Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to release The Red Knot’s Journey, the second episode of ‘State of Change’, our podcast exploring how climate change is affecting wildlife in New Jersey.
Category: Wildlife Protection
New CWF podcast series focusing on climate change impacts on New Jersey’s wildlife debuts with beach nesting bird episode
by: Alison Levine, Communications Coordinator
New Jersey has more people per square mile than any other state by far. It’s not an easy place for wildlife to survive. Yet countless wildlife species from bald eagles to bobcats are doing just that.
But what happens when you inject climate change into the mix? Superstorms and sea level rise, coastal erosion and salt water intrusion, invasive species, disrupted life cycles and wildlife disease.
Conserve Wildlife Foundation is excited to introduce the ‘State of Change’ podcast that explores how climate change is affecting wildlife in our state. Hosted by CWF executive director David Wheeler and produced by Matt Wozniak, each episode highlights a different climate change issue – and every story helps paint a portion of the big picture of our changing world.
Citizen Science Project: Get in the Field for Frogs
by: Alison Levine, Communications Coordinator
Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog. Photo by Brian R. Curry.
Amphibians are among the most vulnerable and rapidly declining wildlife groups in the world. Do you want to get out in the field and help frogs here in New Jersey?
Join CWF biologist Allegra Mitchell and be a part of the Kauffeld’s Calling Frogs Citizen Science Monitoring Project.
Continue reading “Citizen Science Project: Get in the Field for Frogs”Giving Back to Great Bay Terrapins
CWF partners with NJ Fish & Wildlife to enhance habitat for terrapins in Little Egg Harbor
by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager
Northern diamondback terrapins are a coast hugging, saltmarsh living, shellfish eating, aquatic turtle. Their ultimate survival depends on the ability of adult females to safely access nesting areas during summer months. Since 2010 CWF has worked to document and reduce roadkills of terrapins on roads in southern Ocean and northern Atlantic Counties.
Continue reading “Giving Back to Great Bay Terrapins”Cautious Optimism for New Jersey’s Endangered Piping Plovers in 2019 Report
by: Alison Levine, Communications Coordinator
Photo courtesy of Bill Dalton.
A new report from Conserve Wildlife Foundation and the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife shows that the state’s piping plover population increased in 2019, leading to cautious optimism for the birds’ long term prospects. The piping plover is listed as threatened federally and endangered in New Jersey.
One hundred fourteen pairs of piping plovers nested in New Jersey in 2019, a 19% increase over 2018’s 96 pairs. The 2019 population is slightly below the long-term average of 117 pairs and well below the peak of 144 pairs in 2003.
Piping plover productivity, measured by the number of chicks who survive until their first flight (or fledging), dropped from 1.51 in 2018 to 1.24 in 2019, and was the lowest seen in the last six years, but remains above the long-term average of 1.3.
Continue reading “Cautious Optimism for New Jersey’s Endangered Piping Plovers in 2019 Report”FIRST LADY MURPHY JOINS CWF IN HONORING FIVE EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN LEADING THE WAY ON WILDLIFE
New Jersey’s conservation community came together on November 13, 2019 to celebrate five extraordinary women and their accomplishments in wildlife conservation.
Photo by Bryan Duggan Photography.
My Summer Adventure with Osprey
by Marissa Murdock, 2019 NJ Osprey Project Intern; Rider University ’21
This past summer I was lucky enough to work with Conserve Wildlife Foundation as a volunteer student intern. I worked alongside Ben Wurst, CWF’s Habitat Program Manager, helping with the New Jersey Osprey Project. My internship consisted of assisting with osprey surveys, banding young, and recording data so that we can estimate the health of the population in New Jersey.
Continue reading “My Summer Adventure with Osprey”New Jersey Bald Eagles Soar to New Highs in 2019
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.
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.
Photos from the Field: Ospreys Nest on Abandoned Crab Pot
Life is precious.
by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager
Maternity roosts, delayed ovulation and mating swarms: Protecting the (truly weird) reproductive cycle of bats.
Story by: Alison Levine, Communications Coordinator
Bats. They can be kind of creepy. Full disclosure, when I was a kid a bat got into our house and was so disoriented at being in an alien environment that it actually flew into my shoulder. So, I’m not exactly unbiased. I’ve learned to appreciate the important roles bats play – many help keep insect populations under control, some are crucial pollinators for fruits – but I’ve never really warmed up to them before.
While there are plenty of people who share my slightly-creeped out feelings for bats, fortunately there are lot of people who love the furry little flying mammals.
CWF Biologist, and bat ambassador extraordinaire, Meghan Kolk goes out and handles bats on purpose. As part of a joint project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Meghan and CWF Biologist Ethan Gilardi teamed up with USFWS staff to conduct bat surveys in the summer of 2018 and again this year.
The surveys are conducted at Joint Military Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in the northern part of Pine Barrens. The goal is to capture northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis), a federally threatened species, and track them back to their roost tree (ideally tracking females back to maternity roost trees) using radio transmitters.
Photo of big brown bat by John King
Continue reading “Maternity roosts, delayed ovulation and mating swarms: Protecting the (truly weird) reproductive cycle of bats.”