Category: Birds

The Barnegat Light habitat restoration site has wrapped up its best breeding season for beach nesting birds since the start of the restoration project in 2019. This is exciting news given it was a challenging year at many other breeding sites along the New Jersey coast this year.

Piping plovers, the prime focus of the restoration, had an especially good season. Seventeen (17) fledglings were produced from six pairs for a fledge rate of 2.83 per pair, well above the federal recovery goal of 1.50 fledglings per pair and even more above the anticipated statewide rate for 2025. The six pairs represent the high number for the restoration site, up from one breeding pair remaining at the inlet just before the project began.

Continue reading “Barnegat Light Habitat Restoration Breeding Update”

by Larissa Smith, CWF Senior Biologist

The 2025 New Jersey Bald Eagle nesting season is finished. We are still gathering up the data for the final numbers which will be published in the annual NJ Bald Eagle Project Report. The 160 eagle project nest monitors spend countless hours monitoring eagle nests through out New Jersey. I’ve asked the nest monitors to share two of their favorite photos from the 2025 nesting season. Enjoy.

Please click on the first photo to see the Slideshow:

Audrey Randazzo – Crew Leader

This is Audrey’s third year with CWF surveying beach nesting birds. After graduating from Delaware Valley University’s conservation and wildlife management program in 2021, she has been doing field research on endangered birds throughout the Eastern U.S. From studying Henslow’s sparrow in North Carolina to working on raptor research in upstate New York, she has a lot of experience with studying birds.

Audrey’s favorite parts of the job are finding nests and watching chicks grow into fledglings. She also really enjoys how her work with CWF allows her to spend more time outside, especially in places that are inaccessible to the public. She is greatly appreciative of the opportunities she has had to work so closely with wildlife and recognizes what a privilege it is. 

A raptor-lover at heart, Audrey’s favorite bird is the Northern harrier, but of the beach nesting birds, piping plovers take the cake. She loves their personalities and their adorable chicks, which she affectionately describes as “puffballs with legs”. Her favorite plover is MJ (Michael Jackson) due to his outgoing personality.

Outside of work, Audrey enjoys hiking, paddleboarding, and kayaking.

Gianna Canale

Gianna has been working for CWF for three years and has spent that time focused on the beach nesting birds project. She graduated from Juniata College with a degree in wildlife conservation, inspired by her childhood spent enjoying nature with her family. In addition to her work with CWF, Gianna also helps the state of New Jersey with chronic wasting disease sampling in deer and with the Waterfowl Ecology and Management Program. 

Her favorite parts about working for CWF are the closeness she has developed with the crew and the jokes and stories that they share. She also enjoys getting to see the birds incubate and raise their chicks.

Of the beach nesting birds, Gianna’s favorite species is the piping plover because she finds them to have unique personalities and attitudes. She is especially fond of the plover Sasquatch, since she was part of the crew that got to name her and because Sasquatch tends to live up to her name (her nests are often tricky to find).

In her free time, Gianna enjoys birding and being active outdoors.

Kaiulani Sund

Now in her second year with CWF, Kaiulani joined the team after graduating from Gettysburg College with a degree in environmental studies and a minor in data science. During her senior year at Gettysburg, she worked closely with common and Arctic terns on Petit Manan Island in Maine. 

For Kaiulani, the most rewarding part of her job is getting to know the people and the birds that she works with. She loves Atlantic puffins and piping plovers, and her favorite plover in the project is Zucchini, who built the first nest she ever found. 

When she’s not working, Kaiulani can be found reading and horseback riding.

Mary Adams

This is Mary’s first season with CWF. She attended Franklin & Marshall College, majoring in biology and minoring in environmental studies and French. While in college, she did a thesis on avian habitat selection and during her senior year, she studied wildlife ecology in Dublin, Ireland. She has worked for a wildlife refuge, trained scent-detection dogs, and worked at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania. Even with that amazing lineup of past experience, Mary says that her job with CWF is her favorite experience yet.

She loves finding new nests, seeing each one as a new opportunity for the success of the species. Of the bird species she works with, Mary’s favorite is the American oystercatcher. Her favorite plover is MJ (Michael Jackson), because his was the first plover nest she ever found. Her favorite bird species overall, though, is the red-winged blackbird.

Mary is a proud Philadelphia Phillies fan and she is currently fostering a dog from a shelter. She also likes to read.

Madison Patterson

Madison joined CWF this past spring after graduating from Monmouth University, where she majored in biology. In college, she joined a wildlife ecology research lab in which she studied mammalian predation of box turtles. 

