 Everybody by my name is Tracy Hart and I coordinate the main loon restoration project and work for main Audubon. This is very much a partnership project so I'll be co-presenting with Maggie Welch and she is from the Lakes Environmental Association. And then I also see Brooke Adam on here as an attendee and she is going to be on an intern for the project this year. So yeah, it's really nice to see all of you. Oh, that looks like, okay. Oh, I see everyone's turning into panelists. So that's why I'm starting not to see everybody on my list. Okay, so just we're really excited to get going and to see all of you on the water this year and we're going to be continuing to rely on you to help us track out our loon protection efforts are going. We're going to have a few other sessions as well, but today's session is going to be on loon rafts and nesting signs and then how we're monitoring breeding success. So I'm going to, let's see, go ahead. Oh, I wanted to, yes, Rob, since you're on this is a fantastic picture that Rob took. And it's a good one, I think, to start this off because it shows one of our newer types of rafts it shows the modular rafts and you can see obviously it's being used by the loons and they've already hatched one chick here off on the left. And there's still one egg being incubated so it's a really nice picture that captures what this project's all about. And yet one more. This is the end of your fame though Rob. This is the last picture I have from you in here. But, yeah, so more about today's session so there will be a lookout for loons program coming up so you can learn more about outreach or going to have a project overview webinar. But this one specifically for people who have been involved either with posting a warning signs on nests, or getting rafts in the water, and then doing the monitoring that's involved in seeing how well those are protecting survival and breeding success. So, but we also welcome others. So if you're new to the program, you're welcome to this one. We just encourage you to maybe sign up for another program as well. And then, if you don't have a rafter sign, it's also good to do some monitoring around other parts of the lake so that we can learn a little bit more about how other pairs are doing so. So all are welcome but this is specifically geared towards people who have been involved before as a refresher course. We're hoping to leave time at the end for, you know, questions and some planning did go a bit over last time so hopefully I can go quicker this time. Okay, so we're going to I'll dedicate the first section to a little bit of reminder and refresher on rafts, then get into nesting signs, and then how we're going to be doing monitoring this year and reporting observations. Okay, so, you know, first just wanted to give the bigger picture and reminder that this is part of the overall mainland restoration project. And I mentioned that Lakes Environmental Association as a partner, but main lakes also has been instrumental and they've been taking over the outreach recently. The United Nation is putting some rafts out on tribal waters and we've been funded by the US Fish and Wildlife Service Trustees through an oil spill settlement fund and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has been instrumental in helping with this project as well. Yeah, and overall we're trying to do two things and increase work reproductive success and decrease mortality of loons. Okay, so I want to start with a pop quiz just so that we don't get in webinar mode so everyone stays awake and engaged and to get you to start thinking about loons again so I will go ahead and raise your hand if you're willing to take a shot at answering this. It's one of two questions I have for you so which category would you place these loons in. So, if you remember from last year we had three different categories of loons. Is it a downy young, a small young or a large young? Is anyone willing to give it a shot? It is okay if you're wrong also. That's part of learning. Anyone, anyone? Bueller, Bueller. Ah, go ahead. Okay, Kathy. Go ahead and unmute yourself if you can. There. Okay, am I unmuted? Yes, you are. Yeah, nice to hear from you. All right, I'm going to guess that's a large young. It looks like it's got quite a few of its like close to its colors coming. You got it. That is a large young. Yep. Yeah, so large young, they don't have any of, they've gotten all of their contour feathers in. They're more of a gray color. And so you won't see all the like the fluffiness. They're about the same size as an adult. And you can see that, you know, the bill is really long compared to a really young loon. So mostly it's size and then that nice smooth gray feathering that they have. So great. Nice, nice work. And here's the other one. So first, you know, what would you call this behavior if you saw it. And if you saw a loon doing this behavior around another loon, would you mark the other loon as its mate, a competitor or part of a social group? Do you want to try this one? I would say, can I? Yeah, go ahead. Who's that? I can't actually see. Elaine. Oh, hi Elaine. How are you doing? How are you? I'd say be a competitor. Yes. And why do you say that? Because of the loon's positioning and it's, how do I say it's, it's warning, it's warning, it's doing that. Penguin, yeah, penguin dance. Penguin. I was just saying emperor. Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah. So this is, some people mistake it for some other more relaxed behaviors, but the key things here that it's splashing its feet, moving forward aggressively and then its head is all curled back like that. And sometimes the wings are out sometimes in, but that that head position and the splashing of feet and moving toward the threat. Those are all, you know, signs of regression towards a competitor. So, you're great. Okay, nice job. All right. So, and thanks for chiming in. So, so, since most of you have been involved with rafts before already or have had some, some nesting signs. We've probably already determined that the area where you are meets the criteria for a raft. But there's, it's worth asking each year, you know, are those conditions still present? Do we still need a raft? So I just wanted to quickly go over. Why, when it's appropriate for a raft, just because I think I mentioned the last year that, you know, rafts can have downsides and they can be dangerous and harm productivity if they're not needed and they're not monitored and or if they're in a bad location. So the things we're looking for are that we want to know that the territorial pair is really struggling so they don't have to successfully hatch a chick every year to be okay. But if you see a pair that's failing to hatch chicks for the last three years, then that could be one that could need some help with the raft. So nest failure, that's due to reasons that a raft can address. So, water fluctuation, like you can see these eggs. This nest has been flooded. So water fluctuation from wake or from rain or from dam management. Those can all be something that a raft can address. There's loss of nesting habitat. So this can provide habitat if a nest area is lost either to development or increased recreation. And then land animal predation too is another good, it's a good possibility to get it offshore but some predators can still get out to the rafts. But it helps. And then we want there to be a suitable location. Primarily, there's a place where you can put the raft in a protected area outside of the predominant winds, often westerlies in this part of the state. It has to be enough water, we say like two to six feet deep all all year season long so that the raft isn't stranded on the bottom and lens can get to it and swim to it. And then we normally try to put them 10 to 50 feet offshore, and that distance varies by, if you have a lot of anglers you might want to put it. Anglers or recreators you might want to put it closer to the shore, so that people aren't going in between the raft and the shoreline. And 50 feet if you're really concerned about predators. So you might want it farther off so it's just a little bit harder to get to. And so, yeah, and then if there's a committed group that can commit to ongoing monitoring so this project is going through next year so through 2025. And then, if there's an additional funding then we will be asking everyone who's been involved to continue on on their own. So, we're going to be working a lot this year and next year to try to make everyone confident and being independent, putting your raft out maintaining it and monitoring the success. So, yeah, so if your area still meets all those criteria then yeah, it'd be great to still get a raft out. So, a bit about timeline. So now until the end of March, we're going to be contacting you you can contact us and start thinking about what materials you would need and if you need our help. So, yeah, so we'll be in touch about that and definitely feel free to reach out to us as well. And then about signs. So if you are looking at just having a sign. In addition to your raft or on its own. If you have a pair that nests in the same place every year, then you could go ahead and deploy the sign before they've established. Otherwise, you might want to wait till later in April, or even into May to put until they selected their site, just so you're putting it in the right place. And then mid April to mid May, who are going to be deploying rafts either on your own or with us and weekly monitoring can begin in early May. And then we'd like to come out and see you so whether we've helped you put the raft in or not. We'd love to see how things are going about two weeks after you deploy the raft. So that can be pretty flexible but some target somewhere around there. So we can give some additional monitoring training bring materials. Yeah, so, and then mid May to mid June, we'd like to do another staff site visit. Often this is when they're, they're nesting or starting to hatch. And then if, and then we can be available as needed this year, and it will be a little bit less available next year. In August, yeah, removing the rafts or doing, if you're going to leave them in over the winter, if you have a cedar raft and can leave it in, then winterizing it. So that's kind of the timeline we're looking at. And just keep in mind as you're putting rafts out what we're really trying to achieve here so loons nests in several different places but they prefer islands. So these, these floating islands, they mimic a natural nest. Loons can also nest on, you know, floating bog mats they can nest on shoreline they can nest on several other places, but islands are preferential. But the advantage of these over natural nest is that they can rise and fall with lake levels. So, or they can also sustain some some wake there are limits to that. But and it also it brings the nest away from predators so that's another advantage, and away from on shore activity so. So there are a few things that rafts allow and provide that we don't see with natural nests. But what you're looking for is to have this the raft well within the territory. So we often target putting the raft near a former nesting site one because data is shown that they take two rafts more often when you're close to a