Author: Ben Wurst

For more than two decades, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF) has worked in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program to monitor and manage the state’s osprey population. Through decades of conservation, habitat protection, nest platform installation/maintenance, and monitoring, ospreys have made a remarkable comeback. In January 2025, their conservation status was upgraded to stable.

But recovery of a species does not guarantee the long-term health of the ecosystem that supports it.

For the past several years, we have observed increasingly widespread signs of food stress among New Jersey’s coastal nesting ospreys. Their declining reproductive success raises questions about the availability of prey in the nearshore waters where they hunt, including Atlantic menhaden, one of the most important forage fish in the marine food web.

At next month’s annual meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will consider the coastwide Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for Atlantic menhaden for 2027–2028. These findings deserve serious consideration, as the decisions made could affect not only ospreys, but also other species that are less visible or more difficult to study. Ospreys serve as vital bioindicators of ecosystem health.

There is still time to submit a public comment and voice your concern for ospreys and abundant forage fish that they depend on.

Continue reading “Speak Up for New Jersey’s Ospreys”

My summer has been filled with death and despair.

Every. Single. Day. I have seen or heard about osprey pairs that lost young to starvation. I now carry their stories with me, hoping that somehow they will be okay.

It is not okay.

Ospreys are now in decline in New Jersey. Their remarkable recovery, made possible by reducing pollution, protecting nesting habitat, and conserving our natural resources, is now in jeopardy. We are not alone. At nests all along the mid-Atlantic coast, ospreys are no longer producing enough young to sustain the statewide population, largely because of the scarcity of their primary prey: Atlantic menhaden.

 

Continue reading “My Summer of Death and Despair”

This spring, we have been conducting osprey nest surveys to better understand nesting outcomes across New Jersey’s coast. These surveys are focused on coastal colonies, where signs of food stress have become increasingly evident in recent years due to the scarcity of Atlantic menhaden, the primary prey of nesting ospreys.

Continue reading “Photo from the Field: Signs of Food Stress”

The 2025 nesting season for ospreys in New Jersey began as others. Breeding adults returned to their nests in March and April, pairs reunited, and nesting activity got underway on schedule. But as the season progressed, it became clear that this year would be anything but typical.

A nor’easter in late May marked a turning point. Lasting nearly three days, the storm brought strong winds, heavy rain, and coastal flooding. Conditions that made it extremely difficult for ospreys to find food. As observed in previous years, these types of storms are known to disrupt foraging in the ocean, and in many cases, lead to brood reduction or nest abandonment. However, weather alone does not explain what we observed.

Continue reading “2025: A Year of Challenges for Coastal Nesting Ospreys”

Each spring, wildlife enthusiasts across New Jersey — and beyond — tune in to watch one of the state’s most exciting conservation success stories unfold in real time: the Union County Falcon Cam. This season, viewers witnessed an unusual change when the nesting female was replaced mid-season. What makes this especially remarkable is that the new female is now incubating the five eggs laid by the previous female.

Hosted by the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey in partnership with Union County, the Falcon Cam offers a live look at a nesting pair of peregrine falcons as they court, lay eggs, and raise their young.

Continue reading “An Unusual Season for Union County’s Falcons”

In late March, I set out to repair an osprey nest platform on Barnegat Bay — one I had scouted during the winter while hiking trails in Eno’s Pond County Park. I recently learned that this platform has been in place since at least 2012, when a viewing blind once stood nearby, though it was reportedly destroyed during Superstorm Sandy. Continue reading “Photo from the Field: A Setback That Sparked Renewed Determination”

Just yesterday, as February comes to a close, I saw my first pair of American oystercatchers on breeding territory on Long Beach Island. The first piping plover of the season will likely be sighted in New Jersey sometime next week or so. Still, as we remain in the midst of one of the harshest and snowiest winters in a long time here on the New Jersey coast, it’s hard to believe that CWF staff will be back out at Horseshoe Island in just over a month to start biological monitoring for the 2026 beach nesting bird season.

Continue reading “Gearing Up for Year 5 of Bird Monitoring at Horseshoe Island”

As I finalize our annual report summarizing last year’s data, I often find myself looking back to reflect and compare trends over time. I’ve worked with ospreys long enough to have witnessed their population in New Jersey more than double. Their recovery has long been a clear sign of improving ecological health in our coastal waters.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Seasons: Ospreys and Menhaden on the Mullica River”

During our osprey nest surveys we are always looking for auxiliary banded birds. Last summer over 40 red banded ospreys were re-sighted, which is the most ever encountered in a single year. The majority were breeding birds, photographed on their nests and others were photographed in flight or perched, often with prey. Some were even re-sighted several times throughout the year.

Continue reading “Photo from the Field: Osprey 04/M”