Birding Eastern Shore May Events

Birding Eastern Shore has some great field trips coming up to enjoy the return of our breeding neotropical migrants and to hopefully catch some of the passerines migrating through as well. Please text or call the Field Trip leader to sign up. Sometimes last-minute changes are needed due to weather or tides so the trip leaders should have attendees’ contact information for all attendees ahead of time. 

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 8:00 am: TNC Nassawango Preserve. 3816 Old Furnace Road, Snow Hill, Maryland. Trip Leader: Joanne Laskowski – 757-665-4984. Join us for an exploration of a small part of the swamp and forest along the Nassawango Creek where we hope to see migrating songbirds as well as local breeders such as Kentucky Warbler.

Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 9:00 am: Island Nature Trail, 6032 Hallie Whealton Smith Dr., Chincoteague. Trip Leader: Joanne Laskowski – 757-665-4984. Explore this local hotspot for specialties such as red-headed woodpeckers along with migrating songbirds. A Swainson’s Warbler was spotted there on Wednesday but it has moved on. A great spot and you never know what you might find!

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 5:00 – 7:00 pm: Birding on the Deck at the Island House Restaurant, Wachapreague. Various coastal birds and migratory shorebirds are viewed from the back deck of the Island House Restaurant. We will have scopes and bird books and welcome beginners. You may wish to reserve a table for dinner afterward.

Tuesday, May 21, 2024, various times, Birding by Boat with Captain Meriwether Payne.

8:00 am – 10:30 am; 11:00 am – 1:30 pm;  2:00 pm – 4:30 pm. Limit 6 persons per time slot.

$20 per person. PREREGISTRATION REQUIRED. Contact Capt. Payne at 757-710-2454

In other news, the Board of Directors of Eastern Shore of Virginia Birding and Wildlife Programs, Inc. met for its Annual Meeting on April 22, 2024 and elected the following Directors and Officers: Thor Gormley (Director and Treasurer), Joanne Laskowski (Director and Secretary), Meriwether Payne (Director and Vice President), Roberta Kellam (Director and President), Maggie Long (Director), Victor Klein (Director), Paula Valentine (Director), Paul Anderson (Director). We also decided to officially change the name of the organization to Birding Eastern Shore, Inc. The Eastern Shore Bird Club is a committee of Birding Eastern Shore, Inc. We are a nonprofit nonstock corporation organized under the laws of Virginia and the Internal Revenue Service regulations at 501(c)(3).

ESB’s Annual Report is filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs, PO Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23219.

Donations can be made by credit card through our website at www.birdingeasternshore.org, or by mailing a check to PO Box 193, Franktown, VA 23354.

Thanks to a generous charitable donation in memory of Edward S. (Ned) Brinkley from his friends at Field Guides, Inc., ES Birding has been able to support osprey research on the Eastern Shore being undertaken by the Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) at the College of William and Mary.

Biologists Bryan Watts, Ph.D., and Michael Academia, M.Sc., have documented a precipitous decline in fledgling survival rates in the osprey nests of the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. They are now studying osprey nests on the Eastern Shore to determine if the same crisis is occurring here. Our contribution is funding the installation of wildlife cameras at osprey nest locations on the bayside of Accomack and Northampton counties to document the activities at the nests as the eggs hatch and the parents attempt to raise the chicks to adulthood. If you would like to provide your own monitoring observations of the osprey nesting activities on the Eastern Shore, CCB’s osprey monitoring volunteer website is www.osprey-watch.org. Eggs should start hatching in mid to late May.