By Carl Eisenberg
Birdwatching from a sailboat was launched in the late summer of 2018 by several Milwaukee area birders and sailors.
We called it “sailbirding.” The word wasn’t in the dictionary, and as far as we knew it was a novel and practical way of observing birds.
Sailbirding is an enjoyable extension of the storied connection between sailors and birds. Migrating birds frequently rest on sailboats during long flights. Sailors use birds to locate land and schools of fish and, since double crested cormorants face into the wind to dry their wings, new sailors in the Milwaukee Harbor can confirm wind direction by checking the position of these birds.
Let’s start from the beginning.
In the summer of 2017 I took two experienced birders, Alan and Carol Pohl, both physicians, out for a sailboat ride in the Milwaukee harbor on an Ensign class sloop. They were amazed at the abundance of shorebirds on the breakwater.
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I kept thinking about this, and over the winter, I came across a segment on WUWM’s Lake Effect program (Susan Bence, Nov. 4, 2016) titled Army Corps Collaborates with UWM to Create Breakwater Habitat in Milwaukee, which described changes made to the Milwaukee breakwater to enhance animal habitat and encourage wildlife.
Then I learned that in 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers modified about a thousand feet of the Milwaukee breakwater, on the south side of the north gap to the harbor, thinking that altering the barrier –– both above and below the surface — would affect the flora and fauna ecology on and along the breakwater.
Smaller boulders were strategically added to the traditional large ones used along breakwaters with the hope that they would enhance fish habitat, facilitate algae growth, stimulate the midge population, and provide better footing for shorebirds. It was thought that birds would eat the algae and even use it for nesting.
Curious to see if the changes to that segment of the Milwaukee breakwater had an impact on birds, I started working with experienced birders to explore the idea of “sailbirding”: bird-watching and data-recording – a citizen science – by sailboat.
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Sailbirding allows birders to use a relatively soundless sailboat to get close to birds on shore or a structure like the breakwater. Birds are seldom scared or fly away in this situation because the sailboat is quiet, and birders can approach, enjoy, watch, count, photograph, or video the birds.
Sailbirding has not yet become a regular activity of sailors who belong to the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, but sailbirding is available to guests of Center members who have an appropriate sailing rating and are willing to pilot boats along the breakwater or shore. The Center ranks me as a heavy-air rated skipper, meaning that I can use the Center’s boats when the wind speed is below twenty miles per hour.
After a successful pilot sailbirding trip, the concept was shared with other experienced birders for the inaugural sailbirding trip on Sept. 12, 2018.
The group sailbirded for one hour (1:45 to 2:45 p.m.) on an Ensign class sloop under clear skies with a southeast breeze of about eighteen miles per hour. During the trip the group identified:
50 double-crested cormorants
2 black-bellied plovers
4 sanderlings
4 mallards
1 spotted sandpiper
20 ring-billed gulls
Jim Edlhuber published a report of this outing, with photographs, on his Window to Wildlife blog.
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Data from this first sailbirding adventure was shared with staff from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences.
We worked with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology to create an eBird Hotspot labeled Breakwall at McKinley and Veterans Park. This hotspot is not exclusive to sailbirders. It’s available to all birders wishing to capture data on breakwall birds.
More birders participated in Milwaukee breakwater sailbirding during two October 2018 sailings. With the success of these trips and the enthusiasm of both sailors and birders it’s hoped that sailbirding will continue to grow and become a welcome bird-watching opportunity.
Unfortunately, in 2019 record high water levels in Lake Michigan covered most of the newly placed, small boulders and many sailbirding trips had to be canceled. Then, in 2020, besides the high water, the coronavirus pandemic hit and the Sailing Center had to change its rules to allow for social distancing. Now, only a skipper and another person are allowed on a sailboat and they have to provide their own life preservers.
Let’s hope for better weather and an end to the Covid19 pandemic.
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Photo: The image on this page was made by Jim Edlhuber, a Wisconsin native who has been photographing wildlife for twenty-five years. You can see his work on his website.
Carl Eisenberg is a sailor and birdwatcher, and served as president of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society from 2016 – 2024. A retired pediatrician, he is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine. He lives in Mequon, Wis.
