Saturday, September 16, 2023, 9:00am - Regular monthly bird walk - Weyanoke Sanctuary
1501 Armistead Bridge Road in the West Ghent neighborhood in Norfolk. The sanctuary is open once a month for a guided bird walk, except during our summer break (June, July, August).
To check out recent and past sightings at the sanctuary go to its eBird Hotspot site at https://ebird.org/hotspot/L469614
Wednesday, Sep. 20 - Monthly Membership Meeting 7:30 PM
Our September speaker is Keriann Pfleger from the Virginia Beach Aquarium. She will be speaking about the Osprey Watch Program at the Virginia Beach Aquarium. Kerriann grew up in New Jersey and has lived in Virginia Beach for almost 5 years. She graduated from Dickinson College in 2017 with a Bachelor's in Biology with a focus of Wildlife Management. She has always loved animals and loved going on girl scout trips to learn about native species. Doing field work in college inspired her to keep that momentum going in her career. She has been assisting with the Osprey Watch program at the Aquarium since 2019 she was given the opportunity to assist with Osprey Watch and became a permitted bander of osprey in the state of Virginia in 2022.
Osprey (Pandion hailaetus) are an important species in the aquatic ecosystem. With a diet of over 99% fish and nesting patterns over and along water, osprey are sensitive to overfishing, environmental contaminants, and climate change (Osprey Watch, 2022). At the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center we work with the Center for Conservation Biology, located within the College of William and Mary, to complete population surveys of osprey on the Lynnhaven River. In 2012 Dr. Bryan Watts started Osprey Watch, a citizen science-based program where anyone, anywhere in the world, can log onto and track information about the osprey in their area. The Aquarium began their partnership with the program in 2013. Each year starting in May we begin boat-based surveys of nests along the river assessing eggs or nestlings present. We then return in early summer and band nestlings. Population monitoring and banding helps us understand how the Lynnhaven River is doing and where that population travels to in their life. At the Virginia Aquarium we hope to inspire people to conserve the marine environment. The work we do with the Center for Conservation Biology to help conserve animals in our ecosystem is an important way to get citizens involved and thinking about their local ecosystems.
A global community connected by a charismatic species. OspreyWatch Program. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.osprey-watch.org/pages/ospreywatch-program
Sunday, September 24 - Paradise Creek Bird Walk - Please note the new date and time!
Meet at 8:30 am in the parking lot:1141 Victory Blvd Portsmouth, VA.. The trip leader is David Gibson.
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