Find a Wildlife Refuge Near You

The National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is the world's premier system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants.

Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated Florida's Pelican Island as the first wildlife refuge in 1903, the System has grown to more than 150 million acres, 550 national wildlife refuges and other units of the Refuge System, plus 37 wetland management districts.

Don't let the winter weather keep you out of nature. Find a refuge by state, zip code etc. and explore!  If the kids are home on break and getting crazy, there's nothing like the woods to calm things down.

Vitual Wildlife Viewing

With the weather not being that great in NJ for many people walking in the woods, it might be a good time to consider some virtual wildlife viewing.

It a quick click to visit the raptor cams at Blackwater Refuge in Maryland. Every season since 2001, they have operated the Osprey Cam and allowed visitors at the Refuge, and on the Friends of Blackwater website, to witness the miracle of seeing numerous osprey chicks hatch and fledge.

Due to the overwhelming success of the Osprey Cam, the Friends decided to mount a camera over an active bald eagle nest on the Refuge property beginning in 2004. The live Eagle Cam has proven even more popular than the Osprey Cam, and numerous eaglets have hatched and fledged on the cam.

The Eagle Cam is live from December through July (when the eagles are at the nest), and the Osprey Cam is live throughout the year, even though the ospreys are only on the nest from March through September. After the ospreys migrate to South and Central America in the fall, bald eagles take over the osprey platform and use it as a riverside perch, so the Friends leave the Osprey Cam on all year to allow cam watchers to see the visiting bald eagles.

Go to www.friendsofblackwater.org/camcentral.html

NJ has webcams too - for example, the eagle cam at Duke Farms will be active again in March, but check out some of their archived videos.