“The Birds Are Back in Town”

Photo: Tern Colony, VA DWR

The saga of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Seabird Colony continues. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) monthly blog on the colony reports that at the last visit there were more than 3,000 adult Royal Terns nesting on the Fort Wool site. Also spotted were interspersed nesting Sandwich Terns and some Laughing Gulls nearby. Black Skimmers, Common Terns and 11 adult Gull-billed Terns (a state-threatened species) are nesting on the barges.

You will recall DWR’s construction of a habitat for the nesting birds on Fort Wool and nearby barges was a cliff-hanger last year. The habitat had to replace nesting sites from a long-time colony displaced by the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion Project, and success was not guaranteed. DWR celebrated the project’s success in an article in the Virginia Wildlife magazine (If You Build It, They Will Come), and started the monthly blog to report on this year’s activity. 

Birders are not allowed to visit the colony, but the current issue of the blog provides the next best thing, stunning 360⁰ views of the nesting sites on Fort Wool and the barges, plus lovely pictures of the different seabird eggs. You can subscribe to DWR’s monthly reports here. Choose “Wildlife Updates” to get a monthly notice of new articles.  

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Seabird Breeding Colony

Photo: Border Collies, VADWR

Think back to last year’s drama and suspense surrounding the push to provide seabirds alternate nesting habitat after the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel Expansion project took a long-time colony’s island nesting ground. The Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) provided substitute habitat combining barges and a sandy “beach” on Ft. Wool. DWR reported on the successful effort in the Virginia Wildlife magazine (If You Build It, They Will Come).

The seabird habitat is a continuing project for DWR. Because of high public interest, DWR in March started publishing a monthly blog post to report on this year’s activities (March Watchable Wildlife blog). You can subscribe here by providing your email address and signing up for Wildlife Updates. 

The March article reported on DWR’s activities during the winter to maintain the sandy nesting habitat on Ft. Wool and prepare barriers to be installed over doorways and window openings to prevent birds (either flightless fledglings or nesting nuisance birds) from entering buildings on the site. DWR also reported that instead of last year’s seven barges it will deploy only four, but they are larger and provide 10,000 more square feet of habitat than last year’s installation.

DWR plans to issue a new article every third Thursday of the month, although April’s edition was delayed until April 22. The April article, "A Tale of Two Islands," explains how DWR has worked to attract birds to Rip Raps Island (Ft. Wool) while discouraging birds from trying to nest on South Island, the former nesting ground. In addition to building a suitable sandy beach habitat on Rip Raps Island, DWR is installing decoys to attract seabirds, as well as broadcasting nesting colony sounds through a solar-powered sound system. To prevent birds from trying to nest on South Island, which is now entirely paved, DWR has deployed trained Border Collies and their handlers to chase off birds investigating South Island. Border Collies are ideal for the job because their instinct is not to “mouth” the birds but rather to herd them. They approach in a predator-like crouch and frighten the birds off.   

ASNV makes no promises but we’re hoping that DWR’s next blog post will tell us more about the barges that were scheduled to be installed in late March to provide extra habitat.