2014 Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ

Get Outdoors for the WILDest weekend of the year!

Posted on September 9, 2014 by CWF

Looking for some outdoors activities this weekend? The New Jersey WILD Outdoor Expo gives you virtually every possible option in one place – and its FREE!

This weekend, September 13 and 14, the fifth annual New Jersey WILD Outdoor Expo will be held at the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township from 10am-5pm both Saturday and Sunday. Admission and parking are free. Food will also be available from a variety of vendors, or you can bring your own if you prefer!

The Expo celebrates the state’s natural resources and outdoor heritage, while connecting residents with education and hands-on opportunities to learn outdoor skills.

Participants of all ages can try a wide variety of free activities including everything from fishing, kayaking and camping skills to rock climbing, wildlife watching or shooting sports, as well as part environmental and conservation exhibits, demonstrations and seminars.

Rock climbing wall, NJ WILD Outdoor Expo

Visitors can also participate in turkey calling, get an introduction to archery, learn trap shooting, learn about local bats, get a primer on the Barnegat Bay watershed, hone their bird and tree identification skills, take in a hunting dog retrieval demonstration, get a close-up look at some quail and raptors, or participate in nature photography workshops, plus many other activities.

Families can also have plenty of hands-on fun – including insect safari shows, an inflatable soil tunnel, WILD crafts, and demonstrations on birds of prey and snakes of New Jersey.

More than 100 conservation, environmental and recreation exhibits will be at the Expo with demonstrations and seminars about the state’s air, water, soil, flora and fauna, and history. Numerous experts can provide information on an array of topics from hunting to bird watching to scuba diving and forestry stewardship in New Jersey. An outdoor equipment flea market will enable visitors to purchase gear needed for outdoor recreation or other environmental-related products.

CWF helps sponsor this event as well as the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, State Forest Service and State Parks Service. It is partly financed by a grant from the USSAF Trailblazer Adventure Program and funding from the New Jersey Sportsmen’s Wildlife Foundation and the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance.

Click here for more information

Happy World Shorebirds Day!

Posted on September 6, 2014 by CWF

On behalf of our friends – the piping plovers, red knots, American oystercatchers, least terns, ruddy turnstones, black skimmers, and many others – Conserve Wildlife Foundation wishes you a happy World Shorebirds Day.

For your viewing pleasure, check out our brand new Oystercatcher Story Map.
To learn more about our beach nesting birds work, click here.
You can click here to learn about our migrating shorebirds work.
And if you haven’t seen the Delaware Bay beach restoration video yet, enjoy it here!

Finally, you can help support our shorebirds work with a donation, or through volunteering on one of our shorebird projects.

Click here to make a donation to our shorebird work here!

One other fun way to cozy up to a bird this fall is to visit Unreal Birds, and consider making a purchase of those adorable birds. A portion of every purchase benefits CWF!

Jersey Shore Whale Sightings Increase Dramatically

Posted on September 5, 2014 by CWF

A humpback whale feeding on bunker fish Wednesday between Monmouth County and Long Island. Sightings in the region have increased significantly this year (c) Tyson Trish

This year the number of whale sightings off the coast of New Jersey have increased dramatically, suggesting that the coastal waters are now clean enough for humpback, finback, and other whale species to reside during their breeding season. To read the full article, click here.

To learn more about CWF’s efforts to protect marine mammals, click here.
And check out our 5-part blog series about marine mammals, here.

New Jersey Bans Trade in Ivory and Rhino Horn

Posted on September 5, 2014 by CWF

New Jersey is the first US state to take a stand against the cruel ivory and rhino horn trade, banning all such items in a new law passed Tuesday. (Photo : Pixabay)

New Jersey has protected countless elephants and rhinos by becoming the first state in the United States to ban all trade in ivory and rhino horn, as reported in Nature World News. To read the full story, click here.

Story Map Brings Oystercatchers to Life Online

Posted on September 4, 2014 by mikedavenport

CWF Celebrates World Shorebirds Day With Release of Our First Story Map: “American Oystercatchers Through the Seasons”

By Michael Davenport, GIS Program Manager

Conserve Wildlife Foundation (CWF), today released a new interactive “Wildlife Story Map” in support of this Saturday’s first annual World Shorebirds Day! The Story Map can be viewed here!

