Typical indecisive March weather: several days of convincing spring thaw interrupted by a winter relapse. A snowstorm moving up the coast promises to drop a foot of snow overnight. As if that wasn’t enough, a bit of flooding forecast for tonight after midnight: runoff and snowmelt meeting
Read more →With temperatures in the 50s this week, ice is leaving the Esopus Creek. Today, the open water attracted some visitors: a mixed flock of waterfowl numbering in the hundreds. Mostly Canvasbacks and Ring-neck Ducks. Over fifty Green-winged Teals. Two male Buffleheads and one female. Two pairs of
Read more →The distance from the trailhead where I park my car to the front door of the lighthouse is a half mile. How do I get from point A to point B? There a numerous possibilities. For routes, the choices are the trail, the creek, and the cove.
Read more →Today, a most unusual visitor arrived at the lighthouse, and he arrived by mail. In my mailbox was a large brown envelope. I opened it and found Stanley Lambchop inside. The envelope also contained a letter of introduction. The letter was from the second grade class at
Read more →When I left for vacation, ice was just beginning to form in protected coves during cold nights. By the time I returned a week later, after several days and nights of temperatures in the single digits, the river had filled with ice. With the exception of the
Read more →The Christmas cactus in the kitchen window started blooming in mid-November. Today, it dropped the last of its pink blossoms. I suppose that makes it a “Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Years” cactus.
Read more →Early this morning, I emerged groggy-eyed from the lighthouse. I noticed the icicles hanging from the bird-feeder, the result of freezing rain overnight. However, I did not notice the thin coating of ice on the ramp to the dock. I took one step onto the ramp and
Read more →On these unseasonably warm January days, small talk about the weather quickly shifts to big talk about climate change. It’s certainly on my mind as of late. In early December, I attended a conference in Poughkeepsie about the impacts of climate change on the Hudson Valley. Some
Read more →A south wind blew out the fog this morning, wisping through the reeds and trees. When the fog bank cleared, a bald eagle appeared in the treetops. The sun also appeared from behind the clouds. By mid-afternoon, the thermometer outside the kitchen window read 70 degrees. The
Read more →A thick shroud of fog enveloped the lighthouse for most of the day today. Oftentimes, the fog was so dense that I could not even see the other side of the river. The air was completely still, and the surface of the water was mirror smooth. The
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