Tag: Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey

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.

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 Leah Wells, Wildlife Biologist

Over the past 3 months, CWF biologists along with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) New Jersey Field Office staff have been working late into the night to survey for bats in the Pinelands. Each survey begins just before sunset with the setup of large, nearly invisible nets stretched across wooded corridors. As night falls, bats emerge from their day roosts and fly through the sky to their foraging grounds. From sunset until 2 am, the team checks the nets every 10 minutes, carefully extracting any bat captured in the net for identification, weighing, and measurement. 

Continue reading “2024 Summer Mist Netting Survey Recap”

by Rachel McGovern, Communications and Outreach Manager

CWF’s Wildlife Science Summer Camp on Long Beach Island has wrapped up for the 2024 season. This camp was produced by CWF in partnership with the Osprey Foundation and the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts & Sciences (LBIF). This year, we offered two distinct weeks of camp, both with hands-on activities and nature exploration.

Our first camp week was “Junior Wildlife Biologists,” which served children ages 10-12. Our intention for this week of camp was to introduce campers to the wildlife studies that are done in New Jersey, learn some of the methodologies used in the field, and witness wildlife data collection.

Campers had the opportunity to work with our wildlife biologists during the week to learn about their areas of expertise. Wildlife Biologist Christine Healy came in for a day of camp to help campers understand land use and its impact on salamanders and to explore how she uses GPS trackers to study turtles.

Continue reading “Wrapping Up Wildlife Science Summer Camp for 2024”

by Leah Wells, Assistant Wildlife Biologist

CWF has been teaming up with partners from the USFWS New Jersey Field Office and JB MDL’s Natural Resources department to survey the installation’s forest for birds throughout the year. These surveys allow us to get an inventory of bird species found throughout the large expanses of protected natural areas within the base’s boundaries. So far this year, we have documented a diverse array of bird species passing through during migration and some resident species that stay year-round. During the springtime, we got to see warblers such as the black-and-white warbler, pine warbler, common yellowthroat, and American redstart.

Six of the forest bird species documented at the base are State-listed as either threatened or of special concern. The red-headed woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, is a state-threatened species. They prefer open woods, both upland and wetland that contain dead or dying trees and sparse undergrowth. The Northern parula, Setophaga americana, and hooded warbler, Setophaga citrina, are both species of special concern during the breeding season. Both breed in mature forests, with the Northern parula nesting in trees and the hooded warbler nesting in shrubs. Wood thrush, Hlyocichla mustelina, is a species of special concern during the breeding season. The wood thrushes breed throughout mature deciduous and mixed forests. Ideal habitat for them includes trees that are over 50 feet fall, a moderate understory of saplings and shrubs, an open forest floor with moist soil and decaying leaf litter, and water nearby. The brown thrasher, Toxostoma rufum, is a species of special concern during the breeding season. This species is often found in woodlands with dogwood, pitch pine, or scrub oak. Lastly, the eastern whip-poor-will, Antrostomus vociferus, is another species of special concern here in NJ during the breeding season. These birds breed in dry deciduous or evergreen forests with little or no underbrush, close to open areas.

by Harrison Hepding, CWF Biological Technician

The remote coastal salt marshes of the Delaware Bayshore harbor a unique and seldom observed ecosystem, boasting a rich natural history and diverse wildlife. To help prevent the loss of these valuable habitats and their inhabitants, CWF is participating in a partner-driven, multi-year project led by Ducks Unlimited and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to enhance habitat quality and restore natural hydrology to salt marshes in Delaware and New Jersey. CWF is actively involved in the second season of biological monitoring at select Bayshore salt marshes targeted for restoration efforts designed to revegetate mudflats existing on old salt hay farms (read more about salt hay farming impacts here). At this stage of the project, our role is to gather important pre-restoration data to evaluate the anticipated impact and effectiveness of restoration techniques.

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
• Donate to the Bald Eagle Project

By Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist 

CWF has played a major role in helping monitor breeding American oystercatchers in New Jersey ever since surveys were initiated in the state just over two decades ago in the early 2000’s. Most of the statewide effort, conducted by a variety of partners, has been focused on pairs nesting on the sandy barrier beaches of the Atlantic Coast, in conjunction with efforts there to monitor and manage other beach nesting birds, such as piping plovers and least terns. These sites are often those beaches that are highly recreated and most used by beachgoers, public beaches where these species need added protection to hatch nests and raise their young chicks.

So far it has been an usual year for nesting osprey in New Jersey. This spring, the pair that has nested at our osprey cam in Barnegat Light, who arrived on time, the female did not lay any eggs. Then I heard from a woman who watches a nest near the southern end of Long Beach Island who reported the same — pair present but incubation was never observed. Another report came in from an osprey nest watcher on the Mullica River (to the southwest of LBI) who reported the same — no incubation observed. We put out a call on social media for osprey nest watchers to report anything odd like this to us (while also reporting osprey nest activity online via Osprey-watch.org). Some people reported seeing the same behavior..

Continue reading “Unusual Year for Breeding Ospreys in New Jersey”

by Leah Wells, Wildlife Biologist

Leah grew up in Sussex County, where she enjoyed spending her time as a child and adulthood outside in nature. She graduated from Rutgers with a bachelor’s degree in Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources. In 2019, Leah joined Conserve Wildlife Foundation as an intern, in 2020 she then became a part-time employee and this past March became a full time wildlife biologist.