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) and is lavishly illustrated by Marlena Marallo. It is available for $10, plus New York State sales tax, and $3.50 for shipping. E-mail address is: Purple@mail.catskill.net

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

July, 1995
July 1, Piermont Marsh - It was new moon plus-4 days. No diamondback terrapins were to be seen. I was assisting the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve in their search for evidence of nesting terrapins. The marsh was 75 degrees at flood slack tide. As the tide began to ebb, I sighted three muskrats in the marsh, swimming slowly in and out of the Phragmites. I thought I heard a king rail, twice. No visual, as would be expected. Although the call was distinctive, there was a chance it might have been a Virginia rail.
Piermont Pier - I found many blue crab moults, half of which were female, along the pier. These may have resulted from the recent new moon. (Blue crabs tend to increase moulting activity during the strong spring tides of new and full moon.) They ranged in size from 1 1/2 inches - 2 1/4 inches carapace width.
I watched some interesting behavior I had never seen before. A hen mallard and her nearly adult-sized brood -- six or seven birds -- were along the south shore under some overhanging trees about halfway along the pier. There was a very stiff breeze from the south creating quite a chop. I thought it was unusual that they would be in near to shore and have to deal with the rollers. They were hungry. The tree was a white mulberry, and the ripe fruit was dropping off in the wind and landing in the water where it was eagerly gobbled up. One of the ducklings stretched up out of the water as far as possible successfully reaching for an overhanging branch and its fruit.
There were many empty wedge rangia (brackish-water clam) valves along the pier. A random sample of 18 had an average valve-height measurement of 39 milimeters, with a range of 22-49 milimeters. The high end of the range approached the maximum for the species. -- Tom Lake

July 7, Croton Point - It was one hour before the ebb slack tide, salinity was 7 ppt, and surface water temperature was 76 degrees. We were at Croton Point to sample the Hudson with a seine to see who was home today. We caught 7 species of fish and 2 crustaceans. We also found bay barnacles, platform mussels, and combo jellies. -- Chris Lake, Tom Lake
Piermont - I observed 15 northern diamondback terrapins, all in one group, on the incoming tide on the north side of the pier. I spotted 10 more on the south side spread out along the edge of the river moving up with the current. Eventually they all ended up together, tide travelers for half a mile around the pier and then back with the ebb tide to the marsh side -- a good life but not without the perils of fishing lines and hooks as they travel around the pier. -- Drew Ciganek

July 13, Tappan Zee - We were aboard the RV Acipenser, searching for juvenile sturgeon. In three 300-foot gill nets we caught 3 bluefish (ca. 2-4 years old), 9 weakfish (ca. 4-5 years old) numerous white perch, and 3 adult alewives (ca. 250 mm TL). Ages were determined through otolith analysis. The largest bluefish had a whole alewife in its gut, albeit chopped in four pieces. The other predators had either nothing or bits of shrimp and unidentified fish remains. It appeared that three of the weakfish (males) were running milt. Did they just come in from spawning? Were they spawning in the Tappan Zee? Unfortunately we didn't see any sturgeon that day. -- Karin Limburg, Nancy Haley

July 16, Verplanck - Following an early and protracted salt front up the Hudson, we sighted a northern diamondback terrapin at Verplanck Point near the striped bass hatchery. -- Bruce Friedman

July 27, Croton Point - We pulled our seine through a mixed bed of submerged aquatic vegetation, primarily water milfoil and wild celery, finding further evidence -- hundreds of young-of-the-year fish -- of an estuary at work: dozens of northern pipefish (35-45 mm), scores of banded killfish (18-30 mm) and striped bass (23-42 mm), and, most unexpectedly, a 28 mm largemouth bass, a stranger to these brackish waters. It was possibly swept river-ward from the nearby Croton River in the recent heavy rains. Amid the comb jellies and bay barnacles, it was indeed an intriguing catch.
With prospects for a hot, dry August and September, this little largemouth may not survive long. Rising salinity and an expected increase in the abundance of small striped bass and bluefish, predation seems certain. But that is the way of an estuary: many are eaten so that many can survive. -- Tom Lake, Chris Lake

July 28, Verplanck - I observed several dozen freshly dead Atlantic tomcod within a 100-foot stretch of the riverside dock. Other than being dead, these fish appeared normal. This might be the mid-summer die-off of tomcod that seems to occur during hot summers. In 20 years of watching the Hudson at this dock, I have never seen a tomcod die-off although they are thought to occur with hotter summers. Surface water temperatures rose to 82-84 degrees for the first time this year during the week prior to seeing the dead fish. This follows the very low rainfall and runoff during the spring and summer of 1995. -- Bruce Friedman