Tag: Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey

CWF is celebrating International Migratory Bird Day all week long

by Kelly Triece, Private Lands Biologist

Kelly Triece’s blog on the Golden-winged Warbler is the first in a series of five to be posted this week in celebration of International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD). IMBD 2016 is Saturday, May 14. This #birdyear, we are honoring 100 years of the Migratory Bird Treaty. This landmark treat has protected nearly all migratory bird species in the U.S. and Canada for the last century. 

 

The Golden-winged Warbler (GWWA), Vermivora chrysoptera, is a Nearctic-Neotropical Migrant songbird that spends half its life in Central or South America and the other half in North America. This small songbird is less than 5 inches long with a slim body and short tail. GWWA are most noted by their yellow-patched wings, yellow cap and black-and-white face.

 

Right now, GWWAs are migrating to their breeding habitat in North America. They return every spring to the Upper Mid-west and Appalachians, including New Jersey, where they find a mate, breed and rear their young. The breeding range of the Golden-winged Warbler extends along the Appalachians from the northern portion of Georgia in the south to Vermont in the north.

 

Our latest report from the online observation database, eBird, reported a Golden-winged Warbler sighting in Cameron County, Texas on May 3! They are currently migrating north, and do so mostly at night. GWWA migrate at night to avoid predation from day-time predators such as American crows or Blue jays. The skies are also friendlier at night with less turbulence, allowing the birds to stay the course more readily. In addition, migrating birds need to forage to maintain energy during the long migration and must do so during the day. So flying at night gives the bird’s ample time to chow down! Get ready New Jersey!

In September, after breeding season, Golden-winged Warblers migrate south, mainly through a corridor of states east of the Mississippi River and west of the Appalachians. The winter range for this species is southern Mexico and Central and South America, including Colombia and Venezuela. Migrants are seen most commonly in late April and May, and during September.

 

Recent studies have shown that Golden-winged Warblers can also migrate in response to storm events (Streby et al. 2015). While GWWAs migrate long distances twice a year to occupy their breeding and wintering habitat, they may also “mini-migrate” to avoid large storm systems. Last year, a study in Tennessee found that Golden-winged Warblers evacuated their breeding territories days before a large storm system. After the system they returned to their breeding grounds and continued to defend their territories and breed. This research is important as it may provide future insight into the energetic demands and fitness consequences of these “mini-migrations.” As climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of large storms along the east coast the “mini-migrations” may impact the overall fitness of the species as the energetic demands of migrations are great (Streby et al. 2015).

 

Golden-winged warblers are threatened due to habitat loss in their breeding range and wintering range. Golden-winged warblers require early successional, young forest habitat to nest and raise their young. Young forest habitat, also known as scrub-shrub habitat, is new or regenerating forest that is less than 20 years old.  In its breeding range in North America, habitat loss has occurred as forests have matured. In the past 30 years, over 11,000 acres of upland shrub and emergent wetland habitat have been lost to succession in New Jersey. In a naturally occurring system, where fire, wind, flooding and other disturbances are not controlled by humans this age class would be more evenly distributed. In addition, loss of quality stopover and wintering habitat may also be contributing to declines. Golden-winged warblers are a federal species of concern and endangered in the state of New Jersey. Through management and proper forestry techniques, more diversity can be created to balance the age of the forest. This type of forestry management can help protect the Golden-winged warbler in its breeding range.

 

Learn More:

• Check out our last GWWA blog post about research taking place on the GWWA wintering grounds!
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: Golden-winged Warbler
• Providing Young Forest Habitat for the Golden-winged Warbler

 

Kelly Triece is the Private Lands Biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

 

Reference: Streby, H. M., Kramer, G. R., Peterson, S. M., Lehman, J. A., Buehler, D. A., & Anderson, D. E. (2015). Tornadic Storm Avoidance Behavior in Breeding Songbirds. Current Biology, 25(1), 98-102. doi:doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.079

 

The Birds are Back – Red Knots Arrive Along the Bayshore

by David Wheeler, Executive Director

The 2016 mass shorebird migration is officially underway, with the thrilling spectacle of over 1,100 red knots spotted today at North Reeds Beach in Cape May County, New Jersey. A host of other shorebirds, including ruddy turnstones, dunlins, semipalmated sandpipers, and sanderlings, accompanied the red knots at this Delaware Bay hotspot.

