The installation of a custom made nestbox on a water tower is no easy task. Just climbing this tower is a scary feat. First off the tower is over 70 years old and has little safety features on it. You rely on your own climbing gear and strength to safely climb this tower. After several delays, we successfully got the nestbox up on the water tower where we hope to get peregrines from another nest site to nest.
This site was chosen because it is suitable habitat for peregrines to nest and there are adequate prey resources in the area (pigeons, starlings, and doves). Peregrine nest sites were once along the D. Bayshore in this area, but a recent study conducted in coastal Virginia found that peregrines there were negatively influencing the behavior of migratory shorebirds. This spring the decision was made to remove a nestbox that was located along the Bay to help protect species like the endangered red knot while they feed on horseshoe crab eggs.
I constructed the nestbox from salvaged wood from the Forest Resource Education Center’s sawmill. It’s a mixture of white cedar, western red cedar, and scrap plywood (from construction of bat houses). Reusing salvaged wood is something I am really passionate about. I make all sorts of things from it including picture frames that I sell, furniture, and osprey platforms.
Last year Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ started a new project that was focused on reducing the amount of terrapins that were killed by motor vehicles. The project began because of one individual terrapin that I encountered on Great Bay Blvd in 2009. I observed the female terrapin as she walked along the edge of the Blvd. I saw this as being odd. Typically they cross the road and often at a speedy pace (probably because they know the apparent danger from crossing roads). I stopped and saw that she had an injury to her lower mandible, probably from a motor vehicle. I knew that she needed help.
Terrapins face a variety of threats in their environment. An untold number are trapped in crab traps that are not fitted with Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs), some are hit by speeding boats and jet skis, and many more are injured or killed while attempting to cross roads. Along Great Bay Blvd. in Little Egg Harbor several studies have documented the amount of live and dead individuals on the road.
As soil and coastal waters begin to warm, terrapins begin to become active again. In late April/early May hatchlings begin to emerge from nest cavities where they overwintered. Adults also begin to become active, but mostly remain in the waters where they live until June when females emerge to lay eggs in nests they dig on land.
The penninsula that surrounds Great Bay Blvd. is pristine habitat for terrapins in southern Barnegat Bay.
Last year we raised enough funding to develop and print an educational brochure, purchase and install “Terrapin X-ING” signs, and install 4,000 feet of barrier fencing. The fencing was placed along the first stretch of road where the highest mortality rates were recorded. The fence proved to be effective at reducing road kills and increasing awareness of terrapins. The fence was removed in late 2010. This year it will be installed again along the same portion of road with help from a local construction company, Sambol Construction. After this season, we hope to keep the fence up year-round and hope to fence the whole first section of the road (and possibly more).
This year to help reduce the amount of terrapins that are hit by motor vehicles, we are recruiting volunteers to act as “Terrapin Stewards.” Stewards will be asked to routinely drive, walk, or bike down Great Bay Blvd. during the summer months from June to mid-July (especially on weekends, holidays and when there is a full or new moon). Volunteers will educate the public about terrapins, their threats in the environment, and our project. Volunteers will also help terrapins safely cross roads and help record locations of live or dead animals. No more than 10 volunteers will be recruited this year.
Our Message to visitors:
The habitat that surrounds Great Bay Boulevard is very important to the reproduction of northern diamondback terrapins, a species in decline in New Jersey. Female terrapins often nest along the soft shoulders of roadways. Sometimes they enter the roadway to reach these suitable nesting areas where they lay their eggs. Research has shown that dozens of female terrapins are killed by motor vehicles each year along Great Bay Boulevard. Please help conserve terrapins by driving carefully while traveling along the road.
If you’d like to participate you are required to attend a training session on May 3rd @ 6pm at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. Volunteers will fill out paperwork and learn more about terrapins and our project. You must register to attend this training/information session.
For the past two years we’ve worked with staff from the Army Corps of Engineers to enhance osprey nesting habitat within the Shrewsbury River Watershed inside Fort Monmouth in Oceanport, New Jersey. We first began work during the summer of 2009 when an osprey nested on a utility pole at the Fort. The pair had eggs when their nest caused $10,000 worth of damage to a transformer. To alleviate the problem the nest was going to be removed from the pole and the nest would have been lost. Instead Joe Fallon, Chief of the Environmental Division at the Fort decided to install a new pole next to the nest on the live power lines. I met with Joe and gave him a platform “top” and braces to attach to the top of the new pole. After the new pole was installed the nest and eggs were moved. The adults immediately took to the nest platform and successfully raised two young that year. In 2010, they raised another two young that we banded with USGS bird bands.
After completion of work this spring there will be a total of 18 nesting platforms there (not including a nest on a light pole over a baseball field). We hope to use part of this funding to install more nesting structures on several islands to the west of Sea Bright and Monmouth Beach in 2012.
