Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) awarded Joint Base McGuire, Fort Dix, and Lakehurst (JB MDL) with the Military Conservation Partnership Award for outstanding efforts to protect both State and Federally listed threatened and endangered species. The award recognizes significant natural resource management achievements by military installations, particularly the conservation of important wildlife and their habitats through cooperative work with USFWS and other partners. CWF has been a major partner on many projects at JB MDL spanning from grassland habitat restoration and monitoring, myotis bat surveys and tracking, and a full mammal inventory.
Over the past six years, long term efforts have been ongoing to expand and protect grassland habitat at the McGuire Airfield. So far, roughly 600 acres have been restored to native warm season grasses with another 100 acres to be completed by next spring. The planting of species like little bluestem, sideoats grama, and blue grama has helped to create grassland bird nesting habitat. Grassland bird surveys are conducted each summer to monitor success of species like upland sandpiper and bobolink.
Depending on where you look and who you talk to, the fate of many osprey nests might bring tears to your eyes. Since a nor’easter impacted the coast with strong onshore winds for several days, young ospreys have been dying of starvation in plain sight. Over the past week, several reports of adults who abandoned their nests with young have been received. This year, weather has impacted the availability of fish and outcomes of nests in the Garden State.
Kelly Scott, Resource Interpretive Specialist 3, NJ State Park Service holds Bayley before releasing her into the wild.
This past Monday I joined several partners to release a very special northern diamondback terrapin back into the wild. This adult female terrapin had been illegally collected and sold into the black market pet trade. Over the past couple years we have been working on a plan to get her back the wild.
Each of these partners, including Dr. John Wnek, MATES/Project Terrapin, Kelly Scott, NJ State Park Service, Brian Zarate, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife played an important role in her successful release (you can read about each of their roles in a story by Dr. Wnek below). We gathered in the parking lot of a former marina which CWF & NJDEP Fish & Wildlife converted into suitable nesting habitat for female terrapins. For all of us, I think it’s safe to say that it was bittersweet to see her swim off into the brackish water. She was home.
Princeton eaglets in their new nest; photo by John Heilferty
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.
Princeton nest after collapse
Remains of nest
eaglets at Mercer County Wildlife Center
eaglets at MCWC
Nest tree
nest building materials
John Heilferty climbing tree
John working on nest platform
nest construction
platform finished
adding sticks
finished nest
Kevin Buynie with eaglet
Diane Nickerson, Kevin Buynie and Karin Buynie band the eaglet
I recently attended my first career fair at Stockton University. When asked if I would attend, I felt like I couldn’t say no, as I am currently seeking at least 5-6 student interns or seasonal field technicians to assist with several wildlife conservation projects. At first, I wasn’t sure what I could display to draw attention to our table and prospective summer jobs working with rare wildlife.. Then it hit me. I bring what I use when working with wildlife in the field!
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.
We’re proud to release results of the 2022 New Jersey Osprey Project Survey, which documented the greatest number of nesting ospreys in the history of the project. Overall, surveys by staff and loyal volunteers recorded a total of 733 occupied nests throughout the state. The majority of ospreys (83%) continue to nest along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey with the remainder nesting along the Delaware Bay and inland locations. Surveys recorded the outcome of 73% of the known population, which allows us to present these results with confidence.
photo by NJ Eagle Project Nest Monitor, Paul Lenzo
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.
One of the three fledges from the 2022 Manville nest: photo by NJ Nest Monitor, Rose Joy
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.
The results are in! It wasn’t a great year for upland sandpipers at the McGuire Airfield. Numbers of breeding pairs at this location have decreased to an estimated two pairs. Numbers can be variable from year to year so there is still hope for better news in 2023.
Upland sandpipers typically require a minimum of 100 acres for breeding habitat and so large expanses of open, grassy land is a high priority. Over the past five years, long term efforts have been ongoing to complete a large-scale grassland restoration at the McGuire Airfield. So far, roughly 500 acres have been converted to native warm season grasses with another 100 acres to be completed by next spring. Our goal is to help create and maintain grassland bird nesting habitat for Upland sandpipers and other species.
Osprey 98/K with prey over Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. May 2022. Photo by Bob Peal.
I have been finalizing osprey band re-sightings and encounters from last year and one particular band number stood out. It was 98/K, who was re-sighted by Bob Peal during his visit to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park on May 17, 2022. There he photographed a variety of wildlife, including several ospreys who had red auxiliary bands, one of which was readable!
