A Project of the Hudson River Estuary Program
Compiled and edited by Tom Lake, Consulting Naturalist
COVID-19 Guidance for Enjoying the Outdoors
While enjoying outdoor spaces, please continue to follow the CDC/NYSDOH guidelines for preventing the spread of colds, flu, and COVID-19. To find out more about enjoying DEC lands and New York's State Parks, visit DEC's website Play Smart*Play Safe*Play Local; https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/119881.html
Keep at least six (6) feet of distance between you and others.
Wear a cloth face covering in public settings where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.
Avoid close contact, such as shaking hands, hugging, and kissing.
Wash hands often or use a hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available.
Avoid surfaces that are touched often, such as doorknobs, handrails, and playground equipment.
DEC recommends avoiding busy trailheads. Find the trails less traveled and visit when trails may not be as busy during daylight hours.
Overview
Ancestral oysters of the estuary, from human arrival to the present, was a repeated theme this week. We also discussed marine mammals, sea turtles in peril, and the increased activity by both local and wintering bald eagles.
Highlight of the Week
 1/4 – Stockport Creek, HRM 121: Derek Brown had a seal keeping pace with his kayak today, porpoising close by, as he paddled Stockport Creek. From a video, it appeared to be a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Our first thought was that it might be the male harbor seal from Saugerties, 12 miles downriver, a resident there for more than 500 days. However, in the video, there was no sign of the white tag (#246) that the Saugerties seal carries on its rear flipper. (Photo of harbor seal courtesy of Linda Napolitano)
- Tom Lake
[Seals are not uncommon in the tidewater Hudson River. The belief that they are rare arises from 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 of the time—we presently have three. In spring, when shad and river herring are coming in from the sea to spawn, we may have as many as 4 or 5.
[The list of seals documented for the Hudson River estuary across the 27 years of the Hudson River Almanac includes harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), hooded seals (Cystophora cristata), gray seals (Halichoerus grypus), and harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus). There were no records of gray seals in the Hudson River until one showed in Hyde Park in 2011. Then, four years later, a second gray seal found its way into the upper river, above tidewater, and had to be rescued. Tom Lake]
Natural History Entries
1/1 – Greene County, HRM 133-127: It was a nice day in Greene County with some half-hardy birds lingering plus a few other nice sightings. Among the 35 species encountered were northern pintail and red-winged blackbird at Coeymans Landing, merlin at Coxsackie Village, and field sparrow at the Coxsackie Boat Launch where I also found nine bald eagles in sight. I counted ten eastern bluebirds near the Pieter Bronck House west of Coxsackie and at the Coxsackie Grassland, there were northern harrier, American kestrel, belted kingfisher, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
- Rich Guthrie
 1/1 – Hudson River Watershed: Fish-of-the-Week for Week 102 is the sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), number 185 (of 234) on our watershed list of fishes. If you would like a copy of our list, e-mail - trlake7@aol.com.
Sheepshead is one of three Sparidae (porgies) species in the estuary. Others are the pinfish and the scup. All three are important recreational and food fishes and sheepshead are the largest, reaching three-feet-long and weighing 20 pounds. They are found along the coast from Cape Cod south along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where they can venture into bays and up rivers and estuaries into brackish water.
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 off Pier 26 in Manhattan (river mile 1). It was a young-of-year (67 millimeter (mm)) sheepshead.
Sheepshead were once abundant in the lower Hudson River and New York Harbor but have become extremely uncommon. With their well-developed incisor-like teeth, they feed off barnacles, mussels, and oysters encrusted on pilings, piers, and jetties making oysters and sheepshead intimately connected. (Photo of sheepshead courtesy of Vinnie Calabro)
- Tom Lake
[At this point in the North Atlantic, sheepshead is near the northern edge of its range and a reduced population of fish usually contracts from the edges of its range. I have found at least one account of just how numerous sheepshead were in the Lower Bay and south shore regions in the 1800s. Jamaica Bay area farmers took time during the summer to handline them 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
[1 inch= 25.4 millimeters (mm)]
 1/2 – New Baltimore, HRM 131.5: I have found a number of interesting natural objects, including artifacts, on Polly Sherman’s Beach in New Baltimore. In 2017, I collected a number of Kaolin clay pipe stems and bowls that had eroded out of the sandy shoreline. When analyzed by an archaeologist, they dated to c.1779-1790. This was the Rip Van Winkle" era (1769-1789) who we “know” smoked a clay pipe! I recently have collected old oyster shells from the same area and wondered if live oyster had ever been able to live this far upriver, or had they found another way to get here.
