The almanac uses observations written by naturalists, river lovers of all ages, and scientists to assemble a journal of the river's unique moments.

The almanac is printed by Purple Mountain Press, Ltd., (800-325-2665). It is available for $10, plus New York State sales tax, and $3.50 for shipping. E-mail address is: Purple@mail.catskill.net

Limited copies of The Hudson River Almanac: Volume II are also available at the same price. Volumes I and III are sold out.

These excerpts are taken, with permission from the publisher, from the Hudson River Almanac, Volume IV, 1997-98. Each month, we'll be adding another excerpt from the book that corresponds to the current month.

To contribute observations to the Hudson River Almanac, write to Tom Lake, 3 Steinhaus Lane, Wappinger Falls, NY 12590-3927, or fax: 297-8935 or e-mail to trlake@mailcity.com.

Those who wish to see more recent excerpts from the Hudson River Almanac may visit the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Web site at http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/hudson/monthly.html

May, 1999
May 2- Croton Marsh - The tide was very low. I spotted a disturbance in a shallow stream of draining water and focused the spotting scope on it. I anticipated a stranded carp but saw a large snapping turtle plowing along with just the crest of the carapace, and now and then the head, in view. A flight of seven snowy egreats swept in to land about a hundred feet away. They began to skitter and scamper toward the turtle along the margin of the channel. I wished for a camera and felt my tension increase as the birds neared the turtle, which was no longer moving. The birds made a narrow detour around the turtle, kept on their way, and I breathed deeply. Christopher Letts

May 4 - Croton River - I was fishing about a mile above the head of the tide. The Croton was running "spring full" but not flooding. Within twenty minutes, across a 150' reach of river, I caught 3 gizzard shad, 2 rock bass, a smallmouth bass, and a 13" brook trout. The Croton River is an endlessly fascinating three-mile-long interface between the deep cold Croton Reservoir and the fecund Croton Bay at the Hudson River. On this day there were scores if not hundreds of gizzard shad below a low dam; none was attempting to leap it but many were nosing into the froth below. They all appeared to be 17" long and weigh about two pounds. The brook trout was long and sleek, and it weighed only 13oz. Jim Capossela

May 7 - Annsville Creek - Almost any form of research on the estuary in springtime takes you into a world of vibrant color and sweet sounds. As I waded out to set my river herring nets, I could hear the songs and see the color of orioles, mostly the yellowish-orange of the females, in nearly every tree. Tom Lake

May 8 - Annsville Creek - I had set a pair of river herring research nets out in the creek three hours earlier under a blue sky. Now it was time to go get them before the tide got too deep. Halfway through the first net the sky went black and a cold curtain of rain came across the bay. Within seconds there were pyrotechnics all around and the accompanying booms were following closely. There I was with a net and a half to go, each filled with white perch and white suckers-difficult to extract under the best of circumstances-wondering how long I had to live. I never worry too much about these things; I chalk them up as adventures, Almanac stuff. But this morning I was worried. I gathered everything-nets, fish, anchors-and waded directly to the shore across some muck that was nearly knee-deep. I was 300' from safety..., then 200..., then 100, wondering what it would be like to hear the crack and feel the juice. I plunged headlong into a large stand of phragmites where I waited out the storm for the next twenty minutes. I was soaked, cold, weary, but alive. Tom Lake

May 10 - Croton River - Since November, all daytime low tides at the mouth of the Croton River have been eagerly awaited by the gulls. As soon as the mudflats are exposed, the ring-billed gulls start clamming. By the score they stroll over the flats discerning the presence of the wedge clam - who knows how? Clam in beak they fly over the Croton-Harmon commuter parking lot, dropping the clam to break it on the pavement (and sometimes bombing a vehicle when the lot is crowded). Drop height must be carefully judged; too high and the waiting herring and black-eyed gulls pirate the meat; too low and the clam does not break. By this spring the lot is covered with the crushed shells of many thousands of clams. This morning I watched a mixed flock of killdeer and least sandpipers enjoying a rare favor from their enemies the gulls. They were filling up on crushed shell, calcium that would shortly ais in forming eggshells when they reached their breeding grounds. Christopher LettsFor information on the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas visit on the Inernet: http://www.dec.state.ny.website/dfwmr/wildlife/bba/index.html

Yonkers - We went seining with students from the preschool class from Christ the King School in Yonkers at the Beczak Center beach on the river. Among our catch were sand shrimp, Atlantic blue crabs, young-of-the-year, Atlantic tomcod (30mm), northern pipefish, and a few mud crabs. Salinity was 6.5ppt; water temperature was 63 degrees. David Rosenfeld

May 15 - Dobbs Ferry - Using a thirty-foot seine, we hauled three times in quick succession within fifty feet of the beach. We caught approximately 150 herring. Two of the herring (62 and 64 mm) looked somehow different. They were not the ususla herring we see in the lower Hudson. Jim Capossela, Bob Walters

May 17 - Croton Point - I found a diamondback terrapin hatchling dying on the railroad bed at the Metro North Croton rail yard. At the Croton Point Nature Center we put the tiny turtle in a brackish water tank and, before long, it had revived. Wayne Kocher