Center for Conservation Biology October-December 2008 E-Newsletter

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More reading online at Conservation Cornerstones:

Foraging distrbution of cormorants & osprey

Bald eagle communal roosts delineated

Peregrine falcons tracked to Gulf Coast

United States Nightjar Network expands

Assessing the value of wetlands

VA & DC Avian Heritage Programs

50% decline in Virginia whimbrel numbers

Whimbrel migration tracking

Suitable forest and early successional habitats

Bulletin: Marked bird resighting and reporting

and more...

Photo (c)
Dana Bradshaw

New professorship honors Mitchell A. Byrd

A member of William & Mary's faculty since 1956, Professor Mitchell Byrd served as chairman of the biology department for thirteen years during a time of rapid growth and directed its transition to a nationally recognized department with a broad-based curriculum. Many of Professor Byrd's over three dozen graduate students have been inspired by his commitment to scholarship and his deep concern for each individual. The Center for Conservation Biology, established by Mitchell Byrd and Bryan Watts in the fall of 1991, along with the college community seeks to acknowledge this contribution by establishing the Mitchell A. Byrd Chair in Conservation Biology. This is truly one of the highest honors that can be bestowed by the academic community.

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Photo (c) Bryan Watts

Landscape dynamics of the VA barrier islands

Barrier island systems contain some of the most naturally dynamic landscapes on earth. Along the mid-Atlantic coast, winter storms continually reshape these islands. The Virginia barrier islands are the most pristine chain of barriers remaining along the Atlantic coast. Over the past 25 years, populations of several waterbird species have declined dramatically within the Virginia barrier island chain. These declines represent not only a reduction in the number of pairs but also a reduction in the distribution of breeding sites. CCB's objectives for this project were to characterize temporal and spatial patterns of beach habitats within the Virginia barrier island landscape, and to quantify the relationship between landscape change and changes in the distribution of avian breeding sites.

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Photo (c)
Jose E. Hernandez

Each of us in our own way and time seek out vantage points on the natural world. Places where unleashed from the past and unencumbered by the future, we are free to explore the innermost reaches of ourselves. For Walter Post Smith, this place was Kiptopeke, Virginia. Walter was one of four bird banders who founded the Kiptopeke Banding Station. Before his death in 2004 he compiled his annual reflections on each banding season into a book entitled Kiptopeke Chronicles. The book is a history of the development of the Kiptopeke Banding Station through the eyes of someone who was there from the beginning. More than a diary, the volume is a memoir of a person who enjoyed the energy of migrants passing through the woods on a fall day. Contact CCB to order a copy of Kiptopeke Chronicles (email conbio (AT) wm.edu or call 757-221-1645).

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Photo (c) Bart Paxton

A research team from The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) recently returned from Central America, having successfully completed an aerial survey of the Pacific Coast of Panama to estimate and map waterbird populations during the peak of fall migration. Flying at an altitude of only 20-30 m in a Cessna with pilot, Carlos Diaz, the survey team flew 1,565 km of shoreline in 3 days between 21 and 24 October, 2008. More than 490,000 shorebirds, seabirds, herons and egrets were counted and mapped.

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Photo (c) Andy Glass

The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most productive aquatic ecosystems in the world and has played an important role in commercial fisheries for the past 200 years. Currently, the Bay supports the largest commercial fishery along the Atlantic Coast, producing 300,000 to 500,000 metric tons of Atlantic menhaden per year. Estimated fish consumption by the 5 populations examined increased exponentially, with an average doubling time of 9.0 years between 1975 and 2005. Expanding populations of brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants have contributed, as well as demand by other fish-eating avian species. Fish demand is governed by both the size of the population and the length of residency in the Bay.

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Photo (c) Bryan Watts

Last winter, CCB captured 15 eagles suspected to be visiting migrants and fitted them with solar-powered GPS-PTT satellite transmitters. This fall, CCB tracked these bald and golden eagles as they migrated south to winter in the Chesapeake Bay region. Eagles from northern latitudes typically migrate South in search of milder climates and unfrozen water to hunt prey. Eagles annually congregate at well known wintering sites around the Chesapeake Bay, because of its abundance of waterfowl and fish prey.

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