By: Larissa Smith, CWF Wildlife Biologist
I asked the Eagle Project volunteers to send me their one favorite photo from the 2022 eagle nesting season. Enjoy the eagle nesting season through the eyes of the nest monitors. (click on the photos to enlarge and view details)
by: Larissa Smith, CWF biologist
by Larissa Smith, CWF Biologist
As I write this there are two fluffy little chicks in the Duke Farms nest. They will have an audience of millions of eagle cam viewers watching them as they grow and fledge. As the adult eagles step around the nest, look closely and you will notice that one of them is banded. The male is A/59 and he is twenty-two years old. Twenty-two years ago I began my career with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation working with the New Jersey Eagle Project. In March 2000, A/59 hatched in a nest located in Greenwich, Cumberland County. When he was two weeks of age, he was fostered into a nest along the Rancocas River in Burlington County. The Rancocas pair had failed to produce their own young for a few years and fostering a healthy chick into the nest would help to keep the pairs fidelity to the nest site.
On May 15, 2000, he was banded and a radio transmitter was attached with a harness which was designed to eventually fall off. A/59 fledged on June 3 and was tracked until the transmitter’s signal was last recorded on October 22. You can read more details about the telemetry in the 2000 Bald Eagle Report.
In 2000, when he hatched and I started working with eagles there were 25 nesting pairs of eagles that fledged 29 young. Compare that to last year’s numbers of 247 pairs we monitored and 296 young fledged. As the number of eagles increases in New Jersey so does the competition for nest sites. A/59 has been able to defend and hold onto his territory at Duke Farms since 2009.
It’s very interesting to know the history of this eagle. I feel a bond with him since we both started our “eagle” journey at the same time.
Resighting banded Bald Eagles
by Larissa Smith, CWF biologist
Each year biologists with NJ Fish & Wildlife’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program & CWF venture out to eagle nests to band the chicks, take blood samples and measurements. The chicks are banded with a green NJ band that has a specific code and a silver federal band. At the time of banding the chicks are approximately six weeks old and have a few weeks left in the nest before they fledge. In 2018, we started to publish the re-sightings in the Annual Eagle Report. In 2022, we have already received quite a few re-sightings. E/63 is one of those eagles.
(more…)NJDEP & CWF Announce Successful Bald Eagle Nesting Season
by Larissa Smith, CWF biologist
The NJDEP and Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey have released the annual NJ Bald Eagle Project Report.
The 2021 nesting season was another successful one for New Jersey’s bald eagles, with the statewide population remaining stable at 247 nest sites. Of these nests, 222 were active (with eggs) with 296 young produced. Twenty-seven new eagle pairs were found.
(more…)© 2019 Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey