Barn Owls (Tyto alba) are one of the most widespread avian species in the world. Despite this impressive distribution, their numbers have been decreasing in parts of their range, and New Jersey is no exception. The barn owl population in New Jersey is in decline due to habitat loss associated with urban sprawl and development of former agricultural lands. Little is known about the Barn Owl population in central New Jersey. Through a grant from the Monmouth Audubon Society, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey is partnering with Monmouth County Park System and the New Jersey State Park to construct, install and monitor three barn owl boxes. By providing suitable nest site opportunities we can potentially boost the barn owl population locally within Monmouth County as well as regionally as fledglings disperse to find their own nesting areas.
The first step of the project has been completed. CWF biologist Christine Healy and her Father Jim Healy have constructed three nest boxes that are ready for installation.
Christine and Jim Healy construct Barn Owl nest boxescompleted Barn Owl nesting boxes
Would you like to learn more about the elusive Barn Owl, support the CWF Barn Owl Project and have a fun family night? Join us at Howls for Owls, at the Screamin’ Hill Brewing.
We Hope to see you there. This outdoor event will be cancelled for bad weather, so please stay updated on our website.
Work on this project is done under NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Scientific Collecting Permit SC2023048
When we founded the Great Bay Terrapin Project, our goal was to reduce roadkills of adult female northern diamondback terrapins. This was largely due to personal observations of multiple roadkills during the summer months along roads in Little Egg Harbor Township and past research which accounted for a large number of adults DOR (dead on road). Since 2010, we’ve been able to cut the historic roadkill rate in half, all thanks to our devoted volunteers who patrol area roads and raise awareness for them! This allows adults to grow larger and live longer lives, which helps to ensure their long term survival.
Depending on where you look and who you talk to, the fate of many osprey nests might bring tears to your eyes. Since a nor’easter impacted the coast with strong onshore winds for several days, young ospreys have been dying of starvation in plain sight. Over the past week, several reports of adults who abandoned their nests with young have been received. This year, weather has impacted the availability of fish and outcomes of nests in the Garden State.
With about 50 pairs of both piping plovers and American oystercatchers nesting this year at Holgate, a unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, CWF’s seasonal staff that monitors breeding activity for the Refuge has been working at a non-stop pace. We asked them to take a short break from their field tasks to reflect on their season, for some this is their first experience with beach nesting birds. Specifically, they were asked about their favorite and most surprising things about the birds, so far. Read their responses below, including a little twist of the “least favorite” thing in one case.
CWF’s 2023 beach nesting bird monitoring crew for Edwin B. Forsythe NWR and Horseshoe Island. Morgan Phillips, Gianna Canale, Audrey Randazzo, Amy Kopec, Dakota Bell (l to r).
Kelly Scott, Resource Interpretive Specialist 3, NJ State Park Service holds Bayley before releasing her into the wild.
This past Monday I joined several partners to release a very special northern diamondback terrapin back into the wild. This adult female terrapin had been illegally collected and sold into the black market pet trade. Over the past couple years we have been working on a plan to get her back the wild.
Each of these partners, including Dr. John Wnek, MATES/Project Terrapin, Kelly Scott, NJ State Park Service, Brian Zarate, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife played an important role in her successful release (you can read about each of their roles in a story by Dr. Wnek below). We gathered in the parking lot of a former marina which CWF & NJDEP Fish & Wildlife converted into suitable nesting habitat for female terrapins. For all of us, I think it’s safe to say that it was bittersweet to see her swim off into the brackish water. She was home.
Princeton eaglets in their new nest; photo by John Heilferty
The Princeton eagle nest collapsed sometime between Friday June 2nd and early Saturday June 3rd. The Princeton pair had two chicks that were ten weeks old and close to fledging. NJ Eagle Project volunteers, Kevin and Karin Buynie monitor this nest and went out as soon as they were notified. When they arrived one chick was perched up in the tree and one was on the ground. The grounded chick was taken to Mercer County Wildlife Center for evaluation. The next day Kevin returned to the nest site and found the second chick now on the ground, so that chick was also captured and taken to MCWC. Both chicks were found to be uninjured and ready to return to the nest. A plan was formed to build a new nest in the tree and renest the two chicks. On June 11th, a group of volunteers and staff from Mercer County Wildlife Center met at the nest site. John Heilferty, retired ENSP Chief, climbed the nest tree and built the nest as volunteers helped to send up the needed materials. Diane Nickerson with the MCWC brought the two chicks, which were banded with Green NJ band H/39 and H/38 and silver federal bands. The chicks were then placed back up in the nest. One of them decided to fledge and the other perched on a branch near the nest. The recently fledged chick did return to the nest that evening and the second chick fledged June 16th. Thank you to Karin and Kevin Buynie, Diane Nickerson and volunteers Daniel and Hope with Mercer County Wildlife, John Heilferty, Kim Korth, and Roger Smith.
Scroll through the slideshow to view photos from the renest.
Princeton nest after collapse
Remains of nest
eaglets at Mercer County Wildlife Center
eaglets at MCWC
Nest tree
nest building materials
John Heilferty climbing tree
John working on nest platform
nest construction
platform finished
adding sticks
finished nest
Kevin Buynie with eaglet
Diane Nickerson, Kevin Buynie and Karin Buynie band the eaglet
In the May 16th blog, Shorebird Stewards On the Bay in May, it’s mentioned that some beaches along the Delaware Bay have restricted access every year from May 7th to June 7th. This is due to the migratory shorebirds that travel thousands of miles and need a place to stop to feed. Our beaches contain excellent food sources to help birds gain weight to continue their journey- horseshoe crab eggs. They are filled with fat and protein. The Delaware Bay is the largest spawning area for horseshoe crabs in the world!
