Another opportunity came up for me to get on a Sailbirding adventure at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center and I did not pass it up. It was a beautiful day, low winds to start with mostly sunny skies. Sailor Carl Eisenberg lead the group with excellent birders Jennifer Ambrose and Lorri Howski, along with myself. We headed out and had a heck of a great time! 10 species of birds seen along with breakwall. I don’t have numbers on each species but there were large numbers of Double-crested Cormorants and Caspian Terns along with gulls. Species seen were Sanderlings, Great Blue Heron, Least Sandpiper, Double crested Cormorants, Caspian Terns, Herring Gulls, Spotted Sandpiper and Ring-billed Gulls were some.
NOTE: The purpose of this sailbirding trip today was to document bird species on a portion of the breakwaters (breakwall to some). This portion of the breakwall has been changed by the Army Corps of Engineering by strategically adding smaller rocks to the giant ones along the breakwall structure. The Army Corps has collaborated with UWM with hopes to create breakwall habitat for a variety of living creatures including birds.
On the way out to do some awesome Sailbirding!
Double-crested Cormorants, juveniles
Caspian Terns, juveniles with lighter color heads…
A Great Blue Heron flying around way out…
Least Sandpiper
Sanderling on the breakwall…
Least Sandpiper…
Caspian Terns juveniles…the stretch…
Caspian Tern juvenile
Double-crested Cormorant, juvenile
Herring Gull
Sanderling
Sanderling
Herring Gull, juvenile
Double -crested Cormorant just up from fishing…
The sailor Carl Eisenberg, it was smooth sailing as they say!
Jennifer taking a break after counting all those birds!
Lorri still in search of that rare bird!
Jim just looking for something different!
The skyline…
The Sailbirding group today!
Looks like way too much fun. Nice bird photos, too.