A tip of the cap to the Friends of the James River Park for highlighting this really interesting piece on William and Mary’s website. In the article, author Lillian Stevens talks to biologist Bryan Watts of VCU and William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology mostly about great blue herons.

Herons work on their nests at the downtown rookery on Feb. 10. Credit: Chris Johnson

In May and June, [Watts] logged 200 hours in the air conducting a census survey spanning 900 tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay region (which includes the James River to downtown Richmond).

The CCB census revealed that great blue herons in the Bay region have climbed from just a dozen colonies in the late 1960s to 407 colonies (14,126 pairs) in 2013. In the 1980s the average colony size of great blues was over 100; now it’s about 35. So, over the past decade or so, even as the population itself has made a dramatic comeback, the size of breeding colonies of great blue herons in the region has been diminishing.

Pictures taken by Watts, Stevens writes, also revealed something interesting: Great blues and bald eagles nesting in the same trees.

“We refer to blue herons as colonial water birds because they tend to nest together in distinct colonies,” says Bryan Watts, CCB director. “Like eagles, great blues build their own nests.”

Sometimes a great blue heron colony forms around an eagle nest, and sometimes an eagle moves into a great blue colony. According to Watts, no one really knows why.

There are dozens of nests at the downtown rookery. Credit: Chris Johnson

Watts goes into more depth and offers a few theories. Click here to read more.

Here in Richmond we’ve got nesting herons and bald eagles. This time of year they’re both building their nests in preparation for mating and raising young. Next time you’re downtown, head to the Pipeline and check out the huge heron rookery on the nearby island. If you see any eagles nesting among the herons, let us know…and don’t forget to snap a picture!

Nobody knows the tidal James River like Mike Ostrander. The Richmonder started off as a catfishing guide, and in recent years has expanded his guiding business to include bald eagle and Civil War tours on the James, mostly between the Varina-Enon Bridge and Hopewell.

I’ve done all three with Ostrander, and each was a unique experience. So, here’s a thought: You know that relative or friend that is impossible to shop for, the one that you just end up getting a boring gift card for? Why not buy them an experience they can’t get anywhere else.

Credit: DiscovertheJames

Ostrander is offering Eagle Tour Gift Certificates this holiday season. They’re $45 per person, and if you buy one before 9 p.m., Sunday Dec. 22, each certificate holder will receive a free 8×10 glossy photo of one of the James’ resident bald eagles. You can also buy a two-hour eagle cruise for 6 for $250, a $50 discount.

What’s cool about these tours is that you’re guaranteed to see eagles. As Ostrander wrote to me in an email: The James River is the site of the greatest comeback of the bald eagle on the entire continent. Thirty-eight years ago, in 1975, there were no resident bald eagles on the James River. Today, there are over 200 pairs of resident bald eagles on the James River … 200 pairs!  These resident eagles live on the James year round and have territories, which they protect and will live out their lives in. The life span of a bald eagle is 25 to 30 years in the wild, and this means we will have them around for a great long while.

On Monday, T-D environment reporter Rex Springston had an eye-opening look at the return of great blue herons on the James River and throughout the Chesapeake Bay. “A new survey, the first of its type in a decade,” he wrote, “found that herons in the Chesapeake Bay region – including the James River to downtown Richmond — have skyrocketed to 14,126 pairs in 407 communal nesting areas called colonies. That’s up from just a dozen colonies in the late 1960s.

The number of pairs was not reported back then.” The report comes from the Center for Conservation Biology at William and Mary and VCU. Center director Bryan Watts “and Bart Paxton, a biologist with the center, conducted the heron count during 200 hours of flying in May and June… Overall, the survey tallied colonies of 25 species of water birds. Among other findings, the survey showed that the number of great egrets – stately white birds that look a lot like blue herons – has gone up about threefold in the past three decades, to 1,775 pairs. Historically, egrets have nested mainly along the coast, but they are moving inland as their numbers grow.”

Great stuff from Springston (and the T-D photographers) and another great recovery story on the James, one that often gets overlooked in all the talk about bald eagle and osprey numbers skyrocketing. But like those birds, herons eat fish, so they suffered the same fate before DDT was banned in 1972. Now they’re back, and the fishing is good in Richmond.

The Center for Conservation Biology put out a news story yesterday that I thought was worth sharing. Maybe you’ve heard of the Center and its director, Bryan Watts, through their work with bald eagles in Virginia. The work isn’t limited just to eagles, but that seems to be what has gotten them the most press. Well, yesterday Watts announced that “the bald eagle breeding population along the historic James River has exceeded 200 pairs for the first time in written history.”

A bald eagle in Washington state.

The CCB conducts annual aerial surveys of nests along the Chesapeake Bay’s tidal rivers and their 2013 survey of the James yielded a record “205 pairs that produced 267 young. Areas supporting the highest densities include Charles City County (46 pairs), Prince George County (31 pairs), James City County (29 pairs) and Surry County (28 pairs).

