Category: Wildlife News

By Kendall Miller, Project Coordinator

This fall, Conserve Wildlife Foundation partnered with Firmenich and GZA Environmental to provide pollinator plants to build an entirely new butterfly and rain garden on the Waldorf School campus in Princeton.

Firmenich volunteers stationed the plants around the garden and planted them on their annual global volunteer day. Plants include aromatic lavender, bright black-eyed susans and echinacea, shrubs like winterberry holly and spice bush, and trees such as common hackberry and sweet bay magnolia. These plants are all native to the local environment and provide essential nectar sources for pollinators.

From left to right, bee on lavender photo from Andrew Wilkinson through Flickr Creative Commons and eastern blue-tail visiting black-eyed susan Vicki Deloach through Flickr Creative Commons.

The space for the new garden was a previously fallow section of the school’s one acre garden. It was overgrown and somewhat sprawling until the project came about. Facilities manager Kevin Jones and gardening teacher Suzanne Cunningham both prepared the space for its transformation into a rich habitat of native plants.

Left. After planting, an unused and fallow area of the school’s garden is now home to several different types of native plants.

“Pollinators are in decline, which is very unfortunate since we rely on them as irreplaceable contributors to our health, our food, our environment, and our economy,” said David Wheeler, CWF Executive Director. “We are so thrilled to partner on this exciting and vital habitat project, particularly where the youngest generation can experience the beauty and vitality of nature first-hand.”

The native plants were provided by D&R Greenway Land Trust and Bountiful Gardens.  CWF is working to expand native pollinator habitat across the state with leading corporate sustainability partners such as Firmenich and Atlantic City Electric.

The Waldorf School of Princeton has built three butterfly gardens, which serve to create a safe environment for local pollinators, such as monarch and swallowtail butterflies, honeybees, and hummingbirds. To this end, a honeybee colony has made it’s home in one of their trees and has grown to host over 2,000 wild honeybees! The school has been honored by the National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat, as well The Bronze Award from Eco-Schools USA program. They are certified from Monarch Watch as a Monarch Waystation.

The Waldorf School of Princeton is founded on principles of sustainability, environmental stewardship, and community cooperation. The school’s major green initiatives reflect the needs of their beautiful campus and the ability of their students to participate in the greening process. The Waldorf School of Princeton has the area’s oldest school garden, over 30 years old, which houses crops, herbs, flowers, and fruit trees.

LEARN MORE

• Help Pollinators: Create a Bee-Friendly Backyard

Kendall Miller is a Project Coordinator with Conserve Wildlife Foundation.

Team works through threat of downpour to strengthen Delaware Bay’s resiliency and ecology

By Emily Hofmann, Project Coordinator

Although the weather was on the brink of being rainy and bleak, that did not stop a team of dedicated biologists and volunteers from building an oyster reef on the Delaware Bayshore this past Saturday. Committed volunteers and young people braved the weather to work alongside American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation to build a near-shore oyster reef at Dyers Cove, at the end of Dyers Creek Road in Newport, Cumberland County, New Jersey.

This reef – like the one at South Reeds Beach – was built to protect restoration work done after Hurricane Sandy and provide habitat. Constructed to prevent sand loss from wind-driven waves and create calmer water for spawning horseshoe crabs, this is the third of five such reefs that have been built by the Littoral Society and CWF. The conservation organizations will continue to monitor whether the reef breakwaters help reduce beach erosion and create calmer water for spawning horseshoe crabs.

Due to the heavy rain over the course of the week, the conditions were not ideal. Low-tide never went below waist deep, so it was hard to construct the reef accordingly. But that did not stop the team!

“Every oyster reef we’ve built so far on the Delaware Bay incorporated a different restoration strategy. We have had to adapt new strategies with what has worked best in the past and with what will realistically work based on site conditions. By blending the successes from the previous reefs with innovative approaches, we have been able to construct three reefs to date,” said Capt. Al Modjeski, Habitat Restoration Program Director for the American Littoral Society.

The bayshore beaches need restoration and improved resiliency so that horseshoe crabs have proper breeding grounds. Crab eggs feed migratory shorebirds, like the Red Knot, which stops in New Jersey each spring on its long journey from South America to the Arctic Circle. The Red Knot and other shorebirds help bring $11 million in tourist dollars to New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore region each year.

