Feeling a little looney? Good. Here’s a job for you.
Volunteers are need to survey loons on Adirondack lakes on Saturday, July 21 from 8 am to 9 am. This is part of the 18th Annual Adirondack Loon Census, a program sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program.
Participants can sign up for any one of the available Adirondack lakes and ponds. The effort helps the conservation group to collect data on the breeding loon population in the Adirondack Park and across New York state for future conservation policies and planning.
The work sounds interesting, since volunteers will report on the number of adult and immature loons and loon chicks that they observe. This is part of a broader effort regionally to assess the loon population.
If you’re interested, visit the Wildlife Conservation Society website (https://northamerica.wcs.org/), call 518-891-8874 ext. 106 or email wcsaccp@gmail.com.
“We gain an important regional picture of the loon population each year through the Annual Loon Census,” Zoë Smith, Director of WCS’s Adirondack Program, said in a news release. “We are indebted to the hundreds of volunteers who participate as citizen scientists in this important research. Only through the participation of this dedicated group of volunteers, are we able to assemble so much valuable information to help guide future management decisions.”
The census has been conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society Adirondack Program since 2001, in collaboration with the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation in Saranac Lake. With the upcoming closure of the WCS Adirondack Program office in September 2018, the loon census will be conducted by the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation.
