Category: Wildlife News

by: Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

This shorebird season 43 stewards worked a total of 1,374 hours over a two week period from May 9th thru May 25th.  Stewards were posted at restricted access beaches in Cape May and  Cumberland Counties.  Stewards help to protect the migrating shorebirds that stop over on the Delaware Bay to feed on the horseshoe crab eggs.  They keep people off of the restricted beaches by educating them about the importance of letting the shorebirds feed undisturbed so that they can gain the weight needed to continue their journey north to their breeding ground’s. Continue reading “NJ Delaware Bay Shorebird Stewards: Protectors and Educators”

This spring, we have been conducting osprey nest surveys to better understand nesting outcomes across New Jersey’s coast. These surveys are focused on coastal colonies, where signs of food stress have become increasingly evident in recent years due to the scarcity of Atlantic menhaden, the primary prey of nesting ospreys.

Continue reading “Photo from the Field: Signs of Food Stress”

The 2025 nesting season for ospreys in New Jersey began as others. Breeding adults returned to their nests in March and April, pairs reunited, and nesting activity got underway on schedule. But as the season progressed, it became clear that this year would be anything but typical.

A nor’easter in late May marked a turning point. Lasting nearly three days, the storm brought strong winds, heavy rain, and coastal flooding. Conditions that made it extremely difficult for ospreys to find food. As observed in previous years, these types of storms are known to disrupt foraging in the ocean, and in many cases, lead to brood reduction or nest abandonment. However, weather alone does not explain what we observed.

Continue reading “2025: A Year of Challenges for Coastal Nesting Ospreys”

Each spring, wildlife enthusiasts across New Jersey — and beyond — tune in to watch one of the state’s most exciting conservation success stories unfold in real time: the Union County Falcon Cam. This season, viewers witnessed an unusual change when the nesting female was replaced mid-season. What makes this especially remarkable is that the new female is now incubating the five eggs laid by the previous female.

Hosted by the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey in partnership with Union County, the Falcon Cam offers a live look at a nesting pair of peregrine falcons as they court, lay eggs, and raise their young.

Continue reading “An Unusual Season for Union County’s Falcons”

In late March, I set out to repair an osprey nest platform on Barnegat Bay — one I had scouted during the winter while hiking trails in Eno’s Pond County Park. I recently learned that this platform has been in place since at least 2012, when a viewing blind once stood nearby, though it was reportedly destroyed during Superstorm Sandy. Continue reading “Photo from the Field: A Setback That Sparked Renewed Determination”

by: Senior biologist, Larissa Smith

The 2025 NJ Bald Eagle Project report developed by the NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey , has been released.  In 2025 the NJ eagle population had a decline in the number of active (laid eggs) nest from 264 active nests in 2024 to 251 in 2025.  The decline is partly due to the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Testing confirmed that 28 of 56 bald eagle mortalities last year (for which testing was completed) were the result of HPAI.

Continue reading “2025 New Jersey Bald Eagle Report”

Just yesterday, as February comes to a close, I saw my first pair of American oystercatchers on breeding territory on Long Beach Island. The first piping plover of the season will likely be sighted in New Jersey sometime next week or so. Still, as we remain in the midst of one of the harshest and snowiest winters in a long time here on the New Jersey coast, it’s hard to believe that CWF staff will be back out at Horseshoe Island in just over a month to start biological monitoring for the 2026 beach nesting bird season.

Continue reading “Gearing Up for Year 5 of Bird Monitoring at Horseshoe Island”

The Duke Farms eagle pair are beloved by cam viewers who watched them lay three eggs in January and incubate during two weeks of freezing cold weather. Unfortunately, one of the eggs prematurely cracked  on February 20th and wasn’t viable.

Continue reading “One Strong and Feisty Chick at the Duke Farms Eagle Nest”

In our last American oystercatcher Re-sight Round Up, we checked in with some NJ breeders on their wintering grounds further south. This time, we’re switching gears to focus on some recent banded bird sightings in New Jersey! New Jersey hosts both staging and wintering oystercatcher flocks, and is generally considered to represent the northernmost boundary of the wintering range for oystercatchers on the East Coast. This fall, CWF biologists and volunteers conducted weekly ground surveys to track locations and numbers of the staging/wintering roost of American oystercatchers at Holgate Unit of Edwin F. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (“Holgate”) as part of a new NFWF-funded pilot study that includes researching marsh-nesting oystercatchers in the surrounding back-bay marsh habitats within Great Bay Boulevard Wildlife Management Area. 

We identified 25 unique banded individuals throughout the course of the survey period, many of which were recorded in the roost multiple times from October to December. Of the 25 banded individuals, most birds were originally banded in New Jersey and New York (nine birds from each state), five were banded in the South (three in Virginia and two in Georgia), and two were banded in New England states. This Re-sight Roundup highlights just some of the interesting stories we were able to uncover in the band record database. 

Continue reading “Re-sight Round Up: American Oystercatchers at Holgate”

As I finalize our annual report summarizing last year’s data, I often find myself looking back to reflect and compare trends over time. I’ve worked with ospreys long enough to have witnessed their population in New Jersey more than double. Their recovery has long been a clear sign of improving ecological health in our coastal waters.

Continue reading “A Tale of Two Seasons: Ospreys and Menhaden on the Mullica River”