 

The famished flocks fed on horseshoe crab eggs, while much larger laughing gulls congregated along the shoreline and a few crabs used the incoming waves to flip themselves over and return to the bay.

Researchers began seeing a large number of shorebirds arriving over the weekend, and today’s sightings are high for such an early date. A number of the red knots wear leg bands, with a few indicating departure points as far south as Argentina and Chile. Such lengthy migrations for those individual birds only add to the intrigue of their early-season arrivals in New Jersey.

 

Some red knots fly over 18,000 miles each year in their migrations from southern South America to the Canadian Arctic, with Delaware Bay serving as an irreplaceable stopover.

Yet these migratory shorebirds have suffered a sharp decline over the past few decades, with red knots dropping by around 75%. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the red knot as a federally protected threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in December 2014.

 

A team of international researchers and trained volunteers, led by Dr. Larry Niles, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, and the State Endangered and Nongame Species Program will spend the next month surveying and studying the at-risk shorebirds during their stay in New Jersey.

CWF Vernal Pool Walks Connect New Jersey Residents with Rare, Seasonal Marvel

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

We all know that “April showers bring May flowers,” but the earlier rains of March stir up beauties of a different kind. When the first spring raindrops hit the barely-thawed ground and night falls on the forest, frogs, salamanders, and toads emerge from their winter burrows. These amphibians – the spotted salamanders, wood frogs, spring peepers, and others – are anxious to get to their breeding pools and lay their eggs. The waters that they choose are called vernal pools because they fill with rainwater, snowmelt, and rising groundwater in early spring but then dry up as summer advances. The pools are thus temporary and cannot support fish, meaning fewer predators for the amphibian eggs and young.

In the northeastern United States, vernal pools are home to over 500 species. In New Jersey, these pools are critical habitat for amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates, migratory waterfowl, raptors, and songbirds. All 14 of New Jersey’s frog species use vernal pools to breed and two endangered salamander species breed exclusively in vernal pools, including Cape May’s eastern tiger salamander.

The new generation of amphibians must race to complete metamorphosis and leave the vernal pool before the water does. Under perfect conditions of warm, thawing, nighttime rains, there may be hundreds or even thousands of amphibians moving at once toward the same breeding pool. The darkness and the rain allow them to move stealthily over the landscape, hidden from predators like the owl and raccoon.

 

CWF’s Kelly Triece organized a series of walks through the vernal pools of Waterloo Village in Sussex County, New Jersey, and showed residents the unexpected creatures swimming in the pool’s shallow waters. Kelly led the exploration of an ecosystem that most people will never see! Participants listened to the songs of Spring Peepers and discovered salamander eggs, fairy shrimp, and other unique creatures as the evenings set in. Here are photos from her walks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn More:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Amphibian Crossing Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Calling Amphibian Monitoring Project (CAMP)
• Amphibian Conservation

 

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

A Closer Look at Cutting-Edge Research on the Multi-Country, Migratory Life-Cycle of GWWA

by Kelly Triece, Private Lands Biologist

While in Honduras this February 2016, I had the opportunity to meet researchers studying the Golden-winged Warbler (GWWA) in their wintering habitat. The GWWA is Neotropical Migrant songbird that breeds in New Jersey, but migrates south for the winter. Golden-winged Warblers migrate south in September, mainly through a corridor of states east of the Mississippi River and west of the Appalachians. Their peak return migration to the Upper Mid-west and Appalachians, including New Jersey, occurs in late April where they find a mate, breed and rear their young.

 

This neo-tropical songbird is a species of special conservation concern in the U.S. and endangered in New Jersey, experiencing population declines due to loss of young forest habitat on their breeding grounds, habitat loss on their wintering grounds and hybridization with the Blue-winged Warbler (BWWA). The GWWA has experienced one of the steepest population declines of any songbird species in North America. The population size of the GWWA has decreased by an average of 2.6% every year, according to the USGS Breeding Bird Survey, since the survey began in 1966.  In particular, the Appalachian populations are now approaching a rate of -9% per year. Due to the difficulty of tracking birds over large distances, the effects of their multi-country, migratory life-cycle are poorly understood.

