Welcome to the January 2026 CHAS newsletter. As always, send your favorite wildlife pictures to me to be added to the newsletter. If you have newsworthy information about birds, the environment, conservation, or government action items related to our club's mission, please forward the information to me at capehenryaudubonsociety@gmail.com and I will include it in the next letter or pass it along to the board of directors for consideration in future newsletters.
PLEASE RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY. Each club receives funds from the National society based on renewal funds.
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| Belted kingfisher Mackay Island NWR. Photo courtesy of David Clark |
RECURRING MONTHLY EVENTS
WEYANOKE
Upcoming Weyanoke bird walks are scheduled for the third Saturday of each month: January 17th, February 21st and March 21st. All walks start at 8am, lasting about an hour. We meet at the entrance to the Weyanoke Sanctuary at 1501 Armistead Bridge Road in the West Ghent neighborhood in Norfolk. Wintering bird species will be the focus of our January walk.
HOFFLER CREEK
There is a monthly walk on the second Saturday of the month, led by Dave B., a local birding leader. Each month, the walk is at 4510 Twins Pines Rd, Portsmouth, Virginia. The gates open at 7:45am and sometimes close at 8am (closing time varies, best to be there at 7:45am).
NEWPORT NEWS PARK
Join the Hampton Roads Bird Club on the First and Third Sunday of each month at 7:00 AM at Newport News Park. Meet us in the parking lot behind the Ranger Station.
JANUARY MEETING
Our January meeting will be at St. Pauls Episcopal Church, 201 St Pauls Blvd, Norfolk, VA 23510 on Wednesday, January 21st 7:30 PM.
Our speaker is Heather Powers. Her presentation is titled A Bird’s Eye View, where she will discuss her trip last summer to the Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine. During the professional development trip to Hog Island Audubon Camp, Heather and her husband Mike, discovered just how restorative it can be to learn and laugh alongside fellow educators. Each day on the island brought a mix of birding, hands-on workshops, and shared moments of wonder and joy that made the experience feel both energizing and deeply grounding. Whether spotting puffins off the rocky coast, watching the supermoon rise on the harbor, or swapping stories around the dinner table, the simple joy of being with people who care about nature—and finding humor in the unexpected—became a reminder that laughter truly is the song of human learning.
Heather Powers has been teaching very young children for 26 years. She holds a master's degree in early Childhood education from Old Dominion University and was an instructor in the Child Development Center for 13 years. She is now in her tenth year of teaching PreK at Saint Patrick Catholic School in Norfolk. Heather is passionate about creating opportunities for her students to experience nature in and out of the classroom.
PREVIOUS FIELD TRIP: There was no December field trip scheduled, as members were supporting various Christmas Bird Counts in the Tidewater area.
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| Snowy Owl Craney Island. Photo courtesy of David Clark |
UPCOMING FIELD TRIPS:
Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) and Eastern Shore of Virginia field trip scheduled for January 10th 2026. We have three slots left for this trip. If you are interested, please contact capehenryaudubonsociety@gmail.com by Monday January 5th to allow time for applications to be approved by the CBBT state police.
Our annual trip to the CBBT is scheduled for Saturday, January 10th. We will be meeting in the administration building parking lot at the south entrance of the CBBT at 7:30 AM, and leave at 8:00 AM. Only the northern island is open, and we must be escorted by Va. State Police, and they limit the group size to 20 people. We have to pay the police for the escort, so we will be charging $5 per person to cover that cost. Any extra money will be donated to CHAS. Payment must be in cash, exact change appreciated, no checks, Venmo, Apple Pay, credit cards, store credit, barter or other payment methods accepted. We have reserved 1 1/2 hours for the trip. Participants are also responsible for tolls on the bridge.
For people who are interested, we will continue on to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, with tentative stops planned for Cape Charles, Edward S. Brinkley Nature Preserve, Box Tree Marsh, and birding along Seaside Road on the way home. We will also stop for lunch at the Machipongo Trading Company. Recommend people order lunches ahead of time to save time. We have three slots left for this trip. If you are interested, please contact capehenryaudubonsociety@gmail.com by Monday January 5th to allow time for applications to be approved by the CBBT state police.
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| Barred Owl- Bennet's Millpond, Edenton N.C. Photo courtesy of David Clark |
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS YOU CAN USE.
The following article was written by Brandon Praileau, pastor of the Wesley Union A.M.E Zion Church in Norfolk and was published in the Virginian Pilot on December 28th, 2025:
"Proposed rules threaten to shortchange solar families
On any given day in Virginia, thousands of homes quietly power themselves through rooftop solar and share extra electricity with their neighbors. That simple exchange is called net metering. When your panels produce more energy than you're using at the moment, the surplus flows to the grid and you receive a bill credit....
Now Dominion Energy wants to rewrite those rules - shrinking what families earn, while protecting its monopoly profits. The proposed new rules would not only severely decrease energy savings for solar owners and prevent more families from going solar, they would keep bills high for everyone.
... The utility wants to cut solar credits by one-third of their current price, while also changing how those credits are counted. Instead of letting families balance energy use over a full year - so summer sunlight can offset winter bills - they'd reset the math every thirty minutes. Families who aren't home during the day would lose much of the value their systems create. Dominion's suggested proposal is a dirty math trick that makes household economics worse and take away the fair credit that Virginians have earned by sharing their solar with neighbors.
Virginia already gas a workable framework. Homeowners can size their systems to match their yearly use, businesses can do the same at a larger scale, and state law caps participation to keep the grid reliable...
Why does this matter for Virginians that don't own solar? Distributed, locally generated generation reduces midday strain and defers some of the most expensive grid investments. When households receive a fair retail credit across a full year, more of them go solar; ... all ratepayers benefit from a system that's less peaky and less capital intense.
That's a practical outcome that benefits the entire community.
... Families... size their solar systems to match their yearly energy needs. The math works because June surplus offsets January demand. Change that to 30 minutes and the system never gets a fair chance to "net out".
... The SCC should keep two anchors in place: a 1:1 retail credit for energy sent to the grid and a 12-month netting period. Virginians deserve a policy that rewards what they contribute - not a system that erases it.
If you have a story to share, now is the time. Submit a public comment and, if you can, register to speak at the Jan. 20 hearing (registration closes Jan. 13)"
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News article of interest from Mother Jones Magazine "We know what's killing loons and how to stop it so why are they still dying? Please click on link below to read:
