For over 30 years the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT) has been a prime birding "hot spot." Since the earliest days, the CBBT has allowed birders access to the the four tunnel islands which buttress the two bridge spans. Birders have found over 309 species, dramatically increasing our understanding of the Bay's birds and the effect of weather systems on bird movement at the mouth of the Bay.
Not only have the artificial islands provided a platform where people can observe birds, the islands may have directly benefited the birds. American Oystercatchers have nested on the islands. Fall migrant songbirds as well secretive nocturnal migrants such as rails and bitterns use the islands as a "last refuge" rest stop. By using the island habitat a number of species, e.g., Purple Sandpiper, Great Cormorant, Common and King eider and Harlequin Duck, have expanded their range south to Virginia.
What might you see on the CBBT islands? Who knows! But surely you will find some surprises. Here is how K.E.ST.R.E.L volunteer, Bob Anderson reports his "best day":
It's July, 1996. Bertha, a rare mid-summer hurricane, is eyeing the mid-Atlantic. Pelagic veteran Brian Patteson decrees CBBT island number one, the southernmost, is the place to be in Virginia. Ned Brinkley agrees to meet me at 6:30 a.m. at the South Toll Plaza. Late, I hurry to island number one to catch up with Ned. He adds injury to embarrassment by mentioning the Common Ground-Dove I missed at the toll plaza.
But embarrassment quickly fades. The storm's remnant crystalline, Caribbean atmosphere provides rare viewing clarity. Some of the Gulf Stream's best birds parade by in a truly rare display, a pelagic diorama come to life.
Black-capped Petrels are abundant, most continuing inexplicably up the Bay toward Norfolk. Mid-morning I catch a dark gadfly petrel in my binoculars. Ned confirms it as a Herald Petrel, one of two for the day. I get convincing looks at Leach's and Band-rumped Storm Petrels. With the leisurely looks and Ned's pointers, the birds are easily distinguishable from the more more numerous Wilson's Storm Petrels.
All morning Sandwich Terns stream out of the Bay, refugees from the Outer Banks perhaps. The weekend shearwater contingent includes a half-dozen each of Cory's and Greaters together with a lone Audubon's, all properly ocean bound. A Pomarine Jaeger races east through the channel, well aware of how to reach deep water. Jaegers, those prey-stealing offshore bullies, are too tough to be bothered by a storm like Bertha. Scores of wind-driven pelicans speed by all day as if propelled by afterburners. Large numbers of common gull and tern species are astir, attempting to regroup in the storm's aftermath. Awe struck, we stand there all day watching an avian spectacle we would almost certainly never see again.
To prepare for your "best birding day" on the CBBT, you can write for a permit to visit the islands to CBBT, P.O. Box 111, Cape Charles VA 23310. As your letter from CBBT will tell you, access to some islands may be periodically limited because of the current construction of the new bridge spans.
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