Author: Ben Wurst

Collecting and transferring peregrine falcons to help recovery efforts in West Virginia

By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

In early June, I assisted Kathy Clark, a zoologist with the Endangered and Nongame Species Program to help collect and transfer peregrine falcon nestlings. The nestlings are being collected to help the recovery of peregrines in New River Gorge National River, West Virginia. The goal of the project is to help promote the recovery of peregrine falcons throughout the Appalachian Mountain range.

The project began in 2006. One fledgling that was found on the ground near the Walt Whitman Bridge New Jersey was contributed to the project. Since then, New Jersey has sent over 30 peregrine nestlings to the recovery project. The falcons are raised at a mountain hack site near Beckley, West Virginia inside New River Gorge.

Peregrine falcons are listed as endangered in New Jersey. However, over the past few years the population has done very well. Around 20 pairs occur in the state. In West Virginia, they are very rare. Only one nesting pair was found in 2009.

On Wednesday, nine peregrine nestlings were collected at different locations throughout New Jersey. Coordination of these collections can be dangerous. It also requires a lot a planning and preparation. We have to climb on bridges, ledges, and tall towers and carefully collect the young. ENSP and CWF biologists collected falcons from the Walt Whitman & Burlington-Bristol Bridge, The Hilton in AC, and several old hacking/nesting towers along the Atlantic coast.

The young were transported to Tri-State Bird Rescue in Delaware. From there they were driven by volunteers to West Virginia where they will be placed in the hacking tower.

“Hacking is the process of placing young falcons in a structure and caring for the birds in a manner that minimizes human exposure until they are mature enough to fly,” explained Matt Varner, NPS wildlife biologist. “The artificial aerie or hack box simulates nesting and feeding conditions on steep rock cliffs – prey is dropped into the box through a tube so the birds don’t see or associate people with the food. This cage-like structure protects the birds from predators during the pre-flight period while allowing them to acclimate to and imprint on the Gorge. When they are ready to ‘fledge’ (fly), they are released from the box, but will return for occasional feedings until their hunting skills allow them to survive on their own.” (http://www.nps.gov/neri/naturescience/peregrine.htm)

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• New River Gorge, West Virginia Hacking Program

Eggs will be hatching soon!

By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Osprey pairs are very busy this month. Females are hunkered down in nests while incubating their eggs. They must keep their eggs at a temperature of around 99 degrees Fahrenheit. They must maintain this temperature for over 32 days and up to 43 days! Warm air temperature and normal precipitation are crucial during incubation. If there are periods of extended rain and cool temperatures, then the success rate at raising young decreases.

Eggs are incubated immediately after they are laid. This is referred to as asynchrony. This ensures that during times of low prey availability at least one nestling will survive to fledge or leave the nest. Disturbance is critical to incubating females now. If they must leave the nest, then the eggs are very vulnerable to the suns radiation, cool air temperatures, and predators. Females do 70% of the incubation duties.

While females are sitting there, incubating those eggs, males are mostly on the wing or perched near the nest. They provide almost all of the food to the female. They can fly a few miles from the nest, or only a few hundred feet to find prey (live fish). This is why ospreys nest near water, their source of food. The males ability to provide food to the female is also crucial to the success of the pair at raising young.

The young hatch (in the order that they were laid) and are born semi-altricial, or blind, feathered, and completely helpless. They are totally dependent on their parents to keep them warm and to provide them with food. They need very close parental care during the first week of life. After the first week the nestlings begin to more around more and begin exploring the surroundings in their nest. At three weeks of age (pictured at right) the nestlings can easily walk around the nest and often raise their heads to look around. Their contour (body) feathers and flight feathers begin to emerge from their protective sheaths during this time. The coloration of their feathers (dark brown with a buff feather tip) give them remarkable camouflage in the nest. Their coloration is very close to the nesting material ospreys use which consists of sticks, seaweed, marsh grasses, and human garbage like plastic bags, fishing line, and other trash.

I find a lot of ribbon from Mylar balloons every year. Some nestlings become entangled in the ribbon. If I do not get to the nest in time and remove the ribbon, then some may lose a limb or even die. It is not clear why adult ospreys choose to use fishing line and ribbon as nesting material. It may be because it is fairly common (unfortunately) in marine and estuarine ecosystems.

Keep an eye for hatching to begin two weeks from now. Females will not be sitting as much and they will be more aware of those eggs that are hatching beneath them. In late June and early July, volunteers throughout coastal areas will perform surveys by boat to determine the health of the population. I’ll post more updates soon on this in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, if you’d like to help, participate in coastal clean-ups or if you’re out for a walk or hike, bring a small trash bag and pick up some trash!

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Monitoring Peregrine falcons in New Jersey

By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

On May 13th, I got the chance to visit a peregrine nest site to perform a “nest check.” The purpose of the visit was to count the number of young, determine age and sex, and check for any other issues (like infestations of a wingless parasitic fly).Over the past few years, the wingless flies have caused nests to fail to produce young. Over the winter, we treated gravel at nest sites to help get the parasites in check. I only observed 3 parasites on the nestlings.

There were three nestlings at the nest site. They are approximately 17 – 20 days old. Age can be determined by the size and feather development of the young. Sex can be determined by the size of the nestlings and the length of the culmen (upper mandible or bill). It looked like there were two males and one female.

Most peregrines nesting in New Jersey are resident birds that remain near the nest site throughout the entire year. Peregrine nests, known as an aerie, have a simple depression in a gravel substrate, called a scrape. Peregrines nest in urban areas on buildings, under bridges and on old “hacking” towers along the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey.

The young are totally dependent upon their parents until they are ready to fly in approximately seven weeks after hatching. Upon fledging, or leaving the nest, the young remain dependent, to a degree, on the adults until they master their flight and hunting skills.

You can view the live interactions of a pair of peregrines at a nest site in Jersey City by tuning into our Peregrine Cam. Check it out today!

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Planting Native Shrubs

By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

During Earth Week, I planted dozens of shrubs. Viburnum, bayberry, spirea, clethra, sumac, etc… They were planted inside Bass River State Forest in Bass River Township, Burlington County, NJ at a habitat enhancement site called Ballanger (pronounced Baaa-lan-ger) Creek. The project is being funded by a grant from the U.S. Forest Service through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The project is being managed by CWF and Duffield Associates, a environmental consulting firm that we hired to help us carry out the project.

The shrub planting was the first phase of this enhancement project. Approximately 1,500 shrubs were planted inside a deer exclusion fencing to help protect the shrubs from being browsed. Volunteers from the public, Bass River State Forest, and CWF came out and helped us plant all the shrubs. We had a great turn out for the event and I am thankful for all the help from all the volunteers!

The second phase is the seeding of native wildflowers in an old field. The wildflowers will provide food to bees and butterflies in the form of nectar.

The final phase will be the enhancement of the freshwater wetland edge, where a lot of old fill and debris was dumped before the state acquired the property. The fill will be removed along with some exotic invasive species (Common reed) that have colonized the site. The project will be finalized after we install a series of educational interpretive signs that showcase our work and the site.

• Check out our work by visiting the site today!

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Protecting Terrapins in Little Egg Harbor

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

On April 17th, volunteers helped install 4,000 feet of barrier fencing along Great Bay Blvd. to prevent Northern diamondback terrapins from being struck by motor vehicles. This initiative is similar to those found along other coastal roads in southern New Jersey in Margate, Ocean City, and Stone Harbor.

Terrapin conservation is new to Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ. It was easy to establish a need for the conservation work. Terrapins are listed as a Species of Special Concern in New Jersey. Several scientific studies have documented the threat of motor vehicles to terrapins and their impact on the local population. And it is heart-wrenching to see a large female terrapin that was struck by a motor vehicle.

Terrapins begin nesting activities in mid-late May. In the coming weeks we will be installing more “Terrapin Xing” signs along the road with help from Little Egg Harbor Township. A brochure is in the works and will be finished soon.

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