Blog

stories from the Sanctuary

June 24, 2025

Well, summer has certainly arrived in full force! 🥵 This month, we’re sharing how our wild neighbors keep cool on sweltering days…without popsicles.

read more

May 30, 2025

As birds flit to and from their nests, fox kits dash around their dens, and humans call the RWS hotline all day long, one species is taking things slow…very slow. Cumbersomely slow, in fact. We’re talking, of course, about the charming Common Snapping Turtle!

read more

Three Eastern Phoebes perch on a log. The middle one looks at the camera with its beak open.

April 29, 2025

read more

There are new residents at Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, and they’re neither orphaned patients nor education ambassador animals. They’re Eastern Phoebe parents-to-be!

Allegheny Woodrat in an enclosure at Rockfish Willdife Sanctuary

March 27, 2025

Spring has sprung, and all sorts of creatures are coming out of the woodwork…literally. 😆 One of those critters arrived as a patient earlier this month and inspired March’s Critter Corner. Meet the elusive and oh-so-charming Allegheny Woodrat! It began how most stories from the Sanctuary do: with a call to our wildlife hotline. ☎️ That […]

read more

An orphaned baby skunk is bundled in a towel in the nursery at Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary.

February 15, 2025

Ah, February—the season of love!
Chocolates, roses, romantic dinners… and the unmistakable scent of skunk? 👃

read more

January 10, 2025

read more

We tend to hear the most about wild animals that get the heck out of Dodge (migrate) or get the heck…under Dodge (hiberate). What about the many species that don’t do either to survive the winter?

A hatchling Eastern Mud Turtle

December 13, 2024

Meet our newest education ambassador: all two inches of her! This charming Eastern Mud Turtle joined the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary team in the most unusual way. 

read more

A Wild Turkey poult looks at itself in a mirror inside a rehabilitation care facility.

November 26, 2024

Gobble, gobble, gobble,Snood, caruncle, and wattle!No idea what we just said? Keep reading this month’s Critter Corner. ⬇️ As Thanksgiving approaches, turkeys take center stage in our minds and on some of our tables.  But Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo)  have been strutting through North America’s landscapes for millennia—long before they became cultural icons. This month, we’re talkin’ turkeys! […]

read more

A juvenile Virginia Opossum peeks out of its hide box at RWS.

October 17, 2024

read more

It’s the most magical day of the year: National Opossum Day! 🎉 You might be thinking, “A whole day dedicated to opossums? Really?!” In honor of our most marvelous marsupial neighbors, we’re shining this month’s Critter Corner spotlight on the fascinating Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) so you can learn about just how much these eco-superheroes do. […]

This website and all included graphics are
copyright © 2018–2025 Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary unless otherwise attributed.

Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. EIN 51-0498181.
Thank you for supporting our mission to help native wildlife in Virginia and beyond.