The Meadowlands Blog

Map of "Harbor Heron" Sighting

Mary Jo Marino, the "Harbor Herons" volunteer was spotted the banded Snowy Egret, was nice enough to show on a map where she saw the bird.

She adds: "The bird was in the North Impoundment. I first sighted him near the foot bridge. He then flew to the area east of Least Tern Island, and then later over near the border between North Impoundment and South Impoundment.

"This bird was banded on Hoffman Island. The theory is that most of these birds forage in Raritan Bay area. However, here's this young guy out in Secaucus,  the area that's supposed to be frequented by the birds from North and South Brother Islands. Go figure." (Thanks, Mary Jo!)

Scroll down for earlier post.

Carlstadt Harbor Herons

The Meadowlands is a prime destination for foraging egrets that have colonized South Brother Isand in the East River. That fact was underscored late last month when Lorraine Novinski was taking one of her regular bird counts for the Harbor Herons survey.

Lorraine noted a Snowy Egret that had been banded on South Brother. When NYC Audubon heard of the sighting, it sent reseracher Liz Craig (above) to the site to see if she could find the banded Snowy as well.

She did not see the Snowy, but she held up a large antenna and picked up the signal from a Great Egret that had been equipped with miniature radio transmitter at South Brother Island in June.

Harbor Herons Project: Banding Update

Kate Ruskin of the N.J. Audubon Society reports:

    This year, we banded Great Egrets on South Brother Island (Bronx) and Hoffman Island (Staten Island); Glossy Ibises on Hoffman and Canarsie Pol (Jamaica Bay in Queens); and Double-crested Cormorants on Swinburne Island (Staten Island). 
    We tagged about 40 Great Egrets with both color bands and radio transmitters for some of the biggest fledglings, and about 20 Glossy Ibises with color bands.   
   We color-banded about 200 cormorants in just 2 (exhausting) days, a new record for us.  Finally, we put just metal USFWS bands on about 40 Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls. 
   I'll give you the final numbers soon once we go through all the data, but here are some pictures in the meantime:

Here's NYCA's Liz Craig with one of this year's radio-tagged GREGs.  The transmitters have an alphanumeric code on them, black letters/numbers on a white "band".  About 10 of the 40 tagged GREGs have radio transmitters, plus (hopefully!) you'll see some of the 17 radio-tagged GREGs from last year.

   Click here for earlier posts on the Harbor Heron Project.

   Click "Continue reading..." for the rest of Kate's report. Thanks, Kate!

Heron-counting volunteers wanted!

Kate Ruskin of New Jersey Audubon writes:

    Citizen scientists are needed for heron surveys [and you can take a training session right here in the Meadowlands]!

     The New Jersey Audubon Society (NJAS) is recruiting volunteers for wading bird surveys coordinated through its Citizen Science program.

   The study, now in its second year, will run from May until October in the
Hackensack Meadowlands, Raritan Bay, and surrounding watersheds.  

     Volunteers  are asked to commit to two surveys per month over the course of the study period and one pre-season training workshop.

     Click "Continue reading" to learn more.

HARBOR HERONS CONFERENCE: Day One

    Day One of the conference here at DeKorte Park covered a lot of topics, including updates on the breeding populations of egrets, herons and cormorants in the New York Harbor region.
    Though these populations fluctuate from year to year, Black-Crowned Night Herons and Double-crested Cormorants seem to be doing particularly well.
   Greatest threats to breeding habitat: Invasive plant species and Asian Longhorn Beetles (infested trees must be cut down).
   The Harbor Herons Project expects to post all of the proceedings from the two-day conference online. We will link to them as soon as they are posted.

HARBOR HERONS CONFERENCE

The Meadowlands Commission is hosting a conference on the Harbor Herons Project today and tomorrow.

  It is not open to the public, but I hope to attend as much of the proceedings as I can and to post a noteworthy nugget or two about this estimable endeavor.

HARBOR HERONS: The New Jersey effort

   One of the amazing things about this year's Harbor Herons research in the Meadowlands was how extensive it was --  more than 50 volunteer citizen scientists, taking regular surveys of heron activity at more than 50 points at a dozen sites -- coordinated by Nellie Tsipoura of the New Jersey Audubon Society, with the help of Kate Ruskin.

   The surveys continue through the end of the month.

   We will post the findings as they are released.

   Click "Continue reading..." below for a map of the survey sites, provided by NJAS.

HARBOR HERONS: The Record article

   

The Record's James O'Neill did a great job on his coverage of the Harbor Herons Project.  (Great headline, too.)

        Read it here.

HARBOR HERONS: The latest findings

  The Meadowlands Commission hosted a press conference on the Harbor Herons Project today, featuring speakers from New York City Audubon and the New Jersey Audubon Society talking about the preliminary findings from this summer's research.

  Click "Continue reading"  to learn more.

  Click here for all Harbor Herons posts.

HARBOR HERONS: Update

   

A banded glossy ibis -- likely part of the Harbor Herons Project -- was seen in Lancaster County, Pa., this week.  Link is here. 
   Links to this blog's Harbor Heron posts are here (includes video).

BIRDING: Harbor Herons video

     This two-minute video is about the Harbor Herons Project, a collaboration of NYC Audubon, NJ Audubon, the Meadowlands Commission and many volunteers.
    It should be played with the "sound" on.
    Several great egrets and double-crested cormorant fledglings that were banded earlier this summer are now being spotted in the Meadowlands, confirmation that our marshes are pivotal to the success of herons in the entire metropolitan region.
 Here is a link to our previous post on the Harbor Herons Project, including a link to the project's Web pages. 

   Click "Continue reading..." for more information and photos from this project.

BIRDING: Harbor Herons Project

     For the past few years, the Meadowlands Commission and a bunch of volunteers have been helping New Jersey Audubon and New York City Audubon with a project called the Harbor Herons Project.

    The object is to study the foraging behavior of egrets and herons that roost on the East River and near Staten Island to see if the birds from different nesting colonies are foraging at different sites and to see how the birds use the metropolitan landscape, including the Meadowlands.

   This year, researchers have banded several birds and put transmitters on some in an effort to keep track of their travels.

   Some of those birds -- great egrets, and double-crested cormorants, have been seen in the Meadowlands -- and the great egret's radio signals have been picked up here.

   You can help the research by keeping your eye out for banded/transmitter birds.

    The photo on the left is of a great egret youngster with a silver band on its right leg and a transmitter on its left leg  (image  enlarged on right).

   Kate Ruskin of NJ Audubon sums up the progress:

   * 17 great egret fledglings radio-tagged (transmitter is below right:
      - Black letters on white
      - Positioned on the left leg, above the joint with the antenna pointing down (they're small, less than 3% of their body weight, but visible)

   Click "Continue reading" immediately below to learn more.