Moving on to a very exciting presentation. I'm going to ask David Miller from the Range of Lace Heritage Trust to jump on and introduce this, our virtual loon cruise. And I will say just before David starts that we have a very exciting special guest for the second half of this hour. The video will last for just over half an hour. And then I have asked, on the last minute, Maine Audubon's wildlife ecologist, Tracy Hart, to join us. Tracy manages our Maine Audubon loon count and knows all about loons. So she will be on the second half of the hour to help answer questions and talk about Maine Audubon's work with the loons. So I'm going to start sharing my screen. If David, you'd like to do an introduction. Thanks, Nick. Yeah, I just want to give you a couple minutes of context around this loon cruise. So we went out last Sunday morning on Rangeley Lake with Kevin Sinet, who runs a series of loon cruises during the summer. Rangeley Regional Lace, cruises and kayaking, it's called. We're joined by two biologists, one Danielle Daria from Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, who may be on this Zoom call. And Alex Dalton from the Biodiversity Research Institute, both tons of experience on loons. It was a stormy, relatively cold, windy day. But we got great footage thanks to Maine Mountain Media, who turned this around in about 48 hours into a finished production. So sit back and enjoy and come up and see us next year. Come up any time to take a loon cruise with Kevin. This area has a wealth of loons and other wildlife as we've been hearing about. So please sit back and enjoy. So we do some introductions around the circle first. For myself, David Miller, I'm the director of Maine Lake Saturday's Trust. I've been here for about two years or so. And consider it like the best job in the world, as far as I know. That's me. I'm Danielle Dioria, I'm with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. And I'm in our bird group. So I specialize on birds like loons and herons and other marsh birds and weeding birds. I'm Amanda Lilliberty. I do programs in Ponds for Rich Lake Service Trust. I'm Alex Dalton. I work with the Biodiversity Research Institute. And we do loon monitoring and rat deployment on rat wars in this area, as well as surveys nesting loons on smaller lakes and ponds throughout the range of the region. Rihanna Sennett, with Rangely Region Light Cruises. My daughter Rihanna, Kevin, the owner of Rangely Region Light Cruises, here living in Oquacic. Welcome aboard the Oquacic lady, too. So I'm Danielle Dioria, I'm a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. And one of the species that I focus on for the department are loons. And our role with managing loons in the state is more of like a facilitation and coordination role. We work with a lot of other partner organizations and researchers and just kind of make sure that what everybody's doing kind of makes sense. And we are kind of in charge of understanding their population on a statewide level. So that's where working with other partners really is an efficient way of doing that with such a large state and such a large loon population. Yeah, my name is Alex Dalton. I'm a wildlife biologist with the Biodiversity Research Institute. I've been studying loons with BRI since 2015. It's with my time split between Massachusetts and Northern New England here in Maine. And I've been the field supervisor for this project since 2016. And the work that we do centers around the loon population in the Range of the Lakes region, primarily deploying and maintaining nest rafts on some of the hydropower reservoirs in the region as a mitigation strategy against the effects of fluctuating water level on loon nesting. And we also study loons on small ponds and lakes throughout this region and have been banding loons in the Rangeley region since the mid-90s. I think 1994 is the first loon that Dave Evers, my CEO, banded up here. And we've been color banding loons ever since. That's a huge part of my job up here. You can stand at the high ponds. You can see it flying in and out of here. Another eagle flying over there. Another eagle flying. Yep. A late July last year, one of our wardens got a call of a dead bald eagle floating on Highland Lake in Bridgeton. And when he went out to check it out, he also found a dead loon chick right nearby. And so, you know, it was kind of interesting, but as always with eagles, we usually, if we collected dead bald eagle that we're not sure what happened to it, we want to know if it was shot. So he took it to a vet to get x-rayed. There was no sign of the eagle being shot, but they did notice a wound to its chest. And, you know, something had hit its chest and opened it up a little bit. So, you know, they collected the eagle and the loon chick and then we were kind of wondering what happened with having a dead loon chick next to a dead eagle. It seemed like most likely something happened to the eagle because of that dead loon