The autumn migration of Canada geese and brant picked up steam this week along with raptors and vultures. There was also a return of an ocean fish that we had not noticed in the estuary in quite a few years. Twenty-five hauls of our seine netted us American eels, mummichogs, white perch, and bluegills strays from the nearby Saw Mill River.
Invertebrates included blue crabs, comb jellies, shrimp, and a gravid with eggs mud crab. However, the surprise catch was a gorgeous juvenile hickory shad millimeters [mm] long. The river was 63 degrees Fahrenheit and the salinity was Among other field marks, they can be identified by a lower jaw that extends beyond their upper jaw creating a straight profile with their head and dorsal surface.
Within their center of abundance, Chesapeake Bay to the Carolinas, they are anadromous, in that they ascend tidal rivers to spawn in freshwater. Their life history in the Hudson is quite unknown but appears to be connected to population abundance in the Atlantic and subsequent overflow into the estuary.
Their presence is very sporadic. Periods of abundance in the estuary ; ; ; are offset by long stretches of scarcity Occasionally a few adult hickory shad to 20 inches will be found in spring mixed with spawning American shad. More typically, however, they appear in late summer and provide great sportfishing opportunities. Tom Lake. However, the warm river 66 degrees F gave us still more ocean-bound young-of -the-year [YOY] fishes, including blueback herring mm and striped bass mm.
Mixed in were a few striped bass that were yearlings or very early spring hatches mm. Black vulture numbers reached a season high 9. Non-raptor observations included monarchs 2. A belted kingfisher was also visible on the telephone lines. This section of the Battenkill has become quite the birding hotspot. They breed in Arctic tundra pools and marshes, and in large mountain lakes; they winter along the east coast of North America and on the Great Lakes. The former common name for long-tailed duck was oldsquaw.
