by Larissa Smith, Wildlife Biologist/Volunteer Coordinator

Shorebird Steward Liz Hermoso shows beach visitors a clump of horseshoe crab eggs on Cook’s beach.

Once again migratory shorebirds, including the NJ endangered red knot, have returned to the Delaware Bay to feed on horseshoe crab eggs.  This annual phenomenon brings people from around the world to the Delaware Bay beaches.

Beaches are closed during the migration from May 7th through June 7th to protect the shorebirds from disturbance when feeding.  Just as the birds return each year so do volunteer Shorebird Stewards who educate the public about the beach closures , shorebirds and horseshoe crabs on nine beaches in Cape May and Cumberland County.  Now is a great to come out to the beaches to view shorebirds and crabs and say “hi” to the stewards.

This year the hot spots for shorebirds  in Cape May County  are Reed’s , Cook’s  and Kimble’s Beaches and  Fortescue in Cumberland County.

An American kestrel nestling in my hands. Photo by M. Hall

Just a couple of days ago, American kestrels at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ received some jewelry that will help biologists learn more about their migration and annual whereabouts in an attempt to fill in important data gaps about their habits.

Female kestrels received a leg band and more importantly, a geolocator, that will record the sunrise and sunset each day, which will in turn, allow us to determine where in the world these kestrels are on any given day.

Read more about this experience at the Duke Farms blog, Behind the Stone Walls.

By Michael Davenport, Marine Species & GIS Programs Manager

A little brown bat, one of several bat species which will be added to the state’s list of Endangered species. Photo by MacKenzie Hall.

The state’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) has recently completed a status review of the state’s terrestrial mammal species.  As a result of this review, an additional four species (all bats) have been recommended for listing as Endangered in New Jersey (eastern small-footed myotis, little brown bat, northern myotis, and tricolored bat).  An additional four bat species (big brown bat, hoary bat, red bat, and silver-haired bat) and a rodent (the meadow jumping mouse) have been recommended for listing as Special Concern.  These additional listings are largely due to the impact of White-nose Syndrome, especially on cave-dwelling bats.  However, additional increasing threats, such as wind turbines, were also factors.

Although these status changes have been recommended, it may take several more months or even years before the changes to the lists are made official through a formal rule-making process.  The most recent status review for birds, for instance, was completed in 2005 but it wasn’t until 2012 that the status changes decided upon within that status review went into effect.

The process for determining a species’ state status is known as the “Delphi” method of species status review and it is a process which Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ (CWF) staff assists the state with.

The ENSP endeavors to complete a review of all species currently included on the Endangered and Nongame lists every 5-10 years.  In addition, other species groups not currently included on those lists may be reviewed for status as well.  At any given time, there may be several status reviews being conducted.

The first step taken in conducting a status review is to identify experts and invite them to participate as a member of a review panel.  Members of the panel may be comprised of experts within academia, government agencies, non-profits, or private consultants as well as others.

Once a sufficient number of experts have agreed to participate, staff within the ENSP and CWF will compile background material for the species being reviewed.  This may include reports, survey data, and data contained within the state’s Biotics database which is the electronic warehouse for all imperiled species data in New Jersey.  This background data, as well as a list of the species being reviewed, and definitions of the status options, are then sent to the panelists for Round 1 of the review.

Delphi reviews are comprised of multiple “Rounds”.  For each round, each panelist will choose a status for each species based upon that panelist’s expertise as well as the background material.  The panelist then sends their selections and justification regarding each species to ENSP or CWF staff who compile the results submitted by all panelists.  The review is completed anonymously, so the panelists do not know the identities of the other participants.

For each species, the panel must reach consensus of at 85% of the respondents for a species’ status to be determined.  If consensus is not reached during the first round, that species will move on to be reviewed in Round 2.  For each new round, the panelists’ status choices during the prior round, as well as all the comments made, are available to the panel, so that reviewers can consider the weight of evidence and other reviewers’ opinions on status as they prepare to vote again.  This continues until consensus is reached for all species under review.

Once consensus is reached for all species or, if after four rounds have passed and consensus could not be reached for some species, ENSP or CWF staff take the compiled Delphi results to the Endangered and Nongame Species Advisory Committee (ENSAC).  ENSAC reviews the results and makes the final recommendations on status for those species for which consensus was not reached by the expert panel.  Based upon ENSAC’s recommendations, any changes to the Endangered and Nongame lists must go through a formal rule-making process before those changes can be made official.

The Delphi review process is a science-based, anonymous review by those with the most expertise on the species within New Jersey.  A great deal of thought and time go into preparing for and carrying out a review and CWF has played a major role in assisting with the process.  From the blue whale to fairy shrimp, each species will ultimately receive a state status, leading the way for conservation action.

