Guide to Watchable Wildlife Areas

In 2009, I posted here about the original New Jersey Wildlife Viewing Guide (shown above). Since then it has been updated. There are lots of places to see wildlife in New Jersey, and the New Jersey Wildlife Viewing Guide is a good directory to some of those places, which are great family field trips.

The guide lists 99 viewing sites for wildlife in NJ and was a joint effort of the ENSP and Defenders of Wildlife. It contains eight eco-region tours for ecology-minded tourists.

Here are two viewing areas that we suggest for watching wildlife.

One well-known place is the Sandy Hook Gateway National Recreation Area. This long, slender peninsula goes 6.5 miles into NY Harbor and has 1665 acres. Popular as a swimming beach in summer and a fishing area year-round, it is also a major beach nesting area.

The visitors center (2 miles in from the entrance) can guide you to trails & observation areas, and warn you of nesting areas for piping plovers (at right), black skimmers, least terns and many shorebird species.

On the bay side, the Horseshoe Cove Salt Marsh is a good place to look for great blue herons, green herons and egrets. Offshore viewing from the beaches in summer may allow you a view of passing whales (hence the naming of the Spermaceti Cove Visitor Center)

From the Garden State Parkway, take exit 117 from the North or 105 from the south and follow the signs on Route 36 for 12 miles. Admission is charged during the summer season.

 

Some areas are less well-known, such as the Walkill National Wildlife Refuge. This large waterfowl habitat (7500 acres) is located along a 9-mile section of the Walkill River.

The Wallkill River NWR is located in Sussex County, New Jersey, and Orange County, New York. Congress established the refuge in 1990 to preserve and enhance lands and waters in a manner that conserves the natural diversity of fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for present and future generations. The management emphasis is on Federally-listed endangered and threatened species, migrating waterfowl and shorebirds, nesting and wintering grassland birds, and forest-dwelling birds.

There are three nature trails on the refuge. Each nature trail provides an excellent wildlife viewing opportunity. In winter months, with proper snow conditions, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are allowed on these trails.

225 species of birds have been seen, including 24 raptor species. The occasional black bear & bobcat are also seen. There is a wildlife observation deck, Wood Duck Trail & hundreds of acres of upland grassland.

The Refuge is near Sussex & Unionville. Follow Rt. 23 to Rt. 565 for 1.4 miles to the Refuge office.

The NJ viewing guide is available on Amazon, along with a set of Field Guides to Wildlife, Birds, Trees & Wildflowers of New Jersey that would be useful to bring along on any trip out into nature.

18th Annual Watchable Wildlife Conference To Be Held in NJ

Via NJ DEP Division of Fish and Wildlife

You are cordially invited to attend the 18th Annual Watchable Wildlife Conference at the Golden Inn in Avalon, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2009. The conference is sponsored by Watchable Wildlife, Inc., New Jersey DEP's Division of Fish & Wildlife, New Jersey Division of Travel & Tourism, New Jersey Audubon Society, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, and the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions.

The Watchable Wildlife Conference is the premier meeting of wildlife and tourism professionals in North America. Holding the conference in New Jersey this year provides a great opportunity to participate in detailed sessions , which demonstrate how local communities and businesses can capitalize on the wildlife tourism trend. This conference is a rare chance to meet and talk with national and New Jersey's leading wildlife managers, business owners, authors and tourism marketing professionals in the field of wildlife/nature tourism.

This year's focus will be Nature Tourism as an Economic Stimulus: Keeping it Local.

Speakers at this year's conference include Peter Dunne, Author and Director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, Michael G. Ensch, Chief of Operations & Regulatory for the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Steve Atzert, US Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge Manager, Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Recent reports show people are traveling to their National Parks, State Parks and local natural areas more than ever. Now is the time to learn how to benefit from your community's natural capital.

The Golden Inn Hotel & Conference Center will be the host site. Reduced conference rates including government per diems have been arranged. For more information visit the Golden Inn site at http://www.goldeninn.com. Conference registration is $350 and includes most meals. A special one-day rate of $125 for professionals and $90 for students is available.

Visit the conference website at http://www.watchablewildlife.org/conference/ for more information and to register.

Watching Wildlife

If you spend time in the woods, walking on trails, fishing or camping, you have looked up just in time to see an animal dive out of sight. Most animals see, hear or smell us long before we are aware of their presence. They pay attention to us and, depending on how far away we are and how we act, they decide to stay, defend themselves or flee.

There are ways ways that you can help blend into an animal's surroundings. (see below), but the first part of this is find places to watch wildlife.

WildlifeViewingAreas.com is an initiative by Watchable Wildlife, Inc., a non-profit working with communities across North America and around the world to help protect wildlife and wild areas.

They publish the popular Wildlife Viewing Guides that exist for most states,

Two great features on their site are search tools to find a particular species in your area, and a search to find watchable wildlife places.

I went to the species search and selected NJ and oystercatcher and it told me to try the Great Bay Boulevard Wildlife Management Area.

