Conserve Wildlife Blog

Posts Tagged ‘bald eagle’

NJ Eagle Cams: Ready For The 2024 Nesting Season

Friday, December 8th, 2023

by: Senior Biologist, Larissa Smith

Three Bridges Eagle Cam

The Three Bridges eagle cam went live for the 2024 nesting season on December 1st. A pair of eagles made an appearance that morning. The Three Bridges nesting platform was used by eagles in 2021, when they successfully raised two young. During the 2022 and 2023 nesting seasons, the pair were seen at the nest platform but ended up using a nest in a tree. We will see if the pair decides to use the nest platform this season. For now we believe that the Three Bridges pairs territory is both the nest tree and platform. As the numbers of nesting Bald Eagles continues to increase New Jersey there is the possibility that a second eagle pair could nest at the platform. Last nesting season there was lots of eagle action at the tower, eagles of all ages stopped by along with many different avian species. A pair of Osprey’s took interest in the nest platform but didn’t end up laying eggs. An American Kestrel perched at the platform on the first day the cam was live. It’ll be interesting to see what activity occurs at the tower this season.

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Candid Camera: The Role of Game Cameras in American Oystercatcher Monitoring

Thursday, August 3rd, 2023

by Emmy Casper, Wildlife Biologist

This year, CWF embarked on a new, ambitious project to monitor and characterize the previously understudied population of American oystercatchers nesting along the Delaware Bayshore. Since so little is known about this breeding population, we had a lot of ground to cover this first field season, both physically and metaphorically. One of the goals of the project is to characterize threats to oystercatcher nest success on the bayshore, whether it be predators, flooding, or something else entirely. It sounds straightforward, but when you consider the span of the project (35 sites across approximately 45 miles of bayshore), monitoring nesting pairs gets a bit more challenging. That’s where game cameras come in.

.CWF biological technician Caroline Abramowitz deploying a trail camera to monitor an oystercatcher nest.

Game cameras are an extremely useful tool for wildlife monitoring. Cameras deployed at nest sites can provide valuable information about oystercatcher behavior, predator presence, and nest fate (whether the nest hatched or was lost prior to hatching). This is especially important for our Delaware Bay sites, many of which are remote and cannot be monitored as frequently as other locations. Game cameras enhance our in-the-field monitoring and can pinpoint the true cause of nest loss that would otherwise be difficult to determine in the field. Accurate knowledge of nest fate and predator presence is crucial for understanding which factors significantly impact oystercatcher success along the bayshore.

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2023: NJ Eagle Project Volunteer Photos

Thursday, July 27th, 2023

by: Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

photo by Dallas Hetherington

NJ Eagle Project Volunteers monitor nests during the nesting season. Since they spend a lot of time observing the nest and eagles behavior they get to see some pretty interesting things and many of them are able to document with photos. I asked volunteers to send me their three favorite photos from the eagle nesting season. Thank you to all the eagle project volunteers for their dedication

Enjoy the slideshow.

Eaglets Get a New Nest

Tuesday, June 20th, 2023

by: Larissa Smith, CWF Senior Biologist

Princeton eaglets in their new nest; photo by John Heilferty

The Princeton eagle nest collapsed sometime between Friday June 2nd and early Saturday June 3rd. The Princeton pair had two chicks that were ten weeks old and close to fledging. NJ Eagle Project volunteers, Kevin and Karin Buynie monitor this nest and went out as soon as they were notified. When they arrived one chick was perched up in the tree and one was on the ground. The grounded chick was taken to Mercer County Wildlife Center for evaluation. The next day Kevin returned to the nest site and found the second chick now on the ground, so that chick was also captured and taken to MCWC. Both chicks were found to be uninjured and ready to return to the nest. A plan was formed to build a new nest in the tree and renest the two chicks. On June 11th, a group of volunteers and staff from Mercer County Wildlife Center met at the nest site. John Heilferty, retired ENSP Chief, climbed the nest tree and built the nest as volunteers helped to send up the needed materials. Diane Nickerson with the MCWC brought the two chicks, which were banded with Green NJ band H/39 and H/38 and silver federal bands. The chicks were then placed back up in the nest. One of them decided to fledge and the other perched on a branch near the nest. The recently fledged chick did return to the nest that evening and the second chick fledged June 16th. Thank you to Karin and Kevin Buynie, Diane Nickerson and volunteers Daniel and Hope with Mercer County Wildlife, John Heilferty, Kim Korth, and Roger Smith.

Scroll through the slideshow to view photos from the renest.

History of The Duke Farms Eagle Pair

Thursday, March 2nd, 2023

by Larissa Smith, Senior Biologist

The Duke Farms eagle cam is extremely popular and just this week viewers watched as two chicks hatched. These two chicks will be watched by a multitude of viewers over the next few months as they grow to become juveniles and leave the nest. As with anything in Nature, this pair has had it’s ups and downs. I wanted to summarize the history of this pair and nest. The male is a NJ banded bird (A/59) and has been in the pair from the beginning, he is 23 years old. Interestingly, there have been several females in the pair over the years. Thank you to Duke Farms for hosting the cam and their tech team that keeps it running smoothly when issues arise. The cam location has changed as well as the cam itself over the years and the quality of the picture has improved.

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