occupied!!)

As for our other great UES food source:

Every Tuesday: Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Fresh Food Box
_{Robbins Plaza, First Avenue & 70th Street, 2:30-6:30pm}

Weekly bag counts coming, we promise!! In the meantime, check out this great, convenient-for-the southern-UES program and how to reserve your own bag!!

Moving on to UES Compost Collection:

Every Friday: East 96th Street Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{96th Street & Lexington, 7:30-11:30am}

Bring on the olive pits and onion skins!!

2022 Total:  66,962 lbs.

Every Sunday:  Asphalt Green Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{91st Street & York, 7:30am-12:30pm}Add those stale breadcrumbs and that frozen-for-months bagel!

2022 Total (from 3/1/22):  46,675 lbs.

And there’s more exciting UESIDE food scrap news:

COMPOSTERS SPRING
INTO
ACTION!!

After a covid-related hiatus, Green Park Gardeners NYC is excited to reignite our Community Composting Initiative Spring 2023!!
Yes!! 24/7 drop-off for your compostable organic materials
(fruit and veg kitchen scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc.)
will once again be conveniently available on…
The East River Esplanade
(near the pedestrian overpass at 63rd Street)
And…
We’ll also be welcoming volunteers to help process those fruit and veg scraps that’ll soon be enriching gardens and tree beds up and down the UES!! Just send an email to
Sheldon.J.Allen@gmail.com
to learn more and get involved!!
5,841,208 Fruit Stock Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime

Not forgetting our other great new recycling option:

Then…

Saturday, April 1st at 1pm & Saturday 29th at 3pm: Indigenous Central Park Tour

And we quote, “Travel deep into Central Park’s wooded north end as our Conservancy guides share information from cutting-edge research and Indigenous people about Lenape life on the land!” $35 with a 20% discount for members. For more and tickets…

Plenty of great virtual events:

Monday, March 21st, 1-2pm: “Sneaky Sheep” & “Sasquatch & the Squirrel” reading via online

Wednesday, March 22nd, 9am-12pm: “Using Historic Preservation to Develop & Maintain Affordable Housing in NYC” organized by Historic District Council & Pratt Institute via Zoom

^{Also co-sponsored by AIA Brooklyn and the AIANY Historic Buildings Committee!! $75 ($65 for members of sponsors/organizers)… For more and to register...}

Tuesday, March 21st, 2-4pm and Friday, March 31st,5-7pm: Rat Academy 101 presented by the Sanitation Foundation online

With the March 31st session especially for community gardeners!! Totally free, of course. To sign up for 3/21… And/or 3/31…

Thursday, March 23rd, 4:30-6pm: NYC Pollinator Working Group Spring Meeting via online

And we quote, “Please join the NYC Pollinator Working Group’s Spring meeting. Learn about the work of our committees, our European Honeybee policy, and upcoming local events for National Pollinator Week!!” Yes, pollinators every description and guest speaker/distinguished NYC conservationist Ryan Mahoney!! Free… For more and to register…

Tuesday, April 18th, 1-2pm: “Cyril & Pat” reading for Kids by Chris Munroe, organized by NYC H2O via Zoom
Free, of course!! To sign up

Time for some activism:

Should you think NYC merits a better flood control plan…

If you oppose the Governor’s proposal to lift any existing state caps on the size of allowable residential development in NYC…

And here’s the Friends of the UES Historic District’s petition on the same subject…

Hey, and there’s good news re activism past:

Yes, indeed, the Public Service Commission’s voted No on the National Grid request for $70M to constructed a fracked gas vaporizer in Brooklyn!!

As for possible future NYS activism:

Always good to stay current with what AM Seawright ‘s been up to in Albany…

As for this week’s diverting diversions:

Perovskites and (fingers crossed) even better solar panels… Great GrowNYC volunteer opportunities… NYS’s prize-winning wildlife center… Gas-to-electric conversion challenges (we’re up to ’em!!)… Bard’s tuition free Microcollege Program (applications accepted now)… And WE ACT Green Institute’s offering free energy efficiency technical training… And NYS’s Institute Discovering Environmental Scientists summer program… What’s likely coming to 78th & First… And 94th between First and Second… What our NYS Forest Rangers have been up to… And our Conservation Police… The women who saved American wildflowers… Conservatives who love renewables… The NYS 2023 I Bird NY Challenge… What‘s happened to the Adams’ 2% of budget for Parks promise… How to be NYS coyote conscious… So much for dumping tires on Tuscarora lands… Our NYS clean water regs… And the proposed NYS waste management plan… On the Willow oil project…

Moving on to a really and rightly heavy on birds Hudson River Almanac:

3/8 – Port Ewen, HRM 91: The occasional American robin can be seen year-round in the Hudson Valley, but the return en masse of this quintessential early bird always is a sure sign that spring has sprung. Today I saw hundreds in an old apple orchard in Port Ewen. In the spring sunshine their colors were exceptionally bright. The flock was on a feeding frenzy extracting worms from the newly thawed ground. They take their characteristic rapid steps over several yards then stop, poised, head cocked to listen, before yanking a wriggling worm from the turf. They can eat up to a linear fourteen-feet of worms in a day although they find many other fruits and insects as well. – Mario Meier

An American Robin!!

[The perennial symbol of spring, the American robin, is present in the Hudson Valley every month of the year. During the winter months, robins flock around a food source, often multiflora rose bushes or other berry-bearing plants. By the end of February or early March, true migrants from the south appear, and the large flocks break up. Some start nesting in April, others in May, with young by June. Many pairs will raise a second brood into August. By October they leave their nesting sites in forests and suburban yards and again congregate in large flocks, with many migrating south. Although population numbers have not changed appreciably, American robins altered their habitat preferences from forests in colonial times to more open areas as forests were cut during the nineteenth century. [in part] from The Birds of Dutchess County, Stan DeOrsey, Barbara A. Butler, Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club]

3/4 – Milan, HRM 90: More than 100 red-winged blackbirds showed up this morning at the feeders, mostly males but a few females were mixed in. Perhaps most notable was one, less than common, rusty blackbird (Euphagus carolinus). What brought the sole rusty blackbird in the large flock of red-wings to my attention was that the red-wings were being aggressive toward it. – Frank Margiotta, Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club

Rusty blackbird
A Rusty Balckbird!!

[Rusty blackbird is not rare but certainly uncommon. Their migration dates have not changed since the 1880s. The northward migration of rusty blackbirds arrives in March, numbers peak in April, and in some years, a few linger into May. Groups of 10-20 are regularly reported. Stan DeOrsey, Barbara A. Butler (The Birds of Dutchess County), Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club]

3/5 – Cornwall Bay, HRM 58: Looking westward from Dutchess County, two black birds landed together on the other side of the Hudson River in Cornwall Bay. The white on their faces caught my eye. Both were great cormorants, both were adult birds, and both were beautiful. – Barbara Mansell (Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club

A Great Cormorant!!

[The great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), also called the European cormorant, is a North Atlantic-Eurasian species that have quite recently become a more common wintering visitor in our area. Great cormorants are, on average, a little larger than our more common double-crested cormorant. In Europe they have been described as a “goose-sized reptilian water-bird” (Roger Tory Peterson).In Dutchess County, the great cormorant is seen along the Hudson River during migration or as a wandering winter visitant. With the increase of wintering birds along the Atlantic coast, they are most often seen along the estuary. They favor rocky shores and, with reduced threats from humans, are often found on bridges, jetties, and buoys. Since the 1960s, they have expanded their breeding range into New England and their wintering range into Florida. Stan DeOrsey, Barbara A. Butler (The Birds of Dutchess County), Ralph T. Waterman Bird Club]

3/5 – Hook Mountain, HRM 31: Among 47 north-migrating raptors we counted today at the Hook Mountain Hawkwatch, red-shouldered hawk was high number with 34. Turkey vulture (38) was high count among non-raptor migrants. In late morning, we had “flurries” of red-shouldered hawks moving, including eight within just a few minutes.- Tom Fiore, Joe Goddu, Raimund Miller

Red-shouldered hawk

A Red-Shouldered Hawk!!

3/6 – Ulster County, HRM 78: On a short late afternoon hike through some of the Mohonk foothills a pair of red-winged blackbirds disturbed the twilight silence. Looking up to see the singer I spotted our resident leucistic red-tailed hawk overlooking one of the open fields. Enjoyable as these sightings were, the best encounter was near the end of my journey: A beautiful, barred owl was tucked against a trailside tree about 10 feet off the ground and seemingly not bothered by my presence. After ten minutes of admiring the bird, I headed for home with the owl still nestled against the tree trunk.- Bob Ottens

That Barred Owl!!

3/7– Ulster County, HRM 87: I spotted a mink (Neogale vison) racing across the road today near Coxing Creek in High Falls. It had a slender feline look and was smaller than a young fisher but with a similar silhouette. This mink had gorgeous black fur and was determined to reach the other side, which it did. – Sue Horowitz

Mink
A Mink!!

3/8 – Little Stony Point Preserve, HRM 55: In last week’s Hudson River Almanac we mentioned how Seth and Ellie Dinitz had come upon a 30-foot-plus barnacle-studded beam that had appeared on the beach at Little Stony Point. It was noted that there had been a skeleton of an early 20th century barge submerged in the shallows off the north end of the beach until storms broke it up; but this timber was not from that wreck. Its origin was a mystery. The history of the early 20th century barge was left aloof.

By many accounts, the barge was an artifact of centuries-long commercial stony quarry operations adjacent to Little Stony Point at two of the Hudson Highland’s iconic peaks, Mount Taurus, and Breakneck Ridge. Quarries operated on Mount Taurus (Bull Hill) and Breakneck began in the early-to-middle 18th century and lasted until the last quarry was finally abandoned in 1967.

Breakneck Ridge!!

Metamorphic and igneous rocks and minerals such as iron, copper, granite, and gneiss, the basic geologic ingredients of the Hudson Highlands, were quarried there. Historical records trace the earliest endeavors, limited as they were, to the decades of 1730-1750. Some of the iron was used to make cannons for the Revolutionary War Continental Army as well as provided the raw materials for the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring. We would appreciate any further information on the ancestry of this 250-year enterprise.

Little Stony Point Preserve, on Route 9D one mile upriver from Cold Spring, is part of the Hudson Highlands State Park. Breakneck Ridge and Mount Taurus, as well as Little Stony Point, feature some of the very best hiking trails in New York State coupled with breathtaking vistas from the summits. Natural history programs are offered from spring through fall, notices of which will appear in the Hudson River Almanac. – Seth Dinitz, Ellie Dinitz, Tom Lake

3/8 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak tended to our glass eel fyke net that we had set overnight in the Beczak tidemarsh. We had a meager catch today with just three glass eels and an otherwise empty fyke net. The water temperature was 42 degrees F, the salinity was 8.8 ppt, and the dissolved oxygen (DO) was 12.0 ppm. – Jason Muller, Collin Sugrue, Liliane Leclercq

Atlantic croaker
A Young Glass Eel!!

3/8 – Manhattan, HRM 1-2: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our research gear (pots and traps) that we deploy at Piers 26 and 40 as part of our fish ecology survey. Wind and winter chill affected sampling thus we found no fish at either location. We made do with a good collection of shore shrimp, isopods, and mud dog whelks. – Zoe Kim(So, what makes glass eels of such interest the assorted Hudson and East River study groups?? Yes, it’s a threatened species… But it also comes to life in the Hudson as the tiny, 2-inch critters so often found in study group pots, nets and traps that then proceeds to swim to and from the Sargasso Sea while growing to 3-4 feet with females winding up bigger than males!!)

As for our actual Fish of the Week:

3/9 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 210 is the walleye (Sander vitreus), number 169 (of 237), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

Walleye
A Walleye!!

Walleye, a large and slender fish, is one of nine members of the perch family (Percidae) in our watershed. Others include yellow perch and several species of darters such as the tessellated.

Dorsally, they dark olive grading into a golden hue on their sides. This dark olive and gold pattern is broken up by five darker saddles that extend to the upper sides. The color then shades to white on the abdomen. The mouth of a walleye is large and is armed with many sharp teeth.

The common name “walleye” comes from its pearlescent eyes caused by the reflective tapetum lucidum, a layer of light-gathering tissue in their eyes (choroid) that reflects light causing their eyes to glow when light strikes them [see felines]. This adaptation favors operating in low-light conditions; as a result, anglers tend to look for walleyes at night when their major feeding periods occur. Favoring a gravelly, firm bottom, they prey mainly on fish, crayfish, snails, and mudpuppies. Walleye can get to 32-inches-long and weigh 20 lb. The New York State angling record is an 18 lb. 2 oz. walleye caught in the Saint Lawrence River in 2018.

Walleye are native to western New York — their Type site is Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region. In areas where they are native, including Canada, they are also known as walleye-pike, pike-perch, and pickerel. They have been introduced in historic times to the Hudson River watershed largely though stockings in the New York City Catskill reservoirs and elsewhere. J.R. Greeley, in his Biological Survey of the Lower Hudson Watershed (1937), cites the walleye as being rare. However, in recent times, the Mohawk River has become a celebrated walleye fishery and the spring walleye sport fishery in Ashokan Reservoir has long been legendary.

