Courtesy of the CanadianEncyclopedia.com
Canadian Lakes Loon Survey (CLLS)
The Canadian Lakes Loon Survey (CLLS) is a long-term, volunteer-based project designed to monitor the breeding success of loons on lakes across Canada. Its goals are to help conserve loons by engaging participants in monitoring and education activities, and use loon productivity as a long-term indicator of the health of freshwater lakes.
The CLLS was initiated in Ontario in 1981 by Bird Studies Canada, and expanded nationally in 1989. Human disturbance and development are ongoing threats to loons. Loon surveyors tell us they observe many activities that are detrimental to loons including: disturbance of nesting sites (as a result of boats, canoes, jet skiis, and water level changes); discarding of entangling debris (fishing lines and domestic garbage); inadvertently attracting and supporting nest predators (raccoons, skunks, and gulls); and displacement of loons through habitat loss.
Ultimately, local human disturbance can be minimized when people are sensitive to needs of loons. As more people move into loon country, promoting loon-friendly activities is increasingly important. Loon surveyors' continue to play a key educational role through distributing brochures, creating informative displays, erecting signs, building nest platforms, addressing local concerns, and, of course, tracking loon chick survival over their first, critical summer.
Citizen Scientists are needed to promote Loon-friendly lakes, build floating Loon nesting platforms, collect Loon eggs and carcasses and identify threats to these birds.
Project Details
- PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST: Art Martell, Chair
- SCIENTIST AFFILIATION: Bird Studies Canada
- DATES: Ongoing
- LOCATION: - Canada
- PROJECT TYPE: Observation
- COST: Free
- GRADE LEVEL: All Ages
- TIME COMMITMENT: Variable
- HOW TO JOIN:
To volunteer, visit the Bird Studies Canada special projects page or e-mail volunteer@bsc-eoc.org.
See more projects in Free, Observation, All Ages.
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3 Comments
Add CommentDid you know that loons can't walk like other birds??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI applaud these efforts. I'm an avid birdwatcher and loons are a symbol of the Canadian wilderness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust a note though. There are 2.1 millon lakes in Canada...just over 7% even have a name. Less thasn 1% have any type of access by road.
Sometimes a study of this type can give us a misleading sense of what's happening 'out there' in the greater scheme of things. the small percent of lakes impacted by man's presence may not be indicative of what's happening as a whole.
The early comment in very correct, the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey can only look at a small percentage of the lakes in Canada. By no means does the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey attempt to establish population levels or trends for Common Loons. We use a standard method to monitor reproductive success through time and by comparing many years of data.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe technique works and, with more than 30 years of data, we can not only show how well the Common Loon are reproducing in different regions of Canada but our results mirror similar patterns elsewhere in North America as well.
There are two incorrect items in this Canadian Lakes Loon Survey Article. First: to learn about the project please visit the main Canadian Lakes Loon Survey page at www.birdscanada.org/volunteer/clls not the special projects website; second the project is not free, it is sustained through participants registering and paying membership fees. Bird Studies Canada and the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey would like to thank the hundreds of participants of the Canadian Lakes Loon Survey. Without their support, participation and dedication our knowledge on the Common Loon in Canada would be significantly less and our ability to conserve Canada's Lakes would be impacted.
Kathy Jones, Canadian Lakes Loon Survey Volunteer Coordinator, Bird Studies Canada