William Mueller and John O’Donnell
Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory, wpmueller1947@gmail.com
Friends of the Cedarburg Bog, johnodonnell132@gmail.com
The Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II is the second comprehensive field study to document the distribution and abundance of bird species across Wisconsin. The first Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas was conducted from 1995 through 2001. The second Atlas (WBBA II) will collect data from 2015 through 2019. Field work for the atlas is conducted in geographic “blocks” based on USGS quads across all of Wisconsin. The Cedarburg Bog and the Upland Woods are located in what is termed a “specialty block.” Given that the Cedarburg Bog has been designated as an “Important Bird Area” within Wisconsin, the information collected on the breeding status of birds in the Bog has special conservation significance. The information collected on breeding birds in this second atlas census will be compared to the information collected 20 years ago in the first Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas for purposes of providing a benchmark to evaluate bird conservation over the past 20 years within the Cedarburg Bog complex as well as within Wisconsin as a whole. In 2015, we independently conducted atlas surveys in a wide array of habitats, e.g., upland woods, hardwood and conifer swamp, Mud and Watts Lakes, shrub-carr wetland, sedge meadow, marshes, string bog, and various types of open field environments. Whenever a bird of a particular species gave evidence of courtship or breeding or nesting, one of the following breeding designations was assigned to the species: “possible”, “probable,” or “confirmed.” The census is off to a good start in 2015 with 66 species having been identified as possible, probable or confirmed breeders within the Bog complex. Most importantly, 40 species were confirmed as breeding this first year of WBBA II as contrasted with a total of 52 breeding species throughout the entire five years of the original WBBA from nearly 20 years ago. Species newly confirmed from our 2015 survey as breeders within the Bog are hooded merganser, pine warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, and winter wren. The Cedarburg Bog breeding bird atlas survey will cover many of the same areas canvassed in 2015; however, in 2016 special focus will also be given to accessing some of the more remote, less accessible areas of the inner core string bog.