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CMBO FALL 2019 NATURALISTS AND COUNTERS
Here at New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory, we strive to keep our finger on the pulse of migration. It is through the efforts of our dedicated seasonal counters…
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Martins. Here, Now.
Any evening in August I look into the evening skies over Mauricetown and see sheets of Purple Martins heading to roost in the Phragmites stands along the Maurice River. Nearly…
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Morning Flight – Saturday, August 24, 2019
Riding off the excitement of yesterday’s flight, I was hoping for another big flight this morning. While overall numbers were down from yesterday, diversity was fantastic! Once again the flight…
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Fire in Eastern Oak Forests
The message was clear, after spending three days at the recent “Fire in Eastern Oak Forests Conference”, we need more fire in oak forests! Although possibly a jarring statement to…
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Professional Birds
It was noon. I was standing on the elevated platform at Thompson’s Beach, above the greenhead fly belt, It was over 90 F, so I was astonished to see one…
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South Jersey Eco-Schools Awards
Vineland High School and Bridgeton Public Charter School both earned bronze Eco-Schools USA awards last month. With guidance and support provided by New Jersey Audubon, they are two of the…
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National Moth Week
July 20-28, 2019 is National Moth Week While gardening for butterflies is popular, don’t forget about gardening for their nocturnal counterparts – moths. Caterpillars and adult moths eat differently so…
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Shorebirds South
The Solstice is behind us. The earth has started the annual tilt on its axis that will end six months from now in winter. As you read these words, the…
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Petty’s Bald Eagle
Most of us in New Jersey are familiar with the story of the infamous bounce-back of the Bald Eagle: There was only one known Bald Eagle nest in New Jersey…
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Summer Solstice
The Summer Solstice will soon be upon us but there are two more reasons to celebrate the month of June. Across our nation, June is National Pollinator Month and in…
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Do You Femelschlag?
The NJA Stewardship Department World Series of Birding team, The Fight’n Femelschlagers, had a great day out in North Jersey racking up 96 different species of birds during the event! …
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36th World Series of Birding
This weekend marks the 36th World Series of Birding–a 24 hour Easter Egg Hunt for mature eggs of a feathered kind. Hosted by New Jersey Audubon, played out in New…
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Cape May Springwatch
This exciting new migration monitoring project is underway at legendary birding hotspot Cape May, New Jersey. The Cape May Springwatch, a research initiative of New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird…
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Young Birders Explore Petty’s Island
A little drizzle did not deter our spirited group of young birders as we hiked around Petty’s Island on April 28th, 2019. This was the first Young Birders Club trip…
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Black Duck Project Gives Ecological Uplift in Delaware River Watershed Region
New Jersey Audubon is pleased to announce it has received one of the first Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Specifically, these matching grants…
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Pete Bacinski-in Memoriam
A few days after Pete’s passing, I spent the day by myself birding Sandy Hook, a place where the two of us spent countless hours and shared many memories. A…
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Eco-Schools Award
Eco-Schools Award Recipient: West Cape May Elementary School West Cape May Elementary School is one of the most recent recipients of an Eco-Schools USA award in the state of New…
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Remembering the Great Bacinski – by Pete Dunne
Having just learned about the passing of my long time friend and birding companion, Pete Bacinski. I feel compelled to express my thoughts regarding the passing of this natural history…
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Mink by deduction
We were approaching the end of my Monday Morning Medadows walk, when a patron announced that there was a perched hawk up ahead. The bird, seated eye-level and thirty yards…
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Costa Rica Trip
The NJ Audubon 2019 Costa Rica trip was another successful and enjoyable visit to this diverse Central American nation. Led by renowned Costa Rican naturalist Charlie Gómez, CMBO Associate Naturalist…
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1st ANNUAL NJ YOUNG BIRDERS CONFERENCE
It was proving to be a beautiful day for NJ Audubon’s 1st annual “NJ Young Birders Conference” on March 24, 2019. As with any first-ever event we were unsure what…
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Osprey Run On Fish
Outside my window is an empty Osprey nest. Occupied for three years. The nest’s tenants are at this very moment winging their way north, after five months in the Amazon…
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Raccoon Ridge
March 1, marked the anniversary of the beginning of my Spring Hawk Count on Raccoon Ridge in 1976. I still have the letter from then NJAS Research Director, Rich Kane, welcoming…
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Bobwhites, Burning and Biodiversity
Retired Rutgers Extension Horticulturist and Master Gardener Barbara J. Bromley once said, “Biodiversity begins with a chainsaw.” Mix in the use of prescribed fire with ecological forest thinning practices and you…
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Eagles Are Back
We were on Rt 47 southbound to attend an 11:00 am meeting in Cape May. The car consisted of wife Linda and myself. “Bald Eagle,” she announced. Following the line of her sight,…
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Winter Raptor Workshop – So What Did We See?