chick, that the eagle had most likely gone after the loon chick and that possibly the adult loon had actually gone after the eagle. So we took, we collected both the eagle and the chick. We took them to a lab in Hampshire that did a necropsy, which is basically an autopsy on a wild animal to see what actually happened. And we wanted them to pay close attention to that wound to the eagle's chest and see if it was consistent at all with the beak of a loon because we know loons will attack whether it's each other or potential predators with their beak. They'll come up from under the water at full speed and come up towards the chest of another loon or maybe another duck or something else that's in the area. And sure enough, the measurements and everything of that opening in the eagle's chest and its sternum were consistent with a loon's bill. So we're, and it went straight to the heart of the eagle so that eagle died pretty instantly. And we're pretty sure that it was most likely the adult loon that actually stabbed the eagle in the chest and killed it instantly. And it was most likely because the eagle had gone after the chick. There were puncture wounds in the chick that were consistent with an eagle's talons. So that loon was trying to fend off the eagle and protect possibly its other chick as well. So the major threats to loons in Maine and even in the Northeast and throughout their range. One of the big ones that we're seeing is lead poisoning. And that's from things like lead fishing tackle. So a lot of states, including Maine, have implemented new regulations that outlaw certain sizes of lead fishing tackle that loons are susceptible to picking up whether it's picking up lead from the bottom of the lake. They pick up stones to help digest their food. And so sometimes they might pick up a lead sinker or a jig or they might actually go after a fish that a line has been cut. And so there's still lead tackle attached to that fish. So that's one of the major causes of loon mortality, at least amongst our adult population or healthy loon adult population. We see a lot of boat strikes and that's becoming more common these days where just people aren't paying attention to what's out there. And so we're seeing blunt trauma, whether from a boat or even from other loons or other predators, things striking them. There's sometimes fishing line entanglement that will cause a loon to die because it prevents them from being able to feed and take care of itself. So in Maine right now, we're actually, we have a program, we've partnered with Maine Audubon to implement a program called the Lead Tackle Buyback Program where anglers can go to certain retailers, bring in some of their lead fishing tackle and they actually get a voucher for $10 for an ounce of lead. And that can go towards buying non-lead tackle. So that's a way to try to get people to get rid of their lead tackle and use non-lead tackle in fishing. Loons are a northern breeding species so anything that's gonna affect both the temperature, the intensity of storms, that kind of thing could have an effect on loons and their ability to nest successfully and raise young successfully. So in some areas, they've done studies where the higher temperatures and higher frequency of rainfalls or intensity of storms is actually negatively affecting nesting and even things, certain parasites that might come with climate change, come with increased temperatures in certain regions. These things move around globally so they can become more susceptible to new pathogens and parasites as our climate is changing. Alex can also speak to this as well but so Biodiversity Research Institute has a program called Restore the Call where they've actually taken loon chicks from states where they have a healthy loon population and brought them translocated to Massachusetts where they're trying to reestablish their loon population and increase their loon population. And so by capturing chicks in Maine they can transport them quickly down to Massachusetts. They raise them in pens on a lake. It's actually a lake complex where there's plenty of opportunities for loons to nest. So the hope is that those loons that are released and released on those lakes down in Massachusetts will return in a couple of years to start breeding down there. So they're trying to reestablish the population down there. They have a limited population. They used to have more, so. With this translocation effort we've translocated 24 loon chicks from Upstate New York in Maine to southeastern Massachusetts. And as of, well, as of earlier this week we have eight chicks that have returned as adults and there's actually one individual from Greenville Cove here on Rangeley Lake that is now part of a territorial pair in southeastern Massachusetts. So I would call that a success so far. We haven't seen any nesting yet but it's still a little early for them. And that was a chick that was translocated in 2017 and now it's already back out and