A former subspecies of walleye, the blue walleye (Sander vitreus var. glaucus), also called the blue pike, was a unique color morph that was endemic to the Great Lakes. Early morphometric studies led biologists in 1926 to classify the blue walleye as a separate species. In 1947, Hubbs and Lagler, in their Fishes of the Great Lakes Region, brought the two forms closer together listing walleye in the Great Lakes as both yellow walleye and blue walleye, with the latter as a subspecies. In concluding their analyses, they admitted that the taxonomy of walleye was still in flux. Presently, the blue walleye form is considered conspecific with Sander vitreus, having become extinct from inbreeding of its DNA with yellow walleye.

A decade ago, I received an e-mail from a teacher at the Norrie Point Environmental Education Center. Students had caught a fish in their seine that the teacher thought might be the rare and mythical “blue walleye.” I was dispatched to Norrie Point to take-a-look. The fish was a healthy-looking walleye, 15-inches-long, and had a definite blueish tint-tinge. On a hunch, I put the walleye in a tank with cooler water for several hours and, after stabilizing, the walleye’s color morphed back to the dark olive and gold color of a “yellow walleye.” The summer-warmed river water may have woken up, or accentuated its latent blue potential. – Tom Lake

And This Week’s Wonderful Bird:

image of Broad-billed Tody by Chris Bainbridge, Alamy Stock Photo

The Broad-billed Tody!!

Are we the ever greenest,

UGS

Eco Facts of the Week: 70% of NYC’s carbon emissions are generated by residential buildings!!

The Parks Department in New York receives a significantly smaller share of the city budget than the agencies that oversee parks in other cities. San Francisco spends 1.6 percent of its municipal budget on parks, Los Angeles spends 2.9 percent, Chicago 4.3 percent and Minneapolis 5.3 percent. New York has more parkland to maintain: the 16,000 acres in Los Angeles are a bit more than half of the total in New York.

Where America’s gotten/gets it’s energy…

Electric vehicle ownership more than doubles in the NY Metro Region!!

Eco Tip of the Week: Not the easiest to recycle the few remaining incandescent bulbs in our lives but, all else failing, we can mail ’em to Lampmaster!! (Recycle CFLs and LEDs at Home Depot!! And for how the recycling is done…)

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March 11, 2023 · 11:51 pm

Happy End of Daylight Saving, UESiders!!

Okay… So what if some weather persons are predicting possible snow/probable cold rain??!!

We’re on our way to SPRING!!

With rain/snow – if either happens at all – ending mid-Market morning:

Every Saturday, June 19th: 82nd Street/St. Stephen’s Greenmarket
_{82 Street between First & York, 9am-2pm}

Ready for whatever weather comes our way will be our farmer/fisher/baker/beekeeper friends at American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Valley Shepherd Creamery and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

Prima Marketia Managerisa Margaret’s on vacay , so there’ll be UGS’s less insightful but totally enthusiastic market ponderings the next couple of weeks… i.e. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, “Hawthorne Valley’s chicken pot pies!!”

We’ll ignore (soon-to-be-spring) showers on Food Box Day, too:

Every Tuesday: Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Fresh Food Box
_{Robbins Plaza, First Avenue & 70th Street, 2:30-6:30pm}

Weekly bag count stats coming soon!! Meanwhile, to reserve your bag of price=friendly, mostly locally grown/in all cases best quality produce…

We say precip enhances the compost & pen/marker collection experience:

Every Friday: East 96th Street Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{96th Street & Lexington, 7:30-11:30am}

Bring on the cookie crumbs and almost shells!!

2022 Total: 66,962 lbs.

SATs! Used Pen Drop

Every Sunday:  Asphalt Green Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{91st Street & York, 7:30am-12:30pm}

Don’t forget those basil and parsley stems!!

2022 Total (from 3/1/22):  46,675 lbs.

Always more live and in-person happenings, as in:

Saturday, March 11th:  Let’s Make Fonio! A Taste of West Africa
More from idig2Learn, location confirmed with reservation, Free, 1-3pm
3/11 1-3PM Let's Make Fonio with Beatrice Ajaero

Saturday, March 25th; Sunday, April 16th; and Saturday, May 6th:  Three Spring Walks with Nathan Kensinger – Organized by NYC H2O

All 3 Free!!  For more (and more great events)… And to reserve your place…

A couple of great virtual happenings, too:

Wednesday, March 15th, 4-5pm:  An Inside Look: Birdie Big Year and Elevating Women Birders organized NY Audubon via Webinar

Tiffany Kersten recounts her 2021… The year she set a new record of 726 bird species and a heightened appreciation of women’s safety in the great outdoors!! Free…  To register…

Thursday, March 16th, 5pm:  Heat Pumps 101 organized by Environmental Action via online

Want to upgrade your home’s heating and cooling with heat pumps, but don’t know where to start?? EA has answers from installer selection to tax benefits!! Free!!  To reserve a place…

Wednesday, March 22nd, 10am:  NYC Parks Preliminary Budget Hearing online:

Remember that 2% of NYC’s budget promise??  Sign up to speak your mind or just listen to what unfolds…

And a worthy podcast:

At Your Convenience:  The Role of Trees in the Rise & Fate of Civilization as viewed by John Perlin

No exhausting the meaning and importance of trees to humankind!!  To give Earth 911 fave Perlin a listen…

A pile of activism this time out:

If you’re in favor of equal access to quality food for all in New York State…

If you support a Farm Bill that also benefits endangered birds…

And should you be in favor of greater pesiticide protection for America’s farm workers…

And if you oppose beaver hunting and trapping…

And are against the logging of 12,000 acres of Vermont’s Green Mountain Forest…

Moving on to the realm of diverting diversions:

The Central Park Cherry Blossom Tracker and its Spring Guide… Brilliant Zero Waste Boxes (recycle the hard-to-recycle free!!)… Greener home cleaning products (some concoct-them-yourself!!)… The coyote in Queens… Possible stronger waste-water from coal-fired plant discharge rules… For those of us concerned – in a good way – about bats… “Smart” NYC compost bins… Earliest ( like 2500 BCE) horseback riders… Secrets of the grand but soon to be decimated Hotel Pennsylvania… Superior and green dog pooh disposal down at Battery Park… A Jurassic era insect lives (maybe)… Greening our gym experience… Edible flowers… Keeping our pets safe from essential oils… Summer work at NYS campgrounds… Old-fashioned NYC candy shops…

And then the Hudson River Almanac:

2/26 – Little Stony Point Preserve, HRM 55: Like a leviathan having risen from the depths, a barnacle-studded beam, more than 30-feet-long, appeared on the beach today. There had been a skeleton of an early 20th century barge submerged in the shallows off the north end of the beach until storms broke it up. This timber was not from that wreck. Its origin was a mystery except that it had spent considerable time in brackish water. – Seth Dinitz, Ellie Dinitz

Some of Those Bay Barnacles!!