natural nesting site and also because then you're sure that it's well within the territory if it's near an old nest, not near the edges where you might invite competition from intruders. So, and then you're also going for some shade as things as temperatures warm up it's it's hard for the adult loose to stay on so on the nest in the heat so it's good to have some shade. We go for easy off and on. And so our rafts are one to four inches above water level. So it's sometimes even easier I think than natural nest as you can see this one. Yeah, in a protected and low disturbance area. Okay, so that's what we're going for. And nesting science so some of you have chosen to have nesting science others haven't. And so traditionally main didn't really allow loon nesting science but there's been a lot of success with them and other states like particularly Vermont has used nesting science and found that it's really increased productivity. There are some places that are at risk of nest failure from disturbance. So, and they also put them out because for an educational tool they feel like it's only benefited in places they put them out to make people more aware of loons. And it's led to some other conservation, but there are some possible downsides it can attract attention so if there's a hidden nest. It can attract attention. And, and, yeah, so you have to think hard about whether what the pros and cons are the we have some criteria from the state. So we're putting signs in places where it's highly visible. The nest raft can be that way can be more visible than a natural nest, or if it's in a really heavily trafficked area. Also, if the nest is being disturbed so whether it's visible or not, if it's going to receive disturbance it's probably best to put a sign out. And then the states asked that we put signs only in places where it's not in a way of angling or recreation since it's public waters, and that there's landowner permission. So, if you have a floating sign, just getting some permission and buy in from people who are living right near where the sign is placed. So, um, yeah, and so this, these are some of the ways that the signs have been posted. We don't provide the basis for the signs, but we can give you some designs. So there are a few different ways you can post these signs one is on a post like this. Here I'll use my pointer. So like a garden post like that. You can do that if you have a type of substrate where you can pound it in enough and it will stay. You can also use this cross design, where you have two two by fours you have some flotation around here and then the sign is mounted with a backing. That can be a way and then this there are also some creative ways to do it so some staff members in the past had done this with some extra logs that we had. So you can find other ways to make these signs sign basis. Yeah, so just let us know if you think you have an area that meets that criteria for sign and you'd like to try to reduce disturbance with one. Then we could get you some designs and help you with the launching of it while we're there. So, great. Okay. So, I have a question. Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to say thank you for the sign. Because our loan raft actually got taken by some teenagers last year, they took the whole raft. I remember that. Yeah. So, a little annoying because we lost the weights. You know, so I think that sign maybe would have helped to be either nearby or on the raft. So thank you for presenting that. Great. Okay. Yes. And we can, yeah, we can get you one of the signs. Did staff bring you one last year? Or do you need one still? I think we would need one. Yes. Okay, that's great. Yeah. So after this, I'll send it to you. Yeah. So you did eventually recover the raft, right? But it was just the anchors were gone because it had been unattached, right? We had some very observant neighbors who saw the boat going away, them carrying it took pictures even so we got it. Yeah, that's the worst I've heard of and we really have not had a lot of tampering, which is impressive. So, yeah, yours was definitely the worst case I've heard of. And other than that, I haven't heard a lot. So that's good to hear. Yeah, it is. So I'm sorry that it was you, but, but at least it's not a widespread thing from what we've seen so far. But it is, I guess the more we can have eyes and ears out there, the less it'll happen and the sign might help with that too. And we have found with signs that education around the sign is really important. So doing out corresponding outreach can be an important piece of it too of the science success. Okay, well, thanks for that question. And then, so for both signs and rafts we really hope to get breeding pair monitoring and, and the reason why it's vital to get monitoring and one of the biggest contributions you can make to this project is, is monitoring the success of the breeding pair is that is really three reasons for catching nesting success. So we want to know, you know, our rafts and night and nesting signs helping to hatch more chicks. And are they using the raft for catching raft issues and sign issues. So things like someone taking a raft. That's that's one that constant monitoring and having lots of eyes and ears out there can help with also things like if your anchor lines are are too short and it's pulling down your, your raft. If you're flooding in the raft and you know that's something that you observation can really help with. Here this is showing that a wakeboat went by and flooded this raft. So, in this case, you can consider, you know, was this a one time thing do we need to find a different location would