Category: Beach Nesting Birds

Much of the research that is being done by Conserve Wildlife Foundation on beach nesting birds is confined to the shorelines of New Jersey’s Atlantic coast, but that isn’t the only place in the state where these species can be found.

CWF Wildlife Biologist Emmy Casper and CWF Biological Technician Christine Albrecht spend their days working with an understudied population of American oystercatchers on the Delaware Bay. These birds nest on Moores Beach, which was once a Bay-front neighborhood, but now, after the houses were destroyed by floods and bought out by the state, all that remains are a few scattered bricks. The area has been restored to its natural state and is now teeming with plant and animal life. 

If one is willing to hike the mile-long marshy trail to get there, the public is also free to enjoy the space most of the year (the beach is closed through May for shorebird season). That means that Casper and Albrecht have a bit of extra work to do.

When the biologists find a new nest, they record its location and the parents responsible for it, as is standard across the whole project. But, when they’re done with that, they must also fence in the nest with string and signs warning visitors to keep away, so as to not disturb it.

The pair walk down the beach, checking in on known nests, documenting the behavior of the adults, and searching for new eggs along the way. They’re not always an easy find, but it helps that they’re so desperate to find them. So far this year, none of the oystercatcher parents monitored along the Bayshore had any eggs hatch, even with about twenty pairs calling the region home. Unfortunately, it’s not hard to see why. Raccoon and fox tracks dot the sand at every turn, many leading right to the scrapes where nests had once been. 

Moores Beach accounts for almost a third of all of the Delaware Bay oystercatcher pairs in NJ, and CWF has been monitoring this spot for three years now. Each nesting season has had varying levels of success. In 2023, this beach produced nine chicks, two of which reached fledging. In 2024, one chick fledged. With only a few years of data to look back on, biologists are still left to wonder why the adults continue to come back to this beach to lay their eggs. 

Part of figuring out the “why” is analyzing nests. They measure the distance from the scrape’s centerpoint to the edge of the marsh, to the nearby high tide lines indicated by dry and wet wrack (washed up marine plants and debris), and any nearby foraging sources in the intertidal zone. All of this gives some insight into what conditions oystercatchers prefer and how they minimize distance to their food while also avoiding potential flooding.

Then, the biologists take a look at what the nest is made of. While the oystercatchers don’t have to build intricate structures to hide their well-camouflaged eggs, they still have a choice about where they want to set it up. Using a quadrat to mark a square meter around the nest, the biologists note the percentage of different materials in the area. Some nests have more plant matter, some have more pebbles, others are mostly just sand. Whatever they’re made of, this data can be used to understand what type of nesting habitat oystercatchers prefer on the Bayshore, which may be used to inform future management or restoration decisions.

Additionally, Casper and Albrecht observe the adult oystercatchers, hoping to catch them foraging for food. If they do, that helps the team to learn more about where and what food sources the birds go after on this beach compared to shores on the Atlantic coast. It can also show the effectiveness of living shoreline  restoration projects.

While it may be tough work at times, there is also a lot of excitement. As the nesting season comes to a close, the opportunities for finding new eggs slims. But, one pair wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

Moby and Evermoore are an older oystercatcher pair, with Evermoore being banded in 2018. As the biologists were walking through the pair’s territory, they spotted a single, speckled egg. This was the couple’s fourth attempt so far this season, which is uncommonly high for oystercatchers. But there it was, a beautiful little beacon of hope. Casper and Albrecht took their measurements and set up the fence and a trail camera, and continued on their way, now with big smiles on their faces.

Horseshoe crabs are ancient creatures, having first evolved hundreds of millions of years ago. Since then, they haven’t changed much, but the world around them certainly has. Human activity has taken a toll on horseshoe crabs- for years, people have been harvesting them for use as bait and in medical applications. New Jersey now has a moratorium preventing this from continuing, but their population is still lower than it should be. Luckily, something as simple as flipping a horseshoe crab off of its back can help to restore their numbers. I recently had the privilege of joining Larissa Smith, Senior Wildlife Biologist at CWF, on a trip to the Delaware Bay. In partnership with ReTurn the Favor, she regularly visits beaches that are rife with stranded horseshoe crabs and helps them get back to the water. At the nightly high tide, hundreds of crabs come up to shore to spawn, but when the tide goes out, many of them get stuck on their backs or buried in vegetation, unable to return to their habitats. Rescuing them can be as easy as turning them back onto their legs, but others need a bit more help.