[Bay barnacle (Amphibalanus improvisus) is a crustacean related to shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. Their exoskeleton is a calcareous cone-like house made of six small calcium plates that form a circle, within which the animal lives. Four more plates form a “trap-door” that the barnacle can open and close, depending on the tide. They cement their little house (c. 6×10 millimeters) to rocks and other hard benthic material, even some aquatic vegetation, and permanently set up shop. When wading in the vegetated shallows at Croton Point in salty summers, sharp-edged barnacles attached to wild celery will abrade, your legs.

When conditions are optimal, they open their trap-door and feed by extending feather-like appendages called cirri that filter for microscopic organisms. While they flourish in salty to brackish water, they can close their house for a limited time of very low salinity until conditions improve. Although it is unclear exactly how barnacle larvae arrive upriver from brackish water and attach to suitable substrate, their method of transport may be the flood tide current in times of low freshwater flow.

For a real-time treat, place a barnacle-encrusted rock in an aquarium with river water. Gently stir the water and watch as the barnacles open their trap-doors and extend their feathery cirri to filter the water. It looks altogether like a water ballet. Tom Lake]

2/27 – Town of Wappinger/Poughkeepsie: In last week’s Almanac, we observed that adult bald eagles are nearly indistinguishable as to their sex, that females tend to be slightly larger, on average, than males, but the only fail-safe determination must be made by an internal examination. Nevertheless, we frequently use “Mom” and “Dad” as pronouns for paired bald eagles, designations based on best guesses.

Whenever I am tempted to label an adult eagle as male or female, I recall April 2001, and the original adults in bald eagle nest NY62 in the Town of Wappinger. I remember the very moment when one of the adults, perched in a white pine carrying a blue NYSDEC leg band, lifted its feathered leg so the number was clear to be read in my scope: N42.

DEC’s Pete Nye, an eagle mentor to all of us who were just getting acquainted with the birds, banded N42 in spring 1995 as one three chicks fledged from a nest on the Delaware River in Sullivan County. At the time Pete declared, based on talon morphology, that the bird was, with at least 85% confidence, a female. From 2001 to 2017, we attributed N42’s behavior as typically those of a female. She doted on her nestlings and seemed to be the “boss” of the nest. We even noted that N42 seemed to be at least the same size as her mate, possibly an illusion, thus female.

Then on February 24, 2017, a beach-walker came upon the body of an adult bald eagle in the river shallows just offshore of New Hamburg. The eagle carried a blue band number N42. We collected and transported her to the DEC Wildlife Pathologist Kevin Hynes in Delmar for a necropsy that would tell us the cause of her death. This discovery profoundly saddened all of us who had followed N42’s exploits for 17 years. Kevin Hynes concluded that N42 died of severe trauma (prejudicial impact) from being struck by a train as she was scavenging a white-tailed deer between the rails. He also concluded that N42 was a male, and not a female, as we had convinced ourselves beginning on the day N42 was banded in 1995.

After the necropsy that left us stunned, we mourned N42 but at the same time we were happy that the bonafide “Mom” was still there. Within a week or two, she had lured an unattached male to join her. It was also refreshing, and humbling, to discover that what we think we know, is not always so. Now ,with certainty, spring 2023 is “Mom’s” 23rd year, having fledged 26 nestlings, and is once again incubating.

As a result, we had new memories of “Dad” (N42): He always took the larger shift of the daily incubating duties; he consistently fed the chicks, even more so than his mate; he always brought the most grass to the nest for the egg cup and timber for the structure; he did more of the annual nest refurbishing; and he was, by far, the chief “mentor” of his fledglings. Since 2017, we try to rethink the gender roles of bald eagles and acknowledge their flexibility and range of variability. – Tom Lake

3/1 – Greene County: Through brief sky windows in the clouds, we saw the predicted conjunction of two of our brightest planets Venus and Jupiter. In the early evening northwest sky, they shone like twin searchlights less than 0.5 degrees apart (the width of a full moon). Encounters like this are due to the “planetary parade” across the night sky following the ecliptic, an imaginary line that marks the Sun’s apparent path across the sky during a year. Though not rare, occurring every few years, these celestial alignments are beautiful and worthy of notice if the clouds allow. You can sign up to receive announcements of anticipated sky events at https://spaceweather.com/ – Mario Meier

Venus-Jupiter
That Conjunction!!

Hello, Fish of the Week:

2/27 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 209 is the gag (Mycteroperca microlepis), number 147 (of 237), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

Gag
A Gag!!

Gag is one of two members of the sea bass family (Serranidae) in the Hudson River estuary. The other is the black sea bass. The sea bass suborder, Serranoidei, includes the groupers, an alternate common name for the gag. Much of the descriptive and behavioral literature on gag pertains to the adults (C. Lavett Smith and J.C. Briggs (1958), et al.), a life stage we have not seen in the Hudson River.

Their body is elongate, compressed but robust. They have long heads with a large mouth featuring a protruding lower jaw and two large frontal canine teeth. They are brownish gray with irregular dusky lines, dark vermiculations arranged in definite transverse bars or quadrate groups, all of which affords them a marbled appearance, with a dark green and indigo dorsal fin. Gag is a voracious predator feeding on cephalopods, crabs, fish, and shrimp.

Gag is found on the Atlantic Coast from Long Island to the Gulf of Mexico to Brazil. Their center of abundance is Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, within which they represent both a popular gamefish as well a recreational fishery. Although juveniles are occasionally found up the coast as far as southern New England, gag are considered rare north of Chesapeake Bay.

Gag can live to 16 years and is classified as oceanodromous, meaning that they migrate solely in saltwater. Adult gag can reach nearly four feet long and weigh 70 lb. Like the black sea bass, gag are protogynous hermaphrodites, with females changing to males at 11-12 years old. This is an evolutionary adaptation that ensures a continuingly adequate number of females to support the population’s viability.

In the Hudson River estuary, they are designated as a tropical marine stray. Our only Hudson River record to date occurred in December 1987, with a 117-millimeter gag collected by Ecological Analysts at Indian Point (river mile 42). The New York State Museum has nine Mycteroperca microlepis specimens in their collection of fishes, all found in non-watershed marine waters. – Tom Lake

And This Week’s Wonderful Bird:
image of Gray-breasted Parakeet by Ciro Albano

The Grey-Breasted Parakeet

A new garden person’s joined the 67th Street Library Branch staff!!

En route to the library, we UESiders could stop by the Blood Center next door and donate (for sure, there’s a shortage!!),

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week: Yes, compostable, organic materials make up a third of NYC waste!!

Eco Tip of the Week: Incredible that nobody local’s now recycling corks!! For the time being, leaving wine drinking and green UESiders with only one choice: Mailing to CorkClub, 5000 Gulf Highway, Building 6, Houston, Texas 77204!! (They’ll accept up to 40 lb. boxes!!)