wave guards help. So, it's a really helpful thing to just have people watching to see what's happening from day to day on that raft and tracking threats. So threats can change we might have put the raft out for one reason but those threats can change and some of those threats, like predators can persist even when you put a raft out. So here there's a raccoon. It's hard to see because it's blurry. It swam out so it was further away from shore than the natural nest but still not far enough. So could we put this further away could we put it somewhere else where the raccoon wouldn't get there. So, so a big part of the success of both signs and rafts is keeping up with monitoring. So we're really focusing in on a single loon pair you're welcome to monitor others but we really want to focus in on one loon pair and find out if they're using the raft. If you know the number of chicks that have been hatched by that pair over a season number of chicks that survived and by that we mean up to six weeks at least. We'd love to see people monitor all through when they fled off the lake to see if they they made it off the lake. But if that's not possible at least to six weeks. And also how many nesting failures there were, and if we have any clue as to what might have happened to the nest, and also any threats and disturbance. So those are some key pieces of information that we're going to be trying to to get from the monitoring that we're we're doing on these lakes. So great. So yeah, I think, and I think from all of that we can start to really tell the story of that breeding pair and whether our efforts are helping or for there's still more we need to do is like this last year we had some chicks that hatched off the raft and then they were killed afterwards so is there more that we could do after hatching to in addition to rafts and signs. Okay, so then we do this year we have some monitoring instructions on our website. And here's the, the link to it we can send that link to you after this but you can find it on our website for the project to in the monitoring section. And it goes over what to bring when to survey and how to survey responsibly in a way that you won't disturb the nesting pair. It goes over the how to do it. Like, for example, in most cases you can't really complete these surveys from shore, a lot of the time, because you need to locate other members of the pair. They'll not be right near the nest. So you need to often have some kind of watercraft. And then how to record your observations on the survey form so yeah I really encourage you to familiarize yourself with these instructions before you head out. And there are some changes from last year. I know many of you were involved last year in monitoring. So the forms have also changed a bit largely based on feedback from you at the end of your survey. So I really appreciated that feedback. Yeah. So how to find your survey form. This is the link to our Lunar Restoration, Main Lunar Restoration Project website. Once you get on that, then there's a section on a monitoring program. You can scroll down to monitoring resources. And then you can click on this link here about download or printable survey form for your Lake. Dropbox and we have every pair that has a raft or a sign on it should be in that in that list and you can download it and print it. And should you find that yours isn't in there just email us and we'll create a form and email it right out to you so yeah, and then there's also a link to the online data Maggie's going to go over some of that. And then the next thing is in that section is the reference sheet. So oopsie. Sorry about that. So many of you last year we brought these laminated reference sheets. And these are really important for it so that to help you guide you and answering the questions on the survey form. So it goes over things like which behaviors indicate stress and concern so you know if you are other predators other loons or other people are causing concern or distress. It also goes over how you know if you have a territorial pair, you know, a mated pair, and those chick development stages that I had in the quiz. So, great. And there we have more resources to in that section on Moon behaviors. Okay, so when and how often so we're still hoping to get people out there monitoring weekly it's just it's too easy to miss really key events like when they get on the nest. And then the eggs hatch if a predator comes comes by. If there are people who are approaching the nest, it's just getting out there more often is better, but without overwhelming the nesting pair either. So, so weekly seems to be a good balance of those if you can't do it yourself. You can contact us and we can see if we can find someone, maybe you can find someone else who's on the lake so as much as you can try to shoot for that target. And we'd like to see people starting in early May and going through August, or at least until the chicks are six weeks old. So that's the same as in past years. Okay. So then just quickly going through some of the, you know what you can expect while you survey, surveying at different parts of the year. Early on, you'll be surveying to really to locate the pairs the members of the pair and to observe their behaviors. And during that time from ice melt to about mid May. You'll see the loons establishing their territories and forming breeding pairs, and they'll be beginning courtship and you might even see mating, and you may see them getting up on land and testing out sites. And that'll look a bit different than if there's a lead poison loon so a lead poison loon or a loon that's injured will stay up on the beach. When