On this day, we started with just a few unfortunate crabs that needed assistance getting off of their backs. We picked them up, flipped them, and off they went. But then, as we turned from the beach to a marshy creek, we were met with hundreds of crabs trapped in the grass. At first, it seemed like we were too late to save them, but as we went along, we found that almost every single one was still alive. So, we wrestled them out of the greenery and carried them back down to the water.

It was a lot of work, but we soon managed to rescue over 100 horseshoe crabs from that section alone. Most of them were females, as evidenced by their large size and pincers. Each one that survived represented a potential new generation of crabs. Female horseshoe crabs can lay around 80 thousand to 100 thousand eggs per year, most of which become food sources for other animals like laughing gulls, which were flocked heavily on the beaches that day. While it’s a bit unfortunate for the crabs, the loss of some of their eggs helps to keep the ecosystem running smoothly.

In just a few hours, we helped 198 horseshoe crabs return to the bay, and we had a lot of fun doing it. The effort to restore the populations of New Jersey’s horseshoe crabs is full of obstacles, but there is also so much hope. Just about anyone can flip an overturned horseshoe crab, and the feeling that comes along with doing so is wonderful. While the horseshoe crabs may not be able to thank us, we can always tell that they greatly appreciate our support.

Returnthefavornj.org

Only a short boat ride off the coast of Little Egg Harbor Township lies an undisturbed haven for endangered beach-nesting birds. The shorelines of Horseshoe Island and Holgate are fully-stocked with piping plovers, black skimmers, and many signs warning boaters not to land on the protected islands. Members of the public are not allowed into these highly-restricted areas, and the only people allowed to step foot there are a small group of biologists.

Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist at CWF, and his team travel to these islands throughout the nesting season to keep an eye on nests and collect data on them. They work in partnership with New Jersey Fish and Wildlife and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge to get access to the refuge and record information. 

A day in the field starts with a visit to Horseshoe Island, a new and unique addition to the New Jersey off-shore landscape. What started as a small sandbar less than a decade ago has become a half-mile island that has been growing every year. While the new space is great for birds looking to start a family, the best part of the deal is that the island is free of mammalian predators like foxes, which are common nest destroyers. 

The walk around the island takes the team a few hours to complete, even after dividing up the work. They venture from point to point, stopping where nests and mating pairs had previously been observed. Most of the focus for this trip is on American oystercatchers, a special concern beach-nesting species, and piping plovers, which are endangered. At each stop, the researchers look for eggs and chicks at the nesting sites so they can be logged and development can be tracked. Sometimes the nests are destroyed or the chicks don’t survive, and that is also recorded. All of this data is stored in a database so that the success of each generation can be measured over time.

Occasionally, the team will find a new nest, but the process is tricky. Sometimes, they’ll get lucky and the parents will be nearby, leading them right to the site, but other times, they have to follow tiny, sandy tracks to find the divots in the sand that beach-nesting birds scrape out for nests. 

“It’s like being a detective,” said Madison Patterson, one of the biologists.

One of the joys of the work for the crew is finding that a previously unsuccessful pair of birds had renested. Many of the individuals on the island are banded, especially the American oystercatchers, so it makes it easier to identify which bird is which. For the plovers, not only do they get bands, but names, too. On Horseshoe, a male named Secretariat seems to enjoy scurrying around the island, using his camouflage to hide from the researchers. But, the professionals that they are, they find him anyway and add him to their logs.

By noon, it’s time to get back on the boat and head to the next stop: Holgate, a Unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR. Unlike Horseshoe Island, this location does have mammalian predators, as well as a large population of endangered least terns. It also has the largest number of piping plover pairs in New Jersey. 

All across the island, tern, skimmer, and plover eggs abound. Each step must be taken with the utmost care, as one wrong move can destroy a nest and take a toll on the next generation’s population size. That’s pretty serious: these species have been classified as endangered in the state for decades and the constant threat of habitat loss due to human activity makes it even harder for these birds to bounce back.

In the mid afternoon, the team finishes up their final bits of data collection and gathers back on the boat. As they return to the mainland, the sounds of squawking soften and the islands vanish into the distance. But they would not be gone long, for tomorrow would bring a new day, new trails, and new lives for the team to document.

For more information on CWF’s beach nesting birds project, visit our project page.

