Tag: Report

Ospreys are migrating north and will soon begin another nesting season in New Jersey. Earlier this year, their conservation status was upgraded from threatened to stable by NJDEP. This marks a tremendous success in the restoration of ospreys, management of their nesting structures, and vast improvements in the health of our aquatic ecosystems, and the efforts of many devoted environmental professionals and osprey lovers throughout the state. Results from 2024, show that ospreys had favorable conditions for their continued growth and success.

To track the health of the osprey population, each year project staff, volunteers, and citizen scientists collect data on nest occupancy and nest success. Most colonies are surveyed by devoted volunteers who use a ladder to access a nest and determine the outcome. Others are surveyed from a distance using optics or other visual aides, including digital cameras and unmanned aerial systems. Citizen scientists, who contribute observations of nest activity online through www.osprey-watch.org play a crucial role in determining the overall size and health of the state population, as many document nest success in areas where previous nest surveys were not conducted. Moving forward, theses passionate volunteers will play a more important role in monitoring ospreys and their continued success.

Overall, results from our surveys recorded a total of 729 nests that were occupied. The majority of nests monitored had increased productivity, which is a stark contrast from what was observed in 2022 and 2023, when most colonies had decreased productivity. This highlights how severe weather, specifically nor’easters, can affect the overall productivity of coastal nesting ospreys, where most osprey nests are located in New Jersey. With no severe weather, the average statewide productivity was normal at 1.63 young/active [known outcome] nest.

As reported last year, observations of adult females not laying eggs at prompted us to conduct some early season surveys in some colonies. A survey that we conducted on Barnegat Bay revealed that 40% of the nests surveys had no eggs or young, which normally had young in previous years. Similar findings were reported in the Great Egg Harbor colony and also in areas of the Chesapeake Bay, which is even more alarming. We still don’t know what caused the reduction in egg-laying females and delayed incubation. More investigation and future monitoring is warranted.

In general, ospreys had a productive season, with the outcome being determined in 73% of the nests surveyed in 2024. Those pairs (533) produced a total of 867 young. A total of 101 (12%) nestlings were banded for future tracking, 35 of which with both federal and red auxiliary, field readable bands at nests on Barnegat Bay. 89 nests were determined to have failed to produce young. This means they either had eggs or nestlings and they were lost.

Osprey Band Recoveries

Each year a small portion of young ospreys are banded with federal bird bands for future tracking. Encounters with banded birds is infrequent, unless they are found injured or dead, mainly because the bands are very difficult to read on live birds. With Project RedBand, an osprey banding and re-sighting project on Barnegat Bay, we have seen more encounters with live ospreys than those that are injured/dead. This is a direct result of banding birds with red “field readable” auxiliary bands, which can be read from a distance using a spotting scope or a telephoto lens on a digital camera. In 2024, 41 ospreys that were banded as nestlings were encountered. Of those, 30 were identified by their red bands, most during nest surveys conducted by CWF staff. Obtaining re-sightings of red banded ospreys helps track individual birds as they return to New Jersey to nest as adults. We can learn a lot about their life history while engaging the public in osprey conservation. Thank you to everyone who has reported red banded ospreys that they have observed!

With ospreys being listed as stable, it means they’re not at risk of becoming threatened or endangered in the near future. It does not mean we should just forget about them or walk away. Our continued efforts to monitor ospreys will help track their health and any impacts from threats like plastic marine debris to the loss of vital prey, like menhaden shifting northward from the effects of climate change. We have to continue to maintain their nest structures, which the majority of ospreys rely on to successfully reproduce. 

Thankfully we have a growing group of volunteer “osprey watchers” who will help keep tabs on them in the future. As one of the largest birds of prey that nests in very close proximity to humans, especially on our heavily developed coast, creating a connection between ospreys and people is resilience. The ability to adapt to a changing landscape is crucial to our shared prosperity in this region. We must protect our open space and habitats that wildlife depend on to survival, while also allowing our human way of life to move forward.

