Category: Wildlife Protection

Oystercatcher Technician shows diversity of tasks in wildlife conservation

By Alfred Breed, CWF Technician

My official job title with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is  “American Oystercatcher Technician”.  As such I am tasked during nesting season with monitoring Oystercatcher nesting sites, and during migratory season with locating flocks of Oystercatchers, counting them, resighting marked birds in each flock, recording data of field survey results and reporting our NJ counts and resights to a central database that holds data from the other reporting states in the migratory flyway.

As is usually the case in any job that has a “description”, the phrase “and other such tasks as assigned” is included as a catch-all for things that aren’t specifically listed in the description, but can be an important part of the duties of the position nonetheless. In my case these ancillary tasks are different each day, and often involve three of my favorite things: wildlife (of course!), science, and gear.  Working around my Oystercatcher surveys, which can only be conducted at high tide, I might be tasked to go to a location anywhere in the state and survey for a particular species of plant or animal; or to site select, construct, install, use, maintain, and troubleshoot various types of data collection or other equipment throughout South Jersey.

Trucks, trailers, boats and kayaks are the big-ticket items that I use every day, but I’m lucky enough to use a large variety of other cool tools and equipment as well. Driving is often a big part of my day, with travel times between sites eating up significant portions of the workday.  Sometimes I’m a wildlife EMT or ambulance driver, saving sick or injured animals from their immediate predicament and/or transporting them to various certified rehabilitation facilities located throughout the state.

Best of all is when I’m asked to assist visiting scientists or other conservation partners in their work, which can mean bio-sampling or banding.  Direct human/wildlife interaction is only appropriate when it is  for valid scientific or conservation management purposes, and is sanctioned and a permit issued by the appropriate governing body.  To be a staff member and so to be included in these sanctioned and permitted activities is a rare privilege indeed.

Each day is different, always interesting, occasionally exciting, and always personally rewarding as I play a small part in the management of threatened and endangered wildlife and the habitat that we share.

Post-storm surveys and reports from public equal a sigh of relief!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

No doubt the effects of superstorm Sandy will be felt for a long time, especially to residents of coastal areas who experienced flooding with the associated storm surge. During the past two hurricanes, Irene last August and now Sandy, I was really worried that a lot of osprey nesting platforms would get damaged or lost during the storms. Luckily my worries didn’t become reality! So far most nesting platforms are still standing strong despite a 15′ storm surge with sustained winds of at least 70-80mph. I’ve heard of a few structures that have fallen down. Most were probably ones that were older structures that were constructed poorly or installed too close to the edge on the saltmarsh. Over the next couple weeks we’re planning on getting out to other colonies to survey for damage caused by Sandy.

• Learn more about our work with ospreys

NJ Bald Eagle population continues to increase.

by: Larissa Smith Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Manager

In 2012 a new record high of 135 eagle pairs were monitored during the nesting season. One hundred and nineteen of those were active which means they laid eggs.  A total of 165 young were produced this year and fledged (left the nest). That is 46 more than 2011’s 119 young produced.  Twenty-seven new eagle pairs were found this season, 15 in the south, 2 in central and 10 in northern NJ.  While all of these numbers are good news for NJ eagles they still need protection.  The two major threats that bald eagles in NJ face today are disturbance and habitat loss.

The NJ Bald Eagle Project has a dedicated group of volunteers who monitor nests throughout New Jersey.  They help to prevent disturbance at nest sites by educating the public about eagles.  The success of the eagle project is directly related to these wonderful volunteers.

More details on the 2012 nesting season will be available in the 2012 NJ Bald Eagle Project report.

Since 2009, we’ve been active in helping to restore wildlife habitat to a former golf course in lower Cape May County. In place of the large lodge on the site we are building a “Backyard Habitat Demonstration Site.” It will feature several different habitat treatments that homeowners can use to provide habitat for wildlife in their own backyards. It includes the creation of scrub-shrub habitat, forested habitat, nectar producing plants, wildflower meadows, a pond, and a brush pile.

