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.

August, 1995
August 1 - Furnace Brook - Right on schedule, the first katydid serenade of the year rolled through the window tonight. -- Christopher Letts
Croton Point - We worked our seine along the beach today, checking to see who was home. Large schools of Atlantic needlefish, all about 2" long, scurried about on top in advance of our net. These slender fish are rarely captured; they slip through the mesh occasionally getting caught when their amply-toothed jaws snag on the twine. We moved through the beds of pondweed, water milfoil, and wild celery. From these sheltered areas we captured, documented, and released northern pipefish, white perch, young-of-the-year striped bass, hogchoker, grass shrimp, blue crabs, and mud crabs. In open water with sandy bottom, we captured bay anchovies, Atlantic silversides, and comb jellies usually found in pelagic waters. The water surrounding Croton Point was a rich mahogany-brown color. A phytoplankton bloom? In the hour before ebb slack tide the salinity on the north side was 8.4 ppt; water temperature was 83 degrees. Salinity on the south side was 9.8 ppt; water temperature was 81 degrees. -- Tom Lake, Chris Lake
Nyack - Interesting bycatch species often show up in our commercial pots, intended for blue crabs. I found a 7 3/4" oyster toadfish and a 6 1/4" scup (porgy) in the pots today. Both of these fish are more apt to be found in saltier ocean waters. -- Robert Gabrielson
Tappan Zee - It appeared that the entire Tappan Zee and most of Haverstraw Bay was tea-colored from the "mahogany-tide," first observed July 30 from the Tarrytown Lighthouse in North Tarrytown. -- Christopher Letts

August 7 - Foundry Cove - We have seen some interesting birds this season at Foundry Cove. Among those regularly sighted during the first week of August were: peregrine falcon (1), black-crowned night heron (1), snowy egret (5), and little blue heron (4). -- Eric Lind

August 10 - Croton Marsh - From the Metro North train I saw a great egret in the marsh inside the trestle, as well as two smaller white egrets. Snowy egrets? Immature little blue herons? -- Ann Joseph

August 11 - Croton Point - The mahogany tide persisted. It was now more the color of weak tea. Crabbers and fishermen along the sea wall were having no luck with blue crabs, white perch and other species. Have they been displaced? Water temperature at both the north and south sides was 83 degrees; salinity was 8.8 ppt.
We hauled a seine through the shallows at half ebb tide. After going a hundred feet, we turned to beach the seine and soon discovered that two of us could not haul it onto the sand. It felt as though we had picked up a load of bricks. With additional assistance, three of us were barely able to beach the net. We pushed and tugged and pulled and finally opened the net. Like thousands of transparent pearls, the wings of the seine were coated with comb jellies. The bag of the seine was overflowing with thousands more, many more than we would normally see in an entire summer. -- Frank Hull, Bill Sparks, Tom Lake

August 14 - Croton Point - The color of the water there was relatively normal, indicating that the mahogany tide may have died off or been flushed. The density of the comb jellies had diminished. -- Tom Lake, Christopher Letts

August 15 - Nyack - We had an interesting encounter during our Hudson River young-of-the-year striped bass survey for the NYSDEC Division of Marine Resources. We were hauling a seine just off Peterson's Marina at 12:22 p.m., when we noticed something in the river beyond the net. At first glance we thought it was a dog. Then we joked that it was "Chessie," the manatee that was swimming in Long Island Sound at the time. It started following the seine as we pulled it in, but took off when one of the crew went to the boat to take a picture. It was a harbor seal! We were halfway through the flood tide, water temperature was 82.4 degrees and salinity was 7.0 ppt. -- Kim McKown

August 16 - Verplanck - The inshore waters, seen over the white limestone beach at White Beach, appeared green today with the low turbidity. In 20 years of watching the Hudson at this point, it had always been brown. I had never before seen the green of phyloplnkton here. This follows a summer of very low runoff and atypically low turbidity in the river. -- Bruce Friedman

August 22 - Nyack Beach State Park - At 5:30 p.m. (half flood tide) I spotted a dark-colored seal (harbor seal?) swimming offshore under Hook Mountain. The seal surfaced every few minutes. At one point it came within 15' of shore. -- Patrick Parieth
Piermont Pier - In the aftermath of Hurricane Felix, I observed a northern phalarope for three days. On each occasion I was able to view it from less than 10' away from my boat, in its winter plumage and feeding from an overflow pipe at the end of the pier. -- Drew Ciganek

August 23 - Pocantico Hills - Broad-wing hawks on the move? I saw four in the air today, circling in the thermals. A kettle? Not exactly; more like a small pot. -- Christopher Letts

August 26 - Yonkers - Water temperature was 77¼F; salinity was 16.4 ppt. There had been no rain in three weeks, the river was showing the effects. It was badly in need of flushing. Foe most of the summer it had been like a big pot of salty soup simmering on the stove. -- Tom Lake

August 31 - This has been the driest August in recorded history: 0.16 inches of precipitation -- 26 days without rain. -- The National Weather Service.