Keeper’s Logbook

Rainy afternoon. I was making a sandwich when the phone rang. It was Michelle. “Are you doing anything right now?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“Could you give us a tow?” She explained that she was on the river sailing with Jerome, and he couldn’t get the motor started, and she was going to be late for an appointment.
“No problem.” I hung up the phone and put on my rain-jacket. I went out to the dock and started the motor on ‘Lue, the sailboat. (’Lue used by Blue, but now the motor mount covers the B.) As I cast off the dock lines, I looked out onto the river. Through the driving rain, I could see Jerome’s Leda. They made it this far under sail, but they’d need a tow to get back to the Marina a mile up the creek. I motored beside them, and they tossed me their bow line. “Always an adventure, eh, Tom Sawyer?” I shouted to Jerome.
“Sure thing, Huck.”
I tied their bow line off to my stern and gradually turned up the throttle on the motor. As I towed the boat up the creek, Jerome stood at the bow of his boat and explained to me how his fuel line got clogged again. Last week, he borrowed a fuel strainer from me to strain out particles from his fuel tank. I guess he didn’t get all of them out. As we passed by the marina, I let loose their bow line. They coasted into their dock as I motored away and headed back to the lighthouse.

Why do fireflies flash?

At dusk, the trail to the lighthouse turns into a corridor of flashing light as fireflies emerge for their nightly mating ritual. The fireflies are so numerous that they illuminate the footpath on a moonless night. The flashing light is the firefly’s way of attracting a mate. For many species of firefly, the males emit a unique flash patterns to court females of the same species.

This is not unlike the characteristic flash pattern of beacons for aids to navigation on waterways. To help sailors tell beacons apart from one another at distance in the dark, each individual lighthouse or buoy is distinguished from those around it by the rhythm of its flashing and the color of light. For instance, the Saugerties Lighthouse has a white light that flashes off every 4 seconds.

Danielle stopped by the lighthouse this morning on her way across the river in a kayak. Last night, she paddled from Tivoli to Saugerties to see our mutual friend Jill Stevenson perform music at a local establishment. The show ended late, so Danielle stayed over with a friend in Saugerties. On her return trip to Tivoli this morning, she passed by the lighthouse. I offered her a cup of coffee, so she paddled to the dock and climbed out of her kayak. We enjoyed the cool of the morning and a bit of conversation with our coffee before she continued on her way home. Danielle’s car is out of commission, so she’s making use of alternative modes of transportation. Regular ferry service used to connect Saugerties and Tivoli until bridges were built at Catskill and Kingston in the first half of the 20th century. However, crossing the bridges is the long way around to travel between these two towns on opposite banks of the river. Now, a few pioneering kayakers like Danielle are reviving the maritime connection between these two riverside towns, leaving their cars behind at the water’s edge.

Consult tide table to avoid tidal flooding. Tidal portions of trail may be wet or damp after high tide. Sharp water chestnuts pose a hazard to bare feet.

The mulberry tree started dropping ripe purple berries around June 15th. In years past, the tree shed berries until late July/early August. If you like mulberries, come and get ‘em.

Less than three miles downstream of the lighthouse, along the creek feeding Tivoli Bays, an invasive species of crab was spotted. The presence of the Chinese mitten crab in the Hudson River Estuary is alarming because of the potential for the crab to disrupt the ecosystem and displace native species.

Excerpted from the Hudson River Almanac:

6/3 - Saw Kill, HRM 98.5: At the fish ladder on the Saw Kill I spotted
several small eels in the holding tank. I drained the tank and removed
the four eels. Then I noticed something hiding under the drain plug on
the side of the tank. A little prodding produced a small (21.0 mm
carapace width) female Chinese mitten crab. This eel ladder is on the
first dam of the Saw Kill on the Bard College campus and is located
upstream of a substantial waterfall. It looks like mitten crabs can
overcome such obstacles.
- Bob Schmidt

[The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is native to the
estuaries of China where it is highly regarded in the market. Mitten
crabs are catadromous, meaning that they spend much of their life in
freshwater, then return to higher salinities in the lower estuary (15-20
parts-per-thousand salt) to reproduce. The salinity gradients of east
coast estuarine systems like the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and the
Hudson River are nearly ideal for them. Adult mitten crabs have a
carapace width of about 3″, but 6 of its 8 legs are almost twice as
long, giving them an almost “spider crab” look. Unlike the native blue
crab, a swimming crab, mitten crabs are burrowing crabs, similar to our
mud crabs only many times larger. Visit the DEC website at
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/35888.html for more information.

If you catch a Chinese mitten crab, do not release it back to the
water. Keep it and freeze it (preserve in alcohol if you can’t freeze
it). Note date and location caught (GPS coordinates preferred but
pinpointed on a map is acceptable) and how you caught it. If possible,
take close-up photos, top and bottom views. You may e-mail photo to
SERCMittenCrab@si.edu for identification.

The Mitten Crab Network, a partnership among several state, federal and
research organizations, is collecting data to determine the status,
abundance and distribution of this species. DEC’s Division of Fish,
Wildlife and Marine Resources has agreed to collect and hold specimens
for genetics testing to determine the origin of individuals caught in
the Hudson River. DEC is seeking the public’s assistance in collecting
any specimens that may exist in NY. Persons collecting and holding
chinese mitten crabs for the sole purpose of turning the crab over to
DEC must, within 48 hours of collecting the animal, contact one
following individuals:

Long Island Sound, New York Harbor and Hudson River below George
Washington Bridge: Kim McKown, NYS DEC Division of Fish Wildlife and
Marine Resources Crustacean Unit, 631-444-0454

Hudson River above George Washington Bridge: Mark Dufour, NYS Division
of Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources Hudson River Fisheries Unit,
845-256-3171 or 845-256-3071; Hudson River Estuary Research Reserve,
845-889-4745 or e-mail r3hrf@gw.dec.state.ny.us ]

Water temp: 73 degrees Fahrenheit at 4 PM today. Three swims today–morning, afternoon, and night.

Water temperature: 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of the house guests said he saw a bear on the trail when he looked out the bedroom window this morning. He thought it might be a big dog at first until it stood up on its hind legs. I thought the same thing until I identified bear tracks in the wet sand on the trail in front of the lighthouse near the dock. Later, someone knocked at the door to report seeing the bear near the start of the trail. It was the wildlife photographer who visits regularly to photograph birds. He was so excited when he saw the bear that he forgot to take a picture. I received an email message from Lauren and Tim, residents of Malden, the hamlet north of the lighthouse. While visiting the lighthouse yesterday, they spotted a bear on the shoreline across the creek between the jetty and the long dock. They reported seeing the same or similiar bear this morning walking through their back yard in Malden.

The trail crew straightened out the boardwalk which had been askew from flooding last month. The trail may be damp in places from recent thundershowers and daily tides. Although it may be tempting to walk barefoot in the sand, it is not advisable because of the sharp water-chestnut seeds on the trail that float in on the tide.