Horseshoe Island, located just offshore of Little Beach on the southern edge of the Little Egg Inlet, is teeming with wildlife again this year. Last year, under a five-year Management Rights Agreement secured from the state’s Tidelands Resource Council, the site was closed to the public from March 1- September 30 to benefit wildlife, in particular endangered and at-risk beach nesting birds and migratory shorebirds. The seasonal public closure of the island and its surrounding tidal areas is in place again this season.
Aerial view of Horseshoe Island Courtesy of New Jersey Fish and Wildlife
A banded red knot searches for food on a Delaware Bay beach.
Bandedbirds.org is an effort to collect data on shorebirds throughout their range from the southern tip of Chile to the Canadian arctic. This effort has been underway for many years and has an international network of volunteers reporting re-sightings data on shorebirds.
The following was shared with the shorebird community by Jeannine Parvin, administrator for bandedbirds.org.
The bird being discussed was banded in NJ in May 2005. It seemed to return to NJ each year, having been resighted most years up to 2010. The bird seemed to be heading back up to NJ for the 2011 Spring shorebird season, when it was shot and killed in French Guiana. Illegal hunting is still a big issue for shorebirds. Paired with loss and degradation of habitat, and pollution, these birds face major threats. Read more about CWF’s work to monitor and protect shorebirds here.
A red knot identified as FL(PPM) was shot in French Guiana by a hunter.
The data was submitted by Alexandre Vinot from French Guiana. He regularly reports to bandedbirds.org and is a volunteer with GEPOG.
His comments state: “shot in Mana Ricefield – flag given to Antoine Hausselman, who gave me the data”.
