Winning Birding Classic Team Visits Fort Wool Seabird Nesting Site

By Molly Kirk/DWR

Photos by Max Goldman/DWR

The winning team of the inaugural Virginia Birding Classic (VBC) got the chance of a lifetime to view seabirds when they visited Fort Wool on Rip Raps Island, the location serving as temporary nesting habitat for thousands of seabirds displaced by construction at South Island, one of two artificial islands that anchor the underwater tunnels of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel (HRBT) complex at the mouth of the James River, which been home to one of Virginia’s most well established seabird colonies for decades.

Read more about the nesting colony relocation project in the 2021 Virginia Wildlife article If You Build It, They Will Come.

A photo of four smiling people standing on a beach of an island with water in the background.

The winning team of the 2024 Virginia Birding Classic, The Twitchers ([from left] Steve Myers, Amy Meyers, June McDaniels, and Andrew Baldelli), enjoyed a day of birding at the seabird nesting site of Fort Wool thanks to their victory.

Last year, The Twitchers team of Steve and Amy Myers, Andrew Baldelli, and June McDaniels recorded 132 species spotted in 24 hours to top the inaugural VBC, a statewide birding petition in which teams of birders search the public lands of Virginia for as many species as they can find in 24 hours.

For the win, the four wildlife viewers were awarded the opportunity to choose a DWR Wildlife Experience, and they chose to visit Fort Wool. In May of 2025, DWR’s David Norris and Max Goldman accompanied the four on their visit to the nesting grounds on the island.

June 11, 2025