Center for Conservation Biology

April 5, 2021
Whimbrel staging along the Delmarva Peninsula in Virginia

Whimbrels Staging along Delmarva Continue Decline

By: Bryan Watts4/5/21 The number of whimbrels staging along the Delmarva Peninsula during spring migration continues to decline.  Back in 1994, Bryan Watts and Barry Truitt […]
April 4, 2021
Laura Duval uses an optical level to shoot elevations within a FL

Surveying for Black Rail Habitat

By: Bryan Watts4/2/2021 The eastern black rail continues its decline along the Atlantic Coast.  Birds are being systematically excluded from their traditional salt marshes by advancing […]
March 31, 2021
70Z young at banding age.

The Devil Bird’s Sister

By: Bryan Watts3/31/2021 Around 24 April, 2008 four peregrine eggs were hatched on the Benjamin Harrison Bridge near Hopewell, Virginia.  The young included three females and […]
March 30, 2021
A golden eagle fitted with a GSM transmitter in Highland County, Virginia.

Recent Literature from CCB

By: Bryan Watts3/30/2021 PEREGRINE VS RED KNOT As part of the peregrine falcon restoration program we introduced peregrines from Virginia north to New Jersey within the […]
March 23, 2021
Bald eagle survey crew -AKA The A-Team

The A-Team Signs Off

By Bryan Watts3/23/2021 We all knew it would happen.  That one morning we would wake up as old men – time having passed over us like […]
January 11, 2021
Barry Truitt, Laura Chamberlin and Alex Wilke talk shorebirds on a trip out to Smith Island

30th anniversary for MD-VA Barrier Islands Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve

By: Bryan Watts1/11/2021 It was a beautiful fall day with glassy water as Alex Wilke (Coastal Scientist, The Nature Conservancy), Laura Chamberlin (Assistant Director for North […]
January 11, 2021
Eastern black rail.

Eastern black rail elevated to Threatened status

By: Bryan Watts1/8/2021 On November 9, 2020 the eastern black rail was formally listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act by the Department of Interior […]
January 6, 2021
Brown pelicans, northern gannets and various gulls follow a commercial boat

Seabirds and fish along the coast of North Carolina

By: Bryan Watts1/6/2021 The Center for Conservation Biology joined with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to estimate the number of cormorants and other seabirds that […]
January 5, 2021
CCB 2020 Annual Report

Conservation Champions

By: Bryan Watts1/5/21 Conservation is an ethic – the purposeful consideration of the welfare of other species in our daily decisions and actions, a life path […]
January 4, 2021
Ned helping on a winter survey on the Virginia Barrier Islands.

Ned Brinkley

By Bryan Watts1/4/2021 On 22 November 2020, Edward S. “Ned” Brinkley died unexpectedly on a mountainside in southern Ecuador in search of the endangered Jocotoco antpitta […]
October 6, 2020
Don Schwab, Rick Barnett  and Brian VanEerden feed a cricket to a woodpecker

From recipient population to donor population in only 16 years

By Bryan Watts10/06/2020 In only 16 years from 2001 to 2017, the Piney Grove Preserve, managed by The Nature Conservancy in Sussex County, has shifted from […]
October 6, 2020
Marian Watts during the Covid-19 pandemic holds a peregrine falcon

2020: Another good production year for Virginia peregrines

By Bryan Watts10/05/2020 Despite the difficulties of working the breeding sites during the global pandemic, CCB was able to complete the 2020 spring field season and […]
September 30, 2020

CCB makes technical reports more accessible

By Bryan Watts9/30/2020 In late 2019, CCB worked with William & Mary’s Swem Library to upload 220 technical reports to Scholarworks in an effort to make […]
September 14, 2020
Beginning of field notes made by Fred Scott on 21 February 1968 describing a bald eagle nest survey

The value of old field notes

By: Bryan Watts9/14/2020 Field notes are like an artist study.  Although they may lead to a published manuscript or report, they provide a more complete view […]
September 3, 2020
American oystercatchers roost during high tide on a shell rake in Virginia.

CCB Launches Shorebird Roost Registry

By Bryan Watts9/3/2020 Communal roosts used at night and during high-tide periods are essential resources for many shorebird species during the winter and migratory periods.  Despite […]
July 7, 2020

Delivering full life cycle conservation for whimbrels

By Bryan Watts7/7/2020 Whimbrels are large, highly migratory Holarctic waders with low reproductive potential and delayed recruitment that require high juvenile and adult survival to sustain […]
July 6, 2020
A dipper foraging in a clear mountain stream in the Black Hills.

The joy of birds

By: Bryan Watts7/6/2020 Many of us feel the constant gravitational pull of wild places or wild things.  Each of us have reasons that are our own.  […]
July 6, 2020
A single eagle nestling stands on an osprey platform

Platform use by nesting eagles

By: Bryan Watts7/6/2020 As with the other sea eagles, bald eagles are tree nesters.  Here in the Chesapeake Bay region eagles nest in loblolly pines on […]