Notes from the Field: Stripers, river herring & shadbush, about to bloom

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Over the weekend, I needed to get out and ground myself. No better place than nature.

The vernal migration is just about to break open. I captured my first image river herring for the season. The image is just a vague hint of the fish, but I was happy to see them – I knew they were there but in low density.

Here, a creek meets the Hudson. Stripers were chasing river herring into the creek.

A shadbush (Amelanchier canadensis), just about to bloom. The shadbush will bloom along the Hudson this week, and the vernal migration will bust open too.

A fruticose lichen. This lichen is a symbiont. It is a symbiotic relationship of a fungi and an algae.

A tree stump in a creek, providing allochthonous (external) carbon for the creek and the river. Carbon is the foundation of all life, and the carbon incorporated in the tree is being returned to the carbon-based food web. This stump will be broken down to its constituent components by detritivores and returned back to the ecosystem.

If you were to lie on your back underwater in this creek, this is what you would see – a timeless relationship of woods, water and sky. Yup, this is underwater looking up.

Another shadbush, closer to bloom.

I checked on a family of beavers to make sure they were safe, but they were not to be seen. They are apparently not taking any chances and sheltering in place.