part of a territorial pair in southeastern Massachusetts. So early results are, it's looking pretty good. What we're seeing here right now, you know, the pair together at the nest site and one loon sitting on the nest, pulling that nest material in, it is really uncommon to stumble across that situation. I mean, just the likelihood of it happening when we happen to be out here is pretty wild. And it is quite a treat to see here at the Rangeley birding festival. They take turns and it's pretty equally split from studies that we've done, just looking at who's sitting on the nest more often with gamecams, it's pretty equally split. And as far as like finding the nest site, it's something they will also do together. If they're already sitting up here, they've probably laid an egg, if not two already. And the typical incubation period is around 28 days. You say 28 to 32. And yeah. So in a month, we can expect to see some checks out here. If everything goes well and the water level doesn't come up too much and that eagle over there doesn't come after them too much. Earlier than this, you know, if we were out here just a couple of days ago, we would maybe have seen them swimming together, poking into little coves on the shoreline, investigating real estate, doing some tire kicking and eventually they settle on a spot. Our banding studies and other banding studies have shown that loons don't mate for life. And I think the average partnership, you know, span is around five years before they start to change over. But, you know, some pairs have been together longer and some pairs are only together for a year. And we even have it happen that partners switch over the course of the nesting season. So the oldest band loon on this project or in this region is on on Vagog Lake and she is now 32 and at least 32 because she was banded as an adult. And typically when a loon is banded as an adult, we assume that while they've been an adult breeding plumage for a couple of years before they actually started nesting. So we add six years to that. So we say she's at least 32 but could be much older than that. We need to establish a breeding territory to find a mate, establish a breeding territory. The first two to three years of their lives are out on the ocean before even coming back to their natal lakes. And then when they get to their natal lake, it's not assured that they're gonna have a nesting territory. And if you get to some lakes that have a higher density of loons, there's a lot of competition for nesting territory. And which, you know, I'm sure anybody who's watched loons on this boat has eventually at some point seen two loons kind of going at it with each other. And so finding a partner, establishing a territory and actually getting around to mating, we say about six years. And I wanna say, I just heard there was a banded loon in Michigan. It was either in Michigan or Wisconsin. I think it's 34, which yeah, it's quite impressive. And really though, we've only been banding loons since the late 80s. That's, so it could be a lot longer. We just don't know yet. Most common reason for loon relationships breaking up. Wow. Probably a lack of communication, you know? There's not one aggressor when it comes to breaking up loon nesting pairs. Males and females both fight each other. They both fight, you know, other territorial loons. And so, you know, often what will happen is that an older bird and the older bird in the nesting pair will eventually get forced out by some younger loon and that wants that territory. And the thing is, is the territory, it's a territory more than even the mating partner. It seems like, but you know, I'd still default to lack of communication, you know. So ways that people can help loons. One thing is they can get involved in the main loon count. It's an annual count where volunteers go out on lakes all across the state and count how many adults and chicks are out there. It's like a half hour event, a third Saturday in July, and that's run by Maine Audubon. And then other programs, lake owners can sign up to be loon smart. So there's certain things they can do on their property that help provide habitat for loons or at least protect the water quality of that lake. And so that's one thing that lake landowners can participate in. One important thing to remember, while out on the lakes and ponds here in Maine and admiring loons as they are something to admire is to give them their space. They come up here to breed and raise chicks and raise a family. And it's important that we give them their distance to do that. And so if you see a loon sitting on shore, just paddle away or back away from it, give it plenty of space, a few hundred feet.  