This common loon has been marked with a satellite transmitter and geolocator tag.
Luke J Fara
Luke Fara
Science and Products
Visibility correction factors for multiple species of sea ducks and diving ducks using an aerial remote sensing approach
Aerial ocular surveys used by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service provide the most cost and time-efficient method to evaluate the relative abundance and spatial distributions of breeding, staging, and wintering waterbirds. However, the survey method is subject to substantial visibility bias, and visibility correction factors must be calculated to correct for incomplete detection...
Voluntary Waterfowl Avoidance Area
The Mississippi flyway is one of the most important flyways in North America providing habitat for songbirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl, especially the canvasback duck ( Aythya valisineria ), tundra swan ( Cygnus columbianus ), and scaup ( Aythya spp. ). During their migration, it is energetically favorable if migrating birds can rest and refuel in areas without stressors such as hunters, boats...
Code, imagery, and annotations for training a deep learning model to detect wildlife in aerial imagery
There are 3 child zip files included in this data release. 01_Codebase.zip contains a codebase for using deep learning to filter images based on the probability of any bird occurrence. It includes instructions and files necessary for training, validating, and testing a machine learning detection algorithm. 02_Imagery.zip contains imagery that were collected using a Partenavia P68 fixed-wing airpla
Summary of Detection Data for Breeding Common Loons in North-central Minnesota (2023)
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, study lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota were
Images and annotations to automate the classification of avian species
This dataset is a collection of cropped avian images that pair with species identification annotation values.
Summary of Detection Data for Breeding Common Loons in North-central Minnesota (2021-2022) (ver. 1.1, August 2024)
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, study lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota were
Common loon migration and winter data: telemetry locations and archival geolocator tag location (ver 2.0, October 2022)
The data details common loon locations based on archival geolocator tag information, characteristics of common loon dives during wintering, and common loon locations based on telemetry data. Satellite transmitters (Model PTT-100, Microwave Telemetry, Inc) were implanted in 31 adult male (marked during July 2010 and July 2011) and 27 juvenile (marked during August 2014 and August 2015) common loons
Lake Michigan Sea Duck Survey 2009-2014
These data contain observation and null polygons for waterfowl aerial surveys of Lake Michigan collected through the years 2009-2014. Polygons were created adjacent to either side of the flight lines (transects). The right and left offset of the polygons from the flight path, was determined using the average altitude of the plane along the transect and the observation angle through the plane's win
This common loon has been marked with a satellite transmitter and geolocator tag.
Filter Total Items: 14
Restoration of common loon (Gavia immer) in Minnesota—2023 annual report
The Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform exploded on April 20, 2010. The resulting massive oil spill injured natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, including wintering common loons (Gavia immer). We report on activities completed under the “Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota” project in calendar year 2023, which was funded by the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group. In 2022, a su
Authors
William S. Beatty, Kelly Amoth, Katelyn Bergstrom, Luke J. Fara, Brian R. Gray, Steven C. Houdek, Jayden Jech, Kevin P. Kenow, Robert Rabasco, Spencer Rettler, Michael Wellik, Steven Yang
Deep learning workflow to support in-flight processing of digital aerial imagery for wildlife population surveys
Deep learning shows promise for automating detection and classification of wildlife from digital aerial imagery to support cost-efficient remote sensing solutions for wildlife population monitoring. To support in-flight orthorectification and machine learning processing to detect and classify wildlife from imagery in near real-time, we evaluated deep learning methods that address hardware limitati
Authors
Tsung-Wei Ke, Stella X Yu, Mark D. Koneff, David L. Fronczak, Luke J. Fara, Travis Harrison, Kyle Lawrence Landolt, Enrika Hlavacek, Brian R. Lubinski, Timothy White
Dive characteristics of Common Loons wintering in the Gulf of Mexico and off the southern U.S. Atlantic coast
Common Loons (Gavia immer) winter primarily in marine coastal areas and utilize a forage base that is poorly defined, especially for offshore areas. Information on dive activity is needed for describing foraging strategies and for inferring prey distribution. Archival geolocator tags were used to determine the wintering locations and dive characteristics of adult Common Loons captured and marked o
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Gray, Darryl J. Heard, Michael W. Meyer, Timothy J. Fox, Robert J. Kratt, Carrol L. Henderson
Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2022 annual report
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform on April 20, 2010, caused a massive oil spill and injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project “Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota” to restore common loons lost to the spill. Here, we report on
