April 4, 2022
By: Chance Hines4/4/22 Spring is in the air and many of our wintering birds are preparing for their annual trip north after enduring the bitterness of […]
April 2, 2022
By: Bryan Watts4/1/2022 The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) and the Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) have entered into an agreement to transition the operations of […]
January 14, 2022
By Bryan Watts1/14/2022 Our perception of the natural world around us is shaped by first-hand experience. But our world is rapidly changing and through generation upon […]
January 13, 2022
By Bryan Watts1/13/2022 When Barry Truitt and I first established and flew aerial transects across the seaside of the lower Delmarva to survey staging whimbrels in […]
January 13, 2022
By Bryan Watts1/13/2022 The double-crested cormorant is a widespread species throughout North America with significant breeding populations in the Northeast, Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest and Alaska. […]
January 12, 2022
By Bryan Watts1/12/2022 When Alan Williams and I repelled down a quarry wall in Ashburn, Virginia to band a brood of peregrines, neither of us had […]
January 12, 2022
By: Bryan WattsOriginal Publication Date: 9/29/2014Republished by request: 1/12/2022 Like a summer carnival coming to a Midwestern town, wherever Eskimo Curlew went their arrival was the […]
October 4, 2021
By Bryan Watts10/2/2021 Eastern black rails were listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act on 8 October 2020 and are listed as endangered in six […]
October 4, 2021
By Bryan Watts10/3/2021 Whimbrel populations (Hudson Bay, Mackenzie River) that utilize the Western Atlantic Flyway are believed to be declining by 4% annually since at least […]
October 4, 2021
By Bryan Watts10/4/2021 The 2021 breeding season was mixed for peregrine falcons in Virginia. The population produced 68 young falcons. This is the highest number of […]
October 4, 2021
By Bryan Watts10/1/2021 Like fly fishing, catching free-flying eagles is a mental game of solving puzzles and mastering technique. You have to learn the seasonality of […]
October 1, 2021
By Bryan Watts10/1/2021 After landing on an unmanned airstrip and filling the tanks with three jerry cans of 100 LL, we had the evening to review […]
July 14, 2021
By: Bryan Watts7/8/2021 On 17 January 1962, Harold Peters and Robert Bain took off from Byrd Field to survey for eagle nests along the James River. […]
July 13, 2021
By: Bryan Watts7/7/2021 One of the greatest challenges in managing migratory birds is that they exist within a legal quandary. As a recognized principle of international […]
July 13, 2021
By: Bryan Watts7/2/2021 Bunker or Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) have supported the largest commercial fishery by weight along the Atlantic Coast for more than a century. […]
July 12, 2021
By: Bryan Watts7/1/2021 For centuries bird people sat along the shoreline during the fall and watched as birds left the coast, flying directly out to the […]
June 23, 2021
By Bryan Watts6/22/2021 It is that time of year when the days come on fast. But by the time the sun gathers its strength I have […]
April 5, 2021
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 […]