It was a full two days of birding and learning on the recently completed Wintering Hawks, Eagles & Owls Workshop, part of the Cape May School of Birding (January 5…
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Slithering Citizen Science
At New Jersey Audubon we recognize the importance of citizen science projects because they provide a means for people to connect with nature and community and they also provide valuable…
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Tracking Stations in Brazil
NJ Audubon and its partners from Tulane University, the University of Para, CEMAVE (Brazil’s bird management and conservation agency) and ICMBio (Brazil’s protected area management agency) installed the first two…
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Fall Delmarva Van Tour Recap
Fall Delmarva Van Tour by Scott Barnes Nov 9-12, 2018 Our annual late fall foray to the bird-rich Delmarva Peninsula began at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Bombay Hook is…
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Try Ducks
I know, I know, I know, Wait. You are suffering from post migration depression. There’s a cure. Ducks. Yes ducks, waterfowl. Winter means ducks, Hardy cold impervious birds that get…
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OBSERVING WINTERING HAWKS, EAGLES, & OWLS
It is such a pleasant experience to drive along the tidal marshes of coastal NJ at this time of year – the subtle browns, oranges and grays of autumn transition…
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2018 Cape May Hawkwatch – 53,495 Raptors & More!!
Text and photos by Erik Bruhnke 2018 Cape May Hawkwatch Counter Cape May Bird Observatory This year marked the 43rd season of the Cape May Hawkwatch. There were many highlights…
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Invasion of the Sapsuckers!
“There’s another one, that makes 12 today,” I said to my dad as I pointed to the woodpecker with the yellowish belly feathers, long white wing bar and all red…
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Freeze
We in New Jersey live in that iffy “between zone.” The zone between sure survival and getting a good pole position for Spring migration. The strategy for many birds is…
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Suet Cake
Say it: sue it. It is the backyard bird feeder’s secret ingredient. No matter how much seed you put out, you’ll still not attract the variety of species that you…
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You Have to Fake it to Make It – the Art of Camouflage
Walking through a field with my Dad at the Flat Brook Wildlife Management Area in Sussex County, I paused to look at a plant that I did not recognize. As…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 14 (11/15 – 11/22)
No, dear reader, you weren’t imagining things, our previous post did indeed say that week thirteen was our final week of banding. And, yet here we are again bringing you…
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Bird Feeding Dos and Don’ts
You like feeding birds. Who doesn’t? A winter landscape without the color and animation birds bring is just a still life. Different seed types attract different species, each one a…
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A western visitor to the Jersey Shore
Here in New Jersey we only have one species of hummingbird that breeds in our fair state, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). But each fall and winter, as many thousands…
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NORTHWOOD CENTER BIOBLITZ
By Rebecca Perruci George Myers Naturalist Cape May Bird Observatory After three years of habitat restoration work at the Cape May Bird Observatory’s Northwood Center, highlighted by the Ryan De…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 13 (11/8 – 11/14)
The thirteenth and final week of the inaugural season of NJ Audubon's Cape May Banding Project, a collaboration between NJ Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory, The Nature Conservancy, and Cellular…
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Time For Seed
Hey New Jersey Resident, it’s time to put out your bird feeders. Our hungry winter minions have arrived and this year purports to be a banner year for colorful northern…
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Report – Southwestern Louisiana: Cheniers, Cypress Swamps, and Cameron Parish
Southwestern Louisiana: Cheniers, Cypress Swamps, and Cameron Parish April 22-29, 2015 Final Tour Report and Species List We gathered in Lafayette, Louisiana for our birding trip to the swamp forests,…
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Community Conservation Catalyst
New Jersey Audubon Partners with Residents of Old Farm Village of Panther Valley & Allamuchy Environmental Commission for Habitat Beautification/Restoration Project With over 9 million people, New Jersey is the…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 12 (11/1 – 11/7)
Above: Our Bander-in-charge and a fraction of the total volunteer squad for the season, but a solid representation of the high quality staffing that helped make fall 2018 a successful…
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Solace
You’re right, the world seems totally screwed up. Since you are a thinking, feeling, member of our species, I need not elaborate, but I can, perhaps offer an antidote: Try…
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A Warbler “WOW” Moment!!