The site was designed by landscape designer Jeanne Marcucci with greenjean gardens LLC. Last week the site was prepped by NJ Fish & Wildlife. After the site was plowed we laid out paths that run throughout the site. Next compost will be spread to some areas (wildflower beds) and plants will be delivered on October 9th. The team at Planet Earth Landscaping will be assisting us the the compost spreading and planting.

Volunteers are needed to help plant the many native plants that were ordered on October 10-11th from 10-2pm each day. For more information or to volunteer contact Ben Wurst.

Enhancing nesting habitat for ospreys

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Last week we successfully installed an osprey nesting platform on the Manasquan Reservoir. The reservoir supplies water to residents of Monmouth County and can supply up to 30 million gallons of water a day. It’s also home to a variety of wildlife, such as bald eagles, osprey, waterfowl, freshwater mussels, and many other species. Since it’s creation in the early 1990s the many snags offered potential nest sites for ospreys; however, today many of the snags are falling down. The last nest site for ospreys broke in the winter of 2010-11. It was near the environmental center at the reservoir and offered visitors a close view of their nest and reproductive cycle. Since the nest tree broke no pairs have nested on the reservoir. Continue reading “Photo from the Field”

Experience gained; many terrapins saved!

by Kristin Ryerson, CWF Terrapin Project Intern

“What did you do this summer?” was a question I was frequently asked by family, friends and classmates when I recently returned to college this fall. Well, where to begin! Ben Wurst, CWF’s Habitat Program Manager, set a goal this summer to lower the number of road killed Northern Diamondback Terrapins on Great Bay Boulevard in Tuckerton, NJ. In previous studies, 50 terrapins could be killed in one nesting season—the main cause? People. Careless drivers who are either speeding or simply oblivious to the many yellow signs warning them of crossing nesting terrapins and the fact that they are in the middle of an extremely vital wildlife refuge. So, this summer, I had the privilege of being the Great Bay Terrapin Project’s Intern, and my job was to help save nesting terrapins crossing the road and to take valuable data on those I saw. Ben gave me some equipment and the knowledge I would need when working on the road. Through road patrols, educating the public, maintaining the previously installed barrier fencing, painting road signs and data collection, I learned more than I had imagined and had an amazing experience.

Continue reading “What did you do this summer?”

Threatens NJ’s wildlife

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Marine debris (specifically plastics) have become a  serious problem in coastal areas throughout the world, especially in the Pacific Ocean where gyres create large floating “garbage patches.” I work out on the back bays and salt marshes throughout the coastal region of New Jersey as I help to monitor and manage ospreys and their nesting platforms. Every time I’m out I encounter trash. Most of it accumulates along the wrack line on the higher portions of the marsh where storm surges, high winds, and during spring tides (during full and new moon phases) push it onto the marsh. This debris then makes its way into the nests of ospreys because this is where they collect most of their nesting material.

Continue reading “Marine Debris”

A HAPPY ENDING TO A TOUGH YEAR

By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager

There is no way to sugar coat it – this has not been a stellar year for piping plovers in New Jersey. Due to a number of ill-timed severe storms, high tides, and heat waves, chick productivity was low this year. There was some comfort in knowing that these events were largely out of our control, so at least it wasn’t something we could have prevented. At the same time, there is a nagging feeling that years such as this are the new “normal” as we enter an era of climate change where more extreme weather is predicted.

While there were a number of tough moments throughout the season, one incident was especially frustrating for the staff. Several days after a piping plover chick reached its fledge (flying) date at Cape May Point State Park, where it had battled marauding crows for over a month, CWFNJ field technician Sarah Scheffer discovered the fledgling dragging its wing. This is never a good sign – usually it indicates a broken wing. Fortunately, because we monitor the site daily, we caught the problem immediately. Continue reading “PIPING PLOVER BREEDING UPDATE”

Severe weather may have reduced productivity this year

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

Surveys of nesting osprey have ended for 2012. Each year volunteers, state biologist and CWF staff complete nesting surveys of ospreys. These “osprey banders” complete “ground surveys” (referred to as ground surveys because they are surveying nests by land/sea, not by helicopter) that cover around 70% of the state population. The surveys are meant to keep tabs on the state population and data collected from the surveys are used to determine the health of the population. Young are also banded for future tracking. Next year a state wide aerial survey will be conducted; the last aerial survey was in 2009 where 486 nesting pairs were found. We won’t know the total size of the population until then. Nesting success is mixed this year and is highly variable by different regions, mainly because of severe weather.