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March 5, 2023 · 3:04 am

Happy World Wildlife Day, UESiders!!

A commemoration that began as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Florae and, then, was designated WWDay by the U.N. in 2013!!

Meaning we’re talking both a 10th and 50th anniversary of the drive to provide space on this earth for living things of all kinds!!

World Wildlife Day Poster Stock Vector (Royalty Free ...

How about some NYC good green news:

As in the just-passed new, first-step NYC Battery Safety legislation…

Even more local:

Seems our Esplanade’s 107th Street Pier won’t be moved northwards… With public opinion and cost considerations wanting in favor of rebuilding/replacement on the present crumbling mess’s site!!

That plus the powers-that-be have committed themselves to reinstalling riverside equipment to lower/raise the wonderful East River Crew’s rowboats!!

Will be eons till we’re enjoying this portion of our renewed East River Esplanade waterfront… But if it’s going to be done then, please, let it be done right!!

Reminder… One more time:

Should writing our Community Board 8 regarding some board members’ notion of not renewing the 94th Street Greenmarket’s 2023 permit have slipped your mind last week… An email this week will be just fine: info@cb8m.com!!

Moving on to our market:

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

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

Maestra Manager Margaret’s adds this lovely news:

“Dear Greenmarketeers:

As we slowly creeping towards spring…

Days are getting longer which means that are not only are things starting to grow outside, but growing’s speeding up in our farmers’ greenhouses!!

And meaning there should be plenty of baby greens of several types available this week!! Not only great for salads, but also omelettes or as a finishing touch for your soups and stews!!

Another sign of spring is that Walnut Ridge will be back!! Yes Walnut Ridge with their most excellent mushrooms, pickled eggs, baked goods and more!!

Oh, and you Winter Warriors… Don’t forget to get your cards punched!! You are almost there!!

Showers??

They don’t spoil our market shopping,

Margaret“

Of course, do keep the Food Box in mind:

Every Tuesday: Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Fresh Food Box
_{Robbins Plaza, First Avenue & 70th Street, 2:30-6:30pm}

Reserve your very own, giant, cost-wise bag of largely locally grown/in all cases Grade A quality produce!! To reserve your very own bag…

And our UESide compost collection sites:

Every Friday: East 96th Street Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{96th Street & Lexington, 7:30-11:30am}

Bring on those walnut shells!!

2022 Total: 66,962 lbs.

Every Sunday: Asphalt Green Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{91st Street & York, 7:30am-12:30pm}

Add that squash pulp and seeds!!

2022 Total: (from 3/13/2022) – 45,675 lbs.

And our newest UES/RI recycling opportunity:

SATs! Used Pen Drop

Add these in-person events:

Monday, March 6th: Celebrating the Cookbook in Support of the United Nations
Organized by idig2Learn, Location confirmed with reservation, Free, 6-7:30pm

3/6 6-7:30pm United Nations Cookbook Event

Saturday, March 11th: Let’s Make Fonio! A Taste of West Africa
More from idig2Learn, location confirmed with reservation, Free, 1-3pm
3/11 1-3PM Let's Make Fonio with Beatrice Ajaero
And virtual happenings:

verdi (1) Single Reading - double books flyer

As ever, a bit of activism:

Pretty amazing that the NYS DEC is seeking community comment on a local Redevelopment Site at 1487 First Avenue, SW corner of First and 78th Street… Do weigh in!!

Meanwhile:

Should you think President Biden should act to prevent drilling in the western Arctic…

And if you think labeling should truthfully state if plastic containers/packaging is actually recyclable…

Shifting to missions accomplished:

The Prostrate Milkweed (essential migrating monarch butterfly food) and Fecklebelly Madron (a small catfish) are now protected/endangered species!!

Prostrate Milkweed

A Fecklebelly Madtom

Moving on to the realm of diverting diversions:

The GVSHS Women’s Suffrage History Map… Adirondack invasive species update… Lenox Hill Hospital’s building schedule… A core within our earth’s core… March Outdoor Discovery in NYS… Our NYS Environmental Conservation Police in action… Yet another wildlife-threatening weed killer… China and coal… The NYC DEC Wildlife, Fish & Marine Life Newsletter (including help for a baby bear!!)…

Meet the woman who recued that alligator in Prospect Park… On NYC (tree) clear-cutting (there’s a lot)… NYC parking reform… Plastic and/in chewing gum… The soon-to-be new UES subway entrance…

And now the Hudson River Almanac:

2/21 – Yonkers, HRM 18: We were incredulous with the number of glass eels that our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak found in our glass eel fyke net that we had set overnight in the Beczak tidemarsh. It was barely late February and our numbers rivaled mid-spring counts.

Atlantic croaker
One of Those Glass Eels!!

Today we caught 216 glass eels and one each mummichog, smallmouth flounder (15 mm), and Atlantic croaker (25 mm). The smallmouth flounder was a real surprise catch. Our staff caught our first one ever at Beczak last November. The Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) and the smallmouth flounder (Etropus microstomus) were both young-of-year (they spawn in late fall into early winter). The river was 44-degrees Fahrenheit (F), the salinity was 10.4 parts-per-thousand (ppt), and the dissolved oxygen was 10.4 parts-per-million (ppm). – Jason Muller

2/18 – Hudson River Estuary: From November through March, we respond to dozens of sea turtles that are found cold-stunned onshore and in our waters at the mercy of the tides and currents. If you come upon a sea turtle, whether you think it’s alive or dead, immediately call the New York State Stranding Hotline at 631-369-9829. If you have photos or videos, please send them to sightings@amseas.org. Learn more information at: https://go.usa.gov/xeWTs ) – Kim Durham, Co-New York State Sea Turtle Coordinator for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society

A Kemp’s Ridley Turtle!!

2/22 – Hudson River Watershed: The peak of the bobcat (Lynx rufus) breeding season occurs in February and March. During this time, males breed with as many females as possible. Females actively announce their availability through cheek and body rubbing, as well as marking their territory with urine. Their loud and frequent vocalizations can also be heard. Courtship includes the male and female bobcat chasing and leaping on each other, which is followed by mating (up to 16 times daily for several days). – Mary Holland

Bobcat
A Male Bobcat!!

2/22 – Manhattan, HRM 1-2: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our research gear (pots and traps) that we deploy at Piers 26 and 40 as part of our fish ecology survey. We welcomed a new staff member this week, Rachel Swanson, to our Hudson River Park River Project Staff.

Cunner
A Cunner!!