In late 2024 we closed out our third year of comprehensive monitoring and management of nesting and migratory birds at Horseshoe Island. The recently formed island, situated just outside the southern edge of Little Egg Inlet, has quickly become one of the most important beach nesting bird sites in New Jersey. 

Each year has presented new challenges and changes on the island and in 2024 there were a number of “firsts” to report. Piping  plovers had previously utilized the island to rest and forage during both the migration and breeding seasons, this was the first year that they nested there. Adding any new nesting site for piping plovers in New Jersey is big news, adding three pairs was even more exciting. Although all three pairs hatched young, no chicks successfully fledged from the island, but we hope to build on that initial success next year.

Horseshoe Island is home to the northernmost royal tern colony in the hemisphere and the colony has grown in size each year. In 2024, CWF joined New Jersey Fish and Wildlife (NJFW) and The Wetlands Institute (TWI) to band royal tern chicks, the first time that royal terns have been banded in the state. With their newly minted blue field readable bands, we are now able to track movements and longevity of “our royals.”  Under NJFW’s direction, adult piping plovers were also banded at Horseshoe for the first time this year. Lastly, led by TWI, black skimmer chicks were once again banded on the island.

The island grew exponentially this year, it is now at least twice the size it was when monitoring began in 2021. The birds took advantage of the expanded habitat, upwards of 1400 state endangered black skimmers nested there in 2024, easily making it the largest skimmer colony in the state. And nearly 600 skimmer chicks fledged from the site, making it the most successful year to date for skimmers on Horseshoe Island. Large least and common tern colonies were also present. And American oystercatchers have increased from 6 to 16 breeding pairs since 2021; 2024 being the most productive year yet with 24 fledglings being recorded. Nearly every part of the island was in use, even more so if you factor in migratory and staging shorebirds that often crowd the tidal zones on the outer edges of the island and the interior lagoons for foraging.

Monitoring and management of the island is done as a partnership between CWF, NJFW, and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. For more information about the island, read the recently released 2024 report.

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

New Jersey Fish and Wildlife has released their annual reports for the 2024 beach nesting bird season and the results were mixed. Piping plovers had one of their worst seasons on record in New Jersey since federal listing in 1986. Least terns also fared poorly, while black skimmers and American oystercatchers posted more promising breeding results.

According to the state report, piping plovers recorded their lowest population in New Jersey in 2024, at just 89 pairs, and statewide productivity was poor, as well, at just 0.54 chicks fledged per pair, third lowest on record. The state’s piping plover population has fluctuated greatly in the past five years, reaching 137 pairs in 2021, close to the peak of 144 pairs, only to now fall to the historic low. While the low pair count is concerning enough in its own right, this year’s poor productivity also doesn’t bode well for next year, as productivity is often strongly linked to short-term population changes for piping plovers. Productivity during the 2024 breeding season was well below both the long-term New Jersey average (1.01) and the federal recovery goal (1.50). Furthermore, productivity has been poor over the past several years, putting future population increases at risk.

Pair counts dropped along nearly the entire Jersey coast, with Sandy Hook having one of the most dramatic losses from 34 pairs in 2023 to 14 in 2024. The population loss there is especially troubling given Sandy Hook was once a stronghold for the state, its piping plover population has been trending downward from just over 50 pairs about a decade ago. Productivity was also very poor at Sandy Hook in 2024, just 0.50 chicks per pair, again this site used to be one of New Jerseys’ productivity hotspots for piping plovers. Holgate, a Unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, and one of the sites monitored by CWF, continued its recent trend of having the most breeding plovers in the state, with 48 pairs or 54% of the state’s population in 2024. Unfortunately, it experienced especially bad productivity, producing just 0.35 chicks per pair. One of the notable highlights in the state was the Barnegat Light Habitat Restoration Area, a site CWF has had a lead role in creating and maintaining, where 5 pairs produced 10 fledgling or 2.00 per pair.

Although New Jersey’s least tern population was surprisingly robust this year with 1,436 total adults recorded, two concerning recent trends for this colonial species continued in 2024. The number of colonies dropped to just 11, the lowest since 1976. Productivity for the state’s least terns was poor, only 146 fledglings were recorded. The highlight was the TNC South Cape May Meadows site, where 80 fledglings were produced.