While touring the Northern Bobwhite Restoration Initiative study site, we stopped our tracking of the Bobwhite to watch cranberry harvest activities at one of the bogs. As the workers were…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 11 (10/25 – 10/31)
Above: a stunning Lincoln’s Sparrow, one of several caught during our big sparrow days! By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge Having banded 253 new birds with only six nets…
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Surprising increase in monarchs
We had just about given hope of seeing many more monarchs in Cape May Point this year, since we have seen very low numbers over the last week. Gentle northwest…
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Still Fall
New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Festival is over. Autumn must be waning, you think. Think again. There are still weeks of Autumn ahead. Fact is bird migration continues until February. …
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Fall Banding Update: Week 10 (10/18 – 10/24)
Above: Our first-of-the-season Yellow-throated Vireo shows off its almost Day-Glo plumage! By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge One of the main concerns that we faced with opening a coastal…
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Ask a Quail – The Fall Shuffle is Not a Dance
The 2018 breeding season for the translocated Northern Bobwhite at the Pine Island Cranberry study site was productive. Of the total eight nests monitored this season, 104 eggs were produced…
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Fall Festival Wrap-up
This past weekend, October 19th – 21st, the Cape May Bird Observatory hosted the annual New Jersey Audubon Fall Festival, a celebration of all things migration. Our team had the…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 9 (10/11 – 10/17)
Photo above is a close-up of our first Hermit Thrush of the season…but we expect many more in the weeks to come! By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge Week…
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Cranberries, Conservation and Collaboration
New Jersey Audubon staff greeted hundreds of cyclers this past weekend as part of the Garden State Farm To Fork Fondo. The event, which consisted of a bicycle ride through…
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Monarch Numbers Increased on Sunday
We were growing impatient in Cape May, as we heard reports of good numbers on monarchs in Ocean City and Stone Harbor over the last few days, two spots north…
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CMBO Daily Roundup – October 12, 2018
[Above: American Kestrel #5039 of the day migrates past the Cape May Hawkwatch, establishing a new single-day record.] Weather: A memorable day as the cold front and remnants of Michael departed…
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Looking good for Saturday
A big cold front passed through Cape May Thursday night into Friday morning, bringing strong northwest winds onto the Cape. Northwest winds trigger all sorts of migration, and more than…
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Peak Migration
What ever happened to bird watching? I remember when this was just a quaint little closet avocation, practiced by professorial types and other social misfits. Just last weekend I was…
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CMBO Daily Roundup – October 11, 2018
Weather: Yet another summery day with highs reaching 80ºF at various locations, even under mainly overcast skies. Scattered, heavy rain showers moved north across the peninsula primarily during the morning hours;…
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Major Milestones at the Banding Station
The last week has been very busy for New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) in partnership with Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT), Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).…
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CMBO Daily Roundup – October 10, 2018
Weather: A very warm October day, with afternoon highs reaching 80ºF at a number of locations. Skies were mainly sunny and winds were steady from the S/SSE, light in the…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 8 (10/04 – 10/10)
By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The eighth week of NJ Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) inaugural banding season saw mostly southerly winds and warmer temperatures in The…
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Outsiders
I had an interesting revelation the weekend of September 1st. While sitting on the hawk watch platform at Cape May Point State Park; a platform overflowing with raptor enthusiasts, I…
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CMBO Daily Roundup – October 8, 2018
Weather: A seasonably mild and mainly overcast day with areas of fog during the morning. Winds were steady from the east at about 10mph throughout. Migration counts: Morning Flight (0647-1032), Hawkwatch…
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NJA and Rutgers Study Sheds Light on North Jersey Farmers Opinions on Conservation, Habitat and Water Quality
The central region of the Delaware River Watershed is a critical resource for locally-grown food and drinking water, prompting New Jersey Audubon to conduct a comprehensive survey of local farmers…
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CMBO Daily Roundup – October 5, 2018
Weather: A cooler day behind the passage of a cold front, with skies primarily overcast throughout and some showers passing through during the afternoon hours. North winds shifted to northeast…
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Birds are Not the Only Things Flying Over NJ Audubon Fields
On Thursday September 27, 2018, agricultural fields at NJ Audubon’s Wattles Stewardship Center and within the adjacent NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife Management Area were planted with cover crops…
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CAUGHT IN MONHEGAN’S TRAP – Monhegan Island, Maine
NJA Eco-Travel Tour September 14-19, 2018 Monhegan Island is a small bump in the ocean (1.7 miles long and 0.7 miles wide), twelve miles off the mid-coast of Maine, that…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 7 (9/27 – 10/3)
Words and Images by Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The excitement that ended the sixth week of our inaugural season of banding here in Cape May continued right over…
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The first season of the next 100 years
Introduction Bird banding provides an opportunity to assess the physical condition of birds, as well as to determine the age/sex ratio of birds passing through a site. Together these data…
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Landscaping for Birds
Cape May is celebrated as a migrant trap as southbound birds and insects get caught in the land funnel and are directed toward the peninsula’s terminus at Cape May Point.…
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Wow in Glass
This past weekend I witnessed New Jersey Audubon at it’s best. The occasion was the Bird Expo at the Philadelphia Expo Center. The experience underscored why I have dedicated 34…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 6 (9/20 – 9/26)
Words by Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The sixth week of our inaugural banding season began with a stinker of a surprise at the nets and ended with one huge…
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A Day at Hawk Rise
An amazing day at Hawk Rise Sanctuary in Linden NJ was had by all. It was a bit overcast but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of over a dozen…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 5 (9/13 – 9/19)
Words by Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The fifth week of the inaugural season of NJ Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory banding station saw a continuation of the easterly…
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The Best of Migration – Cape May School of Birding Workshops!
