Category: American oystercatcher

by Liz Silvernail, Executive Director

New friends and familiar faces gathered at the Cape May Point Science Center (CMPSC) earlier this month to learn about our American oystercatcher project in Delaware Bay, while enjoying a stunning exhibition of wildlife watercolors by artist James Fiorentino. Guests were warmly welcomed by the staff of Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) and CMPSC, and they enjoyed beautiful weather, delicious food, and engaging conversations. Each visitor received a complimentary set of twenty-five wildlife trading cards, showcasing Fiorentino’s realistic paintings of at-risk species alongside informative descriptions. These cards can be purchased at Wildlife Trading Cards / Rare Wildlife Revealed Collection | Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ.

A special thank you goes to the Cape May Point Science Center, James Fiorentino, and our event sponsors, Pure Insurance and the Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation.

The Cape May Point Science Center is a valued supporter of CWF’s American oystercatcher monitoring on the Delaware Bay and has provided funding for five GPS transmitters to study oystercatcher movements and habitat use. Thanks to this partnership, CWF and our colleagues at the Wetlands Institute deployed transmitters on two Delaware Bay oystercatchers this past season, marking the first time these birds have been geo-tagged in New Jersey. During the event, CWF biologist Emmy Casper highlighted this collaboration and shared initial movement data collected from the tagged birds.

CWF’s partnership with James began in 2016 with the successful “Rare Wildlife Revealed: The James Fiorentino Traveling Art Exhibition,” which featured twenty-five original watercolor paintings of some of New Jersey’s most endangered and vulnerable wildlife species. This exhibition captivated thousands at various venues, from museums and universities to breweries and ballparks.

James Fiorentino’s evocative artwork inspires viewers through lifelike depictions of rare wildlife in their natural habitats. His watercolor paintings truly bring these species to life on paper, educating and engaging the public about the significant declines many of them face. By highlighting these charismatic yet often-overlooked animals, our partnership aims to raise awareness about actionable steps individuals can take to support wildlife conservation.

The new wildlife trading card set represents the next phase of our collaboration with James to promote wildlife conservation through art. While James has previously created top-selling sports trading cards for brands like Topps and Upper Deck, this marks his first foray into wildlife art on trading cards. This exciting project merges his artistic talent with educational outreach, furthering our efforts to raise awareness and support for the vulnerable species that CWF is dedicated to protecting.

Stay tuned for future exhibitions featuring James Fiorentino’s wildlife watercolors and the new wildlife trading card set!

 

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is pleased to announce that it was recently awarded two grants by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through its Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund (DWCF). The multi-year grants are Assessing American Oystercatchers to Inform Management and Restoration Strategies and Rare Turtle Research and Monitoring in the Southern Delaware River Basin.

The new American oystercatcher grant is a continuation of a similar current DWCF grant, the added years will allow for more comprehensive research and monitoring of oystercatchers on New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore to help us determine long-term breeding trends. We will also continue to assess oystercatcher habitat use, including the development of Best Management Practices to facilitate habitat restoration on the Bayshore. New research under the expanded funding includes foraging and chick provisioning studies, as well as more banding and use of GPS transmitters to enhance tracking of oystercatcher movements within the Bayshore and beyond.

The turtle grant will allow for trapping, and telemetry surveys for bog and spotted turtles to be conducted at understudied and historically occupied New Jersey focal sites in the southern Delaware River basin. This project aims to provide the state with updated population demographics and landscape data for the region, in particular to direct and expedite future restoration and management activities. Restoration can then proceed at the highest priority sites to ensure inhabited wetlands retain all the landscape features necessary to sustain rare turtle populations.