ScreenCapture

A Story Map is a web-based interactive GIS map embedded with multimedia content, such as text, photographs, and video. CWF, working with GIS software developer ESRI and with financial assistance provided by a grant from the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife, plans to make this Story Map the first of many, helping engage the public about New Jersey’s rare wildlife in a dynamic and interactive way.

“American Oystercatchers Through the Seasons” tells the story about a species of migratory bird, the American Oystercatcher, which spends the summer breeding season along the New Jersey coast, but is present year-round along the southern New Jersey coast. Our state represents the northern limit of the species’ winter range. While some New Jersey birds migrate during the winter to Florida, those that breed in New England during the summer may end up spending their winter here in New Jersey.

This Story Map also provides stories about individual banded birds, which have been tracked on journeys between New Jersey and southern states such as Florida, as well as between New Jersey and more northern states, such as Massachusetts.

Make a donation today to support additional Story Maps!

How to Use the Story Map:

On the left side of the Story Map page are several “buttons” which will allow you to flip through the different seasons in an oystercatcher’s life: Breeding, Migration, and Wintering. Each page provides information and photos and a map specific to that portion of the bird’s life cycle. By clicking on an individual point within the map, a box containing more specific information, and a photo in some cases, will pop-up. The map also provides the ability to zoom-in and out in order to see areas of interest in more detail.

This Story Map is especially exciting since it helps celebrate the first annual World Shorebirds Day. This event seeks to “…raise global public awareness about the conservation of, and research about, shorebirds. About half of the world’s shorebird populations are in decline, and the rate of habitat loss is worse than ever before” (World Shorebirds Day 2014).

World Shorebirds Day hopes to accomplish the following:

To raise public awareness about the need to protect shorebirds and their habitats throughout their life cycles;
To raise public awareness about the need for ongoing shorebird research;
To connect people with shorebirds through important shorebird sites around the world;
To get shorebird enthusiasts to introduce shorebirds to more birdwatchers;
To raise awareness about the need for increased funding for shorebird research, monitoring and conservation.

CWF’s shorebird leadership ranges from the American Oystercatcher celebrated in this Story Map, to the beach nesting birds along the Atlantic Coast, to the red knots and ruddy turnstones along the Delaware Bay.

Your support can help CWF develop additional Story Maps on other rare wildlife. Support our work on Story Maps on the American Oystercatcher and other important shorebirds in honor of World Shorebirds Day by supporting research, education, and public awareness efforts carried out by CWF:

We hope that this will be the first of many Story Maps that CWF will use in order to communicate the many fascinating stories that New Jersey’s wildlife have to tell.

Make a donation today to support shorebirds today!

Project RedBand is a go!

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Ben Wurst

Time to get outside and watch some ospreys!

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

A pair of ospreys produced at a nest on Barnegat Bay were banded with a red auxiliary band. © Northside Jim

A lot has changed throughout the 40 project history of the New Jersey Osprey Project. From a low of only 53 osprey pairs (statewide) in 1973, today there are more than 540 pairs that return here each year to feed, nest, and raise young. In the beginning work to re-establish their population was a trementous undertaking. Ospreys, a were loaded with environmental contaminents (DDT, which caused the thinning of egg shells), their habitat was bulldozed, and early on birds were shot for their feathers and eggs. Once the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1973 ospreys were afforded protection they deserved, and work by biologists like Pete McLain were underway to restore the population in New Jersey. Continue reading “Project RedBand is a go!”

Passenger Pigeon Highlights What’s At Stake With Rare Wildlife

Posted on September 3, 2014 by CWF

The New York Times Magazine ran this op-ed from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology on passenger pigeons and current endangered species in their new State of the Birds report. To read the full article, click here.

To learn more about CWF’s efforts to protect New Jersey’s endangered species, click here.
For more information on extinct species of New Jersey, click here.

