English settlers such as John Smith marveled at the abundance of birds and other natural life on the Mason Neck Peninsula and across the Chesapeake region, where visitors still find bald eagles as well as Canada geese, wood ducks, teal, woodpeckers, ospreys, bluebirds, tundra swans, and a nearby great blue heron rookery. In June 1608, Smith and his crew met the local Tauxenent people near here while exploring the Potomac River, and at the time of his voyages the Chesapeake was home to an estimated 50,000 American Indians whose sophisticated societies included government, trade networks, shared spiritual beliefs, and skilled use of the land and waterways for hunting, fishing, farming, and gathering. Virginia Indians hunted many kinds of birds in the peninsula’s forests and wetlands for food and used feathers in cloaks, headdresses, and regalia. Seeking precious metals and a passage to Asia, Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers from 1607 to 1609, traveling nearly 3,000 miles in a 30-foot boat and producing a precise map and detailed observations that guided later explorers and settlers, while recording a region rich in forests, marshes, fish, oysters, and vast flocks of birds.