We found two fish caught in a minnow pot at Pier 40. The first was a cunner (122.5 mm), quite large for this time of the year; the other a juvenile tautog (60 mm). These are two closely related species (Wrasses-Labridae) and are not uncommonly found together in the inter-pier area of Manhattan’s west side. Both Pier 40 and Pier 26 also had a suite of invertebrates including grass shrimp, mud crabs, mud dog whelk snails, and isopods. – Zoe Kim

2/23 – Greene County: Although we were near the end of an unusual winter, anything was still possible. We had a surprise ice storm today in the Catskills that glazed every tree and surface with a half-inch of ice. Ice laden red dogwood twigs made a showy display. The bold crocus aconites and snowdrops blooming in the garden looked like ice encased lollipops. They held the bold promise that winter may try its last blast, but spring is on the way.

Dogwood
That Dogwood!!

2/24 – Warren County, HRM 240-245: While it was not massively impressive when compared to other winters, the walls of frazil ice at the Ice Meadows had now built to four-feet-high. Two weeks ago, in this mild winter, there was almost no ice at all. – Mike Corey

Ice Meadows
Some Frazil Ice!!

[In 2000, the Hudson ran between twenty-foot-high walls of frazil ice. We carefully walked across the river on the Vernal Equinox, several-hundred feet wide at that point, following otter and coyote tracks on the snow-covered ice. We felt as though we were walking on a glacier — ten-feet below us, the Hudson River was racing to the sea. There is no better place on the Hudson where you can sense the pulse of the river at the first instant of spring than the Ice Meadows. – Tom Lake, Christopher Letts

[Frazil ice builds up every winter between The Glen and Thurman Station (river miles 245-237) in deposits up to 20 feet thick. It looks like very white snow, but it is formed in supercooled water, slightly below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (F), in turbulent water. Microscopic rod-shaped plates are formed in the water that grow quickly. At this stage they are “sticky” and will freeze to anything they touch. The river is full of this kind of ice whenever the air temperature gets below about 18 degrees F.

Eventually the tons of frazil ice clog up a bend in the river and form a loose cover. Frazil forced underneath collects in “hanging dams” and blocks the river water, which causes the water level to rise and the frazil to float up onto the banks. Cobbles and gravels at the bottom can be popped to the surface when the ice becomes buoyant enough. This process adds to the other river dynamics that are constantly moving sand, silt, gravel, and cobbles along the riverbed.

When a channel is forced through the clogged crystals, the water level goes down leaving frazil on the banks and forming straight-sided canyons of beautiful white ice. The main channel gets re-clogged every cold night but unless there is a major warm-weather storm, the frazil banks tend to stay in place and do not damage plants except by flattening them. Evelyn Greene]With the Fish of the Week being:

2/23 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 208 is the Atlantic Needlefish (Strongylura marina), number 115 (of 237), on our Hudson River Watershed List of Fishes.

Atlantic needlefish with permission by Zachery Randall

Atlantic Needlefish!!

Atlantic needlefish is one of two members of Belonidae (Needlefishes) in the estuary, the other being the houndfish (Tylosurus crocodilus). The associated Latin and common names, “needle” and “crocodile” are both suggestive and descriptive.

Natural selection designed the unmistakable Atlantic needlefish to be the consummate predator. They are primarily sight-feeders with more than 20% of their adult length taken up by slender tooth-studded jaws A ventrally-adjusted lateral-line allow needlefish to drift on the surface, hunt for prey, and still maintain an air-water interface. They can reach nearly two-feet in length and will frequently leap out of the water in pursuit of prey. With their quickness and bony jaws, they are a challenge for anglers on light tackle. Casting and quick-retrieving flashy lures, you can trace their attack — a long and ominous ripple-disturbance on the water. Then they strike, they immediately leap clear of the water, swap ends, and toss the lure.

Atlantic needlefish are found in coastal and inshore waters from New England to South America and were formerly designated as a temperate to tropical marine species in the Hudson River. However, as their presence in the estuary has increased in the last several decades, Atlantic needlefish have been changed to a “permanent/seasonally resident marine” species.

Over time, their presence in the Hudson River estuary has gone largely unnoticed. J.R. Greeley, in his A Biological Survey of the Lower Hudson Watershed (1937), considered needlefish to be rare. He noted that they spawn in salt water even though his survey found immature needlefish as far upriver as Ulster Park (river mile 87). In 1984, Steve Stanne and John Mylod caught a young-of-year needlefish (50 mm) at Kingston Beach. In 2018, Chris Bowser and Jim Herrington caught young-of-year needlefish (63-68 mm) at Stockport Creek (river mile 122). These reports and others have dispelled any doubt that this formerly considered marine-spawner now spawns in the freshwater estuary. – Tom LakeAnd This Week’s Bird (We’ve Never Heard of Before):

The Dickcissel!!

It’s also Women’s History Month, and National Craft Month,

UGS

Eco Facts of the Week: The latest delayin implementing Congestion Pricing to pushes the start of congestion pricing to the 2nd Quarter of 2024, incurring a revenue loss of an estimated $250 million!!

Despite Monsanto’s assurances that weeds wouldn’t evolve resistance to glyphosate, within two years farmers found rigid ryegrass that refused to die. Today at least 56 weed species are glyphosate-resistant!!

Eco Tip of the Week: Just another 28 days till new DSNY trash set-out times go into effect:

Residential buildings have two options:

Place waste out after 6:00 PM in a container of 55 gallons or less with a secure lid, or
Place waste out after 8:00 PM, if putting bags directly on the curb

Businesses that place waste at the curb also have two options:

If using a container with a secure lid, place waste at the curb 1 hour before closing, or
If putting bags directly on the curb, place waste out after 8:00 PM

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March 5, 2023 · 2:22 am

^{Happy Renew the 94th Street Greenmarket Week, UESiders!!}

^{_{Yup, your emails were a major help in making sure CB8 approved 82nd Street’s 2023 permit last month!!

Now, it’s our June-November 94th (used to be 92nd) Street Greenmarket’s turn and it’s just as easy this time ’round…

Just email your 94th Greenmarket support to CB8 at}}^{_{info@cb8m.com!!}}

On to this weekend’s market:

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

As spring approaches, at their tables will be our friends American Pride Seafood, Bread Alone, Ballard’s Honey, Valley Shepherd Creamery and Haywood’s Fresh, Samascott, Nolasco, Ole Mother Hubbert, Hawthorne Valley and Gajeski Farms!!

As ever, Maestra Manager Margaret’s sez:

“Dear Greenmarketeers:

Winter is still with us for at least a few more weeks, so let’s think winter food!!

Winter food as in hardy roasts, soups and stews (think Haywood’s meats, Hudson Valley Duck or Hawthorne’s Chicken)… Or you could go for a warming chowder (see what deliciousness American Seafood has on its table this week)!!

Then there’re the market’s lovely greenhouse greens that’ll add just the right color to your winter main courses!!

