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Citizens United received the following letter from Clive Minton of Australia in response to our "Host the Shorebird Scientist" effort this spring. (June 2008)

Dear Jane,

This is just a brief note to thank Citizens United's members again for all your kindness and generosity during our latest visit to Delaware Bay. Everything you do for us makes life so much easier and even more enjoyable than ever and your contribution is very very much appreciated. The gourmet "Meals on Wheels" was a wonderful idea and took an enormous load off team members. An indirect benefit was that we were able to make a much greater contribution to the flag scanning efforts this year than ever before(Editor's note: these are the identification tags that the scientists place on the birds). And the walks and other outings and the most enjoyable get-together at the Galettos' was also another highlight of the visit. Prue and Peter were very proud of their glass blowing efforts and I certainly hope that Susan and I can be next year's participants in this activity (Editor's note: shorebird team members had an opportunity to make a glass paper weight at Wheaton Arts).

I'm always amazed at how different each year has been at Delaware Bay. There's no such thing as "the norm". This year was the most disastrous of all for the two weeks in mid-May as a result of the storm followed by two weeks of windy, cold and sometimes wet weather. Thanks goodness everything improved for the last week of May. When we left on June 2nd it did look as if most birds would get away to the Arctic eventually, though 7-10 days later than normal. It remains to be seen how much this negatively affects their breeding success.

It was wonderful that Citizen United's volunteers care so much about the birds and their environment and that your members do so much, directly and indirectly, to help the Delaware Bay situation. We all love participating with all of you from New Jersey each year and we do enormously appreciate that and especially the things you all do.

Best wishes
Clive

note: Clive Minton, Ph.D., Melbourne, Australia Clive has been studying shorebirds for 55 years, especially in England and Australia, where he has lived for the last 27 years. He was part of the initial Delaware Bay Shorebird Project team in 1997 and has returned as a volunteer every year since. His particular area of expertise is catching shorebirds by cannon-netting and collecting associated data on weights and migratory movements of banded birds. Professionally, he is a metallurgist, with a career mainly in the engineering industry, and latterly in human resources.

October 3, 2007

Dear Jane:

It was with unexpected pleasure when you informed me of Citizens United decision to support work banding purple martins by reimbursing money I spent buying colored leg bands this year. Even more exciting was that financial support will continue in future years. This comes at a good time as increasing costs were making me reconsider my involvement in the banding program. Ironically, those costs are directly associated with the success of the martin program. Your assistance allows me to continue at a level I believe is necessary to keep the program progressive.

Significant success in New Jersey is being achieved thanks to conscientious landlords who have subscribed to proper management techniques which are a key factor to increasing martin populations. Martin populations in the northeast are in a slow but steady decline. However, ongoing efforts to educate the public to proper management has led to significant increases, especially in southern New Jersey. The response to proper management not only helps the specific landlord but all other landlords in the area.

The history of banding in NJ has progressed steadily since my initial year banding in 1999 when I banded 390 martins. That was the year I became an official martin mentor in the Purple Martin Conservation Association’s (PMCA) martin mentor program. Each year banded numbers grew as existing colonies were managed better, more colonies were started and more birds fledged. In 2002 I entered into the PMCA’s banding program which encouraged banders to use colored leg bands to help follow martin movements more easily. With the use of a spotting scope and some diligence the band numbers can be read. As landlords contact me or the Bird Banding Lab with bands they are able to identify, we learn more about martin biology in our area. One highlight includes a martin banded in Point Pleasant, NJ being recovered 3 years later near the Amazon River in Brazil. Other sightings being reported are providing useful and interesting information about the movements of martins in our area. I plan to co-author an article this winter about martin movements in NJ, including a colony in Greenwich where 92 band numbers have been reported in two years. I will be pleased to share this article with CU once it is published.

In regard to band numbers, I continue to band more martins each year. Under my banding permit, 6.000 martins were banded by myself and 3 banders in NJ in 2007. I anticipate ordering 8,000 bands for 2008 and envision adding more banders to assist in this effort. The total number of martins banded in NJ is now at 30,000. While most the banding has been done in southern NJ, our efforts and proactive landlords along coastal areas and in more northerly counties are also experiencing significant results. The money CU provides will continue to benefit purple martins throughout the State and keep New Jersey the leader it has been in environmental issues.

I will keep you informed of my progress and look forward to your continued support in the future.

Sincerely,
Allen Jackson

Thanks for listing the plans on your web site. I live in rural Hampton County, SC where we are fortunate to have Osprey nesting in the immediate area. We have a 2 acre naturally vegetated fish pond in our back yard where they fish. It is flanked by a spring fed river and lesser tributaries, and its banks blend into Cypress & swamp Oak swamp. Today I bought the platform supplies and will build it over the next few days. I am so excited!!!