Cape May is world renowned for its fall bird and butterfly migration, involving spectacular numbers, diversity, views, and photographic opportunities – and Cape May School of Birding Workshops are an…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 4 (9/6 – 9/12)
By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The fourth week of the inaugural season of NJ Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory banding station began and ended the same way, with…
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Mighty Monarchs
Yes I typically write about birds but when it comes to migration, gram for gram, nothing can out migrate the mighty Monarch, an insect weighing in at .25-.75 grams.That is…
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Heads up, it’s time for Broad-wingeds
Mid- September means migrating Broad-winged Hawks. Between September 10 ad 20 tens of thousands of these stubby forest buteos will migrate across mostly n. New Jersey heading for winter territories…
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FALL MIGRATION AT CAPE MAY with Louise Zemaitis – SEP 13-15
September straddles the migratory timetable; you’re not too late for shorebirds, not too early for hawks, and right on time for warblers and other neotropical migrants. Indeed, it is the…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 3 (8/30 – 9/5)
By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The third week of banding continued where the second week left off, closing early due to the heat and capturing a relatively small…
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Grand North Dakota Tour
A journal of our recent Grand North Dakota Eco Travel Tour Author: Scott Barnes Trip Leaders: Scott Barnes and Linda Mack July 6: Arrival in Bismarck; evening orientation July 7:…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 2 (8/23 – 8/29)
By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge The second week of NJ Audubon’s CMBO 2018 fall banding season started off with our biggest day yet. The previous day, August 22nd,…
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Fall Banding Update: Week 1 (8/15 – 8/22)
By Laura-Marie Koitsch, 2018 Bander In Charge On Wednesday, August 15th, staff and volunteers from New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) & Cellular Tracking Technologies (CTT) worked tirelessly…
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NJ Audubon Goes To Cuba
New Jersey Audubon Eco-Travel trips are not just about beautiful wildlife and habitat. The tours are carefully selected by New Jersey Audubon staff and crafted to connect our participants to…
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Morning Flight 2018 – Starts Tomorrow!
Fall is here – that’s right, Morning Flight is starting on Aug. 1st this year, instead of the usual Aug. 16th. We’re trying to better understand and quantify the early…
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A Night for Moths!
As part of National Moth Week, we held an evening event on July 24th along the Ryan De Witt Memorial Trail at the Northwood Center. We were delighted, not only…
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NJ Audubon Adirondack Tour
2018 NJ Audubon Adirondack Tour complete. We faced some challenges this year, but time spent in the largest wilderness area in the northeast is always rewarding, especially w/ a great…
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New Jersey Audubon Referenced in New Textbook by Renowned Forest Ecologists
When one talks about THE experts of modem day ecological forestry all roads lead to Dr. Jerry Franklin and Dr. K. Norman Johnson. Their recent work, Ecological Forest Management, outlines the…
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Wild Northern Bobwhite Released for 4th Consecutive Year in NJ Pinelands!
(March 2018, Chatsworth, NJ): For the fourth consecutive year wild Northern Bobwhite quail were translocated from Georgia to the New Jersey Pinelands, as part of a multi-state initiative to re-establish Northern…
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Prescribed Burning in Full Swing at Northern Bobwhite Restoration Initiative Site
As part of forest stewardship activities at the site of the Northern Bobwhite Restoration Initiative, prescribed fires are being implemented this winter as a tool to maintain forest health, habitat…
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PRAYING MANTIS – INDISCRIMINATE PREDATOR
Hiking in a meadow in Sussex County over the weekend, I came upon a small semi-hard grayish-yellow mass attached to a goldenrod stem. This “foam-like” cube was an egg case…
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Shortleaf Pine an Important Component to NJ’s Forests
This past week NJ Audubon’s Stewardship Department presented an overview of the Bobwhite Quail Restoration Initiative and the project’s tie in with the National Shortleaf Pine Initiative at the 4th…
New Jersey Audubon fosters environmental awareness and a conservation ethic among New Jersey’s citizens; protects New Jersey’s birds, mammals, other animals, and plants, especially endangered and threatened species; and promotes preservation of New Jersey’s valuable natural habitats.