Sitting on the dock of the bay

Last week I had the chance to take a boat tour of part of the Green Bay West Shores State Wildlife Area to survey for Phragmites, the invasive wetland plant our project is targeting this year for herbicide treatments.  Basically, the idea was to check out the conditions at a few candidate sites before selecting final treatment sites, especially because we are experiencing relatively high water right now which can help to stress or kill the plant.  With the water on our side, we may need to focus our attention on fewer areas for treatment.  My "crew" consisted of the wildlife technician for the wildlife area (my cubemate) and a biologist from UWGB.  They also needed to check out the area for terns (type of shorebird), along with some of the artificial platforms they built for the birds for nesting.

 

Launching into Duck Creek- lots of cattails!

We did see some Phragmites in most of the sites we expected to, but also a lot of hybird cattail.  This wetland plant can really take over as well, and is much more tolerant of the high water conditions right now.  I think it might be the target of some future projects judging by how well it appears to be doing...the lesser of two evils perhaps?  Even so, there were a number of neat little coves that had a wealth of diverse, native aquatic vegetation and lots of fish and wildlife.  A promising sign for what we are trying to achieve in the long term for the Bay.

We also spotted quite a few common and Forester's terns- including some immature birds- near the Cat Island Chain construction site.  To summarize, the project involves a 50 year program that will use dredge spoil from local rivers to "rebuild" a chain of  sandbars and islands that once existed in the southern part of Green Bay but was wiped out during a violent storm.  This chain provided protection for the shoreline from seiche (pronounced SAY shh, the influx of water due to winds that acts kind of like a storm surge) and promoted lots of native aquatic vegetation and insects.  We did not see any tern nests on the platform (the terns were dive bombing us anyway), but I heard that 2 nests were spotted on a later visit, so perhaps that's why they were after us.

 The tern platform, constructed to provide the floating structure they prefer for nesting.  The little tents provide shelter for the chicks.

I also got the chance to see the ruins of Tail Point Lighthouse, accessible only by boat on Longtail Point, a peninsula of islands  and sandbars that juts out into Green Bay past the Cat Island Chain.  The tower is all that remains of the light and was supposed to be removed after it went out of service, but proved to be too difficult to dismantle.  It was supposed to crumble, but it's still standing.  The tower is currently on state land, but is identified as one of the most endangered lighthouses despite its rich history.  Apparently a lot of folks on boats and snowmobiles use it as a hangout.  I guess the eagles don't mind (see the nest just above the tower?).

 Ruins of Tail Point Lighthouse

See the eagle nest to the right of the lighthouse?  A young fledgling eagle is in there hanging out

After checking on the sites (and the birds) that were the purpose of our trip, we turned back to return to Duck Creek.  It was a beautiful day on the water. 

 

View of Tower Bridge, City of Green Bay, and the mouth of the Fox River, from the Bay of Green Bay

Some dense Phragmites at the mouth of the Fox River