They come here to do one thing and that's not getting pestered by us. So they will appreciate it and we will too. Loons can tell us a lot about our own environmental health. They're at the top of their food web and in that they are an indicator species of many environmental contaminants that our environment might be subject to. And one big one is mercury. Mercury in the Northeast has affected loon populations since the 70s, if not before. And a huge reason for that is that industry in the Midwest produces particulate mercury into the atmosphere and prevailing wind currents bring that mercury to New England. And when that mercury is in the air as particulate, it comes out as rain into our environment, into wetland environments and lakes where bacteria in the soil actually make that mercury what we call bio available. And it goes into plankton, it goes into fish, it goes into loons and it accumulates in loons because they're a long life species that predominantly eats fish. So when we go out and ban loons, we're also taking blood samples and feather samples to look for contaminants like mercury. And our studies have shown and given us insight as to how environmentally healthy one lake is versus another due to particulate and accumulated mercury in that system. So loons play a vital role in their food web which also helps us to better understand the overall health of the food web in these aquatic ecosystems here in Maine. South Bog conservation area is about 1,000 acres. It's a true working forest, which means that we actively log it through according to our forestry management plan. We have just about five miles of trail that may enter along the South Bog stream. And we've put a lot of time and effort into South Bog stream. It is the only natural spawning ground for native brook trout in Rangeley Lake along with the trails that are offered on South Bog. It also offers a lot for birding, for fly fishing and for paddling. It's a very shallow, shallow cove leading into it. And so the plant life is unbelievable. It's a garden in the summer and definitely a nesting ground for birds. And as we saw earlier, eagles and moose can often be seen there. Rangeley Lake's Heritage Trust was founded in 1991. Since that time, we have conserved over 14,000 acres. Those 14,000 acres are open for public enjoyment. They're open from dawn till dusk and free for recreation of all types. Birding, fishing, kayaking, and many of our lands are open to traditional hunting. So I'd like to tell you just a little bit about the Rangeley Lakes region. So in the region, we have six major lakes, Rangeley Lake among them and Moose Lake McGundig right across from us. About 112 lakes and ponds, I think, in total. And five rivers we consider to be some of the best rivers in Maine and some of the best brook trout habitat in the United States. An interesting thing about Rangeley that's becoming better known is that we sit in the way in Maine's Western Mountains which sit in the middle of the longest continuous temperate forest in North America. And in the future, this area is going to get more and more attention for its biodiversity, its wildlife, and its resilience in the face of climate change. Let me just say a few words about Rangeley Lake's Heritage Trust. So we're one of many, many land trusts in Maine and in the United States. Our mission is to conserve land for the benefit of the community and future generations. So we're responsible when we say land for the lands and waters of this region. We own about 5,000 acres. We manage another 9,000 acres. And Roel is looking to see how we can engage the community because we believe in the idea that there's no real conservation long-term in this country without community engagement. So we spend a whole lot of time engaging the community and activities both around conservation and outdoor recreation. When it comes to water and the lakes and rivers, for the first year ever, we're employing a river ambassador on the Rapid River and the McGowley River to represent the interests of the river and the interest of conservation in general. Beyond that, we have about 60 to 100 volunteers every year who monitor for water quality and clarity on the lake and we employ three to five courtesy boat inspectors to inspect boats and educate the public about introducing or not introducing invasive species into our lakes, which are some of the best, cleanest, most beautiful lakes in the country. My name is Kevin Sennett. My wife and I and daughter run Rangeley Region Lake Cruises. We've been off in cruises here on Rangeley Lake for the past 12 years now. It's our 12th year. We just enjoy getting our guests and visitors out. This is, we feel anyway, one of the ways that families, particularly you can get out on the boat, groups of six, eight people that come up to the area to learn about the beautiful lakes of Rangeley, the mountains, and of course, viewing wildlife, the loons in particular. A very occasional rare, I should say, moose swimming across the lake, which we've had a couple of three times, but primarily the bald eagles, the common loons, especially when they have their chicks and some of the other waterfowl that we see on the lakes. So it's fun to get them out. We also do a lot of history of the