Category: Raptors

by: Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

NJ Eagle Project Volunteers monitor nests during the nesting season. Since they spend a lot of time observing the nest and eagles behavior they get to see some pretty interesting things and many of them are able to document with photos. I asked volunteers to send me their three favorite photos from the eagle nesting season. Thank you to all the eagle project volunteers for their dedication

Enjoy the slideshow.

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Senior Biologist

The Princeton eagle nest collapsed sometime between Friday June 2nd and early Saturday June 3rd. The Princeton pair had two chicks that were ten weeks old and close to fledging. NJ Eagle Project volunteers, Kevin and Karin Buynie monitor this nest and went out as soon as they were notified. When they arrived one chick was perched up in the tree and one was on the ground. The grounded chick was taken to Mercer County Wildlife Center for evaluation. The next day Kevin returned to the nest site and found the second chick now on the ground, so that chick was also captured and taken to MCWC. Both chicks were found to be uninjured and ready to return to the nest. A plan was formed to build a new nest in the tree and renest the two chicks. On June 11th, a group of volunteers and staff from Mercer County Wildlife Center met at the nest site. John Heilferty, retired ENSP Chief, climbed the nest tree and built the nest as volunteers helped to send up the needed materials. Diane Nickerson with the MCWC brought the two chicks, which were banded with Green NJ band H/39 and H/38 and silver federal bands. The chicks were then placed back up in the nest. One of them decided to fledge and the other perched on a branch near the nest. The recently fledged chick did return to the nest that evening and the second chick fledged June 16th. Thank you to Karin and Kevin Buynie, Diane Nickerson and volunteers Daniel and Hope with Mercer County Wildlife, John Heilferty, Kim Korth, and Roger Smith.

Scroll through the slideshow to view photos from the renest.

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Senior Biologist

For the second year in a row there haven’t been eagles nesting on the Three Bridges platform in view of eagle cam. The pair used the platform when it was first installed in 2021 and viewers got to watch the two chicks grow up and fledge. In 2022 & 2023 the pair have nested in a tree nest instead of the platform. While it’s disappointing that the pair didn’t use the platform, there was still plenty of avian action at the tower this season. There were several immature eagles visiting the platform this season, perhaps in the next few years one of these eagles will pair up and use the platform.

Slideshow: Highlights from the 2023 Three Bridges Eagle cam season

The eagle cam will be turned off April 1st.

Thank you to all the viewers who watch and enjoy this eagle cam. During the 2023 season there were 22,981 views of the cam. Thank you to the the eagle project volunteers, especially Mary Ellen Hill, who grab screenshots from the cam. We also thank PSE&G for hosting and supporting the eagle camera.

See you next season!

• Three Bridges Eagle Cam
• 2021 Three Bridges blog posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 , Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 & Part 7.

by Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

The Duke Farms eagle cam is extremely popular and just this week viewers watched as two chicks hatched. These two chicks will be watched by a multitude of viewers over the next few months as they grow to become juveniles and leave the nest. As with anything in Nature, this pair has had it’s ups and downs. I wanted to summarize the history of this pair and nest. The male is a NJ banded bird (A/59) and has been in the pair from the beginning, he is 23 years old. Interestingly, there have been several females in the pair over the years. Thank you to Duke Farms for hosting the cam and their tech team that keeps it running smoothly when issues arise. The cam location has changed as well as the cam itself over the years and the quality of the picture has improved.

Continue reading “History of The Duke Farms Eagle Pair”

by: CWF Senior Biologist, Larissa Smith

Bald Eagles are the earliest nesting birds in New Jersey. Two pairs of eagles laid eggs in December of 2022 and those nests have already hatched. Those pairs are the really early “birds”, so far 73 pairs of eagles are incubating (laid eggs). Nest Monitors are keeping an eye on over 300 known eagle territories in NJ, the bulk of which lay their eggs in February to mid-March. Eagles incubate for approximately 35 days before hatching occurs. The female does most of the incubating the male also takes over the incubation duties so the female can go out and hunt. One hundred and fifty nest monitors keep track of the eagle nests and report on incubation. It can be quite difficult to tell when an eagle is in the nest incubating. Sometimes all the nest monitor can see is just the top of the head pop up every now and then. One way to determine incubation at a nest is to witness a “nest exchange”, where the male and female switch incubation duty.

Over the next few months as the eagles incubate and hatch chicks, they are very sensitive to disturbance. Nest Monitors are trained and experienced and only view the nest from a location that doesn’t disturb the eagles. Monitors use high powered scopes and cameras to determine the status of the nest. While it’s always a great sight to see an eagle, please respect them and view from a distance. To see what goes on in an eagles nest close up check out the Duke Farms eagle cam. The pair is currently incubating two eggs and hatching of the first is expected around February 24th. You can also watch a pair of eagles at The Three Bridges eagle cam. They aren’t yet nesting and we’re not sure where they will nest this season, but they have been making frequent appearances at the nest tower.