that's testing on a nesting site it'll just be poking around and then you'll probably see it either start building a nest or it'll, or it'll get off and look for other sites. And then, yeah, your survey area, it's going to be a little bit different whether on a small pond or with only one breeding pair or if you're on a large lake, a larger lake you'll just be looking for where one pair of frequency on a small pond you'll be surveying the entire pond. Yeah, and the second phase around mid May to mid June. That's when you're going to be hopefully locating a nest so hopefully they're going to be on the nest around that time. And then you'll be trying to locate both pair members so here I've shown with a T that there's the pair members aren't together in this case, and one is near a raft so here's an R that we've listed for a raft. So the loons at this time, they're going to be laying eggs, could be to mid June it can be later if they are on a second try. And then they're incubating their eggs for about a month. So we normally say it's between 27 to 29 days. But if they incubated for a month that's information that tells us that those eggs probably won't hatch, they're probably not viable. And then the last phase is, hopefully when you're going to be watching chicks grow, you'll have an unoccupied raft or natural nest, and you'll see them in a nursery area. And so hopefully that that'll be the case that you get to watch chicks hatch and grow. Otherwise, there may be a pair that didn't produce any chicks, but still worth tracking them, because they might re nest and we might learn some clues as to why they're not nesting. Yeah, and so egg loons at this time we're going to be hatching eggs and the chicks are going to be maturing. And when they reach 12 weeks and they are at an age when they're ready to fledge. Okay, so now getting into the survey form. It's going to look a tiny bit different than last year. Again, we've taken some of your feedback and also seen where people had some challenges and tried to address those. But again, you're going to, on the top of the form, you want to put all of your contact information, give your loon pair a name so that you can name them the same thing every time, and how many people were involved. And then this is a section where you're going to be mapping your observations and I'll go into that into in some more detail. So, first is chicks. So we want to know, sorry about the blurriness of that but we're looking to find out where chicks are so you just mark a C on the map if you saw a chick. Then we're asking if it's a downy small or large chick. And, and I'll go ahead and say which one this is so this one's a downy. And the way you can tell. First, it's very small. It's very fluffy, like there's a lot of down on it. And that's why we call it downy and then it has a short little bill compared to its head. As it gets older, you'll see that lengthen. So if you see that that kind of ratio of a really short bill, you're most likely in the in the downy stage, and you'll also see them riding on the parents back at this stage. So here I'm going to go into the stages a little more. So I just mentioned some of that where, yeah, when they're downy stage, these are all these three all very young so there's one on the back. They only do that for about the first 10 days. These have that dark down. It does get lighter as I get older. So these are still in the downy phase. What you can tell that is they still had they're all covered in down. You can't see any places where any contour feathers are coming in, which you can, when you get to this stage. So see right here, you can see there's contour feathers coming on the face for the small young. There's also contour feathers here on the back. So then if you're seeing that, you know that they are no longer downy, and they're starting to transition to their, their adult feathers. So then you know this is a really blurry photo I must have brought it in incorrectly but you can also it does still show the how messy they look in this phase. If they're in transition, they can look really unkempt. And then the last phase, which, yeah, which you answered well was that this is a large young with the gray feathers all smooth sleek contour feathers. And these are just about the size of adults or fully the size of adults. Any questions about those anything that you've struggled with on on chick stages, or move on. All right, great. Okay, and there are some ways while you're in the field. So that monitoring reference sheet it also shows and describes the chick stages, and then in our monitoring instructions right here. I now have some paintings from a volunteer who an artist who painted these different phases to point out the different features that are on the different chick stages. So, so you're a few resources to help you determine those. I would also say the loon preservation committee they have a really nice section on their website on chick development so I really encourage you and some videos to the time series so encourage you to look at that. The question then is about whether the chick has been seen for six weeks or more. So this is when we know that the chick is likely to fledge after it makes it to six weeks. Some ways that you can tell that so first if you, if someone has been has seen the chick for six weeks and if you know the hatching date that's another way to know that if you don't know any of that then you can tell from the size of the chick. So from the category, if it's a downy chick, you know it's not six weeks yet. If it's in the large category, you know that it has reached six weeks at least. It's only in