New Jersey’s Piping Plover population is at its lowest levels in decades, which raises serious concerns, but they also had one of their most successful years ever statewide in producing chicks. There is hope this will jump start the population again. To read the full article, click here.
Jersey City Magazine and the Hudson Reporter spotlight CWF’s beloved Falcon Cam in this month’s issue. The webcam, on the roof of 101 Hudson Street in downtown Jersey City, boasts countless dedicated viewers who just can’t stop watching!
by Stephanie Feigin, CWF Program Coordinator
This marks the second story in Shorebird Week! Our first blog post, on Tuesday, introduced the film “A Race Against Time” and directed you to a free viewing of the film on our website. Today’s blog post, will highlight an incredible news story about a resighting of the iconic Red knot B95 on the Delaware Bay! And tomorrow’s blog post, will highlight volunteer’s incredible efforts to save stranded horseshoe crabs!
This story highlights the iconic Red knot, B95, being resighted on the Delaware Bay. B95, nicknamed Moonbird, is at least 20 years old, which makes him the oldest Red knot on record. He received his nickname because he has flown the equivalent of the distance between the earth and the moon and at least halfway back in his lifetime.
One of Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s partners, Manomet Center for Conservation Science, highlights this bird in an fascinating news story about his resighting and the research efforts being done by the CWF biologist Dr. Larry Niles and Amanda Dey, senior biologist with the Endangered and Non-game Species Division of N.J. Fish and Wildlife and their team to restore the Delaware Bay.
To read this news story, click here
For more information on CWF’s Shorebird project and the research being done, visit our website.
And make sure to check out the film about CWF’s efforts to restore the Delaware Bay Shore beaches, “A Race Against Time” as well!
by Stephanie Feigin, CWF Program Coordinator
This week for Animal Week, we will be spotlighting Shorebirds in the Media! Endangered red knots, ruddy turnstones, and other magnificent birds travel from South America to the Canadian Arctic during their migration, and make an important stopover along the Delaware Bay Shore from May to June.
The 2014 Shorebird film, “A Race Against Time” celebrates the Delaware Bay Beach Restoration
The film can now be enjoyed for free on our website:
Click here to enjoy this film!
Greener New Jersey Productions this spring produced a 30-minute film documenting the ambitious campaign by Conserve Wildlife Foundation, American Littoral Society and other partners to restore Delaware Bayshore beaches decimated by Hurricane Sandy. This project ensures that the at-risk horseshoe crabs and globally migrating shorebirds relying on this habitat can survive.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish & Wildlife, and New Jersey Audubon have partnered for many years to conduct research on Delaware Bay shorebirds in order to prevent their decline.
the story of “Jersey Girl”
Larissa Smith: Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Manager
Each year biologists with the NJ ENSP & CWF band chicks at eagle nests though out NJ. Each chick gets a green (NJ) band on one leg and a silver federal band on the other. The Green band indicates that the bird was banded in NJ and the letter over the number combination is recorded so we know where and when. There are at least 20 pairs of eagles nesting in NJ where at least one of the adults is a NJ banded bird. Over the past few years we’ve gotten reports of NJ birds seen in other states and if we’re lucky (and someone has a really good camera) the green band can be read.
We recently heard from Linda Oughton who lives in PA. She has a pair of eagles nesting near her home and was able to get a photo of the perched female with green band B/64. She was able to tell us that this pair has been nesting for the past three years near her development in Montgomery County and raised and fledged four young for two of those years. They were active this season and had two chicks, which unfortunately didn’t survive due to the severe winter weather. Before nesting in this tree they nested for three years at another location where they raised seven young. The banded eagle is a female which is known because she is larger than her mate (female eagles are larger than the males).
B/64 was one of three chicks banded in 2004 at the Hopewell West nest which is located in Cumberland County along the Cohansey River. Linda has named B/64 “Jersey Girl” and she keeps everyone in the development where she lives informed about the nest. No doubt that this former NJ bird is well loved and protected.
CWF’s Todd Pover was spotlighted in a recent NPR piece on the challenges of protecting endangered beach nesting birds along the New Jersey coastline.
Listen to the Story and Read More
“Absolutely anyone can be a birder.” says Ben Kingsley in the new movie, A Birder’s Guide to Everything, directed by Rob Meyer, a coming of age comedy about teenage bird watchers.