 

While many songbirds, migrate thousands of miles every winter, most research has focused on their breeding habitat in North America. Recently, researchers have begun exploring and understanding the importance of conserving the entire life-cycle of migratory birds or any wildlife species. Ruth Bennett, a Ph.D student at Cornell University is one such scientist. Ruth and collaborators at the American Bird Conservancy and Indiana University of Pennsylvania are linking breeding and non-breeding Golden-winged Warbler populations through geolocator technology. Ruth is also studying how changes in land use that lead to habitat loss on the wintering grounds of the GWWA are linked to population declines, with support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3.

 

Ruth Bennett, P.h.D. student, aims to connect the wintering habitat of the GWWA and its breeding habitat through her research in Central America. Between November 1, 2015 and March 15, 2016, Ruth and collaborators deployed geolocators on 145 GWWA and 35 BWWA at 9 sites from Belize through Panama, including Honduras. She will then recapture the individuals next winter, 2016-2017. These geolocators supply location data for up to 12 months, giving insight into the full life-cycle of the Golden-winged Warbler and closely-related Blue-winged warblers (BWWA). Through this research she will be able to establish the migratory pathways for all recaptured individuals. She will be able to compare how habitat loss on their wintering grounds and land use changes correlate with population trends described on the breeding grounds.

 

This will be one of the first geolocator studies to establish the connectivity of a migratory species from a winter grounds origin.  This research is important, because it creates a connection between non-profit, local and state governments in the United States and those in Latin America. This may increase funding opportunities and increase the efficiency of conservation action taken on the winter grounds. This research is especially important, as it forms one of the core informational components of the Golden-winged Warbler Non-breeding Season Conservation Plan (currently in review, soon to be available at gwwa.org). The conservation plan provides a regional strategy for conserving Golden-winged Warbler wintering habitat based on the wintering ecology of this species. The plan furthermore outlines conservation projects and budgets within high priority wintering focal areas that have been developed by Latin American partners. Ongoing research will be critical to ensure that these conservation actions effectively conserve the non-breeding habitat of this declining species.

 

Ruth has a small crew of local biologists who assist in her research in Latin America. Through her research in Honduras and Central America, Ruth has been able to connect with many local biologists and conservationists. It was great to meet Ruth in Honduras and learn about her research, which so important to New Jersey, but taking place so far away.

 

Our next Honduras blog, will feature our time with Ruth at the Feria de Aves Migratorias (Migratory Bird Festival) at the Universidad de las Agricultureal (Agriculture University) in Olancho, Honduras!

 

Learn More:

• “Bird Friendly” Brew: Honduran Shade-Grown Coffee
• CWF Headed to Honduras to Study Golden-winged Warbler
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: Golden-winged Warbler

 

Kelly Triece is the Private Lands Biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Tracking Young Bald Eagle “Nacote” throughout the Garden State

by Larissa Smith, wildlife biologist

On April 8th, Kelly Hunt was photographing four bald eagles at Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), two adult birds and two immature birds. When she got home and looked at the photos she realized that one of the young birds was banded and had a transmitter. It was “Nacote” back in his home area. “Nacote” was banded and outfitted with a transmitter on May 6, 2014 at the Galloway nest. Since then we have been tracking his movements on the CWF website. These photos give a great look at what the plumage of a bald eagle going into its third year looks like. You’ll also notice that the eyes and bill haven’t yet turned yellow.

 

 

Learn More:

• Tracking New Jersey’s Bald Eagles
• New Jersey Wildlife Telemetry Study Tracks Bald Eagles on Journeys Across Hemisphere

 

Larissa Smith is a wildlife biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Photo Captures Beautiful Eaglets of Different Sizes

by Larissa Smith, Wildlife Biologist

Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s partner biologist — Principal Zoologist with Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) — Kathy Clark checked on an eagle nest built on a structure only accessible by boat. This photograph shows the three chicks and the difference in their sizes. The youngest chick is approximately 2.5 weeks old, while the oldest is around 3.5 weeks of age.

 

Learn More:

• New Jersey’s Bald Eagle Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: Bald Eagle
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Story Map: The Return of Bald Eagles in New Jersey

 

Larissa Smith is a wildlife biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

While Studying the Golden-winged Warbler in Honduras, CWF Biologist Learned about “Bird Friendly” Coffee

by Kelly Triece, Private Lands Biologist

Did you enjoy a warm cup of coffee this morning? I know I did. Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day.

 

Coffee is also one of the world’s top agricultural exports in many developing countries. While I was in Honduras, with the Pennsylvania Golden-winged Warbler working group, I was given the opportunity to visit a shade grown coffee farm!

