Summer 2008Quarterly News from the Center for
Conservation Biology
Recovery Champion Award
Watts and Byrd—and the CCB itself—were recipients of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Recovery Champion awards for 2007.
News of Winnie-the-Whimbrel's astounding 6-day flight route from Virginia to western Canada spread quickly through the wildlife conservation community. Using a state-of-the-art satellite transmitter, CCB and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Virginia, tracked the whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) on its 5,000 km (3,200 miles), 146 hour flight, documenting an unknown and unexpected migration route between the mid-Atlantic coast and the northwestern Arctic. Winnie's most recent location was the border of North Dakota and Minnesota.
The Panama Canal Zone and the greater Bay of Panama represents a continental crossroads where large numbers of intercontinental migrants converge. During the
fall of 1997, the Center for Conservation Biology in collaboration with the Department of Defense Legacy Program and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute conducted the first systematic investigation of
waterbirds within this region. This fall, CCB researchers will reassess the status of shorebirds in the upper Bay of Panama.
James Taylor took the stage on May 22 at Virginia Beach’s Verizon Amphitheater to sing for the birds. Proceeds from the concert were
donated to purchase habitat within the lower Delmarva Peninsula used by songbirds during fall migration.