This main-stream movie is an important public engagement tool to raise awareness for the conservation of birds and to hopefully excite some people into picking up a set of binoculars and start the addicting hobby of bird watching.
The Fledging Birders Institute will be hosting a special screening and meet the director event on Thursday, April 24th at the AMC Deptford 8 Theatre in Deptford, NJ beginning at 6:30 pm.
More info, and to purchase tickets, can be found here.
Yesterday, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ and NJ Endangered & Nongame Species Program staff released a rehabilitated bald eagle back into the wilds of NJ. Eagles, as well as other raptors, have made a huge comeback in NJ, down to just a few birds in the 1980’s. Today, CWF, with the help of volunteers, monitors approx. 150 nests.
Check out the ABC News video of the Bald Eagle Released in Gloucester County
By Charlene Smith, Program Coordinator
On a cold blustery January morning I decided to brave the elements in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the Snowy Owl irruption occurring in our area. Since as early as December, the owls have been showing up all along the east coast hanging out by our beaches as it is similar to the barren habitat that they are accustomed to in the Canadian Arctic. The reason why we are seeing so many snowy owls this year is because of good productivity on their breeding grounds. There was a huge supply of lemmings this past summer that created an abundance of young. Most likely the owls that we have been seeing are juveniles who don’t have their own territories and have moved south possibly looking for food.
On my 45 minute ride out to Sandy Hook, I keep thinking that I was crazy to be doing this. What are the chances that I could spot this rare owl on a 7 mile stretch of Barrier Island? The odds were against me but I had a hunch on where to look. I arrived at Sandy Hook, grabbed my newly purchased Nikon binoculars and my Canon camera and took off in the hopes of finding an owl and catching a few shots.
As I walked along the paved path that runs along the water, I scanned the tops of the buildings for a large white bird. I noticed a few people gazing up and pointing to something in the distance. I hit the jackpot! I quickly came upon the group and locked my binoculars to the top of a chimney in absolute amazement and disbelief. There sat perched a beautiful snowy owl with faded barring, its eyes half closed, half open. With every noise it would rotate its head around in the direction of the intruding sound. We patiently waited for the owl to take off in flight and when it decided to move, we gasped in awe. It flew over to some pilings by the water and waddled cautiously up the wooden beams, occasionally starring back at the crowd of onlookers. It was clearly annoyed by the group watching its every move and in an instant it decided to fly off while the people with their telephoto lens and binoculars followed suit. I was chilled to the bone and couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. As much as I wanted to follow the owl I decided it best to appreciate the wildlife from afar and respect its boundaries. I was grateful for the experience and that I could proudly tout that I saw a snowy owl in New Jersey of all places. This is a once in a lifetime occurrence and I recommend taking the time to find a snow owl, but onlookers beware – Keep your distance and respect the owls boundaries.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is keeping track of snowy owl sightings with their eBird project, a real-time online bird checklist program. Another interesting site is Project SNOWstorm, a site dedicated to collecting important data regarding this season’s snowy owl irruption. Scientists are affixing solar-powered GPS transmitters to snowy owls, which records the owls’ location every 30 minutes via cell phone towers. Almost nothing is known about the local and landscape-level movements of snowy owls on their wintering grounds, nor about their nocturnal hunting activity and range size so information from these transmitters will help to discover more about their habits and habitats.
by Larissa Smith: Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Coordinator
The New Jersey Bald Eagle nesting population is on the rise with 148 nesting pairs monitored in 2013 and 177 young fledged. As the eagle nesting population increases so do the incidences of eagles nesting in close proximity to humans and human activity. It’s exciting to have a pair of bald eagles nesting and people often want to get a closer look but this can cause disturbance to the nesting eagles and have detrimental impacts. Over half of NJ’s eagle nests are located on private property which makes it important to advise and educate land owners, land managers about living with eagles.
To address this issue CWF received a grant to produce two informational brochures about co-existing with bald eagles in NJ. One is a general brochure for anyone interested in eagles in NJ and the other is specifically for landowners/land managers with eagle nests located on their property. The brochures contain information on eagle history, living with eagles as you neighbors, how to be a good eagle watcher or steward, as well as phone numbers for information and law enforcement. As the eagle project volunteers monitor their nests they will have these brochures available to educate interested people.