And don’t forget those Winter Warrior Cards!! Still time to get all your punches, you Winter Warriors!!

Whatever the season, so many wonderful options!!

Happy, hearty shopping,

Margaret“

Three days later, there’s Food Box:

Every Tuesday: Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Fresh Food Box
_{Robbins Plaza, First Avenue & 70th Street, 2:30-6:30pm}

Can’t make it get up to the market? Click here and reserve a big, fat bag of fantastic produce chosen for you by GrowNYC!!

Bring on the compost collection:

Every Friday: East 96th Street Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{96th Street & Lexington, 7:30-11:30am}

Those bell pepper and apple cores are crying out for the compost bin!!

2022 Total: 66,962 lbs.

Every Sunday:  Asphalt Green Food Scrap Drop-Off
_{91st Street & York, 7:30am-12:30pm}Same for our coffee grounds and used tea bags!!

2022 Total (from 3/13/22): 46,675 lbs.

Also happening in our actual green world:

Every Saturday:  idig2Learn Pen/Marker Recycling
Motorgate, Roosevelt Island, 9am-2pm

Now to Wednesday, March 8th: AM Seawright’s Cicero (Kids’) Book Drive
_{^{The AM’s Office, 1485 York Avenue (between 78th & 79th), 9:30am-5:30pm (Closed Presidents Day!)}}

Monday, February 27th: Ribbon Cutting at Honey Locust Park!!
59th Street between First & York Avenues, 1pm

Once upon a time, it was a DOT staging area for work on the 59th Street Bridge… Then it became another work site bridge for construction of a water tunnel shaft… Now that same spot’s a peaceful sitting area/green space – and to quote Parks – “softening the imposing nature of the bridge and surrounding traffic with the additional benefit of retaining stormwater!!” Come and celebrate the transformation, UESiders!! Everyone’s welcome!!
:
Monday, February 27th: Meet the Soup Lady
Location confirmed with reservation, 6:30-8pm

Wednesday, March 1st; and Saturday, March 11th: More Event Greenness From idig2Learn

Just scroll down:

All kinds of virtual events:

Tuesday, February 28th, 10-11:30am: “Financing Energy Upgrades 101” organized by Urban Green Council and NYC Accelerator via Livestream

Free!! For more and to register…

Organized by the great NYC H2O!! To register…

Thursday, March 2nd, 1-2:15pm: Removing Emerging Contaminants from Wastewater Using Electron Beam | Dilara Agacik, Ryan Elliott organized by NYS Water Resources at Cornell via online

One of several seminars highlighting collaborative and interdisciplinary work between academics, water resource scientists, educators, managers, and policymakers to improve water management in the state, focusing on ways in which robust science can support on-ground policy outcomes. (Let’s hope it works!!) Free!! To sign up…

Thursday March 2nd, 5:30pm: “The Climate Crisis in New York” hosted by CM Bottcher via Zoom

Then:

More family fun from NYC H2O!! To sign your young one(s) up…

Tuesday, April 4th, 6:30-7:30pm: New York City Wildflowers – New Citywide Initiative

And we quote, “What do wildflowers, ballot boxes, and Wednesday Addams have in common? Hear more about NYCWW’s new citywide initiative in partnership with Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The High Line, New York Botanical Garden, Queens Botanical Garden, and the Staten Island Museum.” Free!! For more and to reserve your spot…

And the activism of the week:

You guessed it!! SUPPORT THE 94th STREET GREENMARKET with your email to: info@cb8m.com!!

Moving on to the realm of diverting diversions:

Application time for the Youth Summer Media Program… Got till St. Patrick’s Day to apply for a seat on the Community Board… Or, you non-professional singers, to try out for Lincoln Center’s “Search for Spring”… How to restore a damaged Le Creuset pan… NYC Bagel Tours… Our NYS Forest Rangers’ week… How Hungarians scare Old Man Winter off… How Europe “ditched” Russian oil… Wind turbines and the Gulf of Mexico… A brief history of pancakes… The Amphibian Migration and Road Crossings Project… Scroll further down the Amphibian page for info on the American Eel Project...

Moving on to the Hudson River Almanac:

2/11 – Nyack Beach State Park, HRM 31: Alisha Marie reported a harbor seal hauled out on a sandy spit exposed by the ebb tide. Alisha’s photo showed the seal lying in their typical “reclining banana” posture (both ends up like a banana) that observers often mistakenly interpret as a “seal in distress.” It is their normal resting posture.

A Harbor Seal!!

It is estimated that harbor seals make up 95% of our Hudson River seal sightings, with the other 5% shared among harp, hooded, and gray seals. It was long a part of April on the river to haul up our commercial gill nets to find American shad sans their heads. Harbor seals would run along our sets and bite off their captured heads.

Seals are not uncommon in the tidewater Hudson River. The belief that they are rare arises from our failing to notice them, not knowing what we are seeing, or not reporting them. We likely have at least one seal in the river all the time. We frequently spot them on ice foes in winter. In spring, when shad and river herring fish are coming in from the sea to spawn, we may have as many as six seals at a time. – Tom Lake

[Our list of eleven Hudson River Estuary marine mammals documented in the Hudson River Almanac across the last 30 years:

– harbor seal (Phoca vitulina)
– hooded seal (Cystophora cristata)
– gray seal (Halichoerus grypus)
– harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus)
– common (harbor) porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
– bottlenose (common) dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
– short-beaked common dolphin-2023 (Delphinus delphis)
– Risso’s dolphin-2013 (Grampus griseus)
– Florida manatee-2006 (Trichechus manatus latirostris)
– minke whale-2007 (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
– humpback whale-2016 (Megaptera novaeangliae).

If you see a live, and apparently healthy, marine mammal in the estuary, please contact the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (https://www.amseas.org). If you have photos or video, please send them to sightings@amseas.org. However, if you see a sick or injured marine mammal, please call the New York State Stranding Hotline, Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research & Preservation, at (631) 369-9829. – Tom Lake

2/12 – Ulster County, HRM 85: I was on the periphery of Sturgeon Pool, a wide, ponded part of the Wallkill River, observing eagles (NY92, the “Rifton bald eagle nest) when out on the ice a red fox came booking across the pool all the way across to land. The fox then turned around and walked back where it came from. It was so cool to cool to watch him go across and back. – Jim Yates

Red fox
That Fox!!

2/12 – Manhattan: On this date in 2006, Central Park received 26.9 inches of snow, the heaviest snowfall ever recorded for New York City, far surpassing the Blizzard of ‘88, and others. – National Weather Service

2/14 – Yonkers, HRM 18: Our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak checked our glass eel fyke net that we set overnight in the Beczak tide marsh. We had a terrific to beginning to our monitoring season (33 glass eels), which runs through May. This was very early for us, as we had never caught glass eels before February 25. One other fish was collected in the cod end of our fyke, a tiny, 25 mm mummichog (killifish). The river was 41.54 degrees F, the salinity was 4.7 parts-per-thousand (ppt), and the dissolved oxygen was a healthy 12.7 parts-per-million (ppm). – Jason Muller, Katie Lamboy

Fyke net
A Tyke Net!!

