Tag: bald eagle

By Barbara McKee, Eagle Project Volunteer

I recently headed home from eagle nest checks near the Delaware River.  As usual, I was on the lookout for interesting raptor sightings, especially eagles.

I spotted a beautiful sub adult eagle perched along the South Branch River.  I pulled over, took out my camera, and got some great photos of this gorgeous bird.  I guessed it might be 4 years old because of the amount of white on its head.  Could this be one of the eagles from the local nests?  We have long suspected that fledglings return to their natal area. We had proof of this while tracking “Duke”, the 2019 banded eagle from Duke Farms, who had a solar tracker backpack attached. He returned frequently to his natal area. While I watched this eagle, it took off and even more exciting, I spotted a green NJ band on its right tarsus!!  Unfortunately, when I downloaded the photos, I could not make out the number of this NJ banded eagle.

I sent photos and a description of its location to all the knowledgeable and experienced Eagle Project volunteers in my area of Central NJ.  I also notified a couple of local (and always very helpful and supportive) interested supporters in the area who are “unofficially” part of the Eagle Project.  I am so thankful that everyone in our group works together for the benefit and protection of our eagles!  There is no possessiveness, jealousy, or one-upmanship, just help, support, and encouragement!

I had confidence that with this group, someone was sure to spot something!!  Imagine my absolute surprise and delight when Steve, a talented and devoted local eagle watcher emailed the group that he had found “my” sub adult and gotten a clear image of her green band:  H22!!  She is one of “mine” which I held at banding in 2022. I was overcome with emotion and excitement!  I would never have known that H22 was alive and thriving if not for Steve’s search and photos. Right on cue, Mary Ellen, another Eagle Project volunteer produced emails and photos that I had sent to the group after the 2022 banding showing H/22 as a 6-week-old nestling.  How heartwarming it was seeing her again as a nestling!

What a joy it is knowing that she is still living and healthy.  I still can’t believe that an eaglet that I held is the same one I saw as a thriving three-year-old. Hopefully she will stick around our area, avoid dangers, find a mate, build a nest, and raise her own eaglets in about 2 years’ time!

I monitor a bald eagle nest located in Wawayanda State Park, Sussex County. My heart sank when I was asked to retrieve the carcass of a bald eagle found dead on nearby Highland Lake. The Wawayanda eagles protect a large and rugged territory that includes many smaller ponds, several swamps and other wetlands, and seven lakes, including those in my community. I feared that the dead eagle was one of the Wawayanda pair. Despite their territory’s size, our local eagles are in some ways easy to follow. When the lakes are frozen, as they are this winter, we see few visiting eagles traveling through. Although eagles appear similar, each eagle is really an individual in look and behavior. After watching them closely for years, I’ve learned a lot about the eagles; characteristics, their habits, and their favorite places to perch. Moreover, the male is banded and wears distinctive green and silver ankle bands, which stand out even from a distance, especially with a pair of binoculars.

Bald eagles banded in New Jersey receive two separate bands – a silver band from the federal US Fish and Wildlife Service with a unique six-digit ID number and a state green band with a two-digit code etched in silver. Because of its color and the shorter code, the state band can be read from a distance. The male’s bands tell us quite a lot about his history and this nest. He first arrived in 2016. By identifying his green NJ band as D10, I was able to learn that he was banded as a nestling at another Sussex County nest in 2010. Although I didn’t see any battles, it was clear that he and the young (fourth year) female he arrived with were the new pair in town, replacing the eagle pair that we had been seeing for at least five years prior. I didn’t know where their nest was and spent a lot of time looking for it, but I still saw them frequently throughout their territory. I eventually learned their nest is in Wawayanda.

The female was not banded and therefore harder to track. I don’t know for sure, but I believe the original female from 2016 may have been replaced in 2020. That year, the Wawayanda nest failed– did not fledge any chicks – and a pair of eagles were seen building a new nest near the old one. That failure, the new nest, and their behavior during the 2021 nesting season are why I think a new female took over that year. I was able to see and confirm the male’s bands, so I knew he remained. But the eagles did something I hadn’t really seen in all my years of monitoring – when either eagle was flying into the nest, they would call out, almost as if they were saying, “Hey, it’s me, not a stranger.” They did that throughout the 2021 nesting season, but not in any subsequent season. It was as if they were learning about each other that year and once they really knew each other, never had to do it again.

This pair has been special to watch. To survive in a territory as large and challenging as landlocked northwestern New Jersey, the eagles must be especially resourceful because their nest-building, egg laying, and even early hatching season takes place when their primary food source (fish) may not be available. And they must be strong enough to repel intruding eagles across many miles to protect their dispersed food sources. When they had chicks in the nest, the male’s primary job was maintaining the security of their territory and providing food, while the female needed to ensure survival of their young. When the male was too involved with security matters, as happened in both 2023 and 2024, the female was hunting, feeding the chicks, and protecting the nest area on her own because the male was in another part of their territory for long stretches.
Between 2021 and 2024, this pair fledged eight eaglets. Watching them accomplish this with fine-tuned teamwork and a secure bond has been a real privilege.

When I retrieved the dead eagle and saw it was  not banded, I thought first of the fierce Wawayanda female. With the eagle found near her favorite perching spot and few visitors in the area, it seemed likely to be her. In the two weeks after the eagle was found, two weeks that are the heart of the Wawayanda eagles; mating, nesting and egg laying season, the male waited for her by the nest. I watched him for hours, hoping I was wrong, that she would return, and the season would go on as normal. But that didn’t happen and after all of this, I’m as sure as I can be that it was indeed her. Preliminary tests are positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI, or bird flu), which is hitting birds in our state heavily this year.