- Kelly Halloran
[The Atlantic or eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is found from New Brunswick south into the Gulf of Mexico and have been common in the New York Bight and the lower Hudson River estuary for thousands of years. When considering biology, it is untenable to conclude that a proposition can never be true. Yet, live oysters living more than 80 miles from brackish water edges, close to never. A more likely solution to an oyster presence in Greene County, in particular on a riverside beach, would be transport by a boat.
Since Colonial times, there have been countless sloops, schooners, barges and steamboats plying the 150 miles from Manhattan to Troy. Legendary commercial fisherman Bob Gabrielson of Nyack offers that it was common in the mid-20th century for baskets of blue crabs as well as giant Atlantic sturgeon caught in the Tappan Zee, to be lashed to the side of vessels heading north to upriver markets.
Perhaps the most intriguing possibility is the Albany night boat. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th, the night boat was the way to travel between New York City and Albany, Troy, and other stops as scheduled. In 1899, the Albany night boat Adirondack made the Manhattan-Albany run in under 6.5 hours, despite carrying 400 passengers and 350 tons of freight. Night boat commerce from the early 20th century included 4,000 pounds of meat, 500 pounds of fish (including oysters), 400 pounds of butter, 2,500 pounds of vegetables, 700 loaves of bread, and 400 dozen eggs. Kelly Halloran’s oysters may have fallen out of a bushel basket 100 years ago. By the 1930s, neglect, the Great Depression, and changing transportation options (rail) caused the night boats to lose popularity. The last Albany night boat made its round-trip voyage from Manhattan in January 1941. Tom Lake]
1/3 – New Baltimore, HRM 131.5: As a follow-on to the old oyster shells from Greene County, we examine another possibility. Still avoiding the conclusion of “never” as to deposition, there seems no way short of radio-carbon dating (14C) to know the age of Kelly Halloran’s oyster shells. By “reading” growth rings in the hinge of the shells—not unlike tree rings—Kelly Halloran’s oyster shells average five seasons of growth, likely equating to five-years-old.
While Greene County, even in antiquity, was an unlikely location for an oyster reef, the prehistoric Algonkian-speakers of the river, from the Mohican to Lenape, were thought to conduct trade between the lower seafood-rich estuary and the upriver beaver ponds with their pelts. In our area, they are known commercially as Blue Point Oysters, named after the South Bay town of Blue Point, Long Island. There is archaeological evidence (kitchen middens) of oyster harvesting and consumption by these indigenous peoples in New York City as much as 9,000 years ago.
- Tom Lake
 1/3 – Town of Poughkeepsie: We were looking, in vain as it turned out, for winter bluebirds in the shrubbery throughout Bowdoin Park. We heard the k-i-r-r-r-r of a red-tailed hawk and looked up to find a black vulture, with its short squarish-tail, sharing the air space. The sky was intensely blue, and the black-as-midnight silhouette gave the vulture an ethereal look. The most striking aspect of its shallow wing flaps were the silver-white wing patches—incandescent flashes in the bright sunlight. (Photo of black vulture courtesy of Ann Brokelman)
- Tom Lake, T.R. Jackson, B.J. Jackson
1/4 – Manhattan, New York City: More on oysters in Greene County: In the hey-day of their popularity in New York City, the public consumed a million oysters every day, often advertised by eateries as “All-you-can eat bivalves for six cents a pop!” Historians tell us that in 1609, there were 350 square miles of oyster reefs in the waters around New York City. However, over harvesting and a serious decline in water quality led to the decline of once-abundant oyster beds. By 1927, the last of the New York City oyster beds were officially closed.
Oysters do not require high salinity; they can survive, even flourish, in light-brackish water, with consistency being the key. Prior to European deforestation of uplands, the watershed was much better able absorb snow melt and release rainwater runoff into the estuary with fewer freshets than in more recent times. Consistently adequate salinity allowed shellfish to become established farther upriver and support small satellite oyster reefs.