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

We had quite a scare last week, on April 30th around 12:30pm, after getting a report from an observer of our Osprey Cam on our Facebook page. A single use plastic shopping bag had gotten wrapped around the neck of the incubating female. After getting the report we started to monitor the situation to see how it would unfold. The bag was loosely wrapped, so we hoped she would be able to free herself…which she did after an hour.

Here you can see the single use plastic bag around her neck.

A lot of viewers and FB fans were asking why we weren’t going out to remove the bag from her neck. We answered each and every question to help make sure people knew that we were doing everything we could to protect her safety. First, we couldn’t just walk out to the nest (which is out in the middle of the salt marsh) without the female reacting to us and flying off the nest (with the plastic bag around her neck). Her flying off the nest with the bag around her neck would have only caused even more harm to her. She could have gotten snagged on a piece of nesting material and in the struggle could have choked to death or she could have fractured one of her eggs… Second, if she would have been tied down to the nest, then we would have enacted a plan to go out to the nest (after a certain amount of time) and released her. Our policy is that we will only intervene if it is a life or death situation. When we enter their nest sites we introduce stress to the birds which can ultimately do more harm than good. Finally, at least we have a camera to monitor the nest! Think of all the other 500+ nests in New Jersey where we only go out to monitor them once or twice during the nesting season. So much plastic winds up in osprey nests that it is a serious concern. People need to be more aware of their surroundings and do their best to make sure waste is properly disposed of.

There are ways you can help make a difference:

1. Reduce the amount of stuff you buy and the amount of trash you produce
2. Reuse what you can, recycle what you can’t
3. Pick up litter when you see it. There is a great movement in Australia called “Take 3” and their message is simple: “Take three pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or… anywhere and you have made a difference.”  
4. Stop or reduce your dependence on single use plastics
5. Use reusable shopping bags
6. Don’t release balloons!

The female struggles to get free of the bag.

Statistics for plastic recycling are dismal… According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “In 2010, the category of plastics which includes bags, sacks, and wraps was recycled at almost 12 percent.” We’re lucky that she was able to free herself. This just proves that ospreys do not have an easy life. There are many threats to ospreys and they have very high mortality rates, which are around 80%.

On the positive side, the female and male continue to incubate three eggs at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR. We should start to watch for hatching around May 19-20th. We have been writing nest news with other life history information on a weekly basis on our Osprey Cam page.

• Check out the live Osprey Cam

By Todd Pover, Beach Nesting Bird Project Manager

Banded Piping Plover at Stone Harbor Point, NJ.
Courtesy of Tom Reed

On the beach nesting bird project we are normally busy this time of the year locating nests, putting up fence to protect nesting areas, and placing special predator cages around piping plover nests. This year we have added a new wrinkle – we are also conducting intensive piping plover band re-sighting surveys.

Those surveys are possible as a result of a research project being conducted in New Jersey (and Massachusetts) by the State University of New York – College of Environmental Science and Forestry on piping plover flight behaviors and patterns. About 30 plovers were colored banded here last year with more planned this season as part of the study. This has provided an exciting opportunity for us to answer some questions of our own that are not part of the research project itself, so the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and the state’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program have teamed up to do near daily band re-sightings this spring and last fall.

It was previously known that piping plovers have strong site fidelity to their breeding grounds, and in fact, most of banded birds that have returned so far have come back to the same study site (which are Avalon Dunes and Stone Harbor Point), although a few have also flip-flopped sites. And within the sites, individual plovers have not necessarily matched up with their mate from last year, again it was known that piping plovers don’t nest for life as a pair, but how they are pairing is proving interesting. It appears to have more to do with their exact arrival date and which male or female is available (and if an “available” mate is even present).

While these observations may be endlessly fascinating to those of us in our plover-centric universe, banding does carry some risks to birds and we don’t have unlimited time or resources, so any study of this sort must also have a strong purpose that helps guide or inform species conservation and management. In this case, the daily resight surveys have shown that the first wave of our breeding birds returned to sites right around March 15. This is important because in recent years we have moved up the date when certain activities (i.e. mechanical beach raking, vehicle use, dogs on the beach) that could disturb or impact nesting or the habitat being utilized are put into effect. Through the band resightings we can ascertain these aren’t just migrants passing through, but rather breeders attached to those specific sites for which those activities could have impacts on nest site selection and use. Band resighting has helped illustrate the importance of maintaining habitat conditions at certain sites for piping plovers. Our science and detailed collection of data confirms the validity of the March 15 date being used for regulatory protection of piping plovers in New Jersey.