Rangeley area, which is of course, longstanding with the railroads, the old hotels that were all on the lakes, steam boats that steamed on the lake. So we mix history with the outdoor, waterfowl wildlife that we tend to see here. And of course, like every business in town, promote the area and market and recommend other areas for people to see, go out and hike, visit their heritage trust properties for hiking. I also coordinate the Rangeley Lake annual loon count for Maine Audubon. We've been doing that now for three years. I range for volunteers on the lake to spot the loons from the shoreline on the third Saturday every July for the annual loon count. And then I will take some of a group of people out on the boat to cover areas that aren't covered by Lakeshore volunteers. So we have 100% coverage on Rangeley Lake for the annual loon count, which is pretty impressive. 32 loons we counted last year that Saturday morning, an unbelievable number for Rangeley Lake. I do wanna mention the Heritage Trust this year has assumed the role as a Region 11 coordinator for the entire area, not just Rangeley Lake, but the many lakes and ponds in the area. Elena, I believe is her name, is volunteered or has taken that responsibility on, which is very nice for coordinating the count of the loons. So we do loon education cruises and photography cruises as well. So it's all part of trying to promote our region to guests, obviously to get them to come to our beautiful area and hopefully come up and stay and enjoy Rangeley Lake the rest of us too. Sick, thank you for sticking with us. I wanna thank a lot of people for making that happen. The Rangeley Lake Heritage Trust, of course, Maine Mountain Media who went out and filmed that on a very short notice that was filmed this past weekend and they put it all together, edited it all together, put the music in, et cetera, just in the last couple of days and so thank you so much to Maine Mountain Media. They are online at MaineMountainMedia.com if you wanna go check out their other work or hire them for a project. Also wanna thank, of course, Kevin Sinit and Rangeley Region Lakes Cruises and Kayaking. If you are coming to the festival next year or up in Rangeley for any time, please go jump on a boat with them. They're at rangeley-lakes.com and of course, thank you to Biodiversity Research Institute, BRI and DIF and W, Maine State Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for coming out and educating us. We have some time left and I want to bring on my colleague, Tracy Hart. Tracy, who I'm asking to start your video now is a wildlife ecologist at Maine Audubon. Hello, everyone. Hi. Hi, I can hear you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on a little bit last minute. So I wanna open it up now to, well, I'll let Tracy introduce herself and introduce the work she does for Maine Audubon and for our loon count. If you have questions for Tracy or for anybody, for me, about loons, please put them in the chat below and we will get to it. So, Tracy, please introduce yourself. Great, thank you. Yeah, I'll keep it short, just ask questions, but yeah, my name's Tracy Hart and I've been on staff at Maine Audubon for about a year now. Been through one loon count season. So I'm the coordinator of the Maine Loon Project in addition to some other projects involving forest songbirds. And so the thing that we're doing now is we've gotten our packets out to all of our regional coordinators and are getting ready as 10 materials out to about over 1,300 loon counters. So they will fan out across more than 350 lakes and count moons on the third Saturday of July from 7 to 730. And from the count, we're able to get a population estimate for the southern half of the state. We also count lakes in the northern half of the state. We just don't have enough coverage to get a full population estimate up there, hoping to change that with your help. So if anyone's interested, we'd love to bring you on to the loon count. Yeah, Kevinson has done an amazing job of getting full coverage on a huge lake, like the Lake. And we're really excited to have Alaina McNally this year coordinating for the entire region, which includes Mooslick, McGuntick and many other lakes in the area. So with that, we also run, I think Danielle had mentioned that we are partnering with Revenland Fisheries and Wildlife with a grant from Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund to do a lead buyback program. So you can go to three different retailers currently, five in our pilot program by the end of the year. And you can submit an ounce of lead tackle and get a $10 voucher to buy some non-led alternatives. Yeah, so I guess that's probably a good introduction and be excited to just answer questions about the loon population or anything else. Sure, and if you have questions, please put them in the chat. Thanks, Tracy. I have one question for you based on one of the comments. Elizabeth said, the boaters on Lovewell's