- Tom Lake
 1/5 – Croton Point, HRM 35: Getting closer to Greene County, archaeologist Louis Brennan’s excavations of the Kettle Rock site at the north end of Croton Point (1960) uncovered shell middens (ancient refuse heaps) of large oysters—eight-inches-long on average—which he called the G.O., or the Giant Oyster horizon. Oyster shells found above and below these strata were four-inches-long or less. This G.O. strata—approximately six-inches-thick—radiocarbon dated to c. 5,387 years old. Brennan believes this phenomenon occurred during a time, about six thousand years ago, of significant sea level fluctuations in the estuary as well as the accompanying salinity regime that may have created optimum conditions for oyster growth (Brennan 1962). The Indians who shucked these oysters were hunter-gatherers, ancestral to the Lenape people who greeted the Dutch and the Half Moon in 1609. (Photo of giant oyster courtesy of The River Project)
- Tom Lake
 1/6 – New Hamburg, HRM 67.5: How far upriver could oysters have survived in antiquity? An example of a live oyster presence upriver, though not nearly to Greene County, still dating from a much older time, is Diamond Reef at New Hamburg (river mile 67.5). This small rocky reef, 12-18-feet-deep depending on the tide, is located mid-river bisecting deep-water channels on either side. Its location doomed the reef to be frequently struck by commercial vessels. Since Colonial times, commercial fishermen (myself included) have seen our shad nets get hung down as they tried to drift over the reef in the current.
There is good evidence that this was an oyster reef in antiquity. It was not uncommon as we un-snagged our gillnets and lifted them aboard, to find old oyster shells stuck in the bottom seam line. Similarly, on several occasions in the 1980s, while jigging for striped bass—using an appropriately-named lure called the Diamond jig—we’d feel resistance on our line, lift up, and find an old oyster shell impinged on the hook. Although underwater archaeology has never been conducted on the reef, there is little doubt that the shells we recovered on each occasion were very old. (Photo of shad net courtesy of Lawson Edgar)
- Tom Lake
 1/7 – Hudson River/New York Bight: Kim Durham, New York State Sea Turtle Coordinator for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, urges us, with cold weather and the cold-water season upon us (water temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (F)), to keep an eye out for stranded sea turtles. Those that have not yet migrated south can become victims of paralyzing “cold stunning,” which is similar to hypothermia. It gives them the appearance of death, but they are actually in dire need of recovery and resuscitation.
Each year, from November through March, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (info@amseas.org) responds to dozens of sea turtle strandings 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. (Photo of loggerhead turtle courtesy of Norbert Probst)
- Tom Lake
 1/8 – Saratoga County, HRM 173: Having previously heard and read reports of many hundreds of horned larks and snow buntings across Saratoga County, from the Hudson to the Mohawk, by Gregg Recer, Susan Beaudoin, John Hershey, Alan Mapes, and other Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club birders, I was heartened to find some of my own today. Across an hour of searching, I counted more than a dozen horned larks and at least a dozen snow buntings in the shrubbery and along the cornfield edges of Wright’s Loop. I thought it was surprising that not a single waterfowl could be seen along the half-mile river view along Wright’s Loop. (Photo of horned lark courtesy of NYSDEC - Barbara Saunders)
- Tom Lake
1/8 – Mechanicville, HRM 168: Just above Lock 2 of the Hudson-Champlain canal, in the face of a stiff west wind and in the lee of a shrub and tree line, nearly a thousand Canada geese, including one obligatory snow goose, were strung out along a quarter mile on the west side of the river. Out in the flow was a smattering of ring-neck ducks, ruddy ducks, and common mergansers.
- Tom Lake
[Windward and leeward are terms that are often used to provide color and accuracy to the description of a location or condition under which a sighting was made. These are sailing terms used to denote wind exposure: windward being in the face of the wind; leeward meaning sheltered, as in the lee of a point, an island, or a stand of trees. - Tom Lake]
1/8 – Town of Halfmoon, HRM 164: I stop at Lock 1 of the Hudson-Champlain canal in Saratoga County whenever I’m traveling up the river to reminisce on December 4, 2015, when many of us assisted the Riverhead Foundation in rescuing a gray seal that had become marooned in the Lock above tidewater. With a cold, hard winter approaching, the immature gray seal, born in December 2014 on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, and used to the freedom of ocean tides, would have been trapped under the ice.
Wrapped up in my thoughts, I almost missed an adult bald eagle, in quiet elegance, fly straight up the river just 100 feet off the deck. Eagles are common along tidewater, but this simple fly-by of an eagle, hugged against the evergreen forest, emotionally close enough to reach out and touch, took my breath away.
- Tom Lake
1/8 – Saratoga County, HRM 157: We birded several locations along the Mohawk River from the power station on Cohoes-Crescent Road to Route 32. The highlight was a total of 14 adult and immature bald eagles including eight from Overlook Park in Cohoes.