Authors
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Robert Rabasco, Spencer Rettler, Elizabeth Rasmussen, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray, Steven Yang, Kelly Amoth
The relative importance of cisco (Coregonus artedi) in the diets of common loons (Gavia immer) among a set of cisco refuge lakes in Minnesota
Common loon (Gavia immer (Brünnich, 1764)) foraging patterns and the relative importance of cisco (Coregonus artedi Lesueur, 1818) in the diets of loons were evaluated for the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, a set of coldwater cisco refuge lakes in Minnesota, USA. Environmental DNA metabarcoding of loon fecal samples detected 15 fish species. Yellow perch (Perca flavescens (Mitchill, 1814)), mimic shine
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Yer Lor, Beth V. Holbrook, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Tariq Tajjioui, Brian R. Gray, Peter C. Jacobson
Challenges and solutions for automated avian recognition in aerial imagery
Remote aerial sensing provides a non-invasive, large geographical-scale technology for avian monitoring, but the manual processing of images limits its development and applications. Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods can be used to mitigate this manual image processing requirement. The implementation of AI methods, however, has several challenges: (1) imbalanced (i.e., long-tailed) data distribu
Authors
Zhonqgi Miao, Stella X Yu, Kyle Lawrence Landolt, Mark D. Koneff, Timothy White, Luke J. Fara, Enrika Hlavacek, Bradley A. Pickens, Travis J. Harrison, Wayne M. Getz
Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2021 annual report
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, priority lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota we
Authors
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray
Sea duck joint venture key site atlas entries: Garden Peninsula; Green Bay and Bay de Nocs; Southeast Lake Michigan; Sleeping Bear Dunes
No abstract available.
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Lubinski
Migration patterns and wintering distribution of common loons breeding in the Upper Midwest
Identification of geographic linkages among breeding, migratory and wintering common loon Gavia immer populations is needed to inform regional and national conservation planning efforts and compensation of loons lost during marine oil spill events. Satellite telemetry and archival geolocator tags were used to determine the migration patterns and wintering locations of breeding adult and young of t
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Gray, Darryl J. Heard, Michael W. Meyer, Timothy J. Fox, Robert Kratt, Scott L. Ford, Anette Gendron-Fitzpatrick, Carrol L. Henderson
Assessing year‐round habitat use by migratory sea ducks in a multi‐species context reveals seasonal variation in habitat selection and partitioning
Long‐distance migration presents complex conservation challenges, and migratory species often experience shortfalls in conservation due to the difficulty of identifying important locations and resources throughout the annual cycle. In order to prioritize habitats for conservation of migratory wildlife, it is necessary to understand how habitat needs change throughout the annual cycle, as well as t
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Peter WC Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin P. Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael L. Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. McWilliams
Implanted satellite transmitters affect sea duck movement patterns at short- and long-term time scales
Studies of the effects of transmitters on wildlife often focus on survival. However, non-lethal behavioral changes resulting from radiomarking have the potential to affect inferences from telemetry data and may vary based on individual and environmental characteristics. We used a long-term, multi-species tracking study of sea ducks to assess behavioral patterns at multiple temporal scales followin
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Peter WC Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin P. Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael L. Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. McWilliams
Patterns of mercury and selenium exposure in Minnesota common loons
Common loons (Gavia immer) are at risk of elevated dietary mercury (Hg) exposure in portions of their breeding range. To assess the level of risk among loons in Minnesota (USA), we investigated loon blood Hg concentrations in breeding lakes across Minnesota. Loon blood Hg concentrations were regressed on predicted Hg concentrations in standardized 12‐cm whole‐organism yellow perch (Perca flavescen
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Steven C. Houdek, Luke J. Fara, Richard A. Erickson, Brian R. Gray, Travis J. Harrison, Bruce Monson, Carrol L. Henderson
Science and Products
Visibility correction factors for multiple species of sea ducks and diving ducks using an aerial remote sensing approach
Aerial ocular surveys used by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service provide the most cost and time-efficient method to evaluate the relative abundance and spatial distributions of breeding, staging, and wintering waterbirds. However, the survey method is subject to substantial visibility bias, and visibility correction factors must be calculated to correct for incomplete detection...