On the flip side, band resighting completed after the breeding season last year revealed that some of the plovers remained at their “nesting” site much longer than expected, until October in some cases. Our sites may play a bigger role than realized in staging or migration. In one case, a banded individual that had one of the latest departure dates was also one of the first arrivals this spring, meaning it spent over 6 months here in New Jersey. Most of our management protection for piping plovers is focused on the breeding season (March 15-August 15), so this may mean we have to rethink how we are protecting plovers and other shorebirds beyond that date. Migration is a physically taxing and dangerous life-stage for any shorebird, so it is critical they are as fit as possible in this phase, which, in part, may mean minimizing any persistence or significant disturbance.

This is just a small part of what we are trying to learn from the banded piping plovers. Our window of opportunity is likely fairly narrow – piping plovers are a relatively short-lived bird and the sample size of banded ones here in New Jersey is small. With this in mind, we hope to glean as much information as possible through this initiative.

Note: The researchers studying piping plovers as part of the SUNY-ESF project will be providing guest blogs to us from time to time so that we can find out what they are doing and learning out in the field. Stay tuned!

Hunters and birdwatchers alike will come together for the first annual New Jersey Wildlife and Conservation Conference on April 26, 2013 in Eatontown, New Jersey. Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ (CWF) is partnering with the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife to host these expert panels at the Sheraton Eatontown Hotel at 6 Industrial Way East in Eatontown, N.J.

“Working together for wildlife was the catalyst that blurred the lines between the Federation camouflage and Conserve Wildlife green, enabling us to partner together and tackle the complex fish and wildlife issues facing New Jersey today,” said Frank Virgilio, President of the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.

The inaugural conference will feature panels of wildlife experts from New Jersey Audubon, the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, and many other organizations, exploring timely and controversial issues ranging from invasive species and wildlife disease to our declining forest health and conservation advocacy.

“The many conservation enthusiasts in New Jersey owe a great deal to sportsmen, who practiced wildlife conservation long before it entered national consciousness,” said CWF Executive Director David Wheeler. “Today our shared interests have led to countless success stories, protecting New Jersey’s valuable habitat and wildlife species during a time when we face more challenges than ever. This conference will tackle those issues with the most timely and meaningful information available.”

Individuals or companies seeking to register should visit www.ConserveWildlifeNJ.org.  Discounted rates for attending are as low as $20 for the all-day panels.

by: Larissa Smith, wildlife biologist/volunteer manager

One way we can track eagles is with transmitters which I’ve discussed in previous blogs. Since 2011 three eagle chicks have been outfitted with satellite transmitters to track their movements. Two of the birds have since died. To follow the movements of the third eagle go to http://www.merrillcreek.com/eagletracking.html

Eagle banded C/84 © Peter Stegemann

Another way to track eagles is by banding them.  The NJ Endangered and Nongame Species Program has been banding eagles with green (NJ specific) bands since 1987.  Eagles are banded when they are six weeks of age and get a green NJ band on one leg and a silver federal band on the other.  The state band has a letter over a two digit number. The band information is entered into the National Bird Banding Lab database and when someone finds an injured or dead eagle they can report the band. Most of the information that comes in from these bands are from dead or injured birds. The bands tell us when and where the the bird was banded. By using spotting scopes people can sometime see that a bird has green band but many times are unable to read the number.  We know that  23 pairs of eagles nesting in New Jersey have at least one bird in the pair that was banded in NJ.

Eagle banded D/64© Justin Pursell

Sometimes we are lucky to get re-sightings from photographers with high powered lenses who can focus in on the band.  Just in the past week we’ve gotten three sightings of NJ birds.  One eagle has been seen on Long Island with a green band and reported by Peter Stegemann. He has seen this bird all last summer and fall with another eagle and they might be nesting this season. This would be the first pair of eagles to nest on Long Island since DDT wiped out the eagle population. By zooming in on the photo ENSP principal biologist Kathy Clark was able to read the letter and first number as C/8.  The second number couldn’t be read but by going through the banding records it was determined that this eagle was banded in 2009 at the Princeton nest.

Eagle banded D/39 © Kristen Nicholas

Another NJ banded bird (D/64) was photographed by Justin Pursell in Schwenksville, PA on April 7th, 2013. The eagle hasa nest in the area.  The bird was banded May 10, 2004 at the Hopewell West nest in Cumberland County.  Kristen Nicholas took a photo of a third  year NJ banded bird at Lake Tappan Northern NJ/Lower NY on March 20, 2013. The green band is D/39  a third year male which was banded in 2011 at the Oradell Reservoir in Bergen County NJ.