Special thanks to everyone who donates to support our work with ospreys and to all our volunteers who help maintain their nest structures and monitor nest activity throughout the state!

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by Todd Pover, Senior Wildlife Biologist

New Jersey Fish and Wildlife has released their annual reports for the 2024 beach nesting bird season and the results were mixed. Piping plovers had one of their worst seasons on record in New Jersey since federal listing in 1986. Least terns also fared poorly, while black skimmers and American oystercatchers posted more promising breeding results.

According to the state report, piping plovers recorded their lowest population in New Jersey in 2024, at just 89 pairs, and statewide productivity was poor, as well, at just 0.54 chicks fledged per pair, third lowest on record. The state’s piping plover population has fluctuated greatly in the past five years, reaching 137 pairs in 2021, close to the peak of 144 pairs, only to now fall to the historic low. While the low pair count is concerning enough in its own right, this year’s poor productivity also doesn’t bode well for next year, as productivity is often strongly linked to short-term population changes for piping plovers. Productivity during the 2024 breeding season was well below both the long-term New Jersey average (1.01) and the federal recovery goal (1.50). Furthermore, productivity has been poor over the past several years, putting future population increases at risk.

Pair counts dropped along nearly the entire Jersey coast, with Sandy Hook having one of the most dramatic losses from 34 pairs in 2023 to 14 in 2024. The population loss there is especially troubling given Sandy Hook was once a stronghold for the state, its piping plover population has been trending downward from just over 50 pairs about a decade ago. Productivity was also very poor at Sandy Hook in 2024, just 0.50 chicks per pair, again this site used to be one of New Jerseys’ productivity hotspots for piping plovers. Holgate, a Unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, and one of the sites monitored by CWF, continued its recent trend of having the most breeding plovers in the state, with 48 pairs or 54% of the state’s population in 2024. Unfortunately, it experienced especially bad productivity, producing just 0.35 chicks per pair. One of the notable highlights in the state was the Barnegat Light Habitat Restoration Area, a site CWF has had a lead role in creating and maintaining, where 5 pairs produced 10 fledgling or 2.00 per pair.

Although New Jersey’s least tern population was surprisingly robust this year with 1,436 total adults recorded, two concerning recent trends for this colonial species continued in 2024. The number of colonies dropped to just 11, the lowest since 1976. Productivity for the state’s least terns was poor, only 146 fledglings were recorded. The highlight was the TNC South Cape May Meadows site, where 80 fledglings were produced.

Black skimmers were also only present at just a few colonies in New Jersey in 2024 – three known active colonies at Holgate, Horseshoe Island, and Stone Harbor Point – the lowest number of colonies documented since 1976. On the other hand, their population, with 2341 adults, was on the high side of the past 20-year range and they had a very good season productivity-wise. Strong results were seen at all three colonies, resulting in nearly 1000 fledglings produced overall. Horseshoe Island had the state’s largest colony with 1,347 breeding adults, helping demonstrate the importance of the recent conservation efforts at this relatively new site.

American oystercatcher data are more difficult to assess, as only a portion of the state’s breeding population is monitored, with most of the marsh nesting breeders, which account for a significant portion, left unmonitored. At 155 pairs in 2024, those oystercatchers regularly monitored – primarily the sandy beach strand population – continued their steady long-term growth trend over the past two decades or so since regular monitoring began in New Jersey.

Productivity was also strong for the oystercatchers in New Jersey in 2024, clocking in at just over 0.50 chicks fledged per pair, which is the recovery target. As a long-lived species, annual productivity goals are lower for American oystercatchers, compared to the shorter-lived piping plovers. Among the highlights for American oystercatchers in New Jersey this year were Holgate with 53 pairs, the most in the state, producing 0.79 fledglings per pair and Horseshoe Island recording an average of 1.50 fledglings from 16 pairs, both of these being sites CWF helped monitor and manage.

Read the full 2024 NJ Piping Plover Nesting Results

Read the full 2024 Beach Nesting Bird Project Report