Voluntary Waterfowl Avoidance Area
The Mississippi flyway is one of the most important flyways in North America providing habitat for songbirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl, especially the canvasback duck ( Aythya valisineria ), tundra swan ( Cygnus columbianus ), and scaup ( Aythya spp. ). During their migration, it is energetically favorable if migrating birds can rest and refuel in areas without stressors such as hunters, boats...
Code, imagery, and annotations for training a deep learning model to detect wildlife in aerial imagery
There are 3 child zip files included in this data release. 01_Codebase.zip contains a codebase for using deep learning to filter images based on the probability of any bird occurrence. It includes instructions and files necessary for training, validating, and testing a machine learning detection algorithm. 02_Imagery.zip contains imagery that were collected using a Partenavia P68 fixed-wing airpla
Summary of Detection Data for Breeding Common Loons in North-central Minnesota (2023)
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, study lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota were
Images and annotations to automate the classification of avian species
This dataset is a collection of cropped avian images that pair with species identification annotation values.
Summary of Detection Data for Breeding Common Loons in North-central Minnesota (2021-2022) (ver. 1.1, August 2024)
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, study lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota were
Common loon migration and winter data: telemetry locations and archival geolocator tag location (ver 2.0, October 2022)
The data details common loon locations based on archival geolocator tag information, characteristics of common loon dives during wintering, and common loon locations based on telemetry data. Satellite transmitters (Model PTT-100, Microwave Telemetry, Inc) were implanted in 31 adult male (marked during July 2010 and July 2011) and 27 juvenile (marked during August 2014 and August 2015) common loons
Lake Michigan Sea Duck Survey 2009-2014
These data contain observation and null polygons for waterfowl aerial surveys of Lake Michigan collected through the years 2009-2014. Polygons were created adjacent to either side of the flight lines (transects). The right and left offset of the polygons from the flight path, was determined using the average altitude of the plane along the transect and the observation angle through the plane's win
Tagged Common Loon
This common loon has been marked with a satellite transmitter and geolocator tag.
This common loon has been marked with a satellite transmitter and geolocator tag.
Filter Total Items: 14
Restoration of common loon (Gavia immer) in Minnesota—2023 annual report
The Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform exploded on April 20, 2010. The resulting massive oil spill injured natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, including wintering common loons (Gavia immer). We report on activities completed under the “Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota” project in calendar year 2023, which was funded by the Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group. In 2022, a su
Authors
William S. Beatty, Kelly Amoth, Katelyn Bergstrom, Luke J. Fara, Brian R. Gray, Steven C. Houdek, Jayden Jech, Kevin P. Kenow, Robert Rabasco, Spencer Rettler, Michael Wellik, Steven Yang
Deep learning workflow to support in-flight processing of digital aerial imagery for wildlife population surveys
Deep learning shows promise for automating detection and classification of wildlife from digital aerial imagery to support cost-efficient remote sensing solutions for wildlife population monitoring. To support in-flight orthorectification and machine learning processing to detect and classify wildlife from imagery in near real-time, we evaluated deep learning methods that address hardware limitati
Authors
Tsung-Wei Ke, Stella X Yu, Mark D. Koneff, David L. Fronczak, Luke J. Fara, Travis Harrison, Kyle Lawrence Landolt, Enrika Hlavacek, Brian R. Lubinski, Timothy White
Dive characteristics of Common Loons wintering in the Gulf of Mexico and off the southern U.S. Atlantic coast
Common Loons (Gavia immer) winter primarily in marine coastal areas and utilize a forage base that is poorly defined, especially for offshore areas. Information on dive activity is needed for describing foraging strategies and for inferring prey distribution. Archival geolocator tags were used to determine the wintering locations and dive characteristics of adult Common Loons captured and marked o
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Gray, Darryl J. Heard, Michael W. Meyer, Timothy J. Fox, Robert J. Kratt, Carrol L. Henderson
Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2022 annual report
The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon mobile drilling platform on April 20, 2010, caused a massive oil spill and injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico. Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project “Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota” to restore common loons lost to the spill. Here, we report on
Authors
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Robert Rabasco, Spencer Rettler, Elizabeth Rasmussen, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray, Steven Yang, Kelly Amoth