 

As I traveled across the country, I was able to enjoy many fresh cups of local Honduran coffee and learn about the importance of coffee as part of the Honduran history and local economy.

 

In 2011, Honduras became the number one coffee producer in Central America. Today, there are over 100,000 registered coffee producers in the country and over 90% of them are small producers. Coffee has become a vital part of the Honduran economy and family system, helping to generate small businesses and bring revenue to the local community.

 

In Honduras, coffee is harvested from November to March every year. Coffee is hand-picked and resembles a green or red cherry fruit when ripe. After ripening and picking, coffee must be dried and the outer coating, called the parchment, or pergamino must be removed. There are various methods of parchment removal and drying. Different drying and roasting techniques give way to differing quality, taste and aroma.

 

In its wild form, coffee is a small tree or shrub that grows in the understory of a forest. Traditionally, coffee production occurs on large farm fields, where the land is tilled and little native vegetation grows. Coffee producers often use this traditional method as a way to increase yield and fight off diseases susceptible to the plant. Recently, however, coffee producers have begun to grow shade-tolerant coffee which is grown under a forest canopy.

 

Shade-tolerant coffee production is a method which intends to incorporate the natural principles of ecology into agricultural production.  Shade tolerant or shade-grown coffee is grown under a natural forest canopy. Shade grown coffee can have multiple benefits — reducing pests, increasing pollination and creating important wildlife habitat. Shade grown coffee plantations often have increased leaf litter which reduces erosion and allows for improved water quality.

 

Through the incorporation of native trees on farms, birds and natural predators will help reduce pest insects, which in turn, helps reduce the need for pesticides. Bird diversity is often higher on shade grown coffee farms since they eat the fruit, insects and nectar in the native tree canopy. These types of farming practices have also be termed “bird friendly” coffee, because they help support local bird populations, including migratory birds that stay in Honduras during their wintering months.

 

Upon our visit to a shade-grown coffee farm, called Lenca farms in the little town of Marcala, we were greeted with a Golden-winged Warbler! Most of the farm grew coffee right under the native forest canopy. Many of the native trees, leaf litter and herbaceous plants were left intact. It was great to meet with local Honduran farmers, who are eager to create and maintain wildlife habitat on their farms. Many Hondurans recognize the value in wildlife and are willing participants in wildlife conservation.

 

Shade-grown coffee may be important as coffee continues to be a growing commodity crop worldwide. When farmers learn to grow food in conjunction with nature, not against it, the best yields and benefits for the environment can result.

 

We were very appreciate of our time a Lenca Farms, and we didn’t leave without a fresh cup right on site!

 

Check out Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center online to learn about the certification process for coffee farms called “Bird Friendly Coffee” and to learn how to buy bird friendly coffee!

 

Learn More:

• CWF Headed to Honduras to Study Golden-winged Warbler
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: Golden-winged Warbler

 

 

Kelly Triece is the Private Lands Biologist for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Subscribe to “Behind the Stone Walls” Blog For Multiple EagleCam Updates a Week

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

EagleCam enthusiasts! Want to learn as much as you can about the Duke Farms eagles? Be sure to subscribe to the “Behind the Stone Walls” blog. The eagle posts are written by Jim Wright, author of the new Duke Farms’ Bald Eagles e-book and “The Bird Watcher” column for The Record.

 

Posts include beautiful screen shots from the new HD and infrared night vision camera, nest updates, eagle biology, FAQs and more:

• Oh, What a Night!
• Eagle Egg Essentials
• By the Light of the Silvery Moon
• Don’t Worry Too Much about the Bald Eagle Egg(s)
• All About the Duke Farms Eagle Nest

 

Learn More:

• Read Duke Farms’ Bald Eagles e-book today!
• Watch the EagleCam live
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: bald eagle
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Bald Eagle Project

 

 

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Comments on the Sparta Mountain WMA Forest Stewardship Plan are due Tuesday, March 1, 2016

by Emily Hofmann, Environmental Education Intern

Wildlife in the Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA) need your help! Submit your comments on the new Forest Stewardship Plan by Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

 

Conserve Wildlife Foundation supports the new Forest Stewardship Plan for the Sparta Mountain WMA located in Sparta Township, New Jersey. The original Forest Stewardship Plan was introduced in 2009. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, in partnership with New Jersey Audubon, recently updated and expanded upon the plan. The new revisions show a commitment to creating healthier forest habitat for wildlife, while abiding by the strict guidelines provided by third-party certification, along with agency regulations.

