Sailbirding at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center in Milwaukee Wisconsin on August 21, 2019

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!

Sailbirding at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center in Milwaukee Wisconsin on October 12, 2018

The third Sailbirding trip of the season was made from the Milwaukee Community in Milwaukee this afternoon. Two sail boats were taken out and it was an exciting time for all! Bird counts in the study area were: 60 Double-crested Cormorants, 29 Ring-billed Gulls, 21 Herring Gulls. Out of the study, the control area just south along the breakwall, the bird of the day was a Lesser Black-backed Gull, along with 25 Herring Gulls, 22 Ring-billed Gulls and 41 Double-creasted Cormorants. Some other nice birds seen on our way out to the study area were 2 Sanderlings and a Surf Scoter.  Some nice algae was present along the breakwall too. Participants on this sailbirding run included in sail boat #1, sailor and birder Carl Eisenberg, Jennifer Rutten, and Drew Shuster. In sailboat #2, sailor and birder Helen Bolgrien, Jym Mooney and I. It was a mostly cloudy day with a couple minutes of sun, winds around 10-12 mph. Images were taken on October 12, 2018.

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. Announced today, Schlitz Audubon Nature Center is backing the Sailbirding Citizen Science!

Sailing out to the study area to do some sailbirding…

Approaching the study area, gulls were just flushed, we don’t know why…

The study area on the breakwall from the lighthouse right to where the rocks get larger…

Double-crested Cormorants in the study area…

Herring Gulls in the study area…

The other sailbirders looking intense for what birds they might see with sailor and birder Carl Eisenberg…

A Ring-billed Gull does a stretch in the study area…

The sailboat I am on, we are all counting birds and species…

Jym looks through his bins, looking for something different out there!

A Double-crested Cormorant does a flyover by the study area…

 

Sailor and birder Helen Bolgrien…she did an amazing job with the sailboat!

Bird of the day, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, with a darker back, in the control area…

Gulls galore!

A Herring Gull looks to the left in the control area…

Another view of the study area from the south…

Ring-billed Gulls loafing…

A wave to us from the other sailbirders…

Sailbirding north, the other sailbirders are in front of us…

2 Sanderlings seen on the way out to the study area feeding along the harbor rock wall…

Herring Gull coming in for a landing in the control area…

Sailbirding group…

Sailbirding at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center in Milwaukee Wisconsin on September 28, 2018

The second Sailbirding trip was made from the Milwaukee Community in Milwaukee this afternoon. It was an exciting time for all! Bird counts in the study area were: 1 Ruddy Turnstone being the highlight, 1 Sanderling, 30 Double-crested Cormorants, 40 Ring-billed Gulls, 25 Herring Gulls, 2 Mallards and 2 Sparrow spp. Out of the study area a Peregrine Falcon and  30 American Coots were located near the breakwall. Some nice algae was present along the breakwall too. Participants on this sailbirding run included in sail boat #1, sailor Carl Eisenberg, Jennifer Rutten, and myself. In sailboat #2, sailor Helen Bolgrien, Ann Lowrey and Jym Mooney. It was a cloudy day with some puffs, winds around 14 mph. Images were taken on September 28, 2018.

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.

Sailing out to the breakwall to count birds present in the study area set up by the Army Corps of Engineering…

Ruddy Turnstone, bird of the trip in the study area!

Ruddy Turnstone

Double-crested Cormorant

Herring Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Sailbirding sailboat #2 checking out the breakwall…

Sailbirding boat #2 looking and counting with sailor Helen…

Another image of the study area were smaller and flatter rocks have been set for species habitat…

Sailor Carl at the controls of sailboat #1 with sailboat #2 in the background…

Jennifer with intense looks at the breakwall for bird species as we approach it…

Sailbirding group…