Restoring Bird Habitats While Sustaining Ours
Understanding the importance of providing a safe alternative habitat, several agencies teamed together to investigate the feasibility of using dredged sand and mud. Read more…
DWR Wildlife Biologist Ruth Boettcher is 2022 William T. Hesselton Memorial Award Recipient
While Ruth has realized many tremendous accomplishments during her tenure at DWR, perhaps her most recognized is her work to relocate Virginia’s largest seabird colony, displaced from its decades-old nesting site by the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project. Read more…
Can National History and Natural History Co-Exist?
This past spring, thousands of sea birds built nests on Fort Wool – a property owned by the state. Visible from the staging site for the Hampton Bridge and Tunnel Project's staging site, you can... Read more…
Large Seabird Colony Calls Decommissioned Civil War-Era Military Installation on HRBT’s South Island Home
The DWR's partners at the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program are optimistic that 2022 may set a new record for the number of gull-billed pairs nesting on the newly provided habitat. Read more…
HRBT September Update: So Long and Thanks for all the Fish!
In the last blog of the 2021 HRBT seabird colony season, encouraging news about this year's results and some exciting plans for the future. Read more…
HRBT August Update: Empty Nest Syndrome
The breeding grounds on Ft. Wool look distinctly different as the juvenile seabirds continue to fledge. Read more…
HRBT July Update: Out of the Crèche and into the Corral
We’re delivering a birds-eye view of the recent royal and sandwich tern banding efforts that took place on Ft. Wool. Watch…
HRBT June Update: On the Crèche of Greatness
Chicks have been spotted on the Fort Wool and barges nesting sites! Read more…
20 Top Places to See Royal Terns and Other Seabirds this Summer
There's much more to seabirds than seagulls! Find great places to view all of Virginia's seabird species this summer. Read more…
HRBT May Update: The Birds are Back in Town
As of this month, not only have all of the remaining species arrived (including state-threatened gull-billed terns), but nesting is also officially underway! Read more…
HRBT April Update: A Tale of Two Islands
As the first seabird arrivals for the 2021 nesting season have start to arrive on Ft. Wool, learn more about how DWR, VDOT, and the HRBT are working at Ft. Wool Read more…
Tired of Netflix? Enter the World of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Seabird Breeding Colony
Preparations are underway for another successful seabird nesting season at Ft. Wool. Read more…
Against All Odds, The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Bird Colony is Saved
At the mouth of the Hampton Roads harbor, a success story unfolds. It’s told through legions of beating wings, swirling around an old fortress like specks in a snow globe. Read more…