Where is the best place to put it? In the pond? On the edge of the pond? Or on the 1/4 acre island on the interior of the pond?

We have alligators here and every species of snake on the DNR reptile check list, so we will definitely reinforce the predator guard! We'll let you know how soon the platform becomes occupied.

We have seen Bald Eagles here fishing and all the other common species of fishing birds. There's even a pair of Wood Stork (rare to SC) that come every year.

Thanks
Barb Campbell
EHJV

– Naturally we responded we would be happy to have them use the plans.

Dear Citizens United,

My goodness!!! As I read more from your website...I'm very impressed. On my PC's desktop, I have a picture of the AJ Meerwald...so I get to look at it everyday, here at work or at home. I placed it there last summer when my Mother sent me the picture in email. Why you may ask??? It was my grandfather's boat-the Clyde A. Phillips. I am going to pass your website to my Mother, who is retired in Florida these days. I am retired military, living the good life in a shrimping town in coastal Georgia, where development is now rampant with very little concern for the environment. I work at Altamaha Riverkeeper, a non-profit environmental organization which covers a 14,000 mile watershed; I am the admininstration, financial and tech support person. Our website is www.altamahariverkeeper.org

Recently, your org was mentioned in an email to a list of recipients for another Georgia non-profit organization. Was I ever surprised to read about Millville and the Maurice River! It seems we in Georgia are finally going thru what the NJ coast and farmlands have already been through. Keep up the good and hard work!

Thanks!
Debbi Davis

Jane,

Hey there!

It's Larry Young, Millville Senior High School. I just wanted to drop a line to say how much fun I'm having using the Down Jersey Curriculum.

The students are starting to get into it; they are having fun realizing thatimportant places mentioned in the video are right in their own backyards, and that businesses affected by the wetlands are places where family members worked or are working.

Tomorrow we start our oyster discussion. I am combining the Operation Oyster and the Ahh Shucks lessons into one lesson over a 2 day period (maybe 3- I am in no rush!). The kids are grossed out at the fact that I am bringing in canned, smoked oysters for them to try (hum, sounds familiar?)

They will first be learning more about oysters, and then looking at the timeline and recreating it themselves. We will discuss human and environmental factors involved in shellfish decline over the past century and finally end up with the Ahh Shucks lessons and the cards and comic strips. It should be fun for them.

The only suggestion I would make for the curriculum is to check into adding overheads of some of the information, especially like the timeline that could be used by the teacher, and pictures and diagrams of oysters. That's what I am doing now, making my own.

It's a GREAT program and thanks for the experiences!

Larry Young
Millville Senior High School
Environmental Science

Thank you for the oprey platform plans!!!

My wife and I live on a tidal creek in Wilmington, North Carolina. We moved into the house in the spring of 2000, and watched a pair of osprey raise two that year. Then they hatched two and lost one in a storm, successfully raising one in 2001. In 2002 they raised two again. One of these seemed to lag about two weeks behind the other in development. Getting out of the nest. Flying. Successfully fishing, etc. We nicknamed him/her 'junior'.

Well Junior didn't migrate last winter. He hung around. This last spring he prevented the returning parents from nesting. It was pretty amazing. Junior would haunch down in the bottom of the nest and one or both returning Ospreys would dive bomb him from above. You could hear the 'smack' as bodies collided. One time I even watched a real kung-foo move from Junior. An adult came streaking down in a dive-bombing run and Junior jumped straight up, flipped upside-down, and raked his talons out at the attacking adult. He missed, but it was impressively aggressive none the less!

Eventually both adults would perch on the nest and just look down at Junior as if totally puzzled/disgusted. They finally moved on somewhere else, and Junior squatted in the nest alone all year.

Finally, hurricane Isabel broke the nesting pole off at the ground. We're looking for a 50 foot replacement pole, and plans to rebuild. I've collected 4 plans so far. I've got a pretty good idea of what to do at this point, and your plans helped a lot.

In addition to the box, I want to put a perch back up like there was before. Also, the original nest had a grounding strap running from the nest, which I assume was in the event of lightening. Do you have any comments/thoughts on putting up what is in essence a lightening rod?

Thanks again for your help!
Russ

Keep up the great work. It's what makes folks want to stay here and enjoy our quality of life. Thanks, Ginger

I drove up Sharp St., passing the dam at 5ish last night. I was pleased to see something I've never seen before. Above and below the spillway, circling and diving were 7 to10 birds, clearly being successful hunting the river.

The efforts over the years are obviously paying off. I've spent a lot of hours on that lake, over the course of 25 years, never seeing more than one or two ospreys in a given season. And here were a whole group of birds together. I was in awe.

I feel like it's appropriate to say Thank You. Without you and CU, this would not have happened.

Regards,
Joe Buttner