Line 58: Check it to help New Jersey’s Rare Wildlife
By Margaret O’Gorman, Executive Director
It’s tax season again and if you have not yet completed and filed your tax return, please consider making a donation to rare wildlife through the Income Tax Check-Off option available to all New Jersey filers.
It’s a simple way to give – just look for Line 58 on your state income tax 1040 form, ask your tax preparer to do it or, wait to be prompted by software like Turbo Tax. You can choose from a series of set amounts or decide if you want to contribute more or less than suggested.
Your contributions are used to support the state’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program, the small but dedicated band of wildlife biologists and technicians that protect the state’s rarest species from extinction and help keep imperiled species off the Endangered Species List.
In the past, revenue from the check-off has supported the recovery of the bald eagle and osprey, restoration for the bog turtle and research for New Jersey’s bat population. Your contribution through this state program makes a huge difference.
According to a press release from the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, “For more than 30 years, income tax check off donations has paid wildlife dividends. Some examples:
New Jersey biologists restored our bald eagle population from one nest in 1979 to 82 nesting pairs today.
New Jersey biologists have led the international effort to prevent the Western Hemisphere extinction of the red knot, which depends on the eggs of spawning Delaware Bay horseshoe crabs they devour in New Jersey each spring to fuel an epic migration from their South American breeding grounds to Canadian Arctic nesting grounds.
The bobcat was reintroduced in New Jersey 30 years ago, and research and protection efforts since then have allowed this secretive cat to establish a foothold in the northern third of the state.
More than 30 years of intensive management and cooperative efforts with coastal communities have prevented the State extinction of three New Jersey beach nesting birds, the piping plover, least tern and black skimmer.
Peregrine falcons disappeared from New Jersey in the 1960’s but through a reintroduction project and intensive management we now have a stable population of 20 nesting pairs statewide.”
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey works closely with the Endangered and Nongame Species Program to carry out these projects and we can attest to the fact that these passionate biologists stretch every penny as far as it will go to make sure that your contributions are invested wisely.
This year, when you’re filing your New Jersey State Income Tax form, please check-off for wildlife and support the hardworking biologists that help keep wildlife in our future.
Since 1985, one boardwalk casino has been home to a pair of peregrine falcons. On the 23rd floor of the Hilton (originally named as the Golden Nugget, then Bally’s Grand, The Grand) in Atlantic City a pair of peregrines have nested since 1988. Since then only two females have ever occupied the territory there. The first female nested there until 2002. In October of that year she was found injured after it was believed that she had struck an object. She was transported to The Raptor Trust for treatment, but unfortunately died later that night. She was the oldest nesting peregrine in New Jersey at the time (she was born in 1985 at a nest site in Sedge Island WMA) and was a NJ native falcon. She raised a total of 25 young during the 15 years that she nested there. She was known for her tenacious attitude and brave assaults on biologists and photographers by dive-bombing them “fighter jet style” to protect her young.
Here is an excerpt from the article “Storied A.C. Peregrine Dies: State’s oldest nesting falcon was N.J. native” in our old Conserve Wildlife newsletter from 2002:
“She’d been around nearly as long as I’ve been a biologist,” says Clark. “I felt a kinship from our many years at her nest, banding her young.”
Last June, as Clark was returning the bird’s two chicks to the ledge after she had banded them inside the penthouse suite, the biologist noticed the fierce female accidentally glance one of the building’s structural columns. But Clark will remember more all the times the bird was at her fighterpilot best, strafing Clark, her assistants and the news photographers who bravely clambered out onto the narrow ledge to record what had become a much publicized, annual banding ritual. In fact, in 1997 within a span of several minutes the bird was able to strike the heads of both an assistant biologist and a photographer. That’s why Clark, since then, had been banding the chicks inside.
Ironically, it took her death to solve the final mystery of her existence. In 1994, thanks to a remote-controlled camera, Clark was able to read all but the last digit on her leg band. The numbers confirmed her 1985 hatch date, but without that missing digit she could have been fledged anywhere from Maine to Virginia.
When Clark recovered the fatally injured bird, she recorded the entire banding number, and quickly learned the female had been hatched atop a nest tower erected in Barnegat Bay’s Sedge Islands Wildlife Management Area, just 25 miles north of Atlantic City. One of the first offspring of restored, wild-nesting peregrines in New Jersey, she had been a lifelong resident of the Garden State.” written by Bruce Beans.
Measuring the length of the ledge where deterrent will be installed.