- Scott Stoner, Gregg Recer (Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club)
Winter 2020 Natural History Programs
The Estuary Live! (Hudson River Estuary Program)
Our environmental education programs are broad, varied, flexible, and dependent on the needs and interests of your students. These distance-learning programs can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and are available on ZOOM, Google classrooms, or Webex platforms. Pre-program materials from our Virtual River content include videos and lesson plans for students to explore before their Estuary Live! program. Students are encouraged to ask questions which creates an interactive learning environment, rather than a lecture. Estuary Live! is often hosted from an outdoor location but is dependent on the weather and cell service. The Norrie Point Environmental Center has three indoor sets (The Library, The Lab, and The Classroom) that allow us to stay connected during lessons and give students a feeling of being here with us.
Program types and a brief description of the topics:
Wildlife (e.g., amphibians, turtles, and fish)
Hudson River basics, e.g. geography, tides, salinity, turbidity, temperature, basic ecology.
Climate change
American Eels
Stream Study: macroinvertebrates, e.g., adaptations, habitat, and human impact.
Educators can schedule a program for their students:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScr6Sidcq70JL3xLvubH1J-WfAkRMsR6AWvUtHsdcOiUvXrcw/viewform
Contact Maija Lisa Niemistö email:maija.niemisto@dec.ny.gov
Follow Us On-Line:
Check out our wonderful Tide Finder video (3 minutes) with Chris Bowser marking the extreme highs and lows of a full moon tidal cycle: Tide Finder video
Virtual River website: Virtual River Website
Hudson River Miles
The Hudson is measured north from Hudson River Mile 0 at the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The George Washington Bridge is at HRM 12, the Tappan Zee 28, Bear Mountain 47, Beacon-Newburgh 62, Mid-Hudson 75, Kingston-Rhinecliff 95, Rip Van Winkle 114, and the Federal Dam at Troy, the head of tidewater, at 153. The tidal section of the Hudson constitutes a bit less than half the total distance – 315 miles – from Lake Tear of the Clouds to the Battery. Entries from points east and west in the watershed reference the corresponding river mile on the mainstem.
To Contribute Your Observations or to Subscribe
The Hudson River Almanac is compiled and edited by Tom Lake and emailed weekly by DEC's Hudson River Estuary Program. Share your observations by e-mailing them to trlake7@aol.com. To subscribe to the Almanac (or to unsubscribe), use the links on DEC's Hudson River Almanac or DEC Delivers web pages.
Discover New York State
The Conservationist, the award-winning, advertisement-free magazine focusing on New York State's great outdoors and natural resources. The Conservationist features stunning photography, informative articles and around-the-state coverage. Visit The Conservationist webpage for more information.
Useful Links
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration online tide and tidal current predictions are invaluable when planning Hudson River field trips. For real-time information on Hudson River tides, weather and water conditions from sixteen monitoring stations, visit the Hudson River Environmental Conditions Observing System website.
DEC's Smartphone app for iPhone and Android is now available at: New York Fishing, Hunting & Wildlife App.
PLAY SMART * PLAY SAFE * PLAY LOCAL: Get Outside Safely, Responsibly, and Locally
New York State is encouraging residents to engage in responsible recreation during the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis. NYSDEC and State Parks recommendations for getting outside safely incorporate guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NYS Department of Health for reducing the spread of infectious diseases.
DEC and State Parks are encouraging visitors to New York's great outdoors to use the hashtags #PlaySmartPlaySafePlayLocal, #RecreateResponsibly, and #RecreateLocal on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share their visit and encourage others to get outside safely, responsibly, and locally, too. Use the DECinfo Locator to find a DEC-managed resource near you and visit the State Parks website for information about parks and park closures.
Take the Pledge to PLAY SMART * PLAY SAFE * PLAY LOCAL: Enjoy the Outdoors Safely and Responsibly
1. I pledge to respect the rules and do my part to keep parks, beaches, trails, boat launches, and other public spaces safe for everyone.
2. I will stay local and close to home.
3. I will maintain a safe distance from others outside of my household.
4. I will wear a mask when I cannot maintain social distancing.
5. I accept that this summer, I may have to adjust how I enjoy the outdoors to help keep myself and others healthy and safe, even if it means changing my plans to visit a public space.
6. I will be respectful of others by letting them pass by me if needed on a trail and keeping my blanket ten feet apart from others on the beach.
7. I will move quickly through shared areas like parking lots, trailheads, and scenic areas to avoid crowding.
8. If I'm not feeling well, I will stay home.
Information about the Hudson River Estuary Program is available on DEC's website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4920.html.
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