THE HUSDON RIVER ALMANAC SERIES
VOLUME II, 1995-1996; VOLUME III, 1996-1997;
VOLUME IV, 1997-1998; VOLUME V, 1998-1999,
VOLUME VI, 1999-2000New York Department of Environmental Conservation
Hudson River Estuary Management Program
Tom Lake, Editor
Exerpts from HUDSON RIVER ALMANAC VOL. VI to be published in November 2000:
1999 3/24/99 Ellis Island, New York Harbor: While ascending the 3rd floor staircase of the abandoned and dilapidated New Hospital Extension Building (ca. 1908) on Island 2, I found myself 15' from a fledging barn owl perched atop a rusty newel post. The floor behind it was littered with pellets, dead pigeons, and a dead Norway rat. Though known for decades to be indigenous here, this was the first verified nesting site. The unique aspect of this sighting was its earliness. Normally breeding begins in March but the mild winter allowed breeding to begin as early as January. --Jim Elkin, Dave McCuthcheon
7/29/99 Croton Bay, HRM [Hudson River Mile] 34: A low tide and vivid sunrise set the stage for a great blue heron ballet on a sandbar 200 yards off the railroad bridge. For about ten minutes I watched them fishing and vying for position on the sandbar. The ballet turned into a rhumba as an adult bald eagle swept down the Croton River, out across the bay, and banked for a landing on the bar. The gulls and herons gave the eagle plenty of room, but none flew, and the dance resumed. --Chirstopher Letts
1/24/00 Hoosic River, HRM 172: It was another of those mornings when the lower Hoosic River--three miles from the Hudson--inspires a sense of pure wildness, so transforming the experience, which never fails to linger. I was drawn to an emerging distant sight in the sky upriver. At first it appeared as a massive, floating, seamless apparition spread in depth and width, stretching back beyond viewing. An incredible flight of at least 3,000 Canada geese stretched across the horizon. --Jim Sotis
2/3/00 Kowawese, HRM 59: With steady snow flurries all morning, the park was like a winter wonderland. We set up spotting scopes for the students from New Windsor Elementary and the river provided us a terrific show. The Hudson was snow-covered-ice, bank-to-bank, with only a thin dark ribbon in the channel where a tug and barge had plowed through. We spotted three immature bald eagles a short distance out on the ice, one of which had a large fish (a gizzard shad). With as much cunning as it could muster, a red fox snuck out on the ice to try and steal the fish. However, the stealth of the fox could not match the eagle-eyes of the bird. The eagle waited until the last instant and then lifted off with the fish. Now we had a fox jumping up and down on the ice and an eagle hovering ten feet above teasing him. The eagle would fly 100 feet, land, and begin to eat again. The fox would sneak over and prepare to pounce; the eagle would lift off; the fox would leap at empty air. This scenario repeated three times. It reminded us of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. We were captivated. After 15 unsuccessful minutes of trying to get the fish, the fox ambled off over the ice toward Cornwall. --Tom Lake, Christopher Letts
From "The Vernal Equinox at the Hudson's Headwaters" from Volume II: "It was here, at the abandoned mining community of Tahawus that ice was first found covering the Hudson River. The lower 300 miles of river were virtually ice-free for the Vernal Equinox. At the 1994 Vernal Equinox, the ice was several feet thick from Tahawus down to the Ice Meadows, at The Glen, where it grew to about 10 feet in thickness.
"Walking along the river's edge near where the river is first called `the Hudson,' just below the outlet from Henderson Lake at the confluence of Calamity Brook, the vestiges of winter were losing their grip. American robins were common in open areas; crossbills seemed to be in every tree; a ruffled grouse hurried across my path. the uplands leading to the High Peaks still carried their somber tones of winter, with the exception of the beautiful red and green British soldiers lichens, also known as `matchstick' lichens, which seemed to emerge from every rocky crevice. At higher elevations, snow buntings became common. The only serious snow was above the timberline on Marcy, Skylight, and Algonquin. On their north-facing slopes, the trees were covered in rime-ice, emitting a luminous silvery glow.
"A single coyote had taken my path, probably the night before, in the soft mud along the river near Calamity Brook. . . ." --Tom Lake
"Volume IV of the Almanac documents the period from March 1997 to March 1998. Our cover features an eagle because much of the exciting news this year features them. In the summer of 1997, the first bald eagle in a hundred years was successfully fledged along the Hudson River. In a normal cold, icy winter, bald eagles are found in a narrow ice-free reach of the lower Hudson. The mild winter of 1997-98, with virtually no ice in the river provided eagle wintering range of nearly 150 miles from Saratoga to Westchester Counties. The opportunity for Hudson Valley residents and visitors alike to view one of these magnificent birds was never better." --Governor George E. Pataki
"The Hudson River Almanac is a truly wonderful account of our region's natural history." --David Hurst Thomas, Curator, American Museum of Natural History
The almanac is a project of the Hudson River Estuary Management Program within the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and is edited by Tom Lake, veteran river watcher.
Please note:
Volume I, published by the NYSDEC, is out of print. Volumes II-V, and Volume VI, due in November 2000, co-published by Purple Mountain Press are available from us.
Each: 128 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11
$10.00 paperback
The Hudson River Almanac is co-published with the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
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