Then I tried the search for places and asked for a swamp area with watchable wildlife and got a result for the Dismal Swamp.

Yes, NJ has coyotes.

Here are some tips courtesy of the British Columbia Wildlife Watch:

• Fade into the woodwork by wearing natural colors and unscented lotions. Clothes that don't rustle are best.
• Keep your distance and use binoculars or scopes. This allows you to observe animals without disturbing them.
• Sometimes you will 'see' more by sitting quietly for a while with your eyes closed. Your ears may hear what is not readily visible to your eyes.
• Let animals eat their natural foods. Sharing your sandwich, or other foods, with them may harm their digestive systems that are adapted to natural foods. Animals may become conditioned to handouts, eventually losing their fear of people and/or vehicles. This may put them, and you, into potentially dangerous situations. Instead, spend some time to watch and learn what natural foods they prefer.
• Be easy to be with by moving like molasses: slow, smooth and steady. If you must advance, take a roundabout route, never move directly toward an animal.
• Avert your gaze as animals may interpret a direct stare as a threat.
  

Red Fox in NJ

• Think like an animal. As a rule, the border between two habitats is a good place to see residents from both habitats.
• Figure out the best time if day for viewing by imaging an animal's daily schedule. When does it feed? Rest? Bathe? Drink? Dawn and dusk are usually good bets. A dry, hot, sunny afternoon is not the best time to look.
• Plants and the landscape are important parts of wildlife habitat. Please do not damage or remove them, and stay on designated trails or roads.
• Keep pets on a leash at all times. Pets can harm wildlife, and reduce viewing opportunities.

Watchable Wildlife Conference

The 18th Annual Watchable Wildlife Conference will be held at the Golden Inn in Avalon, New Jersey, October 6-8, 2009.

The conference is sponsored by Watchable Wildlife, Inc., New Jersey DEP's Division of Fish & Wildlife, New Jersey Division of Travel & Tourism, New Jersey Audubon Society, Conserve Wildlife Foundation, and the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions.

The Watchable Wildlife Conference is the premier meeting of wildlife and tourism professionals in North America.

Holding the conference in New Jersey this year provides a great opportunity to participate in detailed sessions , which demonstrate how local communities and businesses can capitalize on the wildlife tourism trend. This conference is a rare chance to meet and talk with national and New Jersey's leading wildlife managers, business owners, authors and tourism marketing professionals in the field of wildlife/nature tourism.

This year's focus will be Nature Tourism as an Economic Stimulus: Keeping it Local. Speakers at this year's conference include Peter Dunne, Author and Director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, Michael G. Ensch, Chief of Operations & Regulatory for the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Steve Atzert, US Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge Manager, Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Recent reports show people are traveling to their National Parks, State Parks and local natural areas more than ever. Now is the time to learn how to benefit from your community's natural capital. Please join us in Avalon for the Watchable Wildlife Conference and pass the word along about this special event in New Jersey!

The Golden Inn Hotel & Conference Center will be the host site. Reduced conference rates including government per diems have been arranged. For more information visit the Golden Inn site at http://www.goldeninn.com/ . Conference registration is $350 and includes most meals. A special one-day rate of $125 for professionals and $90 for students is available.

Visit the conference website at http://www.watchablewildlife.org/conference/ for more information and to register.

Bats in New Jersey

Nine species of bats are considered regular residents of New Jersey. These include the little brown bat, big brown bat, northern long-eared bat, small-footed myotis, Eastern pipistrel, Indiana bat (state and federally endangered), hoary bat, red bat and silver-haired bat.

Endangered Indiana bat

The hoary, red and silver-haired bats are part-time residents that are found here from spring through fall when they migrate to southern states for the winter. The other six species remain here throughout the entire year and require special habitats for winter hibernation.

Natural caves once provided hibernating habitat for bats, but today most caves are subject to disturbance by people and thus are not suitable for use by bats. Abandoned mines and tunnels have replaced natural caves as the primary winter habitat for bats in many parts of the country because they are often unsafe to enter or inaccessible to people.

New Jersey's largest known bat hibernaculum is the Hibernia Mine in Rockaway Township, Morris County. The mine was abandoned in the early 1900s and the first record of bats using the mine is from the 1930s. In the decades that followed, the mine continued to provide winter habitat for bats but frequent and constant human disturbance limited the mine's potential.

Unsuccessful attempts were made by landowners to keep people out of the mine, but these efforts also made it unavailable to the bats. During the summer of 1994, the Endangered and Nongame Species Program negotiated an agreement with landowners to install a special bat conservation gate to keep people out but allow free access by the bats.

The state has also acquired the property through the Green Acres Program and it is currently part of the Wildcat Ridge Wildlife Management Area and is listed as a Watchable Wildlife Site.

The ENSP conducts a biennial winter survey to assess the bat population in the Hibernia Mine. A 1999 survey found a peak of more than 30,000 bats.

