Category: Birds

Bald Eagles and Lead: A Deadly Mix

Posted on by larissasmith
by Larissa Smith, CWF Biologist
Lead poisoning continues to be a serious issue affecting Bald Eagles today.  CWF and ENSP biologists produced a brochure to educate hunters about this issue and ask for their help. Below is an excerpt from the brochure. Please view the entire brochure and pass along to anyone you know who is a hunter.
One person can make a difference!

Thank you.

Eagle with lead poisoning at Tri-State Bird Rescue@Erica Miller

“Bald Eagles have made an amazing recovery in NJ since the 1980s. Today the eagle population still faces challenges and one of those is lead poisoning. Lead in the environment is dangerous to eagles as well as humans, and is often deadly. Unintentional poisoning of eagles can occur when they scavenge gut piles from deer or other game species shot with lead ammunition. It takes just a tiny fragment of lead to sicken and kill an eagle. Each year avian rehabilitators receive eagles that are diagnosed with lead poisoning and most will die. There is no good treatment for lead poisoning.”

Video from the Field: Osprey Platform Install

Posted on by Ben Wurst
Ensuring Osprey Platforms Remain Resilient

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

On a brisk November morning, a couple dedicated NJ Osprey Project volunteers joined myself and CWF Biologist Larissa Smith to install an osprey platform on the coastal saltmarsh of New Jersey. The new platform was installed to replace a very old and unstable platform that fell this summer. The new structure is more than twice the size of the old one and will give the nesting pair, who return in the spring, a much more resilient nest site. As you can see from the video above, it takes a bit of strength to raise up a 16′ tall wood nest platform. We decided to slow it down when WCC Volunteer, Wayne R. gives it a final push. Continue reading “Video from the Field: Osprey Platform Install”

Documenting the presence of plastics in osprey nests

Posted on by Ben Wurst
The threats are real and these photos should alarm you!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

U.S. Coast Guard assists NJ Fish & Wildlife with recovering an entangled osprey on a channel marker in Cape May Harbor, Summer 2018. photo by Kathy Clark/ENSP

As I work to finalize data from this summer’s osprey surveys, I wanted to look back and highlight an important observation: more plastic is being found and recovered from active osprey nests. I guess it’s no surprise when you hear that “18 billion pounds of plastic waste flows into the oceans every year from coastal regions.” Continue reading “Documenting the presence of plastics in osprey nests”

Falcon on LBI bridge perishes, but peregrines’ progress continues

Posted on by CWF
by The Sandpaper
File Photo by: Ryan Morrill

“Northside Jim” Verhagen regularly monitors the peregrine falcon family that resides in and around a new nesting platform in the marsh to the south of the eastbound stretch of the Dorland J. Henderson Bridge. Early last week, after the sole fledgling, named Blue Bonnet, was found dead on the roadway there, he believes her parents, Bridgeboy and Jo Durt, demonstrated mourning. “They do a certain call,” said Verhagen. “Jo Durt landed on the pier with her mate, which is very unusual.”

Despite the young peregrine’s death, as Ben Wurst, habitat program manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, pointed out, “This is still kind of a success story.”

Click here to continue reading.

NJ101.5 News: Bald eagle comeback continues in New Jersey

Posted on by CWF
New Jersey 101.5 radio covered the incredible recovery of bald eagles in New Jersey in a radio story this week. You can listen to it or read it here.
The late Elmer Clegg, an Eagle Project volunteer, holds onto a Bald eagle nestling while Dr. Erica Miller places a hood on the bird to keep it calm while it is being banded for future identification. © Kathy Clark

2018 Osprey Outlook

Posted on by Ben Wurst
Insight Into Important (Bio)Indicators: Ospreys

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

CWF Osprey Banding Apprentice Northside Jim holds a young osprey, 13/K, after banding.

Mid-summer marks the nestling period of nesting ospreys, a coastal raptor, whose diet consists mainly of fish. As a state that’s heavily influenced by its location along the Atlantic Ocean, they play a critical role in our coastal ecosystem. Ospreys are important bioindicators of the health of our coastal waters, through the lens of their prey, where pollutants are biomagnified through the food chain. As we consume many of the same fish, they show the effects of these pollutants long before humans, so the health of their population has implications for our coastal waters and us! Continue reading “2018 Osprey Outlook”

Asbury Park students meet ospreys at high school football field

Posted on by CWF

Story by Michelle Gladden, Asbury Park Sun

Photos courtesy of Chanta L Jackson, Asbury Park School District Communications Director unless otherwise noted.

It is only week two of the Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) Summer Learning Experience program, a part of the Asbury Park School District Summer Camp offerings, and third-grade students have had the opportunity to not only see an osprey up close and personal but to visit a local nest and learn to simulate building the predatory bird’s nesting place.

Continue reading “Asbury Park students meet ospreys at high school football field”

Photos From The Field

Posted on by larissasmith

NJ Eagle Chicks Spread their wings and fly.

by Larissa Smith; CWF biologist

So far this season 123 eagle chicks have fledged (taken their first flight). Even after fledging the chicks will stay around the nest area for the next few weeks learning to hunt, fly and survive on their own.

Below are some photos of recent fledges taken by NJ Eagle Project Volunteers

Navesink fledge 6/27/18@Randy Lubischer

Continue reading “Photos From The Field”

Birds in better condition than last year but still face an ecological roulette

Posted on by CWF

by Larry Niles (Part 3 of 3)

With the stopover period winding down, we can say the red knot and other shorebird species left the bay in better condition than the disastrous condition of last year. So what does it mean?

First, the last four years have been a sort of ecological roulette for the birds. Horseshoe crab numbers remained at only 1/3 the potential population possible on Delaware Bay leaving birds at the mercy of good conditions to get enough eggs. Last year, water temperatures stayed low during the mid-May depressing the spawn and the density of eggs. Although the average was 8000-eggs/square meter, there were less than 2000 eggs/ meters square in the month of May. Continue reading “Birds in better condition than last year but still face an ecological roulette”

Good horseshoe crab egg densities draw 34,500 Red Knots to the bay

Posted on by CWF

by Larry Niles (Part 2 of 3)

The best news is a direct consequence of these good conditions, the number of knots and turnstones increased this year. Our season-high estimates show that there are 34,500 knots in the bay and 21,000 ruddy turnstones. These may be the highest counts on the bay in at least 15 years.

Why? At first one would conclude the increased numbers on the bay represent a real increase in the size of the population, but it is not. Shorebirds need time to respond to improving conditions because they are relatively slow breeders, as are most Arctic breeders. Knot numbers on Delaware Bay basically depend on the availability of crab eggs. In bad years, numbers go down because birds come to the bay and leave quickly. Continue reading “Good horseshoe crab egg densities draw 34,500 Red Knots to the bay”