Meet the Seasonal Field Team Protecting New Jersey’s Beach and Marsh Nesting Birds

Every spring and summer, CWF’s staff swells as we hire seasonal field technicians to assist with our biological monitoring and conservation management. Nowhere is that more evident than on the beach nesting bird project.

This year we hired four technicians for the monitoring we conduct on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Holgate and Little Beach Units of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, as well as for colonial nesters at Horseshoe Island in partnership with New Jersey Fish and Wildlife (NJFW). In a new twist, we split one seasonal staff member between the Forsythe crew and to assist with surveys of American oystercatchers nesting in the nearby marshes of Great Bay and southern Barnegat Bay. And finally, we hired one seasonal technician to help monitor American oystercatchers nesting along the Delaware Bayshore. They worked under the combined guidance of our biologists Todd Pover and Emmy Casper. 

The “Forsythe Four” consisted of Audrey Randazzo, Kaiulani Sund, Star Schaeffer, and Lina White. Audrey served as crew leader, her second year in that role, and fourth year on the project overall. Kaiulani was also a returnee, coming back for her third year. Both Star and Lina were first timers to the project, but were quick leaners, which was needed as this crew had to keep tabs on 30 pairs of piping plovers, 70 pairs of American oystercatchers, and several thousand colonial nesting birds at their combined sites. 

Meredith Wray was our “utility” person this year, bouncing between the Forsythe project and our new marsh nesting oystercatcher project, as well as assisting with public outreach and communication. She came to CWF after working several years as a field technician for NJFW on their beach nesting bird program. Her previous experience was especially important as she had to plug in and out of the CWF different projects.

Over on the Delaware Bayshore, Richard Strittmatter was our seasonal charged with tracking nesting oystercatchers. Richard also had a NJFW connection, he has monitored wild turkey populations for the state. No stranger to the Delaware  Bay, Richard also spent several years with the American Littoral Society, where he helped lead horseshoe crab conservation and tagging projects.  

This team has been busy tracking nesting birds – piping plovers, black skimmers, least terns, common terns, royal terns, and American oystercatchers – since April and will finally begin to wind down their field efforts in August. With their end dates for the season approaching, CWF wants to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and passion. It is no exaggeration to say that CWF’s beach and marsh nesting monitoring projects would not have been possible this year without them!