East Brunswick nature series starts with red knot lecture
Feb. 24th lecture by Larry Niles and Amanda Dey will focus on red knots and
horseshoe crabs. Photo courtesy: William Halsted, Edison Wetlands Association.
The East Brunswick Environmental Commission is hosting their first talk on Tuesday, February 24th. Larry Niles Ph.D of Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and Mandy Dey of New Jersey Endangered Species Program will discuss "Are We In Time? The Dramatic Decline Of Shorebirds On The Delaware Bay And The Efforts To Rescue Them."
This free program will begin at 7:30 PM at the East Brunswick Library on Civic enter Drive, and is open to all.
Richard Wolfert of Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission gives an overview:
Richard Wolfert of Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission gives an overview:
"Many of us familiar with the major controversy regarding a small shorebird, the Red Knot, and the harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs around New Jersey and along the Delaware Bay. This issue was brought to light for many with last season’s excellent PBS documentary outlining the issue. We are extremely fortunate to have the two principal investigators detail the struggle to understand the sudden collapse in the population of this small bird, how it related to the harvesting of Horseshoe Crabs, and how this affects our regional environment in other ways."
Here is the program summary provided by Dr. Niles and Dr. Dey:
"Our talk will focus on the shorebirds of the Delaware Bay in general and the Red Knot specifically. We will describe the life history of these birds and the extraordinary importance of the Delaware Bay to their survival. We will detail our work in the Arctic where they breed, Tierra del Fuego, where they winter, and the Delaware Bay where they depend on the eggs of horseshoe crabs that breed in the bay every May. We will describe the collapse of the shorebird populations and our efforts to restore them closing with straight talk about politics of conservation and what the public can do to help."
Dr. Niles received a Ph.D. from Rutgers in Ecology and Evolution; his thesis work focused on migratory raptors. He has been a wildlife biologist for over 30 years working throughout the western hemisphere on a variety of wildlife species. First as a biologist then as chief, he led NJ Endangered Species Program research and management projects. Dr. Niles personally led the Bald Eagle Recovery Project, the Delaware Bay Shorebird Project and the Cape May Stopover Project. He has led research expeditions to the Arctic and South America. He now does work for the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ and has recently been appointed by Gov. Corzine to the Pinelands Commission.
Dr. Dey received her Ph.D from Rutgers; her thesis on migratory songbirds was published this past year as a book titled “Predicting occurrence of area-sensitive forest birds”. Dr. Dey works for the NJ Endangered Species Program focusing primarily on migrant birds, and particularly shorebirds. She has conducted shorebird research throughout North and South America, just recently returning from surveys in Tierra del Fuego, Chile. She has worked at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Hubbard Brook Research Station in New Hampshire.
As husband and wife, they have three sons, one grandson, and are expecting their first granddaughter.
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