“The James River population,” Watts writes, “represents the best example of bald eagle recovery in the nation.”

That’s a pretty strong statement and a testament to the health of the river corridor as a whole. Watts continues: “Since 2000, breeding eagles along the James have more than tripled resulting in one of the densest populations in eastern North America. The dramatic recovery reflects the resiliency of both the bald eagle and James River. This small geographic area now supports more breeding pairs than all surrounding states with the exception of Maryland.”

Click here to read more about the announcement and to see exactly how far eagles on the James have come. And remember when walking along “America’s Founding River” to look up. You never know when a bald eagle will swoop into view.

On Friday, Rex Springston had a fascinating T-D piece where he laid out the numbers on the bald eagle recovery in Virginia. For the first time since accurate records began being kept in the 1930s, the number of nesting eagle pairs in the state topped 200. Springston quotes eagle expert Bryan Watts with the Center for Conservation Biology: “My guess would be this is the best the population has been in 300 years.”

According to Watts, there are now 205 eagle pairs on the James — up from 56 in 2000. In 1977, as a result of DDT use, the entire state of Virginia had just 33 nesting pairs and the James River had none. It’s an amazing turnaround story, one that appears to be continuing.

Click here to read the whole piece. It also features some great eagle photography.

This is still a month and a half away, but if you’re a birder, it should be on your calendar. On April 28 from 7-10 a.m., good friend Capt. Mike Ostrander and local birder Arun Bose are offering a special birding tour of the tidal James River from where the Appomattox River enters the James and on up toward Jones Neck.

Bald eagles are regulars on the tidal James.

As Ostrander writes: “Experience the thrill of spring migration from the James River. See a magnificent osprey dive down into the river with a mighty splash, interupting the spawning run of a three-pound hickory shad. Or spot a green heron patiently fishing from a rock or log.” And do it all from the JRA, the James River Association’s 40-foot pontoon boat.

Not convinced yet? Here’s another sweetener: “Participants are guaranteed a unique birding opportunity with the addition of a second special guest on board.  Ralph White, recently retired James River Park Manager, will ride along and share some of his observations from the river, only miles from where he spent the last 32 years changing the way the City of Richmond looked out upon the incomparable James.”

The three-hour tour costs $55. Click here to learn more. To purchase your tickets click here. 

Credit: Phil Riggan

The City’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities has partnered with the Richmond Audubon Society and the Virginia Audubon Council to offer guided walks again this year to see the great blue herons that make their home on islands in the James River downtown.

It’s that time of year again. T-D environment reporter Rex Springston has a story in today’s Metro section on Richmond’s great blue herons beginning nest building and courtship displays down at the heron rookery near Pipeline Rapid.

Credit: Phil Riggan

The birds fly in each winter to their rookery, or breeding colony, on the island. The herons are claiming their spots now, and they will either fix up old nests or build new ones, said Mike Wilson, a biologist with the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and Virginia Commonwealth University.

About two dozen pairs were in the colony Sunday afternoon. Some courted, some worked on their nests, and others just stood in the trees.

To get the best view Springston writes, visitors should head down to the Pipeline Rapids footbridge, between 12th and 14th streets. Binoculars are not necessary, but they do help.

Springston mentions that herons nest around the same time as bald eagles in this area. If you followed the saga of the Windsor Farms bald eagles and the T-D Eagle Cam last year, you know that those eagles have decamped for a new nest, likely on Williams Island. There’s also been a nest on Cooper’s Island, just upstream of Nickel Bridge toward the south bank of the James. Eagle action should be heating up at both of these locations very soon.

Bald eagles mating

On B2 of yesterday’s Times-Dispatch, environment reporter Rex Springston wrote that the popular eagle cam, a joint project of the T-D and the Center for Conservation Biology, won’t be back in 2013.

Virginia and James have apparently left the Eagle Cam nest for a more secluded part of the city, said eagle expert Bryan Watts.

Watts said they hope to re-start the cam project in 2014 with a new nest somewhere between Richmond and Hopewell.

Last year’s nest location was withheld, but if you knew what to look for, it wasn’t very difficult to find. It was on private property near the canal in southern Windsor Farms. In his piece, Springston wrote that people have reported seeing eagles building a nest nearby, in a wild area closer to the river.

I had my suspicions for where that might be, so I went for a drive to take a look. Sure enough, I saw an eagle flying around above Williams Island this afternoon. If you’re not familiar with the name Wiliams Island, you’ve probably seen it without realizing it. Click here to learn more.

It should be a fun eagle-watching season both on Williams Island and Cooper’s Island downstream near the Nickel Bridge, where multiple unsuccessful nesting attempts have been made in years past