pond in Freiburg intrude on loon families and nesting sites. Can you talk a little bit, Tracy, about how someone can tell if they are too close to a loon or are otherwise not acting appropriately? Yes, yeah, loons, some people ask us how far away they should be from a loon. And instead of giving a set guideline on distance, we say that the loons tell you when you're too close. So there are several behaviors you can look for. If a loon is on the nest and it's crouching down, it looks like it's about to slip into the water. It's heads down, it's really low. That means the loon is disturbed and it's thinking of leaving its nest, which leaves the eggs exposed, either to predators or to the elements. Another way, if you're on the water, you can, they will sometimes do what's called a penguin dance. And that means they've wings and stand up and move across the water. And that is another sign. And often that'll be accompanied by a call called a yodel. So if you hear that, that's another sign. Also if loons are relaxed, they will just be looking around and have their head down. But if you see them really alert with their head raised up, that's another sign that loons are distressed. Paying attention to you. So those are some primary ones. Good info, thanks. So can you talk a little bit? I sort of have a slide queued up. This is a bit of a softball for you. Can you talk about how the loon count and the work that may not have on and our partners have done to work to protect loons and remove some of the threats to them. How that has gone over the life of the loon count. Right, yep.  I'll bring up the slide whenever you're ready. Perfect, go for it. All right. It'll be easier to show how the population trends have gone with the slide. Okay, so that's the slide. So this information is all derived from loon counters. And it's showing the yellow shows adult loon population from when the loon count started. And this shows 1984. Oh, actually this one's not the current trend. We have 2019 on there, but that's okay. It's similar trend. So it's gone from 1983 to last year. And the adult loon population has increased by about 70% in that time. So it's been a huge success story. And that we attribute that to a bunch of different reasons. One is there, a wake law was put in place. And what that does is has, it wasn't actually derived for loons, but it was to protect shoreline property from erosion. But it boat operators are not allowed to go above wake producing speeds if they're within 200 feet of shore. And that's done a lot to keep nests from flooding and has helped the loon population a lot. We also attribute it to the loon tackle lead band. So right now the scale and use of lead sinkers and lead jigs that are one ounce or less or measuring two and a half inches or less is banned in Maine. And that is addressing one of the leading causes of mortality, adult loon mortality in the state. And then just the actions of local lake associations has done a tremendous amount.  Great. Tracy, I have a question from Diane. Are loons protected by law? And what can we do if we see someone harassing them? Yes, they are, yeah. Loons are protected from being harassed. What you should do is call a warden at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife if you see, they are protected from that harassment. There's also protections under the migratory bird treaty act at the federal level. Great. If you have additional questions, please throw them down in the chat. We have a few minutes left. Tracy, can you talk a little bit more about the lead buyback program? Do you know, I don't want to put you on the spot, which stores are participating in the buyback or where people can bring their tackle? Yeah, I should actually, let me see if I can bring up the flyer so that people can see it. Do you think I can share my screen? Sure. Hold on one second. Yeah. Yeah, before you do that. I saw that Hannah's on, too. So I mean, she might be able to save us here. Sorry, I'm putting you on the spot. And now it looks like she may have frozen. So anyway, look at mainautobahn.org under our loon count pages. You can see the flyer about where to bring back your tackle to get a voucher for safe tackle, non-led tackle. This is a really important issue. Oh, and we got the question from, oh, Tracy, are you still there? It looks like Tracy is frozen. But Mary asked a question, although the loon number of, this is a question we were hoping for. And it's a bummer that Tracy is frozen for this. This is a question we get a lot. Although the number of loon adults has increased quite a bit, the number of loon chicks has not increased by much. Why is that? And I really hope Tracy comes back to help answer that question, which I know she thinks about a lot. So let's save that, because I know she's trying to get back in. Let me see what the next question is. Are there other laws for private reduction for loons other than the migratory bird treaty? So thanks, Nick. Loons are protected under state law. One law that may not have helped pass a few years ago, as you've been hearing, is the law that prohibits lead, bear-led sinkers and jigs. The issue with how loons get lead in their body is that loons don't have teeth, right? And so they need a way to sort of grind up their food that they eat. They eat these fish whole. And so what they do is they dive down to the bottom of the lake bed and gather little stones and rocks and get them in their gizzard.  