Eagle Cam Q&A with Conserve Wildlife Foundation

It’s been an exciting few weeks for the Duke Farms Eagle Cam. To celebrate the arrival of two chicks, we hosted a question and answer session with Larissa Smith, Senior Wildlife Biologist at the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF).

CWF partners with Duke Farms to support the success of the eagle nest on our property. They also work to support the restoration and maintenance of a healthy bald eagle population in New Jersey by coordinating nest monitor volunteers, maintaining maps of eagle nests, as well as providing assistance when injured bald eagles are found.

We received many great questions, and the conversation demonstrated why partnerships like the one between Duke Farms and Conserve Wildlife are so critical to the recovery and support of state-endangered and state-threatened species like the bald eagle.

Some fun facts that we learned during our conservation with Smith: 

• The bald eagles at Duke Farms mainly bring fish back to the nest, so restoration efforts of ecologically important areas like the Raritan River are critical to our local native wildlife. (And be sure to watch the video on YouTube around the 13-minute mark to see the chicks being fed.)
  
• This year’s eagle family includes a new male as well as a new nest, which points to both how well-suited this habitat is for their needs and how resilient bald eagles can be. 
  
• Conserve Wildlife partners with the state of New Jersey to band eagle chicks around 6 weeks of age. A host of factors are weighed when deciding whether to band chicks at a particular nest, including whether or not the tree is strong enough to support a human climbing it. A decision has yet to be made about whether the Duke Farms chicks will be banded this year, but we will let our email list know once a decision has been made.  
  
• Technology like our Eagle Cam enables viewers to get a rare glimpse into the daily lives of bald eagles without negatively impacting the animals. It also allows volunteers and scientists to monitor, identify and learn more about the species, ultimately adding more knowledge to how we can protect them. 

Duke Farms serves as an example of how to steward land, connect with nature and live sustainably in our environment. The preservation and restoration work led by Duke Farms is a contributing factor to why bald eagle pairs choose to nest at our property. 

Be sure to tune into the cam over the next few weeks to watch the chicks feed, grow and fledge. 

Please sign up for the Duke Farms email list to follow along on this journey with us this year. We will send out updates from the nest, let you know when to tune in for life events such as hatching and fledging, and connect you with ways to help support wildlife conservation and habitat restoration in New Jersey.