January 15, 2026
By: Bryan Watts1/9/26 In a study of diet and provisioning of broods by bald eagles in the lower Chesapeake Bay in the early 2000s, Catherine Markham […]
January 15, 2026
By: Bryan Watts1/8/26 Like other falcons, peregrines have strikingly beautiful eggs. Their eggs have splotches of color laid on a colored background. In the case of […]
January 15, 2026
By: Chance Hines1/7/26 Black rails are not birds you see, they are birds you hear… if you are lucky. Despite more and more people turning onto birdwatching, fewer and fewer get […]
January 15, 2026
By: Bryan Watts1/6/26 Over the radio, “November 54452 departing 21 Accomack” letting pilots in the area know that we were taking off to the south from […]
January 15, 2026
By: Bryan Watts1/5/26 Every day the pace of life seems to accelerate, and it feels like the world is coming to a boil. Social media feeds […]
October 8, 2025
By: Bryan Watts10/1/25 In June of 1993, Gary Costanza was working with black ducks on the Bay islands when Mitchell Byrd and Bryan Watts hitched a […]
October 8, 2025
By: Chance Hines10/1/25 The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) has documented a remarkable and steady recovery of the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) at Piney Grove Preserve in […]
October 8, 2025
By: Bryan Watts10/2/25 The royal tern is the most abundant large tern throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Seen loafing on pilings and docks throughout the Chesapeake Bay […]
October 8, 2025
By: Chance Hines9/30/25 Whimbrels hold a special place in CCB’s history. As one of the larger migratory shorebirds, they’ve long been a focus of tracking projects […]
October 1, 2025
News Advisory FROM: The Center for Conservation Biology, William & Mary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 29 September, 2025 MEDIA CONTACTS: Dr. Bryan D. Watts, Director Center for […]
July 2, 2025
By: Bryan Watts6/24/25 In recent months CCB biologists have published several papers in academic journals. These articles report on recent findings and are intended to spread […]
July 2, 2025
By: Chance Hines6/26/25 Once widespread across the southeastern U.S., red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCWs) have seen steep declines over the past century due to habitat loss, degradation, and […]
July 2, 2025
By: Chance Hines6/25/25 For the past two springs, as mornings warm and swamps come alive, CCB has scoured southeastern Virginia in search of Wayne’s warbler, the […]
July 2, 2025
By: Bryan Watts6/24/25 The loss of adult peregrines on the outer coast of Virginia was very high for the second consecutive year, increasing concerns about the […]
June 16, 2025
News Advisory FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 16 June 2025 MEDIA CONTACTS: Dr. Bryan D. Watts, Director Center for Conservation Biology William & Mary bdwatt@wm.edu (757) 221-2247 BRIEF (Williamsburg, VA) — […]
April 5, 2025
By: Bryan Watts4/2/2025 The whimbrel is a large shorebird that is capable of extreme flight distances during migrations but utilizes relatively few refueling sites. The Delmarva […]
April 5, 2025
By: Marie Pitts3/31/2025 On 11 March 2025, Bryan and Marian Watts attended the 147th annual meeting of the Linnaean Society of New York (LSNY) in Manhattan. […]
April 5, 2025
By: Chance Hines4/1/2025 A suite of three sparrow species can be found wintering in coastal marshes along the Atlantic coast. These include Nelson’s, seaside, and saltmarsh […]
April 5, 2025
By: Chance Hines4/1/2025 CCB recently began the second year of a Wayne’s warbler survey in Virginia. Waynes’s warblers are a distinct form of black-throated green warblers […]
April 5, 2025
By: Bryan Watts3/31/2025 Over the past several years The Center for Conservation Biology (and several key partners) has investigated low productivity by osprey within the main […]
February 6, 2025
By: Bryan Watts1/17/2025 For over twenty years (1970-1990) Mitchell Byrd monitored the osprey breeding population in coastal Virginia. The monitoring effort was a partnership between William […]
February 5, 2025
By: Chance Hines1/15/2025 It is not well-known how common red-cockaded woodpeckers were in Virginia prior to the mid-20th century but they were thought to be widespread. […]
February 5, 2025
By: Bryan Watts1/24/2025 An eastern willet fitted with a transmitter on the breeding grounds in Virginia was shot within one of the famous “shooting swamps” on […]
February 5, 2025
By: Chance Hines1/15/25 The Ipswich sparrow, a denizen of Sable Island, Nova Scotia during the summer and coastal dunes along the American Atlantic Coast in the […]