[Our glass eel research net is called a fyke. The name is derived from the Colonial Dutch word for a fishnet–fuyckorfuik– that forms the shape of a truncated cone. The name was used to describe a neighborhood of the early settlement at Fort Orange (17th century Albany). Two roads emanated from the fort, one along the shoreline and the other leading inland. Viewed from the north wall of Fort Orange, these diverging roads would have resembled the basic shape of a fyke net.

The fyke net is a collection device, about ten-feet-long and twelve- feet-wide, used most often for fish, but occasionally for turtles. Most are a series of hoops connected by mesh netting through which fish pass leading to a “cod end” where captured fish accumulate. When used in a Hudson River tributary, fykes are most often set facing downstream to collect fish, such as glass eels, heading upstream. At the downstream opening, a section of netting is angled away on either side from the initial hoop to serve as a guide, encouraging fish to take the path of least resistance toward the mouth of the net. Tom Lake]2/17 – Yonkers, HRM 18: This was Day 2 for our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak minding our glass eel fyke net that we set overnight in the Beczak tide marsh. We more than doubled our number of glass eels from three days ago. Besides the 77 glass eels, we caught a tiny, tiny mud crab (10 mm). The river had warmed to 44 degrees F, the salinity had risen to 10.2 ppt, and the dissolved oxygen was still a healthy 10.7 ppm. – Jason Muller, Emily Orr, Netania Muhammad

Then there’s The Fish of the Week:

2/13 – Hudson River Watershed: This is week number 206 in our Fish-of-the-Week series. We began this weekly feature on December 13, 2018, with the firm belief that every fish has a story to tell. This week’s fish is the sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), number 185 (of 237) on our watershed list of fishes.

A Sheepshead!!

Sheepshead is one of three Sparidae (porgy) species in the estuary. Others are the pinfish and the scup. All three are important recreational and food fishes; while pinfish and scup are known colloquially as saltwater “panfish,” sheepshead can be of a size, reaching three feet long and weighing 20 lb. Sheepshead is a strikingly impressive fish with six black bands against a silvery body — like a scup with bands.

Sheepshead is found along the coast from Cape Cod south along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in bays and estuaries where they enter brackish waters and sometimes into freshwater. They were once abundant in the lower Hudson River and New York Harbor but have become extremely uncommon to rare. With their well-developed incisor-like teeth, they feed off barnacles, mussels, and oysters encrusted on pilings, piers, jetties, and wharves. Oysters and sheepshead are intimately connected.

Sheepshead was added to our watershed fish list on September 15, 2004 (as number 211), when Jeremy Frenzel, Chris Mancini, and Scott Wingerter caught what they described as an “oddly proportioned porgy” in one of their fish traps at The River Project on Pier 26 in Manhattan (river mile 2). It was a young-of-year sheepshead at 67 millimeters (mm).

More recently, in August 2022, DEC Region3 Fisheries caught two young-of-year sheepshead in their Striped Bass Beach Seine Survey (both 35 mm) at a site near Hook Mountain State Park (river mile 31). – Tom Lake, ElizaBeth Streifeneder

[In the 1800s, Jamaica Bay area farmers took time during the summer to handline sheepshead on offshore mussel banks. This was a source of income while the crops were growing. Their disappearance could be connected to the loss of oyster beds. At one time they were common enough in the New York Bight that Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn may have been named for them. John Waldman]

2/14 — Manhattan: On Valentine’ Day 2014, Manhattan received 22 inches of snow. – National Weather Service

2/15 – Manhattan: Hudson River Park’s River Project staff checked our research gear (pots and traps) that we deploy at Piers 26 and 40 as part of our fish ecology survey. It was a warm and beautiful day (67 degrees F). While our gear collected no fish today, we did find our usual crew of invertebrates including grass shrimp, sea squirts, and mud dog whelk snails. Mud dogs seem to be more populous at Pier 26 than Pier 40. We also removed some old gear from the water and discovered that it had collected a skilletfish (Gobiesox strumosus). – Zoe Kim

Mud dog whelk
A Mud Dog!!

[The mud dog whelk snail, also called the Atlantic dogwinkle (Nucella lapillus), is a species of predatory sea snail, a carnivorous marine gastropod in the family Muricidae, the rock snails. Nucella lapillus was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. (Little & Kitching, 1996)]

2/16 – Manhattan: The air temperature reached 70 degrees F today, one degree shy of the record high for the date. – National Weather Service

2/17 — Yonkers, HRM 18: This is the 16th year (2023) of the Hudson River Eel Project. This community science project trains students and volunteers to research migratory American eels along the estuary. For information on this project, check out: https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/72898.html#Eel. If you are interested in participating, e-mail eelproject@dec.ny.gov and include where you live so we can match you with a nearby site. – Sarah Mount

2/17 – Yonkers, HRM 18: This was Day 2 for our staff at the Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River at Beczak minding our glass eel fyke net that we set overnight in the Beczak tide marsh. We more than doubled our number of glass eels from three days ago. Besides the 77 glass eels, we caught a tiny, tiny mud crab (10 mm). The river had warmed to 44 degrees F, the salinity had risen to 10.2 ppt, and the dissolved oxygen was still a healthy 10.7 ppm.- Jason Muller, Emily Orr, Netania Muhammad

A bunch of glass eels!!

2/17 – Hudson River Estuary: Glass eel is a colloquial name owing to their lack of pigment and near transparency. These are juvenile American eels “returning” to the estuaries of their ancestors along the east coast of North America after a lengthy ocean journey. This is a particularly mysterious as well as vulnerable time for them, and little is known about this period of their life. In anywhere from 10 to 30 years, depending upon their sex, they will leave the Hudson River watershed for the sea where they will spawn once and then die, or so we think.- Tom Lake

And This Week’s Wonderful Bird:
image of Lark Bunting by Kelly Preheim.

The Lark Bunting!!

Slava Ukrainya,

UGS

Eco Fact of the Week: When recycled household waste is processed, it’s crushed and moved around during transportation and sorting processes and can catch fire or even explode causing dangerous and costly fires in trucks and facilities!! In2018, a total of 323 reported fires occurred at waste facilities across the US and Canada, some of these events causing injury and, in some cases, death to recycling workers and firefighters.

Answer and Eco Tip of the Week: Of course, we UESiders take ALL our dead batteries – rechargable and non-rechargable and in ziplock-bags – to Best Buy!!

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