Friends of the Rappahannock will be giving away free Project Feederwatch bird feeders at the Clifton Institute after our regular Wednesday morning bird walk! The feeders are first-come first-serve, and the limit is one per family. A Friends of the Rappahannock instructor will give you instructions on how participate in Project Feederwatch, which is a community […]
Join us for our annual Christmas Bird Count! We’ll spend the day surveying the birds in our 15-mile-diameter count circle, which includes a variety of habitats. We usually see a nice diversity of waterfowl and grassland birds. There’s always a chance for Short-eared Owl and American Tree Sparrow! Participating in the Christmas Bird Count is a great way to […]
Every year the community science platform iNaturalist organizes the City Nature Challenge, a friendly competition between cities all over the world to see who can find the most species, make the most observations, and involve the most people in community science. This year the Challenge will take place from April 29 to May 2, but […]
We are starting a research project study box turtles. We want to know what habitats they use, what time of year they're most active, how big their territories are and how much overlap neighboring territories have, and most importantly what we can do to help conserve this long-lived species. To start, we need to have […]
LAST MINUTE REGISTRATION: Contact Bert at bharris@cliftoninstitute.org if you'd like to join the count. Join us for our second annual Dragonfly Count! Our goals are to learn which species of dragonflies and damselflies are found in our area, to monitor changes in their populations, and to encourage everyone to learn more about Odonates. The map […]
Every year community scientists help count the butterflies in 15-mile-diameter circles all around the country and contribute their data to the North American Butterfly Association. This summer we will host our 27th annual butterfly count and celebrate our 20th year contributing our data to NABA. Butterfly enthusiasts of all levels of experience are welcome! If […]
Join us for our annual Christmas Bird Count! We’ll spend the day surveying the birds in our 15-mile-diameter count circle, which includes a variety of habitats. We usually see a nice diversity of waterfowl and grassland birds. There’s always a chance for Short-eared Owl and American Tree Sparrow! Participating in the Christmas Bird Count is […]
In what we hope will become a regular occurrence, we are inviting the public to participate in one of our ongoing research projects. This time you’ll help us track American Kestrels that have been outfitted with GPS transmitters, collect vegetation data in different types of fields, and visit ink-pad tracks to see what kinds of […]
ONLINE REGISTRATION IS CLOSED BUT ADDITIONAL PEOPLE ARE STILL WELCOME. PLEASE EMAIL BERT AT BHARRIS@CLIFTONINSTITUTE.ORG IF YOU'D LIKE TO ATTEND. Join us for our third annual Dragonfly Count! Our goals are to learn which species of dragonflies and damselflies are found in our area, to monitor changes in their populations, and to encourage everyone to […]
ONLINE REGISTRATION IS CLOSED BUT PEOPLE ARE STILL WELCOME TO SIGN UP. PLEASE EMAIL BERT AT BHARRIS@CLIFTONINSTITUTE.ORG TO DO SO. BERT WILL ASSIGN YOU TO A TEAM AND SPECIFY A MEETING PLACE AND TIME. Every year community scientists help count the butterflies in 15-mile-diameter circles all around the country and contribute their data to the […]
Come along while we partner with the Fauquier County Department of Parks and Recreation to participate in the Parks for Pollinators Bioblitz! We'll explore Riverside Preserve with the goal of documenting as many different kinds of butterflies and bees as possible! This event is part of the Fauquier County Bee City USA initiative to learn […]
Since 2019 we have been working to restore a 100-acre field that was dominated by Tall Fescue into a diverse native grassland. In cooperation with Virginia Working Landscapes and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, we are conducting an experiment to test which of eight methods are best for establishing and maintaining native plants. In this […]
Join us for the 24th Annual The Plains/Airlie Christmas Bird Count this December! Our goal? Count as many birds as we can in our 15-mile-diameter count circle, which includes a variety of habitats--grasslands, forests, lakes, backyards, and even parking lots. There’s always a chance for Short-eared Owl and American Tree Sparrow, and counters get to […]
**This is a virtual event** In this Zoom event, Co-Director Bert Harris will present the latest results from our grassland restoration experiment! He will cover which management methods were most successful at converting fescue to native grasses and wildflowers. He will also talk about our study of the native seed bank and the recovery of […]
In this installment of our Science Saturdays series participants will have the opportunity to shadow our kestrel research team. We have been attaching GPS transmitters to kestrels since 2021. This summer we will be attaching fewer transmitters in the past, but we will still be keeping an eye on a few birds from previous summers […]
In 2022 we started a research project to study what habitats Box Turtles use at different times of year so that we and other landowners can know what the best time of year is to mow fields and do other land management practices that might disrupt or even kill Box Turtles. On this second installment […]
ONLINE REGISTRATION IS CLOSED BUT WE WOULD STILL LOVE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US! If you're interested email Bert at bharris@cliftoninstitute.org before Friday at 5 PM. Join us for a day of counting dragonflies across Rappahannock county! Co-Director Bert Harris will be leading and organizing, so keep an eye on your email for more information […]
ONLINE REGISTRATION IS CLOSED BUT WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU JOIN US! PLEASE EMAIL BHARRIS@CLIFTONINSTITUTE.ORG if you're interested. Join us for our fourth annual Dragonfly Count! Our goals are to learn which species of dragonflies and damselflies are found in our area, to monitor changes in their populations, and to encourage everyone to learn […]
ONLINE REGISTRATION IS CLOSED BUT YOU ARE STILL WELCOME TO JOIN US. Please email Bert at bharris@cliftoninstitute.org by 5 PM on Thursday July 18th if you'd like to participate. Every year community scientists help count the butterflies in 15-mile-diameter circles all around the country and contribute their data to the North American Butterfly Association. This […]
This fall the Clifton Institute, in collaboration with Fauquier County Public Schools and the Fauquier County We Need Bees Committee, is beginning an exciting new project: Lawn Lab. This experiment is all about studying what happens to life in lawns that only get mowed once a year instead of every week. Clifton staff along with […]