Poplar Island Birding
Poplar Island is a successful clean-dredge spoil restoration project in the Chesapeake Bay for migratory birds traveling the mid-Atlantic fly-way that began in 2001.
In 1847, the human-inhabited island was 1,140 acres with a village and forests.
In 1996, the island had eroded to less than five acres.
Today, Poplar Island’s restoration footprint is complete at 1,715 acres. It’s interior is now being finished to include several types of habitat for nesting.
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Poplar Island, aerial June 2022
(courtesy http://www.poplarislandrestoration.com)
To date, highlights include 262 identified species of birds, with 38 nesting species, such as the Bald Eagle, Osprey, Short-eared Owl, American Oystercatcher, Glossy Ibis, Snowy Egret, Least Tern, and Common Tern. Winter bird censuses have reported over 36,000 birds in one day.
Through lottery reservations, the island was opened with limited birding trips to the public. My first visit to Poplar Island was in 2019, and I’ve returned several times since including last fall, and recently two times just a few weeks ago.
We ride the Terrapin over to the island, then jump on a tour bus and ride around to points where we can safely disembark away from construction, stopping along the way for anything we can watch from inside the bus.
The Terrapin
Welcome to Poplar Island
Poplar Island bus tour
Yes, I lucked out on going twice a week apart a few weeks ago! One visit, the weather tried to turn foul with winds and rain (43 species seen), and the other with some sun (48 species seen).
Here is a sampling of my collection from those the two days.
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Short-eared Owl (Lifer #309)
(These owls migrate to Canada in the spring; last summer, a pair stayed
and nested on the island, fingers crossed they continue to stay)
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Short-eared Owl
(I was disappointed I didn’t get it’s face but I’ll take the shots!)
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Horned Grebe
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Common Loon
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Ruddy Ducks, Canvasback, Lesser Scaup
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American Avocets (top), Dunlins (bottom)
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American Avocets (top), Dunlins (bottom)
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Least Sandpipers
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Snowy Egret
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Bald Eagle nest
(photographed through bus window)
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Above photo cropped….yes, an Eaglet!
There are actually two Eaglets in the nest.
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Ruddy Duck (male)
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Brown Pelican
(exciting sighting and for it to fly right by us!)
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Brown Pelican
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Tree Swallow
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Black-necked Stilt
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American Avocet
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Bald Eagle (immature) Fly-By
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Photos by Donna 
Very nice collection of bird photographs. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Bruce, and you’re welcome!
How wonderfully exciting to see all these birds, but the Pelican and Eagle fly-bys are fantastic! Your images are too!
Thank you, Deborah! It’s a cool place where you never know just what you might see. Both the pelican and eagle fly-bys were pretty awesome, we were all standing up on a high side scoping and binocularing, and they each came flying over the lower basin, putting them at eye level for us. Couldn’t have been more perfect! There were a few woo-hoos! as they each flew away. 🙂
Poplar Island looks a treat. How great for you to go! I found the photograph of the American Avocets tiptoeing past the sleeping Dunlins a beautiful composition. The short ear Eagle has amazing wings for its fat body. So many lovely captures. What a thrill.
Thank you, Sandy! It’s such a treat indeed, not knowing what bird species flying up or down the Chesapeake Bay decides to stop here is the excitement of looking for them all. The birds do love the island, it’s special to see so many. These two trips there were thousands of birds/ducks each time!
Wonderful!!
So nice to see such a resounding success for migratory (and resident) birds. Kudos to those with the foresight to envision and execute this project. Congrats on your new lifer!
It’s been exciting for me to have boated around this island personally at the time it had dwindled down to five acres and then be transformed with a win-win of getting rid of the dredge soil from the shipping channels of Baltimore while creating a birding paradise that adapted instantly from day one. ❤️ There are a couple other eroding islands in the Chesapeake Bay now going through their own same restoration with the clean dredge soil, creating more bird migration and resident habitat. Thanks for the lifer congrats, I’ve chased that owl at other locations in past years with no success, so I did get super-excited to see it and hoped I got a shot, whew, it became double-exciting!
Wonderful images Donna and what an amazing place to visit! 💜 xxx
Thank you, it was an awesome adventure I want to do again! 🙂
fantastic information coupled with the photos your readers demand! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Kent, and you’re welcome! If you ever get over to Tilghman Island eastern shore, you can kayak from there or Sherwood to the island and up in and around the nooks and crannies of it and the other two smaller islands right there, as long as you do not get onto the islands. 🙂
Nice series! Those ears on the Short-eared Owl were so short, I didn’t even see them.