the small stage that is a little bit tougher to tell. So I would say only leave this blank. If you don't know the hatching date, and it's in the small stage, otherwise you should be able to say, whether it's been, it's a six week old chick or not. And yeah, feel free to ask more questions about that as well. Okay, then we're asking you to map where you mark where you saw an adult from a pair. So where did you observe a member of the territorial pair. How do you know that sometimes you won't. And if you suspect that it's a territorial pair then you can put a T and a question mark and that's fine that'll let us know that you know you think it probably is but you're not quite sure. But if you see one on a nest, that's definitely part of a pair. If you see two together and there's no other loon around often that will be two parts of a pair. And then you can also differentiate by behaviors. So we can go over those there are some characteristic behaviors, both mating behaviors and territorial behaviors that can tell you whether it's a competitor or whether it's actually a pair. So, and then you can always verify that it's an adult if it has the black and white coloring, and the bright red eye. Okay, so some of the ways to tell it's a territorial pair. I know some of you have seen these. So if you see them swimming together diving together forging together. They'll sometimes do these bill dipping together. They'll do the soft hoots. If they're away from each other they'll wail to each other to communicate. And then you'll see yes and relaxed feeding. If you're lucky you might see mating I know some people did see some mating on the rafts last year so that that's exciting. And then you might see them searching out some nest sites. So that is, you know, those behaviors are all signs of a pair, they're not threatened by each other. On the other hand, if you see these types of behaviors, you can be pretty sure that it that you have a competitor and a member of a territorial pair. So, you know, Kathy I think you saw a fair number of these attacks last year. Yeah, these can go on for a long time and they can be pretty brutal. Yeah, Kathy, you're coming in. Yeah, you had a third one for a long time last year right. Yeah, we did. Yeah, it really can, yeah disrupt nesting. So they're much later last year too. I remember right. Yeah, so if you see wing rowing is a harder one. In pictures it's really hard to show because it looks like just normal wing flapping, but this little series I have here shows how it's more of an escape behavior. So they'll have their, their breasts down on the water and then they use their wings to row them forward quickly to it usually to escape every so often and they'll go towards a competitor but usually it's to escape an attack. Yeah, and you can see the penguin dance, you can see, sometimes they'll circle each other really aggressively they'll do these splash dives. So it's just more sudden movements and more aggression towards each other, instead of that relaxed behavior. Okay, and so then, yeah, this is where we want you to mark some of these behaviors on the bottom of this and we've again we've changed the list a little bit and honed it down from last year. But does anyone want to give it a shot saying, if you saw these four behaviors what you would check on this on this sheet. Anyone want to give it a try. It can be panelists to if you want. Anybody anyone looks like this is Kevin Healy. Hi, it looks at least two of those are hiding behavior. The one in the nest is sunk down real low, low in the water. Last year when we first started noticing our parent nesting, there was a lot of hiding behavior. They knew that we were in the area. I didn't let on that I was watching them but they knew I was there so they were so showing that penguin dance of course is, you know, a confrontation type of thing. The one in the middle is the stretch neck. Looks like she's alert or he's alert whichever it is hard to tell of course, but but not not necessarily threatened but very alert about what's going on. So that's how I would interpret those four. Absolutely, you got it right on. Yep, so I'll go ahead and give my yeah so yep the head raised an alert position right here. The head down on the nest or the lunar this is showing that the moon might leave the nest anytime soon. It feels very threatened down here is the hiding or floating low on the water. And yeah and this is aggressive behavior. So yeah so the only thing they don't see here is pair behavior. So, great. Okay, yeah. So that's interesting that you saw directed towards you even though you felt like you're really far away that there's so you have it sounds like you're a particularly sensitive pair, which might be why they had such trouble finding a nesting location. I know they switched a lot last year. So hopefully this year they'll take to the raft and stay there. Alright, and then so the next part is a lot of you are really disappointed last year that you couldn't list other loons that you saw. So we did put a category here this year where you can put an L for other loons that you see. If you see an adult right near the pair. And you can figure out which one it is, then you can put an L for an adult loon and you might see a whole group of loons together outside of the territory and you can put all those, you know, the number of adult loons you see outside the territory. So we all know about nesting activity so you can put an N where you see a natural nest, and you would put a T because there's a loon on the nest. And then if you see one on a raft that's occupied, then you're going to want to put an R and also the T because