Duke Farms female November 22, 2019 screen shot taken by Diane Cook
Bald Eagles all over New Jersey are starting to work on their nests for the upcoming nesting season. The next few months are a good time to get outdoors and spot eagles. Wintering eagles will be in NJ during the next few months as well as the NJ nesting pairs. You can also keep an eye on eagles from the comfort and warmth of your home via eagle cams on the CWF website.
May 25th, 2019. Duke getting fitted with transmitter
A transmitter was placed on a chick from the Duke Farms Eagle Cam nest for the first time this year. This nest cam has been watched by thousands of people over the years and now cam watchers will be able to follow the movements of “Duke” after fledging.
January 13, 2019, Mercer County Park. NJ D/99banded at Duke Farms in 2014 @Bob Cook
Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in partnership with the
NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Endangered & Nongame Species Program, is
releasing results of the 2019 NJ Bald Eagle nesting season.
2019 was a record year for NJ eagles with the highest number
of active nests and young fledged in the history of the project. This year, 238 eagle nests were monitored, of
which 189 were active (laid eggs) and 248 young fledged. This is the highest number of fledges ever,
surpassing the previous high of 216 in 2016.
Bald eagle nesting population and young produced in New Jersey, 1982-2019.
We owe the incredible amount of information about NJ eagle success
to the NJ Eagle Project nest watchers. An
extremely dedicated group of approximately 85 volunteers monitor nests during
the season, recording the important dates and watching for possible issues at
nest sites.
This season two eagle cams were available to watch on the CWF website: one at Duke Farms and another at Mercer County Parks. The Duke Farms nest produced two chicks, and one was outfitted with a satellite transmitter; the movements of this eagle are on CWF’s Eagletrax website .
More details on the 2019 nesting season will be available in
the annual eagle report to be posted by December. The report will include individual nest data, state
totals, and eagle recoveries and resightings.
CWF partners with PSEG, the Mercer County Park Commission, Mercer County Wildlife Center, and Wildlife Center Friends and Duke Farms to protect bald eagles in New Jersey. Thank you to the Wakefern Food Corp./ShopRite Markets, Wells Fargo, Chemours and the American Eagle Foundation for additional eagle program funding.
PSE&G, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, Mercer County Park Commission, Mercer County Wildlife Center and Wildlife Center Friends team up with free public programs on Bald Eagles, pollinators, and bats.
Bald eagle fishing in Mercer Lake. Photo by Mercer County Park Commission.
Join us on August 8th at the Mercer County Wildlife Center to learn about pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths and how they help keep flowers in bloom and food on your plate.
Eagle enthusiasts in New Jersey have plenty to celebrate
today on National Bald Eagle Day. Thanks to our dedicated Bald
Eagle Project volunteers we know that so far this year 96 bald eagles have
fledged from their New Jersey nests! Eagles have come a long way in the Garden
State since the early 1980s when there was only one active nest in the whole state.
Two bald eaglets at the site of our Eagle Cam at Duke Farms were recently banded by biologists from Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF) and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Endangered and Nongame Species Program (NJDEP ENSP).
This year’s banding was special, as in addition to a band the male eaglet was also fitted with a transmitter which will allow him to be tracked on our Eagle Trax page.
View of transmitter on the male eaglet, on the right
Kathy Clark, (NJDEP ENSP), and Larissa Smith (CWF) wrote about the experience, and the benefits of transmitters on the Duke Farms blog. Their FAQ’s are reprinted below.
The third
Friday in May has been a celebration of our nation’s wildlife and wild places
since 2006, when the United States Congress established the holiday. There is a
special urgency this year as the United Nations recently reported that nearly
one million species worldwide are at risk of extinction within decades (read
our post about the UN report for more information).
One of the
main points the report makes is that humans are dangerously degrading Earth’s
ecosystems, the delicate, interconnected webs of life that we all, people and wildlife
alike, need to survive.
Several weeks ago, a five-week-old bald eagle was found on the ground with its sibling after a severe storm, their nest destroyed, and the eaglets were transported to us for professional care. Other than being slightly dehydrated, one nestling was healthy.
Jim Wright, whose “Bird Watcher” column appears twice-weekly in The Record and on NorthJersey.com, shares his favorite places to spot rare and beautiful birds in North Jersey. Video created with Wochit.
Nest cams offer you a peek into the natural world from the comfort of your own phone or computer screen. Jim Wright interviews CWF Executive Director David Wheeler about the cams and why they are such an effective way to connect people to wildlife.
“Viewers feel the drama, the danger, the sibling squabbles, the results of chases for prey, the perils of wind and rain and snow and windblown trees, and of course the joys of a new egg hatching or a bird taking flight for the first time,” Wheeler explains.
CWF has long led the efforts to offer free wildlife webcams, made possible by generous sponsors and partners such as Phillips 66 and Union County Parks, whom CWF partners with on the Union County peregrine falcon cam in Elizabeth.
Top: Duke Farms Eagle protects two eggs that are expected to hatch soon. Photo credit Conserve Wildlife Foundation. Bottom: Peregrine Falcons in Union County exhibit mating behavior. Photo credit Union County.
A pair of American Eagles tend to their nest atop an 80-foot Sycamore tree at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, days away from the hatching of two eggs, while the courtship season has begun for a female peregrine falcon nesting on the roof of the historic 17-story Union County Courthouse in downtown Elizabeth.
The predators have achieved “rock star” status in classrooms and homes across the state and the country thanks to video cameras that have been installed on trees and within the nests of the birds by wildlife biologists, with live feeds available online.