“New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore hosts an annual wildlife spectacle of global significance – the time-honored migration of Red Knots to reach the eggs of these ancient horseshoe crabs,” said David Wheeler, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey Executive Director. “Volunteer projects like this help connect the people of New Jersey with these endangered shorebirds and the largest population of horseshoe crabs in the world.”

“Originally, this event was a bare-bones volunteer effort of placing shell bags off the Dyers Cove eastern beach,” said Capt. Al. “But thanks to a donation from Betancourt, Van Hemmen, Greco & Kenyon, we will have a ‘shell-a-bration’ that celebrates the ecology and community of the Delaware Bayshore.”

In 2015, over 130 volunteers and veterans built an oyster reef at South Reeds Beach in the first annual Shell-a-Bration. That same year, Veterans Day on the Bay dedicated the reef to all veterans and highlighted veteran involvement in the effort to restore New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore. The second annual Shell-a-Bration, held in April 2016, saw a handful of dedicated volunteers brave a blizzard to build a reef at Moore’s Beach. The third annual Shell-Bration will be held this coming Spring 2017.

“There are many strategies to defend our Delaware Bayshore, but one of the best and most productive are these oyster reefs,” stated Dr. Larry Niles, a biologist with the American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. “They not only replicate a lost but important habitat on Delaware Bay – reefs once covered much of the bayshore – but they provide just enough protection to make a difference in how long our beaches persist against the unrelenting forces of nature. In a way, we are fighting nature with nature.”

The projects are being funded by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through their Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Grants Program, and are being developed in partnership with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Emily Hofmann is a project coordinator for Conserve Wildlife Foundation

LEARN MORE

• Learn more about our work to restore Delaware Bay at RestoreNJBayshore.org
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Delaware Bay Restoration Work
• Previous oyster reef building events along the Delaware Bay
• What goes on along the Delaware Bay

by Andrew Mead

It’s said that 10,000 hours of practice are needed to master one’s craft. James Fiorentino surely reached this milestone by age 15, when he was the youngest artist ever to have his work featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. At age 39, he has now refocused his attention on wildlife, which he started painting at 10 years old, and brings them to life in exquisite detail on canvas.

Conserve Wildlife Foundation is proud to present Rare Wildlife Revealed: The James Fiorentino Traveling Art Exhibition. We are kicking things off with a free premiere showing at D&R Greenway Land Trust on Friday September 30th from 5:30 to 7:30pm, which will run concurrently with Species on the Edge, our annual art and essay contest for 5th graders.

Showcasing twenty-five original watercolor paintings – from bobcats and diamondback terrapins to Pine Barrens tree frogs and little brown bats – Rare Wildlife Revealed celebrates local wildlife and brings attention to the very tangible steps we can take to save and strengthen our most vulnerable species.

Join us to meet James Fiorentino, as he walks you through the exhibit and shares his passion for the wildlife of New Jersey. CWF’s leading biologists and a live bird of prey will be on hand to educate and inspire you. We are also proud to announce special guest Tom Kean, former Governor of New Jersey, who shares a special relationship with James and conservation in New Jersey. Gov. Kean wrote the foreword to the art book accompanying the exhibit, with CWF’s David Wheeler writing the introduction. Light fare, wine and Flying Fish beer will be provided.

Fiorentino’s early interest in the outdoors was piqued by fishing trips with his father, a biology teacher, and excursions to his uncle’s farm in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Now a resident of Hunterdon County, James draws inspiration from his own backyard, “I am awed by what we see here: the eastern box turtle (a vulnerable species), great horned owl, pileated woodpeckers, foxes, hawks and butterflies. It’s an amazing backyard ecosystem.”

Fiorentino also draws inspiration from his work with The Raptor Trust of Millington, New Jersey, of which he is a trustee. It is there that he is able to study rare and endangered birds up close, even holding them, to capture their unique characteristics in beautiful detail. “We rehabilitate 4,000 birds a year and release about half that number,” says James.  “These wild birds have had a tremendous influence on me. I enjoy getting close to birds of prey, and it has brought me back to nature art.”

Speaking of Rare Wildlife Revealed: The James Fiorentino Traveling Art Exhibition, he shares, “I am excited about this premiere showing that supports two excellent organizations, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and D&R Greenway Land Trust. Because of their work, endangered wildlife who make their home in New Jersey will continue to have a supportive habitat.”