• Bald Eagle Project
• Nesting Bald Eagle in New Jersey
• Three Bridges Eagle Cam
• Duke Farms Eagle Cam

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Senior Biologist

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Fish and Wildlife have released the 2022 New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report. The 2022 eagle nesting season was a record year for New Jersey’s nesting eagle population with 250 active nests identified.

The 250 active nests (meaning the nests produced eggs) represent an increase of 28 active nests since 2021. Of those nests, 83 percent were successful and collectively produced 335 offspring. The productivity rate for nests with known outcomes was 1.42 young per nest, which is above the range required to maintain healthy population numbers. The 2022 NJ Bald Eagle Report includes details on the nesting season, resightings and recoveries.

These numbers could not have been achieved or documented without the dedicated efforts of the
150 New Jersey Eagle Project volunteers who conduct the majority of the nest-observation work
vital to tracking the population and nest distribution of our state’s Bald eagles in all 21 counties.
CWF is honored to manage these volunteers in partnership with the Endangered and Nongame
Species Program and thanks them for their invaluable service.

CWF would also like to thank our partners, who make our bald eagle conservation work
possible, including PSE&G, Wells Fargo Advisors, Wakefern Food Corp./ShopRite Stores,
Mercer County Parks, Wildlife Center Friends, the American Eagle Foundation, and the
Zoological Society of New Jersey.

• NJ DEP Eagle Report News Release
• NJ Bald Eagle Project
• Three Bridges Eagle Cam
• Duke Farms Eagle Cam

by: Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

2022 was a banner year for NJ’s nesting eagles. A record high of 250 pairs were active with 335 young eagles fledging. The 2022 Annual Eagle Report will be posted after it is officially released by the NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

The 2023 eagle nesting season is off to a good start with five pairs of eagles already incubating. The earliest started on December 22nd, 2022. You can get a close up and personal look at an eagles nest with NJ’s two eagle cams. The Duke Farms eagle pair have been busy preparing their nest. Last season they laid their first egg on January 17th. The Three Bridges eagle cam is up and running and the pair has been hanging out at the platform even copulating. Last season the pair used a nest in a tree instead of the platform. So we don’t know which nest they pair will decide to use this season, but it should be interesting.

This is a great time of year to see eagles throughout New Jersey. Not only are NJ’s nesting pairs around there are also wintering eagles and young eagles that aren’t yet nesting.

If you want to learn more about eagles check out two upcoming eagle festivals:

Meadowlands Eagle Festival January 15th

Cumberland County Eagle Festival February 4th

CWF will have a table at both and we look forward to seeing you there.

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Senior Biologist

It’s always a good day when we get a resighting of a NJ banded eagle, especially if it was one that had a transmitter attached. On November 1st, 2022 “Oran” was resighted in Stone Harbor, Cape May County, NJ by John Kauterman. This is about 22 miles from where he had fledged along the Delaware Bay in Cumberland County in 2015.

On May 18th, 2015 a remote eagle nest on the Delaware Bay was visited by biologists with the NJ Bald Eagle Project, from both the NJ ENSP & CWF. There were two eight week old chicks in the nest both and we banded both. The male, banded NJ Green band E-17, was outfitted with a transmitter and he was named “Oran”.

Continue reading “E-17 “Oran” Sighted Alive & Well”

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist

New Jersey’s eagle chicks were all fledged by the end of July, 2022. It was a successful nesting season for NJ’s eagles with 335 young eagles fledged. The results of the season will be available in December when the annual eagle report is published.

NJ Eagle Project nest monitors have reported that some eagles were seen working on their nests in September. NJ’s pairs don’t migrate and stay in NJ outside of the nesting season though they aren’t as tied to the nest. Each pair is different in when they will start returning and working on their nests for the 2023 season. One pair that is watched by thousands of viewers, is the Duke Farms eagle pair. The pair has been making appearances at the nest, though there are periods where they are not seen at the nest which is normal for this time of year. Nest monitor Diane Cook got this screen shot of both adults at the nest on Tuesday November 8th.

Diane reported the pair spent the night at the nest before flying off in the morning.

In 2022 the female at Duke Farm’s laid the first egg on January 17th, so we’re still over two months away from possible incubation. The majority of NJ’s eagle pairs won’t lay eggs until February.

Duke Farms Eagle Cam

Diane Cook, CWF volunteer

As a volunteer for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ and NJ’s Wildlife Conservation Corps I monitor bald eagle, osprey, and kestrel nests for the state. Kestrel monitoring is new to me this year. They are North
America’s smallest falcon. I enjoy watching them hunt, hovering over the grasslands
and open fields. Monitors watch and record milestones of the nesting season. Fledge
Day is the end of our season and what we hope to witness.
Friday – I knew the chicks would be fledging soon, and hoped I had not missed it. I sat in
my vehicle and watched for just over 3 hours! I could hear noise from inside the box as
wings were being flapped and exercised. For the longest time, I thought one had
already fledged since I was just seeing one perched in the box opening.

Continue reading “A Kestrel Story”