Bioblitz in Suffolk aims to get better idea of what's out there

Suffolk is home to an abundance of plant, animal and marine life, but in a constantly changing environment it's difficult to determine exactly what all is out there.

BioBlitz was launched to provide answers to some of that.


Presented by the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance, BioBlitz is a fact-finding project to track and identify different air, soil and marine species. The second series of the project was April 16 along the shores of Bennett's Creek.

An initial mission last summer identified 35 bird species, 50 plants and trees and more than 60 different insects, fish and reptiles. River Alliance environmentalists sought to add to those lists but chose spring to reflect seasonal changes in bird patterns.


"Different varieties of birds are visible at this time of year," said alliance director Elizabeth Taraski. "It's the migratory season and different birds return to the area."

About a dozen bird watchers, students and environmentalists showed up for the morning event toting binoculars, cameras and clipboards. Birds are most active early so participants had to arrive shortly after sunrise for the scheduled tour.

"Marshes and wetlands are great places to see all kinds of different birds," said tour guide Bryan Barmore, a member of Virginia Master Naturalists. "They attract large birds, like eagles, pelicans and gulls and many varieties of songbirds."

Barmore, a NASA aerospace worker, has studied different bird species for over 20 years, he said, and can identify individual bird sounds among a symphony of different songs.

"I do hear a white-throated sparrow and I think I hear a brown thrasher over here." Barmore told the group. "White-throated sparrows have a very lyrical sound," he said. "Oh, Sam Peabody, Sam Peabody, Peabody.

"Each bird has a song and all must learn the song. In spring, the young ones are still trying to learn the song and sometimes it takes them a while to get it right."

Many birds are named after the songs they sing, Barmore added. Verses are often repeated in sets of three. He mentioned killdeers, laughing gulls, jenny wrens and whippoorwills. Brown thrashers and mockingbirds often mimic the sounds of other birds.

"That kind of trembling sound up there is a red-bellied woodpecker," Barmore continued. "It's the most common of its species in our area."

While most birds prefer to nest in trees and shrubs, some lay their eggs on the ground, Barmore said. He noted the killdeer which often lays her eggs along a roadside in a cavity of broken concrete or asphalt. Brown-headed cowbirds, he said, often lay their eggs in another bird's nest and pass on the responsibility to feed and raise their young.

Many birds leave Hampton Roads in winter due to a depletion of flying insects, their primary food source, Barmore said. Some species migrate back in the spring just for mating, but migration is hazardous.

"It takes a lot of energy and exposes them to all kinds of predators," Barmore said. "Hummingbirds fly five or 600 miles across open water in the Gulf of Mexico. Small birds have a relatively short life."

At least 25 bird species were identified in the hour-plus walk, more than a dozen of them new to the list from a year ago. The event helped participants like Claudia Lee of Suffolk, who has multiple bird feeders at home, to increase her knowledge.


Allan Gollihue of Portsmouth developed a keener sense to identify different bird sounds and Paul M. Kuzio, 17, of Chesapeake said he plans to complete an avian guidebook for the alliance for his Eagle Scout project.

ODU student and botanist Peter Schafran continued the BioBlitz with the plant and tree survey. It included native trees such as pine, oak and cedar but also less common varieties such as Southern sugar maple. The assortment of plants included edible sassafras and honeysuckle but also vines, ferns and poison ivy.

Suffolk and Isle of Wight County are considered the northernmost areas in the country suitable for the growth of long leaf pine, Spanish moss and pixie moss, Schafran said.

Entomologist Stuart McCausland later led an expedition on invertebrates. There are more than 100,000 of the invertebrates in the area out of 1.3 million known. There were creepy, crawling critters such as spiders, roaches and chigger mites under rotting logs and in soil but also exotic butterflies and bees.

Biologist Cathy Roberts followed with a study of marine life from findings of a seine net pull in the waters of Bennett's Creek. New finds included such edibles as blue crab, blue mussel and a baby flounder.

Suffolk's BioBlitz list was updated to include 45 different bird species, 64 plants and trees, 22 fish and reptiles and 55 invertebrates.

The event preceded a 50-state national effort scheduled for April 23, in coordination with the National Geographic Society. Similar events were planned at several state parks in Virginia, including the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge.

Find out more at NansemondRiverPreservationAlliance.org.

James Thomas Jr​., ttomas205@aol.com