Fiorentino’s five-year-old son excitedly points to a butterfly outside his dining room window.  “That’s my favorite!”  He shows a series of colored drawings. “My dad draws the outline and I fill it in,” he explains.  Following in his own father’s footsteps, James is creating memories with his two young sons and inspiring a love for wildlife. We know this exhibit will inspire you too.

Andrew Mead is a communication intern with Conserve Wildlife Foundation.

LEARN MORE:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Partnership with Artist James Fiorentino
• Conservation Status Overview
• Threats to Wildlife
• Wildlife Species Spotlight

by David Wheeler, Executive Director and Corrine Henn, Communications Coordinator

Despite stereotypes to the contrary, New Jersey boasts some of the most extensive outdoor nature activities of anywhere in the nation. This past week’s New Jersey WILD Outdoor Expo proved it, introducing thousands of visitors to the many fun and important ways that people can experience nature and make a difference.

Conserve Wildlife Foundation offered some of these activities throughout the event, as well as information on how children can earn Girl & Boy Scout Badges.

One scout activity helps one of New Jersey’s signature raptors in its continuing recovery – the osprey. CWF Habitat Program Manager Ben Wurst led groups of adults and children in building osprey nesting platforms. Wurst and his team will eventually relocate these platforms to nesting spots where ospreys are most in need. The children had a lot of fun decorating their very own osprey nests, which we kept as authentic as possible with lots of man-made nesting material.

Nationally recognized artist James Fiorentino made a special appearance at CWF’s conservation tent on Saturday afternoon to sign posters for lucky visitors, in anticipation of the CWF traveling art exhibit, Rare Wildlife Revealed. The opening reception – which will unveil Fiorentino’s 25 striking images of rare wildlife species, and feature CWF biologists on hand to discuss the species – will be held on Friday September 30th at D&R Greenway Land Trust. Make sure you check out the show schedule and stop in to see his work!

Held by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the annual Expo is open to the public at the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township one weekend every September. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather all weekend, surrounded by people with an appreciation for nature.

Check out some additional pictures from the event below!

CWF PARTNERS WITH RENOWNED ARTIST JAMES FIORENTINO AND SOMERSET PATRIOTS BASEBALL TEAM IN WIN FOR WILDLIFE

by Emily Hofmann, Project Coordinator

It doesn’t get any more All-American than the national pastime, our national emblem, and a post-game show of fireworks – all part of the first-ever “Wild in the Ballpark” event. CWF partnered with nationally renowned sports and wildlife artist James Fiorentino, Studio 7 Fine Arts Gallery, and the Somerset Patriots to host this unique event at TD Bank Ballpark.

CWF Executive Director David Wheeler addressed the crowd of 3,500 from home plate with a speech about CWF, and his son threw the game’s honorary opening pitch. Wheeler then had the privilege of joining broadcaster Justin Antweil for an in-game interview on SPN.tv and WCTC radio throughout the fourth inning. And fans had the opportunity to meet Fiorentino as he signed wildlife posters at CWF’s guest booth.

The night kicked off “Rare Wildlife Revealed,” a traveling art exhibition partnership between Fiorentino and CWF. While his sports art has graced the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame and many other destinations, Fiorentino’s stunning wildlife watercolor portraits are the focus of this exhibition, which will visit over a dozen museums, galleries and other venues during the next three years.

The exhibition officially kicks off this week at D&R Greenway Land Trust, located at 1 Preservation Place in Princeton, New Jersey.  The opening premiere will be held on September 30^th at 5:30 to 7:30 PM. This free event will feature former Governor Tom Kean, along with CWF biologists who will discuss the rare wildlife species they work with – many of which are featured in Fiorentino’s paintings.

Watch below for highlights from the night and listen as Wheeler joined on the game broadcast to discuss the true beauty of New Jersey’s rare wildlife and its place in our changing state.