 

The new ten-year Plan, drafted by New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife and New Jersey Audubon Society, and conducted under an existing Forest Stewardship Plan for the wildlife area, will allow conservation actions to continue. The plan addresses the following key goals:

• Improve the health, structure and diversity of the forests;
• Create young forest habitat for birds and other wildlife that are of conservation concern;
• Enhance foraging, nesting and roosting habitat for cavity dwelling birds and bats;
• Suppress the spread of invasive species;
• May provide basking habitat for turtles;
• Protect and maintain views and vistas;
• Improve passive recreational opportunities;
• Protect water resources;
• Monitor and evaluate stewardship activities

 

Kelly Triece, our Private Lands Biologist, has pointed out that 80% of New Jersey forests are currently between 60-99 years old, while only 5% of the forests are between 0-19 years old. CWF supports forest stewardship projects, like those presented in the new plan, that seek to even out this clear disparity and promote more diversity in age class of New Jersey forests. Increased diversity in forest age brings increased diversity in plant and animal species. This type of forest habitat has the potential to support over 125 bird species, including the Golden-winged Warbler.

 

 

The public comment period is an opportunity for you to support forest stewardship that will improve the health of the forest and create young forest habitat; essential for protecting the state endangered Golden-winged Warbler, as well as numerous other flora and fauna.

 

The Department of Environmental Protection needs to hear from you! To submit comments, visit DEP’s website. Provided below is a draft set of comments which you are welcome to use, as well as revise and submit. Remember, the deadline is Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

 

Learn More and Take Action:

• Read the new Forest Stewardship Plan
• Submit comments on DEP’s website
• New Jersey Audubon Society’s plan summary and other resources

 

Emily Hofmann is the Environmental Education Intern for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

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Suggested text:

To the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection,

Please accept the following comments in support of adoption and implementation of the Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area Forest Stewardship plan. This new plan builds on an existing plan that has been under implementation for several years. The new plan seeks to addresses the long-term health of the forest and the critically important lack of young forest habitat by working to create new young forest habitat patches over the next ten years. In addition, the plan includes explicit goals to protect and enhance hydrologic resources, monitoring of priority wildlife populations, provide compatible wildlife recreational opportunities and adherence to strict third party certification principles and criteria. This plan is important because the resident and migratory birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians that rely on young forest habitat are struggling to maintain themselves in places they were once commonly found. Throughout the Northeast, young forest habitat has diminished as forestland has been converted to development and abandoned farms and homesteads have matured to woodlands. As a consequence, a wide variety of wildlife have experienced the loss of the scrubby, patchy, disturbed portions of the forest that they rely on for food and cover.

The plan was developed based upon an understanding of the needs of wildlife in the Highlands Region and with a specific focus on ensuring that forest health is improved. The plan authors thoroughly reviewed the history of the region, considered the important water resources of Sparta Mountain, evaluated wildlife needs, recreational desires and community connections, and brought all of this together with a keen eye toward improving the health and vigor of the forest. The plan has gone through an extensive review by experts at the Department of Environmental Protection, has taken input from a wide-range of stakeholders and meets the requirements of a third party certification system. The plan is appropriate and needed given the mission of the NJ DEP and the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, the agency charged with management of the wildlife area and conserving wildlife. I encourage the Department of Environmental Protection to adopt and implement the Sparta Mountain Wildlife Management Area Forest Stewardship Plan.

Piping Plover Research and Conservation Five Years Later

by Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager

 

The wintering segment of the 2016 International Piping Plover Census has just wrapped up in the Bahamas. This marks six winters of my own involvement with piping plover conservation work in the Bahamas – starting with the last international census in 2011 – so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the changes I have observed in the years between the censuses.

 

First and foremost, we now know much more about how many piping plovers winter in the Bahamas and where they are located, including some areas where there are particular high concentrations of piping plovers and other shorebirds. This knowledge is due to the significant increase in survey effort put forth by partners in the Bahamas during the census, but also surveys conducted by Bahamas National Trust and National Audubon Society, as well as our own work at Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF), in the years since 2011 to supplement the earlier surveys and better understand how piping plovers use the sites.