Starting in 2003, a Summer Bat Count has been done to map summer roosting locations throughout New Jersey.

New hibernacula have been located and protected including a tunnel in Worthington State Forest in Warren County.

Cooperating with the ENSP on these efforts are the Division of Parks and Forestry, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Bat Conservation International.

Full Moons, Horseshoe Crabs and Migratory Birds in NJ

Between about mid-May to mid-June every year, huge number of horseshoe crabs are on the beaches along Delaware Bay (between Delaware and New Jersey) to mate and to lay eggs under the sand.

The number of mating horseshoe crabs on the beach peaks at the night of full moon and at the time of high tide. The huge number of horseshoe crab eggs attracts many birds to converge for this annual feast. This month's full moon is on the 9th, and in June it will be on the 7th. Activity is likely to be at its peak in the latter part of May approaching the June full moon.

Horseshoe crabs are "living fossils" and have remained basically the same for 300 million years. The females (which are generally larger than males) carry tens of thousands of eggs which they deposit in the sand for males to fertilize.

Three beaches that people visit to watch horseshoe crabs and birds are Pickering Beach on the Delaware side, Reeds Beach on the New Jersey side and Plum Island in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The locations and directions to these three beaches are:

Pickering Beach is at 19 S. Sandpiper Road, about 5 miles south east of Dover. A narrow public access path is near the intersection of S. Sandpiper Dr and Pickering Beach Rd.

Reeds Beach is in Cape May, NJ which offers many birding opportunities. Parking for watching migratory shorebirds and horseshoe crabs is at the end of N. Beach Avenue. There are two observation areas - from the designated beach area at the lot, and from the left side of a cement dike which offers a closer view of mating horseshoe crabs and feeding shorebirds. The left ocean-side of the dike is place to watch horseshoe crabs and shorebirds.

Plum Island is part of Sandy Hook Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey. The NJ Audubon Society is a good source of information on their Sandy Hook activities.

For more about horseshoe crab viewing locations on the East Coast, see www.ocean.udel.edu/horseshoecrab/

The spring migration of many species of shorebirds coincides with the arrival of the horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay. Bird counts of migratory shorebirds show disturbing decreases in numbers, and those who study the migrations see a correlation shorebird population declines and horseshoe crab over-harvesting.

Horseshoe crabs have survived 300 million years of a changing planet, but may not survive human interference. Loss of habitat is a concern, but the use of the crabs as bait is more of a threat.

Between 1960 and 1980, scientists estimated the number of horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay to be relatively constant at 2-4 million horseshoe crabs. In 1990, 900,000 adults were counted in the annual horseshoe crab census coordinated by the University of Delaware Sea Grant Marine Advisory Service. Only 400,000 were counted in the 1999 census. From 1999 through 2002, the spawning population appears to have stabilized, remaining around 400,000 adults on the peak-night census.

horseshoe crabs, Sandy Hook - photos by Brian Richards

Sandy Hook Gateway National Recreation Area

The Sandy Hook Gateway National Recreation Area. is a slender peninsula that goes 6.5 miles into NY Harbor and covers 1665 acres.

Popular as a swimming beach in summer and fishing area year round, it is also a major beach nesting area.

The visitors center (2 miles in from entrance) can guide you to trails & observation areas, and warn you of nesting areas for piping plovers (at right), black skimmers, least terns and many shorebird species.

On the bay side, the Horseshoe Cove Salt Marsh is a good place to look for great blue herons, green herons and egrets. Offshore viewing from the beaches in summer may allow you a view of passing whales (hence the naming of the Spermaciti Cove Visitor Center)

In 1999, New Jersey passed a law that prohibits all types of nudism on state or beaches, but Sandy Hook's Gunnison Beach remains as the only legal nude beach in the state, since it is on federal land and not subject to state or municipal regulations. Gunnison is the largest clothing-optional recreation area on the East Coast.

From the Garden State Parkway, take exit 117 from the North or 105 from the south and follow signs on Rt. 36 for 12 miles. Admission is charged during the summer season.

Tourist information http://www.sandy-hook.com/

See Brian Richards' 3D / Panoramic view of the current state of Bridge Construction

Your Garden As Wildlife Habitat

The last official frost date for northern NJ is about a month away. But, if you have been enjoying the warmer weather and working in your garden, you should consider making your garden and backyard a wildlife habitat.

While some of us are trying to keep animals from eating our vegetables and flowers, there are still opportunities to invite garden-friendly wildlife.

The National Wildlife Federation will even let you register your yard as a certified wildlife habitat.

On the NWF website, you can find gardening resources. The information will give you information on how to attract birds and butterflies, as well as other wildlife, to your yard.

There is also gardening information and a map that shows you how to use plants that are native to your region.

You might want to check out the tutorials to build a bat house and a bee house. The idea is to create a small sustainable haven for wildlife in your neighborhood.

If you register your property with the NWF (or just want to see what others look like), check out the National Wildlife Federation’s Flickr photo group.