On Saturday, October 4, 22 birders awoke before sunrise, loaded into vans, and began our journey from Northern Virginia to Cape May, NJ, our eyes set on this faraway destination perfectly aligned with the Atlantic Flyway, one of the four “avian superhighways” in North America.
Spring migration is about to bring millions of birds north along the Atlantic Flyway, a welcome sight for Virginia bird-lovers emerging from a season of persistent cold and stubborn snowbanks. With these birds, concern is also returning about a bird flu outbreak that has been active in the U.S. since early 2022.
The Virginia legislature appears to be intent on taking steps to slow the environmental and economic harm that invasive plants are causing. State legislators introduced seven bills relating to invasive plants in the 2026 legislative session, and all of them are proceeding through the legislative process.
Following a long and hard-fought campaign by environmental advocates, the Fairfax City Council voted not to proceed with constructing the George Snyder Trail, which would have destroyed much of the city’s urban forest. This victory for the environment over development is a classic demonstration of the effort needed to secure an environmental “win.”
An “irruption” is a large-scale movement of birds to a new area, somewhat similar to migration. However, unlike regular fall and spring migrations, irruptions are typically driven by resource availability (such as food scarcity) and thus occur more randomly, with some winters seeing big irruptions and others seeing none at all.
Breeding bird atlases have a long history in the United States, where they are typically conducted at the state level. Like road atlases, at their core they are centered around maps, but the maps relate to the geographic distribution and abundance of breeding bird species—that is, where they are found on the landscape and in what numbers.