 

This is demonstrated by the results of the 2016 census. As just one example of how this extra research paid off, in 2011 when we visited Casuarina Point on Abaco for the census, we knew from local birders and e-Bird that piping plovers were frequently seen there, but not that it was only for a narrow window during low tide to forage, nor that depending on wind conditions or disturbance, they could be at another more remote flat across Cherokee Sound. So in 2016, we had surveyors in place at the correct tide AND in both locations at the same time, thus allowing us to record 26 piping plovers, instead of 0 in 2011. Using similar information gathered across the island we found 178 piping plovers in 2016, compared to 76 in 2011 (and 82 on Eleuthera in 2016 vs. 30 in 2011).

 

Even with some oversights like those, the 1066 piping plovers tallied in the 2011 census revealed that the Bahamas was one of the most significant wintering locations for piping plovers, second only to Texas. And with band resight data, we now know that the Bahamas is THE most important winter location for the Atlantic coast population (as compared to the Great Lakes and Great Plains populations). Although the final count for the 2016 census is not complete yet, it has already topped the 2016 figure and will account for a good part of the remaining unknown wintering birds and locations. New surveys in the Turks and Caicos, more intensive surveys in Cuba, as well as the Southeast/Gulf Coast U.S. (which is critical for all three populations of piping plover) should make this the most comprehensive and informative survey to date.

 

While improved census results are important, one may reasonably still ask how the census is going to translate into better conservation. The Bahamas is a good example of what can be done with the data — last year the Bahamas government set aside the Joulter Cays as one of a series of new national parks, to a large degree based on its importance for shorebirds, especially piping plovers, as a result of information initially gathered from the census and follow-up surveys. This marked the first time shorebirds played a significant role in such a designation, so this is a watershed event for shorebird conservation in the Bahamas (and the Caribbean).

 

I have noticed other “sea changes” in attitude on a smaller scale. When I first visited the Bahamas (Abaco) during the 2011 census, aside for some birders, piping plovers were little known by the public there. Now when I come, I am recognized as the plover guy and piping plover bumper stickers can be spotted around the island on golf carts and trucks. There is even a new post card, entitled “Birds of the Bahamas” that has a piping plover side by side with a flamingo, the national bird. And there is refreshingly little of the rancor we sometimes have in the states over their protection – the habitats piping plovers use in the Bahamas, especially tidal flats, are also important for valuable resources, such as conch and bonefish, and other marine species, so protecting them is less of a conflict.

 

The important role the Bahamas plays in the piping plover life cycle is now much better known by the public and other stakeholders. Many of the participating partners have not only provided technical shorebird expertise during the surveys, but worked hard to provide education and outreach towards a long-term conservation goal. One area my colleague Stephanie Egger and I are most proud of in this realm is our Shorebird Sister School Network, where we pair up schools and students in the Bahamas and in New Jersey, using piping plover migration as the link. Now in its third year, this project is working to create a new generation of young conservationists (and piping plover lovers)!

 

This is not to say our work is done. There is still more to learn, a banding study is being conducted to help us better understand survival compared to other wintering (and breeding) regions, more detailed aspects of site fidelity, and how birds move around sites within islands. Still, piping plovers are no longer a novelty in the Bahamas as was largely the case when I first came in 2011. The challenge over the next five years will be how to harness the increased awareness and knowledge to aid recovery of this endangered species.

 

A special thanks to Friends of the Environment, who have been our piping plover partner on Abaco from the beginning, please check out all the great work they do! Also to the Disney Conservation Fund and The National Audubon Society for funding, as well as Bahamas National Trust for other support and the conservation work they do in the Bahamas in general. Thanks to the U.S. Geological Survey, sponsors of the International Piping Plover Census, for supporting CWF’s inclusion in the surveys. Thanks to Rolling Harbour Abaco for setting up the Abaco Piping Plover Watch this winter to help us keep track of piping plovers and raise local awareness. Thanks to those who participated in the CWF led 2016 census on Abaco and Eleuthera: Brendan Toote, of the College of the Bahamas, Michelle Stantial, of SUNY – ESF, Pam Prichard, and CWF’s own Stephanie Egger and Emily Heiser. And finally, thanks to our local citizen scientists on Abaco who participated in or provided valuable knowledge for the 2016 census, especially Ali Ball, our “super” volunteer!

 

 

Learn More:

• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s Beach Nest Bird Project
• Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s online field guide: piping plover

 

Todd Pover is the Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.