In fall, these birds leave Canada in high-flying skeins that seldom touch down here as they hurry south and east to coastal marshes from Jamaica Bay to the Carolinas. Rafts of several thousand snow and Canada geese can be seen mixed in with smaller groups of hooded mergansers, scaup, wood ducks, pintails, and grebes. We have had at least two harbor seals in the river this winter and that number may increase during late March and early April as the river begins to fill with migrating herring. The seals' presence in the tidal Hudson has increased over the last few years, though many naturalists believe that we're simply taking better notice. They can be spotted hauled out on docks, rocks, and jetties at low tide.
Harbor seals are marine mammals and, as such, are federally protected.
Many of these birds have flown long distances and are low on fuel and short on patience. One moment your feeder will be the idyllic scene you've watched all winter, with titmice, goldfinches, and downy woodpeckers. If you walk along the river or tidewater creeks at evening or dawn, you can often see large flocks of these noisy blackbirds as they enter or leave their migratory night roosts. Striped bass will begin to stir this month. Those that wintered in the broad shallows of the Tappan Zee will take bait, even lures.