April 2, 2019
Christmas Bird Count crew pose with a new eagle nest on the north end of Smith island

Beach-nesting eagles

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247April 2, 2019 Sometimes no matter how long you have worked with a species and no matter how wild […]
March 30, 2019
Marian Watts holds a recently-banded chick hatched on the Cobb Island Tower.

Virginia peregrines set record high in 2018

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247March 30, 2019 With 32 occupied territories, Virginia supported the largest breeding population of peregrine falcons ever known to […]
March 30, 2019
Mitchell Byrd with birthday cake in the CCB conference room in August of 2018.

Still flying at 90

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247March 29, 2019 Mitchell Byrd turned 90 in August of 2018, but in early March of 2019 he toed […]
January 17, 2019
Adult white ibis with a brood in Virginia.

White ibis population explodes in Virginia

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247January 17, 2019 Some species creep forward across the landscape.  They fortify their troops and slowly take ground with […]
January 15, 2019

Have you seen me?

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247& Chance Hines | chhines@wm.edu | (757) 221-1696January 15, 2019 The Center for Conservation Biology is asking bird watchers […]
January 15, 2019

Moving Woodpeckers 4

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247January 16, 2019 For the fourth consecutive year, CCB and a multi-state, multi-agency coalition rallied to capture red-cockaded woodpeckers […]
January 14, 2019

Clean blood for eaglets within lower Chesapeake Bay

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247January 14, 2019 Between 2016 and 2018 CCB in partnership with the National Park Service collected blood samples from […]
October 3, 2018

CCB collaborates on study of winter ecology of Ipswich sparrows

By Fletcher Smith | fmsmit@wm.edu | (757) 221-1617 & Sydney Bliss (M.Sc candidate at Dalhousie University) October 3, 2018
October 3, 2018

A heron’s tale

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 October 3, 2018
October 2, 2018

Female peregrines under pressure

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 October 2, 2018
September 26, 2018

Losing ground to sea-level rise

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 September 26, 2018
August 23, 2018

Anhingas march north

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 August 23, 2018
July 17, 2018
Alt Text

Expedition Chesapeake

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 July 17, 2018 The Chesapeake Bay is one of the largest estuaries in North America and one of […]
July 17, 2018

Up and down year for Virginia woodpeckers

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 July 17, 2018 The 2018 breeding season was a roller coaster for endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers in Virginia.  Moving […]
July 17, 2018

Urban herons hold their own

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 July 17, 2018 CCB biologists have monitored breeding herons within residential neighborhoods of tidewater Virginia (including the cities […]
July 16, 2018

The fish factory

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 July 16, 2018 The brown pelican and double-crested cormorant nesting colony on South Point Marsh is like a […]
July 16, 2018

Eagle productivity continues slide

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 July 16, 2018 The 2018 breeding season along the James River continued a trend that has been documented […]
April 5, 2018

Eagles after the storm

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 April 5, 2018 For the Northeast coast, the winter of 2017-2018 went out with a dramatic train of […]
April 4, 2018

Georgia coast critical for migrating red knots

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 and Fletcher Smith | fmsmit@wm.edu | (757) 221-1617 April 4, 2018 The coast of Georgia plays a significant […]
April 3, 2018

A good year for woodpeckers

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 April 3, 2018 2017 was a good year for red-cockaded woodpeckers in Virginia.  The combined spring, breeding, and […]
April 2, 2018

Networking Eagles

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 April 2, 2018 Nonbreeding bald eagles are highly social and form communal roosts around profitable foraging sites.  We […]
March 30, 2018

Flying to Mecca

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 March 30, 2018 Fletcher Smith and I had been working birds on the Acadian Peninsula for ten days. […]
January 8, 2018

Gender Divide in Bald Eagles

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 January 8, 2018 Unlike many familiar bird species, male and female bald eagles have identical plumage making them […]
January 8, 2018

Virginia Peregrines have Mixed Year in 2017

By Bryan Watts | bdwatt@wm.edu | (757) 221-2247 January 7, 2018 Virginia supported a known population of 29 pairs of peregrine falcons during the 2017 breeding […]