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 III. Each month, we'll be adding another excerpt from the book that corresponds to the current month.

November 1996
November 1 - Croton Point - Winter duck numbers changed overnight. A dozen buffleheads, mostly males, brightened the dark morning on the south side of the Point. In Croton Bay to the south, ruddy duck numbers have increased to over a hundred, and lesser scaup, common mergansers, and many buffleheads mingled with the ruddys. Christopher Letts

November 2 - Ruth Greenwood, Barbara Michelin, and ten other birders from the R.T. Waterman Bird Club reported two black vultures soaring over the Constitution Marsh Sanctuary. A while later they spotted five more at Little Stony Point, soaring over Breakneck Ridge.

The Hudson River
I like the Hudson River
It's mostly nice and clean,
I will not take the fish
That would be so mean
I don't like it when it's polluted
It's not very nice
I'm not at all surprised
That there are no mice
Kasi Kiernan - 5th Grade, Robert Graves Elementary, Port Ewen

November 4 - Croton Point - Birds were everywhere this morning. Every thicket and grove was loaded with mobs of robins and flocks of cedar waxwings (about 200). Fruit of the day seemed to be the bush honeysuckle. Rafted on the south side of the Point were 150 ruddy ducks and 100 lesser scaup, along with 50 buffleheads scattered around the entire peninsula and three common goldeneye -- the first I had seen this year. Bluebirds sweetened the air with song. Christopher Letts

November 7 - Croton Point - It was a spectacular end to the autumn seining season. We pulled our net through remnant beds of water milfoil and it paid off. Halfway back to the beach we thought we had caught an Amtrak express heading upriver. It was a 30 pound carp, 3' long, surging back and forth in the belly of the seine. The big fish created pandemonium in the net and then among the children when we beached it. It was the largest carp we had ever caught, among the largest we have ever seen, and almost as big as some of the third-graders. The students cheered when it surged away after being eased back into the river. Water was 55 degrees F; salinity was disappearing at 1.5 ppt. Christopher Letts, Tom Lake

November 8 - Croton Point - It was balmy and mild. Some spring peepers sang with gusto along the edge of the old clay pits, and crickets, even a katydid, made it seem more like August than November. The number of winter birds was increasing daily, and summer birds were correspondingly decreasing. About 500 red-wing blackbirds went through this morning, and another 200 cedar waxwings. The waxwings festooned the bittersweet and poison ivy vines hanging from the tall trees, and were stripping the fruit from multiflora rose and hackberry trees. Downy woodpeckers had begun to feed in the reeds. (I see them only when foliage has died back.) It was strange to see them tap-tapping away at the slender stems. Wave after wave of birds leaving the Point for the Rockland County shores had me thinking in terms of a giant funnel, with Croton Point as the tip and the sides of the funnel reaching all the way up the east bank of the Hudson, far out to the coast, and up into New England. Spring and fall, we enjoy a wonderful largesse of migrants. Christopher Letts

November 22 - Sleepy Hollow - A single snow bunting blew across the windswept parking lot and the Tappan Zee was covered with whitecaps. Snug in the North Tarrytown Lighthouse at Kingsland Point I watched a 24' aluminum boat plow through the waves. As it passed I could see two men and a heavy load of rectangular fish traps stacked high from bow to stern. I recall seeing this vessel just before Thanksgiving for the past two years, hauling strings of what I take to be eel pots. Then, as today, they had the entire river to themselves. Christopher Letts

November 28 - Sleepy Hollow - It was the 8th annual Thanksgiving Day program at the Tarrytown Lighthouse. We gave thanks, all one hundred thirty of us, for this chance to trade bowl games and overeating for a pleasant hour at this snug little beacon in the Tappan Zee. Bitter cold and a mean wind off the river were forgotten in the glow of the driftwood-fired stove. A cup of hot cider flavored with sassafras provided the opportunity to toast the day and the river. Christopher Letts, Andra Sramek, Tom Lake