She was strong and beautiful, and I’ll miss her quite a lot. I’m sure the male spent those few weeks also missing his bonded mate. But the eagles must focus on the future and by his nature he knows he needs a new mate. As he searches for his next partner, there is no guarantee that he will even remain at Wawayanda. He may choose to move on or he may lose control to other eagles who are looking for a nesting area. I do know that there are a lot of prime nesting spaces open in our area and I hope that whoever “loses” at Wawayanda moves down the road and settles in at a nearby spot.

What happened since the female’s body was found demonstrates both the fragility and the resiliency of bald eagles in New Jersey. I have great hope that the Wawayanda nest will continue successfully and look forward to the next chapter.

Two adorable fluffy chicks have hatched live on the Duke Farms Eagle Cam. There is a pip in the third egg, so the third chick should hatch very soon. Thanks to Duke Farms and staff who host, fund and maintain this cam. The cam is new for the 2025 season and now has audio which allows you to hear the chicks peeping and adults calling. The clarity of the new cam is top notch.

Continue reading “Two chicks hatch live on the Duke Farms Eagle Cam”

The New Jersey Annual Bald Eagle Project report has been published by NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program and The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ.  The NJ bald eagle nesting population continues to increase.  Two hundred ninety-three nest sites were monitored, of which, a record 264 were documented to be active (with eggs) and 29 were territorial or “housekeeping” pairs. In total, there were 288 fledglings resulting in a productivity rate of 1.2 young per active nest.

Continue reading “2024 New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report”

by Rich Nicol, Eagle Project Volunteer

As any NJ Eagle Project nest monitor will tell you, we go through many emotions during the nesting season. The first time of the season that you spot the eagle pair on the nest is exhilarating because you know at least they are back. Then comes the “will they or won’t they nest stage”, where every time you go to the nest your heart drops if you don’t see the eagles. The feeling you get when they are sitting low in the nest and you know they have laid eggs is like your fist pumping the sky. However, there are times that seriously try you. There is nothing like the gut punch of seeing a nest tree that fell over after a storm or an abandoned nest sitting empty. We have to be even-keeled, but emotions boil over sometimes and the loss of a nest can really make you rethink why you are a nest monitor at all. The eagles you watch become family, and you feel great joy when the nestlings turn into fledglings and take to the skies, although you had no part in it, you feel pride nonetheless in their success. This brings us to this story of a rather precocious male nestling who defied all the odds.

Continue reading “A Juvenile Eagle Fledges With a Little Help”

Larissa Smith: Senior Biologist

The 2024 NJ Bald eagle nesting season is winding down and so far 221 young eagles have fledged from nests throughout the state. We know that these eagles have fledged due to the eagle project volunteers who monitor all known eagle nests in New Jersey. Being a nest monitor can be a joyful experience when all goes well and the pairs successfully fledge young. But, it can also be heartbreaking when a pair fails to hatch eggs and when adults or chicks are lost during the season. Despite the ups and downs of monitoring eagle nests the volunteers continue to be dedicated to the eagle project. I asked the Eagle Project volunteers to send me their two favorite photos from the season.

Please enjoy the slideshow.

All photos were taken by trained volunteers from a safe distance using high powered scopes and cameras.

• NJ Bald Eagle Project
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by: Senior Biologist, Larissa Smith

Three Bridges Eagle Cam

The Three Bridges eagle cam went live for the 2024 nesting season on December 1st. A pair of eagles made an appearance that morning. The Three Bridges nesting platform was used by eagles in 2021, when they successfully raised two young. During the 2022 and 2023 nesting seasons, the pair were seen at the nest platform but ended up using a nest in a tree. We will see if the pair decides to use the nest platform this season. For now we believe that the Three Bridges pairs territory is both the nest tree and platform. As the numbers of nesting Bald Eagles continues to increase New Jersey there is the possibility that a second eagle pair could nest at the platform. Last nesting season there was lots of eagle action at the tower, eagles of all ages stopped by along with many different avian species. A pair of Osprey’s took interest in the nest platform but didn’t end up laying eggs. An American Kestrel perched at the platform on the first day the cam was live. It’ll be interesting to see what activity occurs at the tower this season.

by Emmy Casper, Wildlife Biologist

This year, CWF embarked on a new, ambitious project to monitor and characterize the previously understudied population of American oystercatchers nesting along the Delaware Bayshore. Since so little is known about this breeding population, we had a lot of ground to cover this first field season, both physically and metaphorically. One of the goals of the project is to characterize threats to oystercatcher nest success on the bayshore, whether it be predators, flooding, or something else entirely. It sounds straightforward, but when you consider the span of the project (35 sites across approximately 45 miles of bayshore), monitoring nesting pairs gets a bit more challenging. That’s where game cameras come in.

Game cameras are an extremely useful tool for wildlife monitoring. Cameras deployed at nest sites can provide valuable information about oystercatcher behavior, predator presence, and nest fate (whether the nest hatched or was lost prior to hatching). This is especially important for our Delaware Bay sites, many of which are remote and cannot be monitored as frequently as other locations. Game cameras enhance our in-the-field monitoring and can pinpoint the true cause of nest loss that would otherwise be difficult to determine in the field. Accurate knowledge of nest fate and predator presence is crucial for understanding which factors significantly impact oystercatcher success along the bayshore.

by: Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

NJ Eagle Project Volunteers monitor nests during the nesting season. Since they spend a lot of time observing the nest and eagles behavior they get to see some pretty interesting things and many of them are able to document with photos. I asked volunteers to send me their three favorite photos from the eagle nesting season. Thank you to all the eagle project volunteers for their dedication

Enjoy the slideshow.