Breeding populations of American oystercatchers have been heavily monitored on New Jersey’s ocean beaches since 2003, but little is known about the oystercatchers nesting along the state’s Delaware Bay beaches…until now. Learn how biologists from Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ, The Wetlands Institute, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working together on a new project to unravel the mysteries of this previously understudied population. Wildlife Biologist Emmy Casper will share stories from the field and discuss how on-the-ground monitoring, trail cameras, and bird banding are all being used to learn more about the oystercatchers that call the Delaware Bayshore home.
Emmy Casper is a Wildlife Biologist with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. She previously spent three seasons with CWF as a beach-nesting bird technician monitoring populations of piping plovers, American oystercatchers, and colonial bird species at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. She currently manages CWF’s projects in the Delaware Bay region of New Jersey including salt marsh restoration and American oystercatcher monitoring. She holds two degrees from Fordham University, a B.S. in Biology and Anthropology and an M.S. in Biology.
2024 Eagle Project Get-together; photo by: Kathy Clark
We can never thank the NJ Eagle Project volunteers enough for all they do to monitor and protect eagles in New Jersey. Conserve Wildlife Foundation hosted a get-together at the Assunpink Conservation Center this August as a way to say, “thank you”. There are 162 eagle project volunteers currently monitoring eagle nests statewide and it’s not always easy to get everyone together at one time due to distance and obligations. The volunteers who were able to attend shared stories with other volunteers about the nesting season, received an update on the proposed eagle delisting from ENSP Chief, Kathy Clark and hopefully felt very appreciated. This is down time for the eagle project volunteers, though some eagles are already back and working on their nests. THANK YOU to all the Eagle Project Volunteers.
photo by Don TorinoPhoto by Susan Harrisonphoto by Susan Harrison
The Bald Eagle project would not be possible without our corporate partners. We would like to thank PSE&G, Wakefern/ShopRite Stores, Wells Fargo Advisors, and the Cape May County Zoo (AAZK) for providing crucial financial and outreach resources to help keep bald eagles soaring above New Jersey.
An active osprey nest with two live and one dead nestling on the Mullica River. June 2024.
As juvenile ospreys fledge and adult females begin their southbound migration, work to summarize data from this year is ongoing. So far, it doesn’t look like a terrible year but not a great one either. Food stress (or brood reduction) was still apparent within some coastal nest colonies, despite the lack of severe weather (nor’easters/microbursts, etc) which could affect the ability of adult males to find and catch prey.
For the past two summers, Victoria Rosikiewicz has worked for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey at the Long Beach Island Foundation (LBIF) of Arts and Sciences. LBIF is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “promote the arts and sciences on Long Beach Island and the surrounding communities by enlightening, educating, and stimulating thought and discussion about current trends in the arts and sciences through educational and cultural programs for all ages.” We began working with LBIF in 2015 to help encourage ospreys to utilize a nest platform on their 20 acre preserved saltmarsh. Over the years, our relationship has grown and we have worked to improve science based programming and environmental features on site. From enhancing their Nature Trail and installing the live streaming LBIF Marsh Cam, building the Osprey Blind, and creating terrapin nesting habitat. Victoria has helped to expand environmental education through leading LBIF’s Discovery Days public walks, CWF’s wildlife summer camp, and conducting wildlife surveys. This work has been funded through a grant from the Osprey Foundation.
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.
by CWF Great Bay Terrapin Project Volunteer Intern, Matthew McCall
CWF Volunteer Intern Matthew McCall holding two adult female terrapins.
This summer I had the opportunity to work as an intern for the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF), researching and surveying Northern diamondback terrapins. Words could not describe how excited I was for this position, working with Senior Wildlife Biologist, Ben Wurst every day this summer was an incredible learning experience. Mr. Wurst taught me how to conduct surveys Great Bay Blvd Wildlife Management Area. This area is an ecological marvel, I witnessed hundreds of terrapins crossing the road on multiple occasions. I remember one day in particular when such a large quantity of terrapins were moving that it took me six hours to drive down that five-mile road, over two hundred terrapins were observed on Great Bay Boulevard that day alone.
by CWF Great Bay Terrapin Project Volunteer Intern, Madison Rose O’Malley
Madison holding an adult female terrapin with scars showing damage consistent with an impact with a boat/outboard.
This summer, I had the chance to volunteer for the Great Bay Terrapin Project to help survey the local terrapin population within Great Bay Boulevard Wildlife Management Area. Being able to assist a vulnerable population was incredibly fulfilling and I personally was able to learn a lot about their behavior during this incredible time. I got to see firsthand just how many female turtles crossed that road to lay their eggs, but unfortunately that also showed me just how many were injured or killed by reckless, inattentive, or outright malicious drivers. One thing I realized during this is just how hardy of an animal the terrapin is. I saw individuals with massive chunks taken out of them, bite marks, claw marks, and huge gashes from boat propellers forever etched into their shells. I realized that despite their vulnerability in early life and extremely slow growth, the defense of their shell and their insane ability to recover from injuries left them with very few threats for a long time. Even many major boat injuries are recoverable, emphasizing the severity of the threat posed by automobiles specifically.
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.
A view from one of our survey points at Dix Wildlife Management Area. Photo courtesy of Emmy Casper, CWF Wildlife 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.
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.