there's a loon on that raft for a raft that isn't used you put a you on your map, but it can sometimes be hard to tell if it's an unused draft. If you see eggs it's used if you see a loon on it. If there's nothing it could be a pair that left, such as what Kevin said or that sometimes they leave if they think someone's near. But so you would just say unused at that point and then later on eventually you probably see a loon on the nest if it's occupied. So, so you could change that on your surveys going forward. Okay, and I looks like I need to hurry some because I'm taking up a lot of time. So nesting activity this is very similar to what we had last year so just if you see them building a nest sitting on the nest. Don't go close to find out how many eggs but if you can see that with binoculars great. And incubating more than 30 days if the chicks have passed eggs are missing if their eggshells if they've left the nest. All those are things that we want to know and you can check here. And then don't forget about the back of the form. So we still have phone numbers for calling if you see any problems entangled dead loons injured loons. We do still have some questions some of you wanted those questions to go away but we decided some are important and we even added one. So now we want to know how much time you've spent on the project since your last surveyed, including emails and trainings like this and emails with us. And then yeah if you've already answered some of these questions like the date the adult was first on the nest or the date that the chick first hatched, then you don't need to put that a second time. But we would like to know the total number of chicks each time if that's changed and if a chick disappeared. So we added a much larger comment section by popular demand so everyone seemed to want more space. So we did make it bigger but we just ask that because it's harder for us to translate comments into data into numbers and dates that you try to pick the most important details and you try to make it easy for us to pick that information out. The last part is sending your forms in so really important you can Maggie's going to go over a little bit about how to enter it online and this is the what you'll use as your link. So it's different from last year and but this will stay from now on to the rest of the project. You can use that link to access the online form, or you can send the paper forms into us by mail, or by email. And so that I think, yeah, a few slides at the end but I'm going to turn this over to Maggie now to give a little bit of information about the online forms. Tracy. Yes. So just like the paper form has changed a little bit the online survey has also changed and evolved with the time to hopefully make things a little more concise and simpler. I will note though before I do the screen share that it's we tried very hard to make them match exactly but that some of the question options are a little a little different but the information sharing is, or the information that we're asking for is the same. So when you type in on your web browser, the link at the bottom right hand corner of the paper form that may not a bond or slash monitoring. This is where it brings you and then you just click this top button up here. Now you can also access this survey on a survey 123 app that you can download onto your phone. You do not have to have a survey 123 account in order to enter information in the form. However, if you want to use that survey would be easiest for you if we just sent you a little hyperlink. You know those little square barcodes. I don't remember what those are called. We can send you one and that way you can just take a picture of that and it'll take you right to the app. So, I'm not going to go over most of this because this basic data entry and you all are pros because you've done it before. Most of the questions you we have here have these square boxes next to them and that indicates that you can choose multiple answers. Now sometimes the the question order changes based on what you you click you know if you click you have a territorial pair different questions pop up below, but that's okay. It's just where all of the information we're collecting is the same as on the paper. We're just trying to save you the time of having to answer questions that might not be relevant in doing that. Now one of the more difficult questions that that we've learned over time is actually the map questions. And so we've got two map questions on the survey. The first one pops up when you indicate that your territorial pair is nesting. And if you're on the web browser, your web browser, you'll, it's going to pop up like this now on your computer if your location services are turned off, then it'll just take you to a large image of the of the world and you'll have to slowly zoom in or you could type. Type your location in the top map. I'm sorry in the little search bar here, and that'll help zoom you in. But if your location information is turned on, it'll zoom you to your house so not necessarily the lake but your house or wherever your computer is. And it's the same on the phone app. It'll just take you to wherever it identifies your phone is being. So I'm going to zoom in to. It's hard to type when people are watching. So, if you just are screw or scrolling with your, your mouse and your scroll bar, the survey is going to move up and down. So what you can do is you can press control. And then you can, if you press control and hold that down, you can use your the scroll button on your mouse to zoom in and out. Another way you can, you can move around the map is to press the plus