WARSAW -- Bald eagles and migratory songbirds gained a few more acres of permanently protected landscape along the Rappahannock River.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it bought 178 acres on wildlife-rich Cat Point Creek in Richmond County and received a conservation easement on 90-acres containing tidal wetlands and a mature hardwood forest in Essex County.

The parcels bring to about 8,050 the number of acres associated with the refuge, which Congress approved 12 years ago to protect the huge number of eagles, birds and waterfowl that frequent the river and adjoining lands.

The parcels are strung along the waterway on both sides of Tappahannock in a region of the tidal river the service noted is crucial for the health of bird populations in the Atlantic Flyway.

"It's taken us 12 years to get to 8,000 acres, but any progress is good," said refuge manager Joe McCauley, who has found the pace of acquiring land slowed by uncertain federal funding.

Third-party conservation groups helped broker the recent acquisitions, as they have in most of the transactions.

As of March, the refuge had paid a total of $10.2 million for more than 5,000 acres and spent almost $2.8 million for conservation easements on an additional 1,339 acres.

The service paid $731,000 in March for its latest Cat Point Creek tract. It bought the property from the Arlington-based Conservation Fund, which bought the land at below-market value from private owners last winter, said Reggie Hall, a real estate associate with the fund.

By buying the land, "we gave the service the time they needed to come up with funding," Hall said. Proceeds from federal duck stamps, which waterfowl hunters must buy to legally hunt ducks and geese, generated the money the service used to purchase the tract.

The Trust for Public Land, based in Washington, organized the purchase of the 90-acre easement this month. The group paid about $400,000 for the easement, which prevents development but leaves the property in private ownership. It used a congressional land and water conservation fund as well as money collected in Virginia to mitigate impact from development on streams and wetlands.

The trust bought the easement from owners Gam and Kendall Rose, who live in the Washington area, and gave it to the wildlife service. "It's really neat to work with landowners like the Roses, who see the value of protecting land for wildlife habitat," said Linda Frost of The Trust for Public Land.

Congress authorized the service to assemble 20,000 acres within the Rappahannock refuge system.

The river attracts flocks of migratory Canada geese and tundra swans each winter and harbors large numbers of black ducks, whose population declines have been a cause of concern. The Rappahannock also shelters what may be the largest concentrations of bald eagles on the East Coast. More than 200 eagles can routinely be found along a 35-mile stretch of the river and its marshes between Tappahannock and Port Royal.

The refuge plans to build miles of trails this summer and a canoe launching ramp on its most accessible property near Tappahannock on U.S. 360.

Contact Lawrence Latané III at (804) 333-3461 or llatane@timesdispatch.com.