Thank you, David, including the laugh! 😂
Marvelous photos! Poplar
Island is on my bucket list.
Thank you, Martha! It’d be awesome if we got to go the same time! Make sure to get on the email list by contacting Poplar Island through the website. Do you know about the Swan Creek/Cox Creek, Masonville Cove, and Hart-Miller Island birding tours as well? If not, here’s the website, even more opportunities and I hear awesome tours as well. I’d like to go on some of them too.
https://maryland-dmmp.com/community/birding/
Thanks for the info! Looking forward to going on those tours one of these days. In the meantime, I’ve organized reps from Hart-Miller Island for the speaker series at the park where I volunteer. Just amazing what habitats have been reclaimed.
Brilliant shots Donna. It is really good to hear about a successful conservation project.
Thank you, Tom, happy you enjoyed it!
I had never heard of this island. How wonderful that it was re-created. Good for you for having been able to visit it a couple of times recently, your photos show how easy it is to spend hours there, if not days.
Congratulations on your Short-eared Owl lifer, Donna. Luckily, the Brown Pelican didn’t mind showing his/her handsome face.
There are now several islands that are in restoration for bird habitat around the Chesapeake Bay, which is a win-win on how to get rid of all the dredged soil from the Baltimore shipping channels. I should have shared this link in the post on the entire project to date. https://maryland-dmmp.com
It’s been exciting personally for me to have boated around it at just five acres, and now to what has become. Just marvelous! Thanks on lifer congrats, I’ve been chasing the Short-eared Owl for some time now! 🙂
Thank you for the link. It does sound like a win-win situation. It’s nice to know that new bird habitat is getting created.
Wonderful showcase of birds Donna and beautiful shots 😊
Thank you, Ashley! It is really a neat adventure for birders, also free I should have mentioned in my post! 🙂
That was a real treat.
Thank you, David, happy you enjoyed!
Great success story, and a full series of photos too. 👏👏👏
Thank you, Ted!
Great shots. Love the Avocets. 👏
Thank you! Those Avocets are so graceful, I agree!
Very nice photos. Great closeup of the eagle.
Thank you, Brad! Always awesome to be almost eye level with one flying on by!
I loved to see the American Avocets, they are so different from ours that are only black and white.
All the avocets are quite elegant and graceful, it was exciting to see ours beginning their breeding plumages as they continue their migration. 🙂
Wonderful.
Thank you, Cindy!
Outstanding photographs from an outstanding birding venue!
I see why you return again and again. What a spot!
Thank you, Wally! Pretty cool adventure each time!
Such wonderful images. Thank you for bringing them to us.
Gwen.
Thank you, Gwen!
Great job of restoration! The pics of pelican and juvenile bald eagle flying by are excellent, Donna!
Thank you, Indira! Us birders really got lucky with those close fly-bys 🙂
Nice shots! Glad you got tp see a shortie! We were hoping two of our 4-5 would nest here. Last I saw one for sure was two nights ago. I hope to get closer shots of a pelican some day. I have seen them from afar at Assateague on the Bay and in not such great light there on the ocean side at sunrise.
Thank you, Sharon! Hey, maybe some day I’ll get a face shot of a shortie, lol. 😉 It was really exciting when it flushed up.
You never know where they will be, which is why where I view them extremely limits where you can stand or walk.
What a good news story and fabulous set of photographs, Donna!
Thank you, Belinda!
You can see a lot on a bus ride. I declined this year’s visit to see the migrations of snow geese and other species because I am just not up to 3 hours on a bus. Maybe next year, but I enjoyed living vicariously through your photos. I love Avocets! It must have been a thill to see the Eagles, too!
Thank you, Jane! It is always an exciting time to visit this island. I hope you’re up to going next year to see your migrations, a 3-hr bus ride is a long time.
What a wonderful place! Will have to find my way there someday. Congrats on the new lifer and way to stick that tree swallow – those will give your arms a workout trying to keep them in the glass.
Thank you, Brian! We have three other islands in the Chesapeake Bay also going through the same restoration program, Maryland is opening them up for birding tours too. Re swallows, yes they are a workout, makes for a real challenge to get one focused, ha!
What an awesome restoration project. You live in such a great place for birding! Great post Donna!
Thank you, Denise! I am thrilled where we landed with our retirement plans and home roots location. 🙂