Category: Wildlife News

Story and photos by Meredith Wray, CWF Biological Technician

Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) joined New Jersey Fish and Wildlife (NJFW), The Wetlands Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to band royal terns for the third consecutive year in the Garden State this summer. Nesting on the protected shores of Horseshoe Island just outside Little Egg Inlet, these royal terns represent the northernmost colony in the Western Hemisphere for the species. During the 2025 nesting season, the island supported nearly 1,500 breeding adults and successfully fledged 405 chicks. Today, Horseshoe Island remains one of New Jersey’s most important coastal bird nesting sites and is on track to surpass last year’s totals as we begin to finalize data for the 2026 season. Continued management of the island is made possible thanks to the pivotal management rights agreement established in 2022 between the Tidelands Resource Council and NJFW.

Led by NJFW, this year’s banding initiative was a true team effort. Scientists, biologists, conservationists, and technicians from each organization brought their expertise and passion to every step of the process: transporting supplies to the island, orchestrating the safe handling of all birds, keeping watch over chicks, measuring weight, bill length, and wingspan, and carefully recording data.

Royal Tern Quick Facts:

1. Royal terns are seabirds in the Laridae family — which also includes gulls and skimmers — sporting a bright orange bill and shaggy black crest. Highly social by nature, they nest in dense colonies on sandy beaches and isolated islands.
2. Flightless chicks gather into large groups called crèches, almost like a bird daycare, where safety in numbers helps protect them from predators while adults forage. Even in a noisy crowd of thousands, each parent has the special ability to recognize its own chick’s voice when returning with food.

   

3. Royal terns primarily feed on small fish and are known for their precise diving abilities, soaring 20–30 feet before plunging into the water to snag a meal. They can be seen foraging in coastal waters, estuaries, and marshes.
4. Because their breeding range in New Jersey is limited, royal terns are especially vulnerable to habitat loss, human disturbance, and severe coastal storms — which is why their population is closely tracked through ongoing monitoring and banding efforts like this one.
5. Royal terns are typically banded as chicks, shortly before they’re able to fly. At this stage, they have left the nest but have not fledged yet, making it the safest time to handle, process, and release them.

But why is this work so important? And what exactly is bird banding?

What it is: Bird banding is a long-term research tool that helps scientists map migration routes, estimate survival, monitor population health, and better understand how birds respond to changing environmental conditions. By giving each bird a unique identifier, researchers can follow an individual throughout its lifetime, sometimes for more than 30 years!

The bands: Each chick receives two bands: a numbered aluminum band from the federal Bird Banding Laboratory on one leg and a colored plastic band with a unique alphanumeric code on the other. The metal band serves as the bird’s permanent identification number, while the colored band can be read from a distance with binoculars or a spotting scope. The colored band allows researchers and birders alike to identify individual birds from a safe distance without having to capture them again.

How it helps: Every reported sighting throughout a bird’s lifetime provides critical information, even if it might seem insignificant. Data collected helps biologists identify important breeding sites, determine seasonal beach closures, implement habitat protections, and track ongoing population trends.

Conservation success stories like this depend on a network of dedicated partners working toward a common goal, so we look forward to gaining more valuable insights about the New Jersey royal tern population as a result of this collaborative effort. We encourage birders of all ages and levels to keep their eyes peeled for royal terns and their little blue bands! You can make a positive impact by reporting your sightings to NJFW Senior Zoologist Emily Heiser at Emily.Heiser@dep.nj.gov.

Special thanks to Rutgers University Marine Field Station for assisting in the safe transportation of staff to Horseshoe Island.

All handling and banding of birds was completed for research purposes and under appropriate state and federal permits.

by: CWF Senior Biologist, Larissa Smith

Eagle nest monitors kept watch over bald eagle nests throughout New Jersey during the 2026 nesting season. As with every nesting season there were ups and downs as some pairs failed to hatch eggs or their young didn’t survive, while other pairs successfully raised young. I asked the nest monitors to send me two of their favorite photos from the season. Below is the collection of their excellent photos.

All photos were taken by the trained volunteers at safe distance so as not to disturb the eagles.

Thank you to the nest monitors for providing the photos. Thank you to all the eagle project volunteers for their efforts to protect New Jersey’s eagle population. Continue reading “The 2026 NJ Bald Eagle Nesting Season in Photos”

by NJ Eagle Project nest monitor, Barb McKee

In central Jersey, where I live, the banding of eaglets has taken place at several nests. The nest monitor reports on the chicks growth, so that the eaglets can be safely banded around six weeks of age.  E83 a male, was banded in 2019 at the Three Bridges tower nest with at least four of my fellow central Jersey Eagle Project Volunteers present.

In central New Jersey a group of  six Eagle Project volunteers will support, cooperate and share nest news with each other. Occasionally, we spot a banded sub-adult from a local nest, and that is cause for great jubilation. H/22, banded at the Mt Airy nest in 2022 was spotted along the South Branch of the Raritan near the Three Bridges tower nest in May of 2025. Another eagle E88, “Duke” was banded in 2019 at Duke Farms and fitted with a solar tracker. Being able to follow his movements taught us that sub adults spend considerable time within 50 miles or so, of their natal nest, even landing in the nest tree. The parents seem to tolerate such visits until a new season produces eggs and tiny chicks. I have seen sub adults at or perched near nests that I observe while the adult pair was quite tolerant. I have wondered if the “visitor” was an offspring of the pair.

My fellow central NJ volunteers and I hoped to find a new nest with a locally banded adult and its mate. For as long as I have been an Eagle Project volunteer, I have watched and reported on the nest at Bulls Island State Park. So, I was absolutely thrilled in early 2026 when I was able to read the band of the new male at the Bulls Island nest: E/83.

The distance, from the Three Bridges nest to Bulls Island nest is 14 miles.

Even more exciting, E/83 and his mate successfully fledged triplets this season! It will be interesting to see what happens at the Bulls Island nest next season.

Photos and/or history and encouragement by Diane Cook, Joe Mish, Dan Kroon and Mary Ellen Hill

My summer has been filled with death and despair.

Every. Single. Day. I have seen or heard about osprey pairs that lost young to starvation. I now carry their stories with me, hoping that somehow they will be okay.

It is not okay.

Ospreys are now in decline in New Jersey. Their remarkable recovery, made possible by reducing pollution, protecting nesting habitat, and conserving our natural resources, is now in jeopardy. We are not alone. At nests all along the mid-Atlantic coast, ospreys are no longer producing enough young to sustain the statewide population, largely because of the scarcity of their primary prey: Atlantic menhaden.

 

Continue reading “My Summer of Death and Despair”

Every summer, volunteers across New Jersey spend their evenings watching the skies as bats emerge from their roosts. Through the Summer Bat Count, these observations help us better understand the status of New Jersey’s bat populations.

The Summer Bat Count is a volunteer-driven program led by the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the New Jersey Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP). Volunteers monitor known summer bat roosts such as attics, barns, bat houses, and churches, and count the number of bats that emerge at dusk.

Continue reading “Photos from the Field – Summer Bat Count”

Earlier this spring, CWF received a grant from The Boston Foundation to study a new predator exclosure design to assist with piping plover recovery.  Exclosures or nest “cages” have been used over the past several decades to protect plover eggs from predators such as red fox and crows. Although nest exclosures greatly increase hatch success, they can also increase the likelihood of an adult being killed by a predator. Unfortunately, over the years, New Jersey has struggled with high adult mortality associated with the traditional round exclosures. 

Continue reading “CWF Receives Grant to Study a New Piping Plover Predator Exclosure Design”

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”