While it’s great to get re-sightings of NJ banded birds we don’t want to get them at the expense of the eagles. These photos were taken by photographers with high powered lenses. People should view eagles from a safe distance so as not to disturb them, especially when they are nesting.  Disturbance to a nest can cause the eagles to abandon the eggs/young or cause the young to prematurely jump from the nest.

To report a banded eagle please contact Larissa Smith Larissa.Smith@conservewildlifenj.org

by MacKenzie Hall, Amphibian Crossing Project Coordinator

Karen Ruzycki gives a salamander a lift. Photo: M. Hall

Easter Sunday is a celebration of rebirth, resurrection, springtime, life.  And this Easter Sunday – right on cue – a warm day turned into a mild night, the mild night met with rain, and together they gave rise to lots and lots of life.   The amphibian migration was underway…in a big way!

Our teams were ready.  Despite heavy bellies and a long day with family, at least 50 trained volunteers came out to “guard” the animals at road-crossing hot spots.  From nightfall to around 11:00 pm we escorted, ferried, and tallied more than 3,000 salamanders and frogs across! (Numbers are still coming in from other teams.)

American toad in transit. Photo: Karen Ruzycki

It was a heart-pounding pace, often with multiple animals entering the roadway at once.  They didn’t seem to understand the danger, but we humans were darting in and out, racing against car tires and grabbing up slippery critters as fast as slippery critters can be grabbed…while still being safe, orderly, and polite to passing motorists.  A lot of drivers stopped to see what all the speed-walking was about.  One woman said “God bless!” when I showed her a fat female spotted salamander and told her about the migration.  Another guy must have been a local because he just asked “how many tonight?”

Everyone had an exhilarating night – the kind of migration night we plan for but don’t often get.  It was a lot of fun and we saved a lot of lives.  From the vehicle count, most of those little animals wouldn’t have stood a chance.  A few still didn’t.

Before heading home from the site where I was working, I took a midnight stroll down to the vernal pool.  It’s so neat to watch salamanders swimming around.  Especially the big spotted salamanders.  They spend almost their entire year underground in the woods, yet they are graceful and natural in the water.  They even look excited to be there, swirling around each other in contest and attraction.  I felt lucky to know about this wonderful thing.  It felt great to have made some of it possible.  Look at those gorgeous animals!  And their impossibly bright yellow spots!  They are colors lost in the night, but not by our watchful lights.

They made it! Spotted salamanders in the pool. Photo: M. Hall

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

I must admit, I’ve been anxious for the return of this pair of ospreys (and all others for that matter). The return of ospreys is a sign of spring, regrowth, and of recovery (from the effects of Superstorm Sandy) as we watch them rebuild their nests as we have helped to repair and replace many of their nesting platforms throughout our coast.

Over the past 6 weeks I had the task of installing a new remote/solar powered/high definition camera system on the coastal salt marsh of New Jersey. The camera system was installed inside Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville next to an existing osprey nesting platform. The camera system streams live video 24/7 from the nest to the Visitor’s Center at Forsythe and on our website. Since the system has been installed we’ve had crows, peregrine falcons (one that was a juvenile who was ID’d by her leg band and originated in Delaware), and a great horned owl (not good since owls are predators of osprey young) perch on the platform.

The nesting pair of ospreys arrived back from their wintering grounds on Friday, March 29th. We don’t know anything about the breeding pair other than neither is banded with USGS bird bands. The female has a very heavily streaked and prominent “necklace” of brown feathers on her breast. The male is  smaller and has a bright white breast. Since arrived they have already been copulating (breeding) on the nest and will continue to do so over the next few weeks until the female will lay eggs in late April. For now they will continue to spruce up their nest and the male will perform courtship displays, after a successful hunt or while carrying nesting material, near the nest to help strengthen their pair bond.

There is a microphone out at the nest and it works. Some issues have come up with pairing the sound and video feeds and we are working on getting that sound online. I will be writing a weekly “Nest Cam News” journal on the Osprey Cam page with information about osprey reproduction, life history and other cool facts about ospreys! Some other great news is that the Wildlife Drive at Forsythe NWR will be open this weekend!!

• Check out the Osprey Cam!

Female osprey at nest #2835

Male osprey at nest #2835

by Ben Wurst, Habitat Program Manager

As you may know, ospreys are returning to New Jersey from their wintering grounds in the tropics. Most North American ospreys winter in N. South America, with large concentrations in Columbia. Our “jersey birds” are unaware that our coast was devastated by a huge post-tropical storm in late October last year. Some might be coming home to nests that were damaged or lost to Superstorm Sandy. We’re working diligently to replace or repair any and all platforms that were damaged by the storm. Last week we replaced the first nesting platform in Ocean City. We were lucky to have met a local filmmaker who put together this short film.