Black skimmers were also only present at just a few colonies in New Jersey in 2024 – three known active colonies at Holgate, Horseshoe Island, and Stone Harbor Point – the lowest number of colonies documented since 1976. On the other hand, their population, with 2341 adults, was on the high side of the past 20-year range and they had a very good season productivity-wise. Strong results were seen at all three colonies, resulting in nearly 1000 fledglings produced overall. Horseshoe Island had the state’s largest colony with 1,347 breeding adults, helping demonstrate the importance of the recent conservation efforts at this relatively new site.

American oystercatcher data are more difficult to assess, as only a portion of the state’s breeding population is monitored, with most of the marsh nesting breeders, which account for a significant portion, left unmonitored. At 155 pairs in 2024, those oystercatchers regularly monitored – primarily the sandy beach strand population – continued their steady long-term growth trend over the past two decades or so since regular monitoring began in New Jersey.

Productivity was also strong for the oystercatchers in New Jersey in 2024, clocking in at just over 0.50 chicks fledged per pair, which is the recovery target. As a long-lived species, annual productivity goals are lower for American oystercatchers, compared to the shorter-lived piping plovers. Among the highlights for American oystercatchers in New Jersey this year were Holgate with 53 pairs, the most in the state, producing 0.79 fledglings per pair and Horseshoe Island recording an average of 1.50 fledglings from 16 pairs, both of these being sites CWF helped monitor and manage.

Read the full 2024 NJ Piping Plover Nesting Results

Read the full 2024 Beach Nesting Bird Project Report

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.

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

Winter maintenance of the Barnegat Light habitat restoration site is a key element in the project’s success to benefit New Jersey’s piping plovers and other beach-nesting birds. The original project – clearing about 40 acres of dense beach vegetation and dunes to create an early-successional habitat favored by plovers and adding “ponds” to create foraging opportunities – was completed over two winters in 2019 and 2020. Each winter since, we have returned to the site for a short period, typically a week or so, to thin vegetation and reestablish foraging habitat along the pond edges in advance of nesting birds returning for the season.

This year was no exception, I was on-site in late January and early February to guide a bulldozer operator to prepare the site for plovers. Although the maintenance work we do each year is similar, the details and nuances of it vary quite a bit. Last winter, for example, one of the foraging ponds was completely sanded over from fall and early winter storms, so we spent most of the time re-digging that. This year, the ponds were in much better shape, so we had more time to focus on clearing out thick vegetation that had crept back into the site to improve the nesting substrate.

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

This year was an especially challenging one for beach nesting birds in New Jersey. Most of the species fared poorly on a statewide basis, and even though they can withstand periodic down years, several trends are worrisome to biologists and wildlife managers.

The state’s piping plover breeding population remained the same as last year with 118 pairs, which is also about the same as the long-term average since federal listing. However, productivity was just 0.53 chicks fledged per pair, the second lowest since federal listing and well below the levels believed necessary to grow the population. Of particular concern, productivity has been low for three consecutive years after a number of years of above average success. Productivity is one of the main drivers of population (up or down) and small populations are especially sensitive to even small changes, so it is expected that the population is likely to drop over the next few years, further stagnating plover recovery in the state.

Meanwhile, there was a record number (53) of breeding pairs of piping plovers at Holgate, a unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, that is monitored by CWF through a cooperative agreement with the Refuge. This positive trend, almost a four-fold increase has occurred since Superstorm Sandy enhanced the habitat for plovers at the site, has been an ongoing highlight for the state in recent years. Nonetheless, it has not been accompanied by similar increases elsewhere in the state, so it has not led to any statewide recovery. Productivity for the large concentration of piping plovers at Holgate was above the statewide average in 2023 but the lowest level over the past decade, so it was also a down year for this site, where expectations typically run high that it will help boost statewide productivity.

by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

This marked the second year that CWF worked in close partnership with New Jersey Fish and Wildlife and Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (EBF) to monitor and manage birds on Horseshoe Island. The island, located just offshore on the southern edge of the Little Egg Inlet, has quickly become one of the most important sites for beach nesting birds in the state, as well as a critical resting and feeding site for migratory shorebirds.

Horseshoe Island hosted the state’s largest black skimmer (state endangered) colony this year with just over 1400 total adults or about 700 pairs. Although flooding and some avian predators impacted the overall nesting success at the island, at least 225 skimmer chicks “fledged” from the site. Horseshoe’s skimmer fledglings, along with those from nearby Holgate, a unit of EBF, and especially from Stone Harbor Point in Cape May County, made 2023 a moderately good productivity year for black skimmers in New Jersey.