The DWCF, created in 2018, is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to achieve the goals of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act. The Act guides and supports federal, state, regional, and local partners to collaboratively identify, prioritize, and implement habitat restoration and conservation activities within the watershed.

by Emmy Casper, Wildlife Biologist

Wildlife telemetry is a growing technological tool that uses tracking devices to help answer questions about animal movement patterns. For highly mobile and migratory species like shorebirds, telemetry is especially useful because it offers an opportunity to model migration routes, identify important staging or foraging sites, and learn about bird behavior. Since beginning a comprehensive American oystercatcher monitoring and banding program on the Delaware Bay in 2022, CWF and our partners have set out to learn as much as we can how oystercatchers move around the Bayshore and beyond so that we can apply this knowledge to management decisions. By banding oystercatcher adults and chicks over the last two seasons, we have been able to gain a basic understanding of oystercatcher movements around the Bayshore as well as some of their staging and wintering locations. However, there is only so much we can learn through band resights alone. For that reason, we were very excited to partner with The Wetlands Institute (TWI), Cape May Point Science Center (CMPSC), and Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT) this past season to pioneer telemetry research for oystercatchers on the Bay.

Step 1: Choosing a Telemetry Method

Generally, wildlife telemetry can be divided into two camps: radio and GPS. Radio-tags work by emitting radio frequencies that are detected by radio towers or hand-held receiver devices when the tagged animal is within the detection range. Each transmitter emits a unique signal which allows the biologists to identify individuals. One big limitation of radio telemetry is that tags will only ping when in range of a radio tower (e.g., Motus towers) or handheld receiver, which means it relies on a widespread network of radio towers and/or biologists collecting data in the field. GPS telemetry, on the other hand, works by using satellite signals to pinpoint an individual’s exact location in real-time, similar to the way your cell phone locates your location on a navigation app. The units can store location data and then transfer information wirelessly through cellular networks right to an online portal on a phone or computer. Since this type of tracking does not require local radio towers, it can collect location data anywhere and at any time, which allows biologists to track both fine-scale and large-scale movement patterns. However, GPS transmitters are typically much heavier and more expensive than their radio-tag counterparts, which means this type of telemetry is limited by focal species and budget. While both methods have their advantages, we consulted with CTT to choose GPS units for our oystercatchers, and CMPSC generously provided the funding to purchase five transmitters for the Delaware Bay Oystercatcher project.

Step 2: Deploying the Transmitters

Once we chose the transmitter type, we had to design an attachment method. To our knowledge this is the first time GPS units have been deployed on oystercatchers in New Jersey, so we relied on the expertise of our colleagues working with oystercatchers in other states as well as CTT’s experts. In the end, we decided to use a “leg-loop harness” design based on recommendations from the American Oystercatcher Working Group. This method involves equipping the bird with a custom harness that fits close to its body, around its legs. The transmitter unit rests on the bird’s back so that the solar panels that power the battery are exposed to the sun. Fitting the harness is very precise work, and extra care is taken to make sure the harness is balanced and appropriately snug. Once deployed, the harness remains attached to the bird for the remainder of its life, although every effort is made to recapture the birds and remove transmitters that no longer function.

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Oystercatchers are relatively large shorebirds, but we were not prepared for how challenging it was to find heavy birds on the Delaware Bay!

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As you may expect, transmitter weight is a limiting factor when it comes to deploying units on lightweight animals like birds. The last thing we want to do is negatively impact the bird’s health and ability to fly. To prevent negative impacts to the birds, the combined weight of the harness and transmitter must not exceed 3% of the oystercatcher’s body weight. Since our set-ups were on the heavier side, averaging around 12-13 grams, we had to find oystercatchers heavy enough to carry them. Oystercatchers are relatively large shorebirds, but we were not prepared for how challenging it was to find heavy birds on the Delaware Bay! We captured around ten adults during the 2024 season, but only two birds met the mass criteria and were able to safely carry tracking units.

Step 3: Tracking the Birds!

Given our challenges with deployment this season, we were very happy to successfully tag and track two birds, an adult female named Snowflower and an adult male named Roy Royster. Each bird has their own unique story representing different aspects of “oystercatcher life” during the nesting season and beyond. Although we are still in the early stages of collecting and analyzing transmitter data, we are excited to share some snapshots of their movements and behavior so far.