NEW, WEEKLY UPDATES FROM NEW JERSEY’S BEACH NESTING BIRD PROJECT TEAM

by Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager

There are many ways to gauge success for our beachnesting bird project. We look at how well our management tools work, the effectiveness of our partnerships, and how well our educational efforts work, to name a few qualitative measures we use. At some point, however, it comes down to cold hard numbers, how well did the birds do in a particular season and over the long-term. We are at that point in the season, and for the most part, I am happy to report it has been an excellent breeding year. I will caution that these are still preliminary figures, some quality checking of the data needs to be done before they are final, but the trends are clear.

First up are piping plovers. We will come in at ~115 pairs statewide, up modestly from the 108 pairs in 2015, and the second consecutive year of an increase after hitting our historic low of just 92 pairs in 2014. So, we have climbed back closer to our long-term average, but there is still room to improve. The really good news is our productivity this year – close to a statewide record at 1.37 chicks fledged per pairs – puts us in the position to continue our population increase. If trends hold, because piping plovers demonstrate high site (or region) fidelity, when we produce a lot of fledglings, our breeding population rises in the next year or two. With three straight years of well above average fledgling rates for New Jersey now in the books, our prospects look good in the short term for our breeding population levels.

Least terns and black skimmers, which nest in colonies, sometimes numbering hundreds (or even thousands), are more challenging to count and assess, but we had at least modest success this year for both species. As is typical, our least tern colonies were variable, with some completely failing and others being highly productive. The Monmouth County region, one of our strongholds for least terns in New Jersey, didn’t have one colony that was a standout but most of them had at least some success. In South Jersey, our two largest colonies at Holgate (EB Forsythe NWR) and Seaview Harbor were very successful and helped make up for losses and failures at other colonies. The majority of our state’s black skimmers are concentrated in one large colony at Seaview Harbor, and although skimmers are our latest nesters (so the season isn’t quite over for them), they appear to have been very successful there, which means a good season overall for the state.

We also track American oystercatchers, although only for the portion that nest on the barrier beaches and spits. Because the biggest percentage of oystercatchers in the state nest on back bay and marsh islands, we cannot determine true statewide population or productivity levels, but the population on the beach habitat appears to be rising in recent years. Typically breeding success is lower for oystercatchers on the beach habitat due to high levels of human disturbance and predators, but productivity has been relative high the past two years. Of particular note this year was Stone Harbor Point, where a record number of 27 pairs nested and produced over 30 fledglings.

The reality is our beachnester staff works just as hard in years when the birds do poorly, as when they do well like this year, but it is SO much more rewarding when we have a good season. So as we wrap up the season, we are all feeling in a bit of a celebratory mode now!

LEARN MORE

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Beach Nesting Bird Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Field Guide: American Oystercatcher
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Field Guide: Black Skimmer
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Field Guide: Least Tern
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Field Guide: Piping Plover

NEW, WEEKLY UPDATES FROM NEW JERSEY’S BEACH NESTING BIRD PROJECT TEAM

by Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager

For this week’s installment, I thought it would be fun to have you tag along with me on a day in the field, so you can get a sampling of what goes into our beach nesting bird program. Let’s call it, “A Day in the Life of a Beachnester.”

Today it is an early 4 am rise to beat the beach crowds and heat, as we are banding black skimmers at our Belmar colony. This is the first time our program has banded skimmers –  it is a collaborative effort with other organizations/agencies in both New York and New Jersey – we hope to find out more about their survival, longevity, and movement, both local and long distance. Everything goes well, we are able to corral and band about 35 chicks in less than an hour. This part of the day represents the science portion of the beach nesting bird project, science for the sake of study and a better understanding of our birds, but more importantly to gather information to help us manage and recover endangered species.

With no time to spare, it is now off to Leonardo along Sandy Hook Bay where CWF is hosting a summer wildlife experience for kids. No surprise, I am the guest today to teach the kids about beach nesting birds. I explain why piping plovers and American oystercatchers are at risk, and then give them a chance to use a high powered birding scope to try to read bands I have placed on decoy birds. We definitely have some budding biologists in the mix. Education is key to our project, unlike other endangered species that mostly live out of sight or reach, beachnesters spend the breeding season on the same beaches visited by millions of tourists and residents. If they are going to learn to “share the shore” with our endangered birds, outreach is essential.