I never heard of a “derecho” until this summer. According to Wikipedia it is “a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms.” A derecho hit Cumberland, Salem, Atlantic & southern Ocean County in the early morning hours on June 30th, right in the middle of the nesting season for ospreys. Weather plays a significant factor in the success of nesting ospreys. They nest in open areas, which makes them vulnerable to high winds and severe weather, and since they primarily feed on fish, water clarity affects foraging success.

“In South Jersey, Atlantic City Electric reported that 206,000 customers lost power from downed trees. Most of the outages were in Atlantic County, which prompted a county-wide state of emergency. Near Atlantic City, a boater died while trying to bring his vessel ashore. Officials believed that lightning struck a 104-year-old church in Longport and caused a fire that damaged the building. An elderly couple was killed when a tree fell on their house. In Vineland, damage was preliminarily estimated at $125 million. On July 19th, 2012, President Barack Obama declared three counties in New Jersey (Atlantic, Cumberland, and Salem) federal disaster areas. This assured disaster relief through federal assistance to local and state governments and some non-profit organizations.” (from Wikipedia.com) I also know that two people were killed while sleeping in a tent at Parvin State Park.

At this time most young were between 2-3 weeks old, with some a little older and some younger. All young are very vulnerable to severe weather, especially when wind gusts reach 70-100 mph, they can be easily blown from their nests and if not retrieved quickly could become food for ground predators or washed away with the tide. Winds gusted to 81 mph in Tuckerton, 74 mph in Absecon (Reported by the NJ State Climatologist Dr. David A. Robinson). In three areas that I survey (Absecon, Mullica River, & Little Egg Harbor) many young were either lost or blown from their nests and found dead or live on the marsh. In Absecon 9 of the 22 young produced had been lost or found dead on the marsh as a result of the storm. At a couple other nests to the north a few young were found on the ground shortly after the storm. Off of Great Bay Blvd. many nests that had young before the storm had lost them. One of our volunteers reported that many nests in Ventnor that were previously occupied had no young after the storm.

We can only hope that severe weather like this will not occur during the middle of the osprey nesting season again, but with a warmer climate these might become commonplace in New Jersey. One thing that we might consider is to take a long look at our current design for nesting platforms and look to see if we can make changes to allow for a deeper nest bowl. More of a problem is that some ospreys do not build substantial nests and use little sticks and branches, while others build large nests that are not easily blown away with the wind.

• Check out some post derecho photos from Absecon

A Beach Nester Scrapbook

Compiled by Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager 

The Beach Nesting Bird Project is one of our major initiatives here at the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. During the spring and summer months, we employ several field technicians to help us carry out our mission of monitoring and protecting endangered piping plovers, least terns, and black skimmers, as well as American oystercatchers. We also help oversee the seasonal staff from the state’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program on this project.

As a slight change of pace for a blog, I thought it would be both fun and insightful to hear a little bit of their perspective from the field. So, I asked everyone from the joint beachnester crew to submit a short entry about what they like and dislike most about the project, as well as a favorite or unique photo. I will kick it off with my thoughts…Because the main goal of the project is to recover at-risk species, obviously the most satisfying aspect of the project is when the birds have a successful year. But that isn’t always the case, so my personal favorite thing is finding the first piping plover nests of the season. Aside from the challenge of actually locating the well-camouflaged nests, those first eggs embody the eternal hope of each new season. Early in the season, before spring tides wash away eggs, predators discover helpless chicks, and the crush of beachgoers squeezes out colonies, you still believe every nest will successfully produce young.We interact with the public on a daily basis on this project and for the most part we meet nice people. But we also deal with our share of people who do not support the effort. Our motto is “share the shore” and, in fact, only a small percentage of our state’s coastline is protected for beach nesting birds and many of the restriction put in place to help the birds are seasonal in nature. Nonetheless, the “plover fence” brings out the worst in some people, and when that anger is directed at you personally it can be pretty unpleasant and frustrating.

Continue reading “Viewpoint from the Field”