Snowflower:

Snowflower was tagged on May 7, 2024 at South Goshen Beach, while tending an active nest with her mate King Nummy. Unfortunately, the pair lost their nest to fox predation nine days later on May 16th, but we were still able to collect some interesting movement data before and after the nest was lost. While incubating the active nest, Snowflower stayed close to her nest territory, with occasional foraging trips to the oyster beds/living shorelines at Bay Cove Beach (Map 1). Following her nest loss, Snowflower’s range expanded significantly to encompass much more of the Bayshore, spanning from Del Haven all the way up to Egg Island – a distance of 15 to 23 miles depending on possible flight routes (Map 2)!  We were also interested to observe that she continued to make foraging trips to living shorelines/oyster beds at Bay Cove and Rutger’s Cape Shore Laboratory. Up until very recently, Snowflower has remained on the Cape May Peninsula, especially around Atlantic Coast sites such as Stone Harbor Point, a known oystercatcher staging and wintering roost location (Map 3). However, she recently surprised us by taking a brief “vacation” all the way down to the Eastern Shore of Virginia from October 10-12, only to return to New Jersey on the 13th (Map 3)! It remains to be seen whether she will stay in New Jersey year-round or head to a more southern winter location.

 

 

 

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Roy Royster:

Compared to Snowflower’s transmitter deployment, Roy Royster’s story is filled with lots of ups and downs. After trying and failing to find oystercatchers heavy enough to carry transmitters, we were so ecstatic to finally deploy our second transmitter on Roy on June 28th near Dyers Cove in Cumberland County. This was especially exciting for the team because Roy had successfully hatched a nest and was in the process of brooding his chick (Rudy Royster) with mate Rhonda. Oystercatcher chicks depend on food provisions from their parents until they are at least 60 days old when their beaks become strong enough to pry open bivalves, their primary food source. Large feeding areas close to nesting locations have been linked to increased fledgling success (Nol 1989), presumably because adults foraging closer to their offspring can devote more time and energy to chick care and protection. Since only three nests managed to hatch during the 2024 season, we felt very lucky to be able to collect GPS data on a brooding pair to help test that hypothesis.

Unfortunately, Roy’s transmitter went silent almost immediately after deployment and didn’t transmit a single location after June 28th. We knew Roy was still alive and well based on field observations, but we couldn’t figure out why his transmitter wouldn’t work. After we had just about given up on receiving any data we were shocked when Roy’s transmitter finally checked in on September 11th, all the way from the Eastern Shore of Virginia! The transmitter also dumped hundreds of GPS locations stored before Roy left New Jersey, so we were able to map out some of his foraging patterns while brooding Rudy and after Rudy had fledged. While we don’t have fine-scale timing intervals, it seems like Roy stayed close to his brooding territory at South Dyers Cove (Map 4), potentially indicating the presence of abundant and high quality foraging resources. After Rudy fledged and was able to fly, Roy expanded his range, making trips to Money Island and Egg Island (Map 5). Roy’s migration data does have some gaps, so we can’t determine the exact route and timing of his migration south, but he continues to check in from Virginia (Map 6), coincidentally just a few miles from this year’s American Oystercatcher Working Group Meeting in Wachapreague. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for a field trip this December!

