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Features
Wind and waterbirds
In recent years, offshore wind development has become one of the fastest growing energy sectors in the world and the focus of the clean energy movement in the United States. The Atlantic Coast offers shallow, near-shore waters in close proximity to large load centers with some of the most lucrative and rapidly expanding energy markets in the nation. The coast is also the Atlantic Flyway, one of the largest near-shore movement corridors of birds in the world including many declining species of conservation concern.
Exploring eagle roost networks
Non-breeding bald eagles are extremely social and frequently roost together near rich food resources. Communal roosts may be ephemeral congregations of birds that form to exploit short-lived food resources or may be used for decades. Most management programs to date have focused primarily on nesting sites, and there is very little systematic information on the abundance and distribution of bald eagle roosts. In 2007, CCB initiated a large project on tracking bald eagles and has been collecting data that is revealing eagle roost networks along the Atlantic coast.
Bachman's sparrow vigil
The Bachman’s sparrow is endemic to southeastern North America and is the only member of the Aimophila genus found within this region. Following a dramatic northerly range expansion in the late 1800s and early 1900s, this species has been contracting back to the core of its historic range in the extreme southeast. For several decades, Virginia has been the northern range limit for Bachman's sparrow breeding. CCB's 1996 survey found only 6 individual birds over the study area, and the species seems to have since disappeared from the state.
New project launched with red-shouldered hawks
Red-shouldered hawks have a broad geographic range thoughout eastern North America and along the Pacific Coast. Red-shouldereds are generally believed to be a good indicator species for the health of floodplain forests and they have adapted to urban life and so are one of the most observable forest raptors in the East. In spring 2010, the Center for Conservation Biology initiated a new research project with red-shouldered hawks in an 8 county region surrounding Richmond and Williamsburg and including the extensive floodplain forests of the James River. This project is a chance for trained volunteers to participate in collecting data.
In The News
Hope the whimbrel returns
Hope, a whimbrel tagged in spring 2009 returned in April 2010 to the same marsh where she was captured, then left the Eastern Shore of Virginia on May 22, 2010, flying the 12-day, 3149-mile journey to the Northwest Territories, Canada, arriving on 4 June 2010. Hope has confirmed how much the life cycle of this species is dependent on specific staging sites and that their migrations are surprisingly structured. Satellite tracking represents only one aspect of a broad, integrated investigation of whimbrel migration. During the past 2 years, the Center for Conservation Biology has used conventional transmitters to examine stopover duration, conducted aerial surveys to estimate seasonal numbers, collected feather samples to locate summer and winter areas through stable-isotope analysis, and has initiated a Whimbrel Watch program.
Peregrine falcon hack success
The National Park Service has partnered with the Center for Conservation Biology and other conservation partners to restore the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) to the central Appalachian Mountains. Since 2000, 90 wild falcons have been released, or “hacked,” in Shenandoah National Park. This reintroduction program is part of a long-term management plan to establish a stable breeding population in the Virginia mountains.
2010 EagleTrak transmittered eagle, Camellia
Camellia is the second eagle hatched from Norfolk Botanical Garden to be part of EagleTrak, a project initiated by CCB to track eagles from the southern Chesapeake region. Azalea, hatched in 2009, has transmitted location data via GPS satellite transmitter for over a year, and has spent the greater part of that time ranging in North Carolina, frequently visiting the catfish ponds at the Tidewater Research Station near Plymouth, where there is a known communal roost of young eagles. Of particular interest for birds dispersing from NBG, is how much these birds interact with populations in the sounds of North Carolina.
Other News
Media coverage of CCB's research, including:
Wings over the James
3 March 2010 Richmond's Style Weekly magazine
For these and more, go to CCB's media coverage page.
Recent Findings
Sea-level rise and tidal freshwater marsh birds
One of the more direct and potentially catastrophic results of climate change is that the earth’s seas are projected to rise 0.5-2 meters over the next 100 yrs. Sea-level rise over this range of magnitude will consume dry land, reshape our coastlines, and reconfigure our wetlands. Such changes will create classes of winners and losers among near-shore species according to their affinities for the habitats being altered. Species that depend on marshes either directly for habitat or indirectly for other services will be impacted accordingly.
Studies reveal black rail populations in the Chesapeake Bay are nearing extirpation
The black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) may be the most endangered bird along the Atlantic Coast. Populations have been declining along the Atlantic coast for over for over a century, but reductions during the last 10-15 years appear to be more rapid and devastating. Recent evidence suggests that black rails may only breed in a dozen or fewer places in each state along the Atlantic Ocean. CCB initiated a study in the summers of 2007 and 2008 to determine the current status of the black rail in coastal Virginia.
Investigation into the ecology of tidal freshwater marsh birds
Emergent tidal marshes are a dominant feature of the Chesapeake Bay’s estuarine environment and account for 66 % of its classified wetlands. Tidal marshes are indispensable to the overall health of the Bay’s ecosystem by providing significant contributions to trophic production, nutrient cycle regulation, and enhancing water quality by the filtering of pollutants. The king rail is one of a few species of marsh birds that is only found in freshwater marshes in the Chesapeake Bay region. Chesapeake Bay marshes also provide critical resources for a number of bird species that are of conservation concern.
Marshbirds in winter
The fortunes of marsh birds rise and fall with the marsh. Some of these highly specialized species spend their entire life cycle within marshes and their geographic distribution is confined to a narrow ribbon of habitat along the outer coast. They represent some of the most sensitive indicators of marsh condition available to science. The Center for Conservation Biology has conducted a series of research projects focused on marsh birds during the breeding season.
2010 whimbrel watch
One of the great spectacles of spring along the Delmarva Peninsula is the parade of whimbrel flocks leaving on their flight to arctic breeding grounds. Flocks begin to depart during a 3 to 4-hour window before dusk. The event begins with rallying calls as birds rise up from the marsh and begin to swirl upward and assemble in V-formation. For many of these birds, this is the last time they will touch the earth until they settle down on their breeding grounds several hundred or more miles to the north. It is exciting to watch these birds take off on the last leg of migration.
Red knot numbers remain strong along the Virginia Barrier Islands
The mid-Atlantic Coast is a terminal staging area where the rufa population of red knots stops in spring to prepare for the last leg of its migration to breeding grounds in the high Arctic. Numbers stopping over in Delaware Bay, have declined by nearly 90% over the last 30 years; precipitous declines consistent with numbers estimated within Tierra del Fuego, the largest wintering site for this species. The Virginia Barrier Islands represent a second, spring staging area for red knots within the mid-Atlantic. The island chain includes more than 100 kilometers of open beach and represents one of the most pristine set of coastal barriers remaining in North America. Unlike Delaware Bay, the islands support no significant spawns of horseshoe crabs. Red knots that stage along the islands feed on clams within the surf zone and mussels on intertidal peat deposits. A band resight program conducted by CCB since 2006 is only beginning to reveal the relationship between the barrier islands and the Delaware Bay staging areas.
Conservation Profiles
CCB Researcher, Fletcher Smith
Fletcher Smith has worked for the Center for Conservation Biology since 2001, at first on a seasonal basis, progressing to full-time as a staff biologist. He brought to CCB a wealth of field experience in numerous species, and currently leads many of the Center's projects on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Previously featured profiles
Get Involved
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