Southern New England Coastal Plains and Hills

Mean daily high over the past 30 days was 74.3°F, 0.8°F below normal; mean daily low was 62.3°F, 1.6°F above normal. Overnight temperatures have been warmer than typical for this time of year despite slightly cooler daytime highs.

Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), an introduced species, was observed 2026-09-23 in Central Park. This invasive crayfish can outcompete native crayfishes and alter freshwater benthic communities by burrowing and bioturbating sediments.

Summer Flier Sedges (Limnephilus), a genus in family Limnephilidae, was observed 2026-10-02 in the upper Nyack area. Caddisfly larvae require clean, well-oxygenated flowing water and are standard indicators of water quality, suggesting localized habitat conditions in that reach support sensitive aquatic life.

Monarchs recorded 195 times in the past 60 days with the most recent observation on 2026-10-02. The migratory population is currently passing through the region during its fall migration toward Mexico, with peak activity in New Jersey expected around October 4. Though the species was proposed for threatened listing, it remains unprotected federally, with population recovery dependent on preserving milkweed and reducing pesticide exposure along the migration route.

Spotted lanternfly recorded 196 times in the past 30 days, with sightings on 2026-10-03 in New York and New Jersey. A mild winter allowed overwintered eggs to survive, raising concerns of a population surge into the millions across New York City this year. With few natural predators and abundant food sources like tree of heaven, the invasive species poses risks to crops and native vegetation.

Chimney Swifts reached 30 individuals recorded together at Inwood Hill Park on October 2, still within the Northeast region's typical early October departure window before heading to South America. These swifts gather by the hundreds during fall migration to roost communally in chimneys, building fat reserves at stopover sites before their long journey south.

Six Buff-breasted Sandpipers were on the ground along Reservoir Avenue at Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx on August 31, at the end of a stretch that also put American Golden-Plover, Baird's Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper and Stilt Sandpiper at the same reservoir between the 21st and the 31st. All of them breed in the Arctic and all of them are headed south. The Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis) is the odd one in that company, because it is a shorebird that does not want the shore. It avoids wet ground. Instead of probing soft mud the way Lesser Yellowlegs work a lake edge, it hunts by eye on bare, dry, short ground: stand still, watch, then a quick run forward to snatch an insect off the surface. A mown, open reservoir perimeter is exactly the kind of surface that suits it. That preference holds at both ends of its year. It nests on high Arctic tundra and winters on the grasslands of the Argentine pampas, and it is a lek breeder, though a loose and flexible one by the standards of birds that lek, with males gathering to display rather than pairing off on defended territories. If one is on the ground in front of you, it reads warm and evenly buff all over, plainer and softer than the crisply patterned juvenile Baird's Sandpiper that may be standing a few feet away. It is a bird built for dry grass, passing through a city on its way from one end of the hemisphere to the other.

The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, one of the largest permitted wastewater dischargers into the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary, is currently listed by EPA in Significant Non-Compliance with its Clean Water Act permit. That designation is not triggered by an isolated exceedance; it is reserved for violations sustained or serious enough to warrant priority enforcement, meaning the problem has persisted across multiple reporting periods rather than showing up as a one-time slip. The finding sits oddly against what has been showing up in the same estuary system this month. A Comet Darner was seen along the water's edge on July 14, a dragonfly whose nymphs spend months submerged in the water column and are notoriously intolerant of poor water quality. Golden Northern Bumble Bees have also been reported along the Brooklyn waterfront through late July, though their presence reflects shoreline flowering habitat rather than anything about water chemistry offshore. None of this means the two facts cancel each other out. A shared estuary system, fed by the Passaic, Hackensack, and Hudson watersheds before reaching the East River and Brooklyn waterfront corridor, is large and hydrologically complex enough to carry a major permit holder in sustained non-compliance in one arm while still supporting water-quality-sensitive insects somewhere else along its edge. A compliance listing by itself says nothing about dissolved oxygen or contaminant levels at a specific downstream point like the Brooklyn shoreline; that would require dedicated water-quality sampling, not just a permit status. What happens next is the more interesting question. Whether this pattern draws attention from agencies like NYC DEP or from watershed groups already active in the harbor, several of which track exactly this kind of downstream link between permitted discharges and biological indicators, is worth following as the season continues.

Golden Northern Bumble Bees (Bombus fervidus) have appeared 19 times along the Brooklyn waterfront over the past six months — Navy Yard, DUMBO, the East River Esplanade — with sightings still arriving this week. iNaturalist flags this species as threatened, and it has declined sharply across the northeastern United States, making a sustained urban cluster worth noting. The likely driver is a patchwork of community gardens and park plantings now in peak bloom. Late-season nectar from swamp milkweed and coastal plain Joe-Pye weed gives colonies the fuel to raise new queens before autumn. Bumble bees are among the few insects capable of buzz pollination — vibrating their flight muscles to shake loose pollen other bees can't reach — making them disproportionately important for native plant reproduction. Small habitat patches in cities are doing more ecological work than their footprint suggests.

Comet Darner (Anax longipes) — North America's largest darner — turned up in the park on July 14, perched along the water's edge in the midday heat. These elegant, long-bodied insects are indicators of clean, healthy aquatic ecosystems; their nymphs, which spend months underwater, cannot tolerate pollution. What makes this sighting worth noting is the landscape context. All 23 waterbodies assessed within eight miles of here carry federal impairment designations — meaning they are officially deemed too contaminated for their intended uses. Yet this threatened species still holds on in the green corridors threading the watershed, a testament both to the resilience of good habitat and the precariousness of what remains. The parks that shelter this darner are refuges in an increasingly compromised system.