While her background is mainly in herpetology, she has grown to love working with birds, especially black skimmers and a plover named Pikachu, whose nest she found on her first day out surveying. She feels that she has learned so much about shorebirds in her time with the Foundation, from their behavior to their conservation, and she appreciates having the opportunity to do research that she finds so fascinating.

Back at Monmouth, Madison was the vice president of their outdoors club. She frequently goes hiking, camping and backpacking with her friends, and recently, she has been learning how to forage wild edible plants and fungi.

Shorebird stewards may not wear capes but they are superhero’s to the multitude of shorebirds stopping along the Delaware Bay in the spring.  During May, the beaches in New Jersey are an important stopover for these migratory birds who are mainly feeding on the horseshoe crab eggs, deposited during the annual horseshoe crab spawn.  The shorebirds, which include the red knot a NJ endangered species, have a short window to reach their ideal weight before leaving on the next half of their journey north to breed.  Eight beaches in Cape May County and two in Cumberland County have restricted access during the migration so that the shorebirds can feed undisturbed.

Since 2003 Conserve Wildlife Foundation has coordinated the Shorebird Stewards, who help protect the feeding shorebirds by educating the public.  This season thirty-one stewards were stationed at beaches between May 10th to May 26th.  While most stewards are from New Jersey, we have stewards from Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Some of the stewards volunteer for a day, while others work the entire season and many return year after year. No matter how often someone has been a steward, they have a made a difference and we have definitely seen a positive change in peoples attitudes over the years.  Visitors come from all over to view the shorebirds and horseshoe crabs and one of the main questions the stewards get asked is, “where are the shorebirds today”?

Some days the beach where the steward is assigned has only few shorebirds, while other days the beach is covered with the feeding birds.  While the majority of beach goers have a positive attitude about the beach restrictions, there will always be those that want to go on the beach.  While these situation aren’t always pleasant, the stewards are trained to handle them calmly and with education.

Thank you to 2025 shorebird superheroes!

I monitor a bald eagle nest located in Wawayanda State Park, Sussex County. My heart sank when I was asked to retrieve the carcass of a bald eagle found dead on nearby Highland Lake. The Wawayanda eagles protect a large and rugged territory that includes many smaller ponds, several swamps and other wetlands, and seven lakes, including those in my community. I feared that the dead eagle was one of the Wawayanda pair. Despite their territory’s size, our local eagles are in some ways easy to follow. When the lakes are frozen, as they are this winter, we see few visiting eagles traveling through. Although eagles appear similar, each eagle is really an individual in look and behavior. After watching them closely for years, I’ve learned a lot about the eagles; characteristics, their habits, and their favorite places to perch. Moreover, the male is banded and wears distinctive green and silver ankle bands, which stand out even from a distance, especially with a pair of binoculars.

Bald eagles banded in New Jersey receive two separate bands – a silver band from the federal US Fish and Wildlife Service with a unique six-digit ID number and a state green band with a two-digit code etched in silver. Because of its color and the shorter code, the state band can be read from a distance. The male’s bands tell us quite a lot about his history and this nest. He first arrived in 2016. By identifying his green NJ band as D10, I was able to learn that he was banded as a nestling at another Sussex County nest in 2010. Although I didn’t see any battles, it was clear that he and the young (fourth year) female he arrived with were the new pair in town, replacing the eagle pair that we had been seeing for at least five years prior. I didn’t know where their nest was and spent a lot of time looking for it, but I still saw them frequently throughout their territory. I eventually learned their nest is in Wawayanda.

The female was not banded and therefore harder to track. I don’t know for sure, but I believe the original female from 2016 may have been replaced in 2020. That year, the Wawayanda nest failed– did not fledge any chicks – and a pair of eagles were seen building a new nest near the old one. That failure, the new nest, and their behavior during the 2021 nesting season are why I think a new female took over that year. I was able to see and confirm the male’s bands, so I knew he remained. But the eagles did something I hadn’t really seen in all my years of monitoring – when either eagle was flying into the nest, they would call out, almost as if they were saying, “Hey, it’s me, not a stranger.” They did that throughout the 2021 nesting season, but not in any subsequent season. It was as if they were learning about each other that year and once they really knew each other, never had to do it again.

