During spring migration’s height, in April and May, from 6 a.m. to noon, volunteers catch and band birds in the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge near Marumsco Creek three mornings a week, a project undertaken there every spring since 2001, except 2020, the “covid year.”

Governor Northam’s commitment to help the 25,000 migratory birds whose nesting area on the South Island was displaced by the expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel has resulted in significant action in the past few weeks.

A team brings at-risk Peregrine Falcon chicks from bridge nest sites in eastern Virginia to Virginia’s mountains, once part of their historic range. They hope the birds will imprint on the park's cliffs and return as breeding adults.

In July, 2015, two Peregrine Falcon chicks were found on Market Street in Reston Town Center (RTC). They were taken to the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia and safely released into the wild.  No one realized Peregrine Falcons nested in Reston but the chicks prompted a discovery that two adult peregrines were nesting in RTC.