Families, lake property owners, and those who enjoy fishing or boating can all help monitor and steward the health of their favourite lake. By participating in the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey they will take their recreational activities to another level – active participation in science towards conservation.
If you regularly visit a Canadian lake, you too can be a Citizen Scientist. Canadian Lakes Loon Survey participants have worked since 1981 to track Common Loon breeding by monitoring chick hatch and survival. Participants dedicate at least three days, visiting their lake once in June (to see if loon pairs are on territory), once in July (to see if chicks hatch), and once in August (to see if chicks survive long enough to fledge).
Participants often work as stewards within their lake communities, advocating for better boating, fishing, or shoreline practices, protecting and supporting not only loons but the many other aquatic species that share our waterways.
JOIN THE LOON SURVEY TEAM
Resources to help you help loons
Interesting reading about loons and loon conservation
Days of our Loons: Common Loons lead complex lives
New Study Helps Explain Why Loons are Raising Fewer Chicks in Ontario
Fantastic Loons and Where to Find Them
Lower Great Lakes: Not So Great
Resources for Survey Participants
Canadian Lakes Loon Survey Factsheet
Common Loon Species Account (Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario 2001-2005)
Artificial Loon Nest Platforms
If your lake has seen no loon chicks hatch for three or more years it may be a good candidate for loon nesting platforms. Review the following to learn more:
Artificial Loon Nest Platform Factsheet
Guidelines for Constructing and Deploying Common Loon Nesting Rafts
For more information, contact:
Kathy Jones, M. Sc. F.
Volunteer Manager & Biologist, Canadian Lakes Loon Survey
volunteer@birdscanada.org
Laura Puch, M. Sc.
Biologiste, QuébecOiseaux
huards@quebecoiseaux.org
www.quebecoiseaux.org
