New Jersey’s endangered Least Terns, have another predator to worry about around Cape May. In addition to the skunks, raccoons and feral cats that regularly raid their nests for eggs, coyotes are now on the prowl.
Least terns are small, black masked shorebirds that fish for their own food by diving straight into the salt water of the bay and ocean. They only lay on average two eggs per nest, during their breeding season from the end of May through mid-August, and they have been on New Jersey’s endangered list since early-1980s.
During her ten-week internship at the Jersey shore’s Wetlands Institute near Stone Harbor, Delaware Valley College Senior Liz Dancer was charged with monitoring a least tern colony in Cape May Point State Park. While there, she found tracks that look an awful lot like those of a coyote.
“The tracks around the Cape May nest site most likely belong to coyotes,” said Dancer, who matched the imprints left behind against her hand. “The park guards told me they’ve heard coyotes from time to time.” The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection estimate that roughly 3,000 coyotes inhabit the state, some in Cape May County.
Dancer thinks the birds nesting in Cape May have a poorer chance of hatching their eggs because more predators are on the prowl there. To learn more about it, she is planting electronic temperature recording devices called iButtons against eggs in nests in Cape May, as well as Sea View Marina in Longport, NJ.
“iButtons can detect temperature fluctuations when a bird is incubating or when it leaves the nest to escape predators. This new technology allows wildlife managers to understand how frequently predators are interrupting incubation” said Ilene Eberly, Coordinator of Research and Conservation.
The research builds on NJ Dept. of Fish and Wildlife management practices. Dancer and 15 other undergraduate researchers from Cambodia to Boston are conducting conservation biology experiments at the Wetlands to preserve and protect wildlife endangered by natural and human causes. Nine of the researchers lived at the Institute this summer.
“These student researchers are provided a unique learning experience, resulting in conservation focused research to protect our coastal species. The student researchers and their projects are supported by the Wetlands Institute memberships, generous private donations, and fantastic fundraising events such as the Wings N’ Water Festival”, said Ilene Eberly
While driving the causeways into Sea Isle, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Wildwood and Cape May this summer, visitors have probably seen the young scientists conducting experiments to preserve wetlands’ creatures. Diamond-back terrapins, colonial long-legged wading birds, horseshoe crabs are residents of the wetlands, and researchers spent much of the summer studying the species and their environment.
Their findings will be on display during the Wings ‘N Water festival, and some of them are troubling. For example, terrapin roadkill is at its highest level since 2000, and the researchers have found that Mesh fences along Avalon and Stone Harbor Boulevards could help minimize terrapin death. They also found that dredge material is potentially suitable for terrapin nesting habitat.
The researchers hope to inspire vacationers to share the shore with coastal species and beach-nesting shorebirds, and the Wetlands Institute is the perfect place to learn about their finned, feathered and hardshelled neighbors.