Now what do the Shorebird Stewards, such as myself, do all day? We monitor our assigned beaches and educate the public about this incredible phenomenon! My favorite beaches are Roosevelt Blvd. beach and Cook’s Beach because I see the most active flocks of shorebirds at these locations.
A group of the infamous Red Knots: Calidris canutus, Semipalmated Sandpipers: Calidrus pusilla, and Ruddy Turnstones: Arenaria interpres, at the beach on Roosevelt Blvd., photo: C. Franceschini
On a quiet day with not many people to educate, there are many things for us Stewards to do. Some Stewards read their books, watch movies, listen to music/podcasts, color/paint, take walks, research, etc. I do all of the above! Since we have a love for these special shorebirds, most Stewards also birdwatch! It’s a must to bring your binoculars or scope to observe these beautiful birds. Sometimes, you observe other interesting animals, too!
American Oystercatcher at Cook’s beach: Haematopus palliatus photo: C. FranceschiniBald Eagles, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, photo: C. Franceschini
Another activity to do in the down-time is to flip the spawning Atlantic Horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus, back onto their legs so they can crawl back into the bay. When the tide rise, these crabs get overturned by the waves and have no way of returning back to their feet! Personally, this is my favorite activity to do. When you return after your “crab walk”, you get to see the tracks of their feet traveling back into the bay where they belong. Below on the left is a picture of flipped and rescued crabs: the one on the left is a male who decided to bury himself in the sand to preserve water until the tide comes back in, and the one on the right is a male who decided to make the trek back into the bay. When the tide comes in, the horseshoe crabs come up and begin spawning. Pictured below in the middle is an example of how crowded the beaches get with these creatures! On the right, is a photo of a tagged crab I found, and reported it to the US Fish and Wildlife Service so that they can collect data on the tagged crabs.
You can also get involved with helping these critters! “Return the Favor” is an organization dedicated to conducting beach walks to flip overturned horseshoe crabs on the NJ beaches of the Delaware Bay. You can join public walks that are held by walk leaders or sign up to be a volunteer and conduct your own walk (until July 15th, 2023 or next year). I am a volunteer and walk leader and it is one of my favorite things to do. Flipping horseshoe crabs is such a special event because that means you’re saving those crabs so they can continue to spawn and produce eggs for the shorebirds. With your help, you could help save hundreds of crabs just by flipping them over! Of course I had to capture this special moment of me flipping a crab (picture below)!
On these walks, you experience much more than just crabs. You get to see other wildlife that emerges during dusk or dawn. You can also go on the closed beaches to save the crabs that can’t be rescued during the day. During my walk, I got to see thousands of horseshoe crab eggs!
C. FranceschiniHorseshoe crab eggs photo: C. FranceschiniFemale horseshoe crab, photo: C. Franceschini
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
If you follow us or any other wildlife organizations on social media, you may have noticed that our posts these last few days have been inundated with amphibians. It may seem like odd timing, given that our early breeders (wood frogs, spotted, and Jefferson salamanders) completed their crossroad migration last month. But the reason is simple – it’s Amphibian Week!
Close up of an American toad that hitched a ride during this year’s crossing. Photo Credit: Nikki Griffiths
Globally, amphibians are disappearing faster than any other vertebrate group. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that 41% of amphibian species categorized for their Red List are currently facing extinction. That estimate is likely conservative, given that these creatures are often small and difficult to survey, rendering many species data deficient. This is concerning from multiple perspectives. From an ethical standpoint, we don’t want any wildlife to go extinct except maybe, in my extremely biased opinion, certain types of ticks… (I began my career as a moose technician and saw firsthand the terrible consequences that winter ticks have on these behemoths). Beyond that though, amphibians are tasked with a lot of responsibilities and carry out their work efficiently and without complaint. The list is inexhaustive but here are a few things that amphibians are doing for us and our planet as we speak: filtering water, sequestering carbon, eating pests (like mosquitos!), serving as prey for countless predators, helping researchers study regeneration (with hopeful applications to the future of organ transplants), aerating the soil in your garden, indicating where water sources have been contaminated by pollutants, and giving everyone who meets them a reason to smile.
For the second year in a row there haven’t been eagles nesting on the Three Bridges platform in view of eagle cam. The pair used the platform when it was first installed in 2021 and viewers got to watch the two chicks grow up and fledge. In 2022 & 2023 the pair have nested in a tree nest instead of the platform. While it’s disappointing that the pair didn’t use the platform, there was still plenty of avian action at the tower this season. There were several immature eagles visiting the platform this season, perhaps in the next few years one of these eagles will pair up and use the platform.
Slideshow: Highlights from the 2023 Three Bridges Eagle cam season
December 4th, 2022, photo by: Mary Ellen Hill
December 9, 2022; photo by, Barb McKee
eagle pair chase off Red- tailed hawk
American Kestrels
Peregrine Falcon
Red-tailed hawk
Northern Flicker
The eagle cam will be turned off April 1st.
Thank you to all the viewers who watch and enjoy this eagle cam. During the 2023 season there were 22,981 views of the cam. Thank you to the the eagle project volunteers, especially Mary Ellen Hill, who grab screenshots from the cam. We also thank PSE&G for hosting and supporting the eagle camera.