This pair has been special to watch. To survive in a territory as large and challenging as landlocked northwestern New Jersey, the eagles must be especially resourceful because their nest-building, egg laying, and even early hatching season takes place when their primary food source (fish) may not be available. And they must be strong enough to repel intruding eagles across many miles to protect their dispersed food sources. When they had chicks in the nest, the male’s primary job was maintaining the security of their territory and providing food, while the female needed to ensure survival of their young. When the male was too involved with security matters, as happened in both 2023 and 2024, the female was hunting, feeding the chicks, and protecting the nest area on her own because the male was in another part of their territory for long stretches.
Between 2021 and 2024, this pair fledged eight eaglets. Watching them accomplish this with fine-tuned teamwork and a secure bond has been a real privilege.

When I retrieved the dead eagle and saw it was  not banded, I thought first of the fierce Wawayanda female. With the eagle found near her favorite perching spot and few visitors in the area, it seemed likely to be her. In the two weeks after the eagle was found, two weeks that are the heart of the Wawayanda eagles; mating, nesting and egg laying season, the male waited for her by the nest. I watched him for hours, hoping I was wrong, that she would return, and the season would go on as normal. But that didn’t happen and after all of this, I’m as sure as I can be that it was indeed her. Preliminary tests are positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI, or bird flu), which is hitting birds in our state heavily this year.

She was strong and beautiful, and I’ll miss her quite a lot. I’m sure the male spent those few weeks also missing his bonded mate. But the eagles must focus on the future and by his nature he knows he needs a new mate. As he searches for his next partner, there is no guarantee that he will even remain at Wawayanda. He may choose to move on or he may lose control to other eagles who are looking for a nesting area. I do know that there are a lot of prime nesting spaces open in our area and I hope that whoever “loses” at Wawayanda moves down the road and settles in at a nearby spot.

What happened since the female’s body was found demonstrates both the fragility and the resiliency of bald eagles in New Jersey. I have great hope that the Wawayanda nest will continue successfully and look forward to the next chapter.

Two adorable fluffy chicks have hatched live on the Duke Farms Eagle Cam. There is a pip in the third egg, so the third chick should hatch very soon. Thanks to Duke Farms and staff who host, fund and maintain this cam. The cam is new for the 2025 season and now has audio which allows you to hear the chicks peeping and adults calling. The clarity of the new cam is top notch.

Continue reading “Two chicks hatch live on the Duke Farms Eagle Cam”

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 Leah Wells, Assistant Wildlife Biologist

CWF has been teaming up with partners from the USFWS New Jersey Field Office and JB MDL’s Natural Resources department to survey the installation’s forest for birds throughout the year. These surveys allow us to get an inventory of bird species found throughout the large expanses of protected natural areas within the base’s boundaries. So far this year, we have documented a diverse array of bird species passing through during migration and some resident species that stay year-round. During the springtime, we got to see warblers such as the black-and-white warbler, pine warbler, common yellowthroat, and American redstart.

Six of the forest bird species documented at the base are State-listed as either threatened or of special concern. The red-headed woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, is a state-threatened species. They prefer open woods, both upland and wetland that contain dead or dying trees and sparse undergrowth. The Northern parula, Setophaga americana, and hooded warbler, Setophaga citrina, are both species of special concern during the breeding season. Both breed in mature forests, with the Northern parula nesting in trees and the hooded warbler nesting in shrubs. Wood thrush, Hlyocichla mustelina, is a species of special concern during the breeding season. The wood thrushes breed throughout mature deciduous and mixed forests. Ideal habitat for them includes trees that are over 50 feet fall, a moderate understory of saplings and shrubs, an open forest floor with moist soil and decaying leaf litter, and water nearby. The brown thrasher, Toxostoma rufum, is a species of special concern during the breeding season. This species is often found in woodlands with dogwood, pitch pine, or scrub oak. Lastly, the eastern whip-poor-will, Antrostomus vociferus, is another species of special concern here in NJ during the breeding season. These birds breed in dry deciduous or evergreen forests with little or no underbrush, close to open areas.

by Harrison Hepding, CWF Biological Technician

The remote coastal salt marshes of the Delaware Bayshore harbor a unique and seldom observed ecosystem, boasting a rich natural history and diverse wildlife. To help prevent the loss of these valuable habitats and their inhabitants, CWF is participating in a partner-driven, multi-year project led by Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to enhance habitat quality and restore natural hydrology to salt marshes in Delaware and New Jersey. CWF is actively involved in the second season of biological monitoring at select Bayshore salt marshes targeted for restoration efforts designed to revegetate mudflats existing on old salt hay farms (read more about salt hay farming impacts here). At this stage of the project, our role is to gather important pre-restoration data to evaluate the anticipated impact and effectiveness of restoration techniques.

by: Larissa Smith, Senior Wildlife Biologist