 

 

Next Steps

We look forward to continued tracking and monitoring of Roy Royster and Snowflower throughout the winter and the next nesting season, but Roy and Snowflower represent just the beginning of our telemetry efforts on the Delaware Bay. We are already troubleshooting challenges encountered during our first season, and we are excited to improve and expand oystercatcher tracking in the years to come. Make sure to stay tuned for future updates on this exciting addition to our Delaware Bay American Oystercatcher project.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to the Cape May Point Science Center for providing the transmitters, Cellular Tracking Technologies for their assistance with harness design and transmission troubleshooting, and The Wetlands Institute for skillfully deploying the transmitters in the field. The Delaware Bay American Oystercatcher Project is made possible through a grant provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund.   

by Emmy Casper, Wildlife Biologist

Those who have followed CWF’s work throughout the years know how important bird banding can be for wildlife biologists and conservationists. The practice, which involves placing metal and/or color bands on a bird’s legs, can provide useful information about that bird’s life history, site fidelity, and movement. Typically, banded shorebirds are equipped with a unique alphanumeric code or color combination (kind of like a name tag), which enables scientists to track an individual bird throughout its lifetime. For those monitoring New Jersey’s beach-nesting bird populations, bird banding greatly enhances the quality and accuracy of our productivity data, which allows us to make better-informed decisions regarding management. 

Continue reading “Lessons Learned from a Summer of Banding American Oystercatchers”

By Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist 

CWF has played a major role in helping monitor breeding American oystercatchers in New Jersey ever since surveys were initiated in the state just over two decades ago in the early 2000’s. Most of the statewide effort, conducted by a variety of partners, has been focused on pairs nesting on the sandy barrier beaches of the Atlantic Coast, in conjunction with efforts there to monitor and manage other beach nesting birds, such as piping plovers and least terns. These sites are often those beaches that are highly recreated and most used by beachgoers, public beaches where these species need added protection to hatch nests and raise their young chicks.

Continue reading “Expanding the Search for American Oystercatchers Breeding in New Jersey”

When CWF began monitoring American oystercatchers nesting on the Delaware Bay this past spring, we also set out to place field-readable bands on as many oystercatcher adults and chicks as logistically possible. Band resights allow biologists to collect a wealth of information about site fidelity, habitat use, dispersal, and migration, especially when data is collected over many years. Since the Delaware Bay population of oystercatchers was previously unmonitored, we have a lot to learn about their life histories and how they may differ from other oystercatchers in the state, if at all. Where are these birds staging and wintering? Do breeding adults return to the same mates and nesting locations each year? Where do fledged chicks disperse, and will they return to their natal grounds on the Delaware Bay to breed upon reaching sexual maturity? Banding efforts, combined with resight data reported by biologists, dedicated volunteers, and the general public will help answer these questions (and more) as we increase the number of marked individuals on the Bayshore.

Continue reading “Band Resighting Sheds New Light on Delaware Bay Oystercatcher Population”

by Emmy Casper, Wildlife Biologist

This past winter, CWF announced a new project designed to study and monitor the population of American oystercatchers breeding along the New Jersey side of the Delaware Bay. In addition to locating nesting pairs and tracking their success, our goal is to better understand how oystercatchers utilize the bayshore habitats and what factors threaten their productivity. The data we gather with our partners at The Wetlands Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be used to inform future management decisions. We spent the past few months working hard to conduct the project’s first season of monitoring, and we are happy to say that we have made significant progress in beginning to unravel the mysteries surrounding this understudied population.

Since so little is known about this subpopulation of oystercatchers, we had a lot of ground to cover in our first season of fieldwork. First, we had to locate any breeding oystercatcher pairs across 35 sites spanning approximately 45 miles of bayshore from Cape May Point to Sea Breeze. Luckily, we had a head-start based on a preliminary census survey from 2021 that documented some already existing pairs as well as some sites with potentially suitable nesting habitat. We were also fortunate to have a dedicated seasonal technician assisting with the heavy workload. That said, figuring out how to access many of these sites was definitely a learning curve. We quickly discovered that many beaches were only reachable by boat or kayak and only during a narrow window of tide and wind conditions. Other sites were walkable, but only at peak low tides, which meant our surveys couldn’t take too long without risking becoming stranded by the rising tide.

