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Featured Events This Week

May 25, 2023

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Antique & Classic Boat Festival and Coastal Arts Fair

Boat lovers, Chesapeake Bay lovers, Father’s Day celebrants: you won’t want to miss this annual Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum this Father’s Day weekend tradition that is one of the largest classic boat shows in the Mid-Atlantic region. In addition to the wide range of vessels on…

Suggested Trip

Virginia Bluebells and More at Bull Run Regional Park

by Matt Felperin April 17, 2023

There is arguably no wildflower that sparks more excitement in the Chesapeake Bay watershed than the Virginia bluebell (Mertensia virginica). Perhaps this is due to the rarity of the color blue in plants and animals, creating a sense of awe when seen in large numbers. While it has a wide range throughout eastern North America, there are some incredibly vast stands of these flowers in its namesake state of Virginia.…

Suggested Trip

An Amazing Year of Birding at Rocky Point Park

by Nico February 20, 2023

I found Rocky Point Park almost by accident. In September 2021, with a couple of hours of daylight to fill before I was scheduled to lead a birding tour of Hart-Miller Island, I did a cursory check of Google Maps to see what other parks were in the area. From the aerial view provided online, Rocky Point Park didn’t look like much – just a thin peninsula without many trees. But I was…

In-Depth

When the Bay Gives You Catfish, Make Fish Tacos

by John Page Williams January 31, 2023

Fifty years ago, Virginia’s Department of Game & Inland Fisheries (now Department of Wildlife Resources, DWR) introduced blue catfish into the upper tidal James, Rappahannock and Mattaponi Rivers to enhance recreational fishing opportunities.  Blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) are native to the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio River watersheds.  There, people have fished for them commercially and recreationally for centuries, and they have become staples in Midwestern “seafood” diets.  They can live for twenty years or more and grow to…

Featured Photo

Winter Migration Hotspot – The Snow Geese of Middle Creek

by Michael Weiss December 27, 2022

It is early February, and a large flock of snow geese has just taken flight on a cold morning,  having spent the night on the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay. They know it is time to begin their 3,000-mile migration back to their breeding grounds in the tundra near the Arctic Circle. It is a long, tiring journey and they will need food and rest along the way.  

They have been…

Dutch Gap: Paddling a Rewilded Landscape

by Kenny Fletcher November 15, 2022

I set out one perfect fall evening to visit Dutch Gap's tidal lagoon, formed as a result of 20th-century mining operations. I soon discover there’s no better place to explore the interactions between nature and humans than Dutch Gap, nestled along a bend in the James River about 10 miles south of Richmond. This area was once wooded land and swamps. But from the 1920s to the 1960s, mining companies scoured the site…