How To Identify and Find Barn Owl in New Jersey

Posted on August 28, 2014 by CWF

Michael Britt, avid birder and writer, highlights the Barn Owl (Tyto alba). This medium-sized owl, most widely known for its ‘heart-shaped’ face, is the only member of the Tytonidae family found in North America. In this story, he shares how to identify these owls, when are where to look for them, and offers personal accounts of his most memorable encounters with these beautiful birds.

To read the full story, click here.
For more information on barn owls and CWF’s efforts to protect these birds, click here.

Update on Duke Farms Eagle Cam

Posted on August 25, 2014 by larissasmith

Juvenile eagle, D-98 recovered dead in Maine

by Larissa Smith, Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Manager

Duke Farms eagle chicks in nest after banding on May 14, 2014

On July 27th the juvenile male, D-98, was found dead by residents of Little Sebago Lake in Maine. He was banded at six weeks of age along with his two siblings one male and one female at the Duke Farms eagle nest which was broadcast live online.

His body was found floating in the lake by residents who reported the band numbers to the National Bird Banding Lab. We then received the report that he was found dead and were able to contact the finders for more information. Residents of the lake which is NW of Portland, reported seeing him near an active eagle nest located on the lake. The nest had chicks which had fledged in early July. On July 25th residents reported seeing a juvenile with a green band sitting in a tree near a boat house;

“The youngster had been in a small tree next to our boat house for quite a long time when an adult, carrying a fish, swooped in over the folks sunning on the beach and attacked the young bird. It dropped the fish in the process. The adult flew off leaving the fish and the juvenile behind. Thanks to a cell phone photo, we know that the youngster had the band colors of the later retrieved juvenile”.

While we don’t know for certain we can assume that the juvenile’s death was in some part due to injuries that occurred when it was attacked by the adult. It is always sad to report on the death of an eagle especially one that hundred’s of Duke Farms eagle cam viewers watched “grow-up”, but it is the reality of life in the wild. The mortality rate for first year eagles is fairly high as they are still learning to hunt and survive on their own. It is very unusual to receive this much information on the details surrounding an eagles death. D-98 made an approximately 390 mile trip up to Maine. He probably found plenty of food at the lake which is why he was hanging around, but ended up in another eagles territory. Hopefully the remaining two juveniles from the Duke Farms nest have better luck and survive their first year.

Touring Sedge Island – a Breathtaking Experience

Posted on August 20, 2014 by CWF

By Juliann Fiorentino, CWF Intern

Kayaking at Sedge Island (c) Stephanie Feigin

With the sun shining, everyone set out on a beautiful short boat ride from Island Beach State Park in Seaside, New Jersey to Sedge Island, a small island in the brackish waters (a mixture of salt and fresh water) of Barnegat Bay. There, the winners, proud parents and teachers from the Species on the Edge Art and Essay Contest learned about the island and the Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center. After the tour of the house and island, the group set off on a fascinating two hour-long kayak journey into the bay.

After paddling through a very narrow water channel, the group stopped at the first man-made Peregrine Falcon nest in New Jersey. This nest was the first hacking site for the once critically endangered Peregrine Falcons, ultimately leading to the rise Peregrine Falcon population in the late 1970’s. Hacking is an old falconer’s term for a process that provides captive-bred youngsters with a sheltered experience, giving them the advantage of a “soft release” into the wild.

The group getting ready to Kayak (c) Stephanie Feigin

As the group paddled on, we traveled through the different areas of the bay including the grassy areas where we learned about the different grasses that could grow in this brackish water, and which ones were edible.

Next we reached an area referred to as the Bahamas because of its shallow clear, calm water. We all got out of our kayaks and walked around to search for animals and plants on the sandy floor. We could see hundreds of fish, mud snails, and sea hermit crabs. Even a green crab made an appearance and the Sedge tour guide lifted him up from under the water to teach everyone about its unique body.

Clamming in the Bay (c) Stephanie Feigin

After returning to the island, the group then got to experience the thrill of clamming in the bay, and learned about the efforts of the biologists on Sedge Island to protect the Diamondback Terrapin population that breeds on the island. This was my first time at Sedge Island, along with many others. It was very interesting to learn about the history of this island, and the many wildlife species that inhabit the area. The trip to Sedge Island was a wonderfully breath taking experience – an experience I will never forget.