Today, the only other female peregrine to nest on the ledge of the penthouse floor will be 13 years old this summer. She originated from a nest site in coastal Virginia in 1998. In early 2009 we placed a deterrent (wood and pigeon spikes) along a portion of the ledge to deter the pair from nesting. The preferred nest site is a nest tray where the pair can be more closely monitored by casino staff and butlers (Mel and Pete) on the penthouse floor and it also has more protection from harsh weather conditions. The deterrent worked quite well last year, but it wasn’t quite large enough. The female proceeded to nest directly next to our deterrents (see photo below). She was allowed to nest there, but after her young were banded, they were placed in the nest tray on the west side of the building.
Yesterday Kathy Clark, zoologist with the Endangered and Nongame Species Program, and myself visited the site to measure the ledge where additional deterrent will be placed next week. The nesting pair was present and aggressive as usual. The female dove at us both as we were out on the ledge. The spirit of the old “storied” peregrine has certainly been passed on to this bird. The new deterrents will be installed next week. Peregrines begin nesting in March.
Our website features profiles on every one of New Jersey’s 73 Endangered or Threatened species in our Online Field Guide. Now, we’re beginning to profile New Jersey’s Species of Special Concern. The term “Species of Special Concern” applies to species that warrant special attention because of some evidence of decline, inherent vulnerability to environmental deterioration, or habitat modification that would result in their becoming a Threatened species. This category may also be applied to species that meet those criteria and for which there is little understanding of their current population status in the state. There are currently 108 species within New Jersey with the Special Concern status. So far, we have profiles for 18 of those species.
Protecting Terrapins Through Education and Awareness
By Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager
Female Northern Diamondback terrapin by Jonathan Carlucci
Terrapins are ectothermic, or they are cold-blooded, and their activity is regulated by external temperatures in the environment. While they may be dormant at the moment, I’m far from that. I’ve never stopped working to protect terrapins from the end of last year’s nesting season. While it’s almost impossible to prevent every terrapin from being hit-by-car, it’s more important to highlight the need for protection and for people to become more aware of terrapins when driving.
Here are a few things I’m working on to help terrapins in the Great Bay area this year:
I’ve been working on getting some funding to help raise awareness, i.e. more X-ING signs, other signs (like “slow down, terrapin X-ING”) and other educational materials.
I developed an educational presentation about terrapins and our work to protect them. I just presented it for the first time a couple weeks ago at the Jacques Cousteau Coastal Educational Center in Tuckerton.
I have been in touch with the town engineer for Little Egg Harbor Twp. about lowering the speed limit on Great Bay Blvd. this year. The speed is currently 50mph!! For a road with soft shoulders (and in some areas, saltmarsh or shrubs that are growing onto the road), seven bridges, a lot of human use in summer, terrapins that nest on the edges and enter the roadway, and the fact that it divides a pristine Wildlife Management Area, it is just way too high.
I am attending both the environmental commission and town council meeting this month to address my concerns and to ask for their support for our project.
I recently met with officers from the Osborne Island Homeowners Association to assist them with protecting terrapins along Radio Rd.
I am developing a volunteer project where volunteers will help patrol area roadways to educate the public about terrapins, to help them cross roads safely, and to help document terrapins on roadways.
If you would like to help us protect terrapins in the Great Bay area, we could use your help!
A "natural" osprey nest in a snag on the Manasquan Reservoir. Image courtesy Tanya Dinova, Monmouth County Parks.
On January 17th I was forwarded a message from fellow osprey conservationist and colleague Jon Rosky. Jon has been helping provide nesting structures for ospreys since the early 90s with his Osprey Recovery Project. Tanya Dinova, a naturalist/interpreter at the Manasquan Reservoir Environmental Center contacted Jon to get assistance with a snag (a dead standing tree) that held an osprey nest since 2008 on the reservoir. This past October a storm caused the snag to snap and the nest was lost.
Luckily this occurred during the non-breeding season, otherwise the nestlings would not have survived. Tanya reported that the nest produced 2 young in 2010 and 2 in 2009. Great results for a natural nest that is directly over water! One might argue to not do anything and allow ospreys to find another snag to build a nest on. There are multiple snags in the water that could provide another natural nest site. If we were not going to do anything then this would be the likely outcome. However, many of the snags are not large enough to hold an osprey nest and there is a good chance the nest could fall during the breeding season.
Ospreys return to the same nest site year after year. And young adults return to where they originated to reproduce when they are 3 years old. Ospreys usually live till around 10 years old in the wild. The oldest osprey that was ever encountered in New Jersey was a female that was 18 years old. She sustained injuries from a close encounter with an eagle near Avalon several years ago and did not survive.
Here you can see the extent of the damage to the tree. Image courtesy Tanya Dinova, Monmouth County Parks.
In her message Tanya stressed the importance of having ospreys that nest on the reservoir as an educational resource to visitors of the park. A total of 3 pairs of ospreys nest on the reservoir. Naturalists, like Tanya, educate the public about ospreys, their decline, their importance in the ecosystem, and their return to historic numbers in New Jersey. This is a very important part of the recovery of ospreys in New Jersey and it will help foster awareness for them in the future.