Next up is a stop at Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park, one of our important nesting areas in Monmouth County. For most of the season we are erecting and adjusting fence to protect nesting areas, but today we are working with the park to reduce the fence, as many of our birds have successfully nested and started to leave the area. First we count and locate any remaining least terns – these surveys are the base of our project – we need this data to track population trends and seasonal productivity as metrics of progress towards recovery. Before we remove any fence at this site, we also conduct surveys of sea beach amaranth, an endangered plant that shares the beach with our nesting birds. We locate a few plants and that dictates how we readjust the fence, the plants need protection from trampling by beachgoers or vehicles used by the park to maintain their beach.

Coordination with municipalities or other land owners that host beach nesting birds is a critical part of our project, as their activities can impact nesting success as much as beachgoer’s recreational use of the beach. So there is one more stop today to assess whether a maintenance request can be granted in a way that won’t put birds at risk. That done, it is time to start the two hour drive back to our office in Cape May County. I am ready for a nap, but no luck, as the truck becomes a mobile office to take care of other unattended business (while someone else drives of course). There are calls with several other towns, check-ins with our seasonal staff members that are spread out all along the coast, and finally dealing with a broken down vehicle (not ours fortunately) and a person who refused to take their dog off a nesting site.

Back at the office, it is one last check of email, entering a little bit of the data we collected today, and finally time to head home. Every day is a little different, but this day has been a good cross-section of the range of things we do on the project. It is tempting to think we just pop up fence and signs and hope the birds do well, but protection and recovery of our endangered beach nesting birds requires a comprehensive strategy addressing all the factors that impact nesting success.

LEARN MORE

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Beach Nesting Bird Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Field Guide: Piping Plover

by Emily Hofmann, Assistant Communications Manager

Todd Pover, CWF’s Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager, recently sat down with NJTV’s Mary Alice Williams to discuss piping plover conservation on the anniversary of 30 years of federal listing. Listen in to what he had to say.

LEARN MORE

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Beach Nesting Bird Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation Field Guide: Piping Plover

NEW JERSEY’S HIDDEN COAST – EPISODE 6

by Emily Hofmann, Assistant Communications Manager

“Our work on the bayshore is not just about wildlife, it’s about people, and how keeping nature strong keeps us all strong in the face of disasters like hurricanes.”

We want to ensure that New Jersey’s Hidden Coast remains a vital part of our livelihood for generations to come.

This is the final episode to our video series, “New Jersey’s Hidden Coast.” Catch a glimpse of the Bay, the horseshoe crab at the center of the bay’s system, and the incredible relationship between horseshoe crabs and migratory birds, like the red knot. We reveal the real value of horseshoe crabs, the challenges to the ecosystem, and the potential for thriving regional economy along the bayshore. We will show Hurricane Sandy as a catalyst for decisive action and the work being done to rebuild the area for both people and wildlife.

Catch up on the previous episodes, here on our blog or on YouTube. Explore the use of “living shorelines” instead of bulkheads and the importance of marshes to the marine ecosystem. Discover the on-the-ground, grassroots efforts of the community to build oyster reeds alongside veterans. And examine the future of the Bay and the work that needs to be done to preserve our conservation successes year after year.

Discover Delaware Bay:

• Explore cultural sites and other points of interest in Cumberland County
• Grab a meal and a place to stay in Cape May County
• Where to see horseshoe crabs and shorebirds
• Learn more about our work to restore Delaware Bay at RestoreNJBayshore.org

Project RedBand alumni update 

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Ospreys are in the news again. This time it is not so pleasant news, or at least news that is hard to swallow for some, where an adult bald eagle predated a young osprey at Hog Island in Bremen, Maine. While it can be a traumatic thing to witness firsthand, it is pretty common where the range of ospreys and bald eagles overlap. We are only witnessing it because of technology. It can and has happened right here in New Jersey too. Last year, I found an adult female who had lost her wing. With no other way for that to happen (on the open saltmarsh, and her wing was gone), the only suspect is an attack by a bald eagle. As both the eagle and osprey population continue to grow, there will only be more interaction between the two species as they are competitors for food and bald eagles are opportunistic scavengers.

In other more local osprey news, on the afternoon of July 25th I got the most unfortunate news. Osprey 39/D was found dead near the nest where he fledged just two weeks ago. If you are not familiar with this bird, it is one who has graced the pages of the Asbury Park Press, The Sandpaper, and many other news networks online. His daring rescue was viewed over 2,800 times. 

Continue reading “A tribute to osprey 39/D”