The relative importance of cisco (Coregonus artedi) in the diets of common loons (Gavia immer) among a set of cisco refuge lakes in Minnesota
Common loon (Gavia immer (Brünnich, 1764)) foraging patterns and the relative importance of cisco (Coregonus artedi Lesueur, 1818) in the diets of loons were evaluated for the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, a set of coldwater cisco refuge lakes in Minnesota, USA. Environmental DNA metabarcoding of loon fecal samples detected 15 fish species. Yellow perch (Perca flavescens (Mitchill, 1814)), mimic shine
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Yer Lor, Beth V. Holbrook, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Tariq Tajjioui, Brian R. Gray, Peter C. Jacobson
Challenges and solutions for automated avian recognition in aerial imagery
Remote aerial sensing provides a non-invasive, large geographical-scale technology for avian monitoring, but the manual processing of images limits its development and applications. Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods can be used to mitigate this manual image processing requirement. The implementation of AI methods, however, has several challenges: (1) imbalanced (i.e., long-tailed) data distribu
Authors
Zhonqgi Miao, Stella X Yu, Kyle Lawrence Landolt, Mark D. Koneff, Timothy White, Luke J. Fara, Enrika Hlavacek, Bradley A. Pickens, Travis J. Harrison, Wayne M. Getz
Restoration of Gavia immer (common loon) in Minnesota—2021 annual report
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused extensive injury to natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico, and Gavia immer (common loon) were negatively affected from the spill. The Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group funded the project Restoration of Common Loons in Minnesota to restore common loons lost to the spill. In 2020–21, priority lakes in an eight-county region in north-central Minnesota we
Authors
William S. Beatty, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Kevin P. Kenow, Brian R. Gray
Sea duck joint venture key site atlas entries: Garden Peninsula; Green Bay and Bay de Nocs; Southeast Lake Michigan; Sleeping Bear Dunes
No abstract available.
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Lubinski
Migration patterns and wintering distribution of common loons breeding in the Upper Midwest
Identification of geographic linkages among breeding, migratory and wintering common loon Gavia immer populations is needed to inform regional and national conservation planning efforts and compensation of loons lost during marine oil spill events. Satellite telemetry and archival geolocator tags were used to determine the migration patterns and wintering locations of breeding adult and young of t
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Luke J. Fara, Steven C. Houdek, Brian R. Gray, Darryl J. Heard, Michael W. Meyer, Timothy J. Fox, Robert Kratt, Scott L. Ford, Anette Gendron-Fitzpatrick, Carrol L. Henderson
Assessing year‐round habitat use by migratory sea ducks in a multi‐species context reveals seasonal variation in habitat selection and partitioning
Long‐distance migration presents complex conservation challenges, and migratory species often experience shortfalls in conservation due to the difficulty of identifying important locations and resources throughout the annual cycle. In order to prioritize habitats for conservation of migratory wildlife, it is necessary to understand how habitat needs change throughout the annual cycle, as well as t
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Peter WC Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin P. Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael L. Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. McWilliams
Implanted satellite transmitters affect sea duck movement patterns at short- and long-term time scales
Studies of the effects of transmitters on wildlife often focus on survival. However, non-lethal behavioral changes resulting from radiomarking have the potential to affect inferences from telemetry data and may vary based on individual and environmental characteristics. We used a long-term, multi-species tracking study of sea ducks to assess behavioral patterns at multiple temporal scales followin
Authors
Juliet S. Lamb, Peter WC Paton, Jason E. Osenkowski, Shannon S. Badzinski, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, Chris Dwyer, Luke J. Fara, Scott G. Gilliland, Kevin P. Kenow, Christine Lepage, Mark L. Mallory, Glenn H. Olsen, Matthew Perry, Scott A. Petrie, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Michael L. Schummer, Caleb S. Spiegel, Scott R. McWilliams
Patterns of mercury and selenium exposure in Minnesota common loons
Common loons (Gavia immer) are at risk of elevated dietary mercury (Hg) exposure in portions of their breeding range. To assess the level of risk among loons in Minnesota (USA), we investigated loon blood Hg concentrations in breeding lakes across Minnesota. Loon blood Hg concentrations were regressed on predicted Hg concentrations in standardized 12‐cm whole‐organism yellow perch (Perca flavescen
Authors
Kevin P. Kenow, Steven C. Houdek, Luke J. Fara, Richard A. Erickson, Brian R. Gray, Travis J. Harrison, Bruce Monson, Carrol L. Henderson