Cape Charles Natural Area Preserve is a 29-acre preserve of globally rare forested dunes and the eastern Chesapeake Bay, owned and managed by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. In fall migration, its forest fills with migratory songbirds, and wildlife includes brown pelicans gliding above the surf and plunge-diving for small fish, double-crested cormorants diving for fish and spreading their wings to dry, ospreys diving with talons outstretched, ruddy turnstones probing and flipping stones along rocky shorelines, common terns plunging into the water for fish, bottlenose dolphins feeding mainly on fish and squid in shallow seas of continental shelves, common buckeyes along the beaches, and loggerhead sea turtles that nest on beaches from Texas to Virginia, with females returning to the beach where they hatched, sometimes traveling thousands of miles. The Eastern Shore’s southern tip is critical stopover habitat for migration, where monarchs and songbirds gather by the millions in fall, waiting for favorable weather before crossing the Chesapeake Bay. Neotropical migratory songbirds spend spring and summer in Virginia and across North America, then depart in fall for wintering grounds in Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, while monarchs east of the Rockies migrate up to 3,000 miles to wintering sites in Mexico’s oyamel fir trees.

Photo: ExploreHere Contributor