Monmouth County has been an area of interest to me. Since I began working with ospreys in 2004 there were only a few nests in Monmouth County that were monitored. In 2010 there were 14 active nests (not including those on Sandy Hook and the Raritan Bay) where nesting observations were made. These observations help us determine the health of the local and state populations. In 2010, productivity averaged 1.86 young/active (known-outcome) nest. It was recorded at 1.25 in 2009. The population is continuing to grow in Monmouth County and with only limited areas to nest, ospreys are nesting in peculiar locations.
Many ospreys are choosing to nest on cell towers, boat lifts, and other tall structures. Because of habitat loss these are the only a few structures that are available to them. Manasquan Reservoir is an exception. When the dam was installed it killed trees when the water levels rose. This created new nest sites for ospreys from the snags that were left. However, today many snags are beginning to decay and osprey nesting sites are lost.
This situation has created a unique opportunity to collaborate and find a solution. I suggested that instead of installing a new nesting platform, to install a box-top (3×3′ wood box) on top of the snag. The box would allow the ospreys to nest in the same tree and it would provide added stability ospreys rely on to incubate eggs and raise young. We will perform this delicate task before ospreys return in mid-March.
Kestrels are the smallest falcon (about the same size as an American Robin) in North America. Its plumage is striking with rufous coloration its back and tail. Although the American kestrel is widespread, meaning they live year round throughout much of the United States, the northeastern kestrel population is declining. Today the kestrel is listed as a Species of Special Concern in New Jersey (not yet endangered or threatened but on its way).
Kestrels are found in open, grassy habitats – especially ones that have cavities for nesting and perches for hunting. Kestrels can be seen hovering in grasslands, pastures and parklands or perched along the road on telephone lines. The decline of kestrels in New Jersey is likely due to destruction of grasslands from development. Also, nesting cavities are lost. As we clean up our fields, we remove trees with nest cavities the kestrels use.
Researchers have not determined the exact reason for kestrel declines but, we do know that the availability of cavities for nesting appears to be a limiting factor. Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, in partnership with the Endangered and Nongame Species Program implemented a nest box installation and monitoring program in 2006.
Bat houses provide roosting and maternity sites in South Jersey
by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager
Nicolas built 60 bat houses with materials that were donated to help NJ's bats. Image courtesy Dan Fuzer
New Jersey’s bats got some new maternity and roosting sites near Mt. Holly and the Rancocas Creek late last year. A Boy Scout, Nicolas Fuzer, chose to construct and install bat houses for his Eagle Scout Project after learning more about bats and the perils they face including White-nose syndrome. He hopes that by building and installing these houses NJ’s bats will not have a problem finding adequate areas to roost and reproduce.
Amazingly enough, Nicolas completed the construction of a total of 60 bat houses with the help of his fellow Scouts. He was planning on installing all of the bat houses, some with our help. But after realizing the daunting task of finding suitable habitat and installing all 60 of the bat houses, he decided to donate some to CWF. He installed 20 of houses in suitable habitat near the Rancocas Creek.
The donated bat houses will be installed in areas where we would like to enhance roosting habitat or maternity sites. There is a possibility for us to give away some bat houses to homeowners who 1) Have suitable habitat, i.e. a structure/building that has south/southwest exposure with full sun and at least a 15ft. drop and 2) would participate in our Summer Bat Count where volunteers count bats as they emerge from their roost sites at dusk. If you’re interested in obtaining a bat house from CWF, please contact me for more information.
Thank you Nicolas for all of your hard work and generous donation!!
Benefits of Bats
Nicholas installs a bat house as part of his Eagle Scout Project. Image courtesy Dan Fuzer
Bats have a reputation as being spooky or even dangerous, but they are actually some of the most beneficial animals to people. All of New Jersey’s bats are insectivores. They feed on night-flying insects, including the pesty mosquitoes. A single little brown bat can eat 3,000 mosquito-sized insects a night, and a colony of 150 big brown bats can eat enough cucumber beetles to save farmers almost a billion dollars annually in crop damages and pesticide costs. Without bats, we would be more dependent on toxic chemicals to control unwanted insects. Some garden pests even detect the sounds that bats make while feeding and will avoid areas where bats are present. In turn, guano (bat droppings) makes for a terrific garden fertilizer!
In other areas of the world, bats play a major role in pollinating flowers and dispersing seeds for plants such as bananas, avocados, cashews, and mangoes. By dispersing a wide variety of plant seeds over open areas, bats also help to restore the tropical rainforests following logging, fire, and other disturbances.
Many scientific advancements are owed to bats as well: navigational aids for the blind, blood-clot medication, artificial insemination techniques, low-temperature surgery on people, and military sonar have all been inspired by our night-flying friends.
