Gulls on Shore of Lake Michigan

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, with help from many partners and support from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, has established "Lake Michigan Volunteer AMBLE - Avian Monitoring for Botulism Lakeshore Events." The goal of AMBLE is to empower a network of concerned citizens to monitor bird health and beach conditions along miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, thus increasing knowledge of avian botulism trends. The focus area for 2011 will be Door County, Wisconsin.

Door County participants monitor selected sections of Lake Michigan and Green Bay shoreline every 7 - 10 days, June through November. Data collected on species and numbers of healthy, sick, and dead birds and environmental conditions will be summarized and made available to natural resource managers. AMBLE participants can help decrease botulism effects on wildlife along their beach by burying carcasses. Designated participants will be on-call to collect select carcasses for submission to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center for botulism testing.

Visit the AMBLE website for more information.