News Story

April 2, 2024

Where Wayne’s Warblers Dwell 

By: Chance Hines 4/2/24  The Great Dismal Swamp is one of the largest intact wetland ecosystems in the eastern United States and the expansive wilderness creates a […]
March 30, 2024

Become an OspreyWatcher – It’s fun and easy

By: Bryan Watts4/2/24  CCB is thrilled to announce the launch of OspreyWatch 2.0.  With support from conservationists Briscoe and Kenan White and innovative programmer Jim Verhagen […]
March 30, 2024

Four generations of W&M graduate students collaborate on osprey paper

By: Bryan Watts4/1/24 The Biology Department within William & Mary has been a center for osprey work for more than 50 years.  Over that time, the […]
March 30, 2024

Cormorants add colonies but decline in coastal Virginia

By: Bryan Watts3/31/24  On the 29th of May 1978, Charlie Blem, the ornithologist in the biology department at Virginia Commonwealth University, was checking a cattle egret […]
March 30, 2024

Pewee and Bomber 

By: Bryan Watts3/30/24  I carried two pairs of welders’ gloves and Stan Wiemeyer carried a wide-mouthed hand net as we walked down a long line of […]
January 12, 2024

Join CCB on ScholarWorks

By: Bryan Watts1/4/2024 One of CCB’s objectives is to make information available that will have a positive impact on conservation outcomes.  CCB conducts primary conservation research.  […]
January 12, 2024

Peregrine falcon population continues to advance in Virginia

By: Bryan Watts1/4/2024 The Virginia breeding population of peregrine falcons continued its slow advance in 2023.  The known population reached a record 35 breeding pairs.  The […]
January 11, 2024

Moving Osprey

By: Bryan Watts1/4/2024 We put in on Hoskins Creek in Tappahannock and ran out to the open Rappahannock River.  Mitchell Byrd was at the helm of […]
January 11, 2024

CCB and Ipswich Sparrow Winter Studies

By: Chance Hines12/18/2023 Ipswich sparrows make their home in the coastal dunes of the mid-Atlantic where CCB has studied them since the mid-2000s. While the bulk […]
January 11, 2024

By Design

By: Bryan Watts1/2/2024 There is something inspirational about walking through a Frank Lloyd Wright house or inspecting a George Nakashima bench.  The organic lines and wholeness […]
October 4, 2023

Whimbrels turn back in the face of late summer storms

By: Chance Hines10/5/23 While temperatures outside continue soaring, the shortening days and falling leaves remind us that autumn is nearing. This time of year also finds […]
October 3, 2023

The resilient eagles of Jamestown

By: Bryan Watts10/1/23 We sat together in silence as if in a Quaker meeting.  He perched on a limb next to a large nest and me […]
October 3, 2023

Yellow-crowned night-herons thrive along the Lafayette River

By: Bryan Watts9/29/23 The yellow-crowned night-heron has found its sweet spot along the Lafayette River in Norfolk, VA.  The species expanded its breeding range north along […]
October 3, 2023

Laughing gulls continue to lose ground

By: Bryan Watts9/29/23 Along the Atlantic coast there are few sounds that mark the coming of spring as much as the raucous calls of laughing gulls.  […]
September 29, 2023

Woodpecker recovery within Piney Grove Preserve: A retrospective

By: Bryan Watts9/29/2023 By the early 1990s, the conservation community had reached a critical point of decision about the future of the red-cockaded woodpecker in Virginia.  […]
July 8, 2023
Marian with twin parula warblers

Marian Watts receives Distinguished Service Award

By: Bryan Watts7/6/2023 There was a time when The Center was new and Marian was there.  Marian was there when The Center was just an idea, […]
July 8, 2023
Mitchell Byrd holds a captive-reared peregrine falcon in the early 1990s

Peregrine Hacking Program Stands Down within Shenandoah National Park

By: Bryan Watts7/4/2023 Shenandoah National Park has championed the reintroduction of peregrine falcons back into their historic breeding range in the mountains of Virginia.  Since 1989, […]
July 8, 2023
Osprey brood on the upper James River near Hopewell, Virginia.

A tale of two bays: Osprey fortunes diverge

By: Bryan Watts7/5/2023 Over the past few years, I have received questions from homeowners, watermen and keen observers around the lower Chesapeake Bay about osprey.  Waterfront […]