Continue reading “It’s a Wrap! First Season of Delaware Bay American Oystercatcher Monitoring is a Success”

by Todd Pover

For the past eight years, CWF has been contracted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through a cooperative agreement to provide monitoring and management of beach nesting birds at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge nesting sites – both the Holgate and Little Beach Island Units – provide some of the only habitat in the state closed to the public and free of human disturbance and detrimental beach management practices. The habitat at the sites is especially suitable for the state endangered piping plover as a result of optimal nesting conditions created by Superstorm Sandy and largely sustained since then through winter storms. As of the 2021 season, the Refuge sites had the highest concentration of piping plovers in the state, with Holgate having by far the most pairs (46). Furthermore, on average in recent years, Holgate has produced a higher fledgling rate than many sites in the state.

Continue reading “Beach Nesting Bird Monitoring is Underway at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge”

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

Most people are surprised to hear that American oystercatchers are present in New Jersey in the winter. They usually associate the charismatic shorebird as a breeding species here. Our state’s wintering oystercatchers, a combination of breeders from further north and our own, are at the northern extent of the Atlantic coast wintering range.

Continue reading “CWF Assists the State with Wintering American Oystercatcher Survey”

By: Meghan Kolk, CWF Wildlife Biologist

The Delaware Bay is well known for the spectacular phenomenon of spawning horseshoe crabs and migrating red knots every May, but in recent years the American oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) have also discovered the allure of the Bayshore and made it their home.  American oystercatchers, a State Species of Special Concern, have been monitored and managed by CWF and the NJDFW’s Endangered and Non-game Species Program along the Atlantic coast beaches for nearly two decades, resulting in a steady population increase.  However, the population that breeds along the Bayshore, first documented in 2016, has not received the same attention and had never been fully surveyed until this year. 

CWF’s interest in this newly discovered population led to a small pilot study of a few known breeding pairs in 2018.  Then this past May, we launched a bay-wide survey of the sandy beaches of the New Jersey side of the Bay from Cape May Point up to Seabreeze, the northernmost beach in Cumberland County.  The purpose of the bay-wide survey is to determine a baseline of the number and distribution of breeding pairs along the Bayshore.  The data gathered from this survey will add to the Statewide population estimate and help determine the amount of time and funding needed to fully monitor and manage the Bay’s population.  More monitoring will be necessary to assess risk factors and reproductive success.  Reproductive success can then be maximized by managing for risk factors such human disturbance, predation and tidal flooding.

This survey was made possible due to the efforts of dedicated volunteers and could not have been completed without their help.  Unlike the Atlantic coast, the Bayshore beaches are often difficult to access, and many can only be reached by boat, making this survey more challenging.  In fact, two sites that we planned to survey proved to be too difficult to reach and were skipped for this year.  Each of the 33 remaining sites were surveyed just once within a specific timeframe, giving only a snapshot of the breeding season.  We hope to be able to collect much more information in the future when more funding for this project is available.  Based on the survey that was conducted, 13 pairs were documented at 8 different sites and 8 nests were documented at 5 different sites.

In addition to the formal survey, I was able to collect some observations as I spent every day in May on the Bay working with red knots.  I took notice of the prey items that the oystercatchers were choosing.  I often observed them feasting on oysters, which were plucked off exposed rubble at low tide.  They also spent time at the man-made oyster reefs that were constructed at several beaches to act as breakwaters to slow the erosion of beaches.  They also favored ribbed mussel beds, which become exposed as the tide recedes.  The most interesting foraging behavior I witnessed was an oystercatcher plucking a fresh slipper shell off a horseshoe crab as it came to shore to spawn.  It seems the Bay offers a variety of good food sources for a bird that mainly preys on bivalve mollusks. 

I also noticed that flocks of up to 11 oystercatchers were traveling together up and down the Bayshore.  This is a peculiar behavior since oystercatchers are highly territorial during the breeding season and are typically only seen in flocks once the breeding season is over.  Could it be that the Bayshore is a popular spot for non-breeding young adults to hang out? 

So much more research is needed to answer the many questions we have about the mysterious Bayshore oystercatchers.