side that's in the map here. You can press it like that and then you go, let's say I had a couple of loons over here or a nest over on one of these islands. I would just zoom into the island. And then I could double click. Now on some people's browsers, a single click will do it. And I would just the first couple of times you give it a go try one click or try to. Unfortunately, there seems to be a little bit of inconsistency based on which internet browser you're using or what kind of computer type, but a couple of clicks should do it. And when you move, when you need to move across the screen and you use your hand to grab it, it's actually not the pointer that moves it's the base map underneath. So if you need to move over here, you just click and drag and then double click again, or single click again and it'll bring the cursor here. So after this you don't have to press enter. If you can see the marker and it's in the right place, you're good to move on to the next question. So if you would like a more detailed base map here, some people like to use I myself to I like to use imagery I find it a little more informational instead of contours. So you can come over here to the top right hand corner where there's this is little this little grid of boxes, and you can click on that, and choose your preferred base map, and use that to navigate to where to where you are. And so that is the first map. The second map is a little bit different, because we're asking which, how many, where each chick you saw was now some wounds can have up to three chicks. And so the most of this process is is the same here I'm going to go ahead actually and put it back on the imagery because that's what I how I like to do it and I'm going to zoom out. I'm going to zoom into these islands here. Now let's I'm going to pretend that this loon pair on watching Lake has two chicks. So for the first chick the process is is very much the same. You zoomed to where you want to go and you click your mouse and the markers should pop up. And then you're done with this one. But if you want to add a second chick you come. There's a plus sign that's next to a number one. On the internet browser. This plus sign is above the map. But if you're using the phone app, this plus sign is below the map. You click the plus sign and it brings you right to where you want to be again, or right to where you were last time. And then the process is the same. And then this chick is over here. Now I can, I can double check that I've got two chicks in here by had by looking above looking to where the numbers are next to the trash can and the plus sign one two means two checks if you only have one chick, then there should only be a number one there. Are there any questions. Did I explain that. Fine. No news is good news. So the rest, the rest of the survey is very much just like the survey form. Except for the pictures if you're using that you're the internet browser, you'll need to have a way to upload those or just to grab them from Google photos or wherever you, you have them and that's easy to do you just click this button here the drop image here or select image. And then you can, if you would like to add a second or third picture you just click the plus sign. If you're using the phone app. I've had some difficulties using the live camera so if you're on your phone actually it gives you the option of taking a picture live while the app is running. If that doesn't work too well with the survey it's better to take the picture with your phone before you enter the survey information, and then you retrieve the picture from your photo library on your phone. And after you filled out everything else you click submit. And it should tell you, voila, you have submitted this successfully. Okay. If you have any questions, you can take it back, Tracy. I'll stop. All right. See, I'll go ahead. So yeah, I'd like to give us a chance to talk. So I just wanted to mention that. That can everyone see my screen. Okay. Yeah. I don't hear anyone. Oh, yes, we can. Okay, great. Yeah, that you can also in addition to monitoring you can also have a game camera we have a number of them, and they can be really helpful for catching things that are just hard to catch so things at night. So this is one of our raccoon on a raft. You can have other critters that are on there. And then you can get a sense of how much disturbance there is by having that we were testing this location. And obviously this wasn't a place where we decided on on keeping a raft. So, yeah, just a lot of people in that area. So it can be a really nice supplement to catch those off hours when you're not there are eyes on the raft. So let me know if anyone's interested in that. I did have something on next steps. So most importantly on this one is our two email addresses so if you're you've been working with main Audubon on loon on loon nesting rafts or signs go ahead and contact us at loon restoration at main Audubon org, or you can contact Maggie at Maggie at main Lakes dot org if you're working with Lakes Environmental Association. So great. So I think yeah that's about all we have I did have one more slide on another project that is not related to us which we can go over if you're interested. So it's called the translocation project there in the final year this year, but they are trying to reestablish some chicks down some of reading population down in Massachusetts so they are taking some chicks from Maine. So, not something that's not our project but it is something that there are chicks that could be taken from lakes throughout Maine. So I just wanted to mention that project so you're aware of it.