Part 6: Three Bridges Eagles Fledge

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist

I started writing the Three Bridges blog series at the end of November 2020. At the time we had no idea if the eagle pair would return to the newly installed nest box, nest somewhere else or nest at all this season. In the last blog post Part 5, the eggs had hatched. Since that last blog a lot has happened at the nest. On April 2nd nest monitors determined that hatching was occurring and on April 14th it was determined that there were two chicks. On May 14th, the nest was visited by PSE&G and NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife, Endangered and Nongame Species Program. The chicks were banded with silver federal bands and green NJ bands H/04 and H/05. Both chicks were determined to be males. During the nest visit the camera was fixed and a whole new close up view of the nest appeared.

Three Bridges eagle cam; June 13th, 2021

Cam viewers got to watch the young eagles as they learned to feed themselves and started preparing their wing muscles for flight, by flapping and hopping around the nest. When eagles are nesting in a tree the young will perch on branches which is called “branching”. In this case the chicks don’t have any branches, so the perches were built as substitute branches. Nest monitor, Mary Ellen Hill, got the below screen shot of one of the chicks perched for the first time. The young eagles also used the metal arm of the pole for perching.

On June 20th, H/04 took his first flight and his brother H/05 followed on June 22, all of which was caught on camera. Eagle Project volunteer Diane Wilson Cook has made a webpage, Bald Eagles at Three Bridges with the video clips from these flights. The fledges have been returning to the nest platform since fledging. The parent’s are still bringing food to the nest for the young eagles as they will be in the nest area for the next few weeks as they learn to hunt and survive on their own.

H/04 June 21, 2021@ Tom Gunia

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Bald Eagle Project 2020 Nesting Season Update

The 2020 nesting season is off to a good start for New Jersey’s bald eagles. As of early March, eagles all over the state are incubating eggs, and a handful of nests have already successfully hatched chicks. The eagle cam at Duke Farms broadcast the first chick there hatching on February 26, and the second chick made its appearance on March 1st.

View of hatchlings from the webcam at Duke Farms

Continue reading “Bald Eagle Project 2020 Nesting Season Update”

Duke Farms Guest Post: Real Eagle Wives of New Jersey

by Nora DiChiara, Duke Farms Director of Programs and Strategic Planning

There is a new female Bald Eagle in the Duke Farms nest. If you’ve been counting, this is the third female to occupy the nest at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, New Jersey. Our nearly 20-year-old male, resident serial monogamist Bald Eagle has sired over 25 bald eagle chicks since the nest creation in 2004.

Continue reading “Duke Farms Guest Post: Real Eagle Wives of New Jersey”

NJ Eagle Cams

A peek into the lives of Nesting Bald Eagles

by Larissa Smith, CWF Biologist

Duke Farms female November 22, 2019
screen shot taken by Diane Cook

Bald Eagles all over New Jersey are starting to work on their nests for the upcoming nesting season. The next few months are a good time to get outdoors and spot eagles. Wintering eagles will be in NJ during the next few months as well as the NJ nesting pairs. You can also keep an eye on eagles from the comfort and warmth of your home via eagle cams on the CWF website.

Continue reading “NJ Eagle Cams”

KEEP NEW JERSEY’S SKIES WILD!

PSE&G, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, Mercer County Park Commission, Mercer County Wildlife Center and Wildlife Center Friends team up with free public programs on Bald Eagles, pollinators, and bats.

Bald eagle fishing in Mercer Lake. Photo by Mercer County Park Commission.

Join us on August 8th at the Mercer County Wildlife Center to learn about pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths and how they help keep flowers in bloom and food on your plate.

Continue reading “KEEP NEW JERSEY’S SKIES WILD!”

Bald Eagle Banding and Transmitter Attachment at Duke Farms

Two bald eaglets at the site of our Eagle Cam at Duke Farms were recently banded by biologists from Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Endangered and Nongame Species Program (NJDEP ENSP).

This year’s banding was special, as in addition to a band the male eaglet was also fitted with a transmitter which will allow him to be tracked on our Eagle Trax page.

View of transmitter on the male eaglet, on the right

Kathy Clark, (NJDEP ENSP), and Larissa Smith (CWF) wrote about the experience, and the benefits of transmitters on the Duke Farms blog. Their FAQ’s are reprinted below.

Continue reading “Bald Eagle Banding and Transmitter Attachment at Duke Farms”

NorthJersey.com: NJ’s nest cams deliver action with eagles, falcons, and more

Jim Wright, whose “Bird Watcher” column appears twice-weekly in The Record and on NorthJersey.com, shares his favorite places to spot rare and beautiful birds in North Jersey. Video created with Wochit.

Nest cams offer you a peek into the natural world from the comfort of your own phone or computer screen. Jim Wright interviews CWF Executive Director David Wheeler about the cams and why they are such an effective way to connect people to wildlife.

“Viewers feel the drama, the danger, the sibling squabbles, the results of chases for prey, the perils of wind and rain and snow and windblown trees, and of course the joys of a new egg hatching or a bird taking flight for the first time,” Wheeler explains.

CWF has long led the efforts to offer free wildlife webcams, made possible by generous sponsors and partners such as Phillips 66 and Union County Parks, whom CWF partners with on the Union County peregrine falcon cam in Elizabeth.

Continue reading “NorthJersey.com: NJ’s nest cams deliver action with eagles, falcons, and more”

TapINTO.net: Online Cameras Peer into Nests of ‘Rock Star’ New Jersey Predators

Story by: TapINTO.net

Top: Duke Farms Eagle protects two eggs that are expected to hatch soon.
Photo credit Conserve Wildlife Foundation.
Bottom: Peregrine Falcons in Union County exhibit mating behavior.

Photo credit Union County.

A pair of American Eagles tend to their nest atop an 80-foot Sycamore tree at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, days away from the hatching of two eggs, while the courtship season has begun for a female peregrine falcon nesting on the roof of the historic 17-story Union County Courthouse in downtown Elizabeth.

The predators have achieved “rock star” status in classrooms and homes across the state and the country thanks to video cameras that have been installed on trees and within the nests of the birds by wildlife biologists, with live feeds available online.

Continue reading “TapINTO.net: Online Cameras Peer into Nests of ‘Rock Star’ New Jersey Predators”

CWF’s Eagle Expert Launches New Citizen Science Project

CWF Biologist Larissa Smith Looking for Data from EagleCam Viewers

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

EagleCam Screenshot 2016

Conserve Wildlife Foundation eagle biologist Larissa Smith has launched a new citizen science project in an effort to learn more about New Jersey’s eagles. We know that many teachers, students and bird lovers watch the wildly popular Duke Farms EagleCam, and now those viewers can help Larissa gather data by participating in the Eagle Food Observation Project.

 

Larissa holding an eagle at a banding last week.
Larissa holding an eagle at a banding last week.

Jim Wright — author of the popular posts about the eagles for Duke Farms’ “Behind the Stone Walls” blog, as well as, “The Bird Watcher” column for The Record — interviewed Larissa Smith in the most recent post on Duke Farms’ blog. In this interview, Larissa explains her latest citizen science project to learn more about the Duke Farms eaglets’ diet.

 

Learn More:

 

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

Can’t Get Enough of the Duke Farms EagleCam?

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

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

Screen Shot by Jim Wright
Screen Shot by Jim Wright

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:

Close-up of the first egg this season by Duke Farms.
Close-up of the first egg this season by Duke Farms.

 

Learn More:

 

df-eagle-e-book

 

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