It's like sort of a teeth inside their body. As folks are fishing and they are using lead fishing tackle and it drops off their line, which we all know happens, that those lead things will just sit at the bottom and look exactly like any other pebble or rock at the bottom of the lake. So loons will actually dive down, trying to gather stones to get in their gizzard and they will eat lead, they will ingest lead that way. That's how loons are getting in their bodies. So anyway, one of the laws we passed was to outlaw, let's try to outlaw lead fishing tackle. There's a bit of a loophole in that bill, which was passed a while ago, which does not prohibit painted lead. So if it's just sort of the regular unpainted silver, that's banned, but stuff with paint on it is not. That's a loophole that we need clothes. And so when we're talking about other laws that provide protection, closing a loophole for painted lead is something that we need to work on because the paint does nothing to sort of inhibit the danger of lead. So let me see here, thank you, Hannah, for jumping on. Participating retailers in the lead buyback program, Indian Hill Trading Post, which is in Moose Head Lake, DAGS, Bait Shop in Auburn and Backwoods, Bait and Tackle in Chesterville. So thank you very much. If you're living near and near those places and want to do something good for loons, bring them on back. Are there places in Maine where there's a big gap in the water? Are there places in Maine where there's a big gap in loon counters that our audience members could help? That's a question for Tracy. So I'll make sure to ask her that if she can get back on. Let me see if she has rejoined. I don't see her. Kevin, Maine has the second largest population of common loons in the country, but behind Minnesota, where's the state bird? Way to go Maine, we're doing it. And it's a population that's on the rise up. And Nick, yours do other laws for technical loons from harassing. That's another one for Tracy. So sorry for the technical snafu there with Tracy. I will make sure to get her all these questions and we will reach back out. Perhaps I can answer them on tomorrow morning's session. And that may be a good transition right now. Let's transition. We're ending the first morning of the Range of the Birding Festival. I want to thank you all very much. And David, maybe if I could have you jump back on the video. There you go. Thank you so much for joining us. That's just fantastic. We've had over 100 people all morning on the festival, which is great. Again, this is no substitute we realized for the actual in-person festival. We hope you can join us next year, which will be exponentially more fun. And we won't have to worry about technical snafu's or any of that stuff. We'll just be looking for birds. And a reminder quickly of the schedule tomorrow morning. We're starting again at 9 a.m. with Bois. Yours truly. Talking about populations of Maine birds that have risen and fallen over the years and why that's happening. So that'll be at nine to 10. I'm starting at 10. We have a rangely-based photographer, Nick Ledley, touchthewildphotos.com, Outstanding Wildlife Photographer. He will be giving a Wildlife Photography 101 presentation, which will be great. And then finally from 11 to noon is Professor Brian Olson from the University of Maine, our keynote speech, talking about lumps and splits, birding field guides, and species of birds. Brian is a very entertaining guy, very entertaining speaker, so we're looking forward to that. I did see one question. Do we know the dates for next year's festival? I don't think so, we know yet. David's shaking his head, we don't, but it'll be this early part of June, first weekend, somewhere around there. So keep that timeframe open. David, do you wanna say a few more words when we head out? I just wanna thank you and all of our presenters and everybody for joining us. And please come on up this summer too, if you want a nice socially distanced experience of birding. Doug really pointed out well what a wealth we have up here, so thanks everyone for being part of this. All right, thank you. Well, with that, I'm gonna end morning one of the Range of the Birding Festival. Thank you again so much for joining. There is a different Zoom link for tomorrow morning session, so that should be found in the registration email that you got back from the Heritage Trust. And if not, we'll be posting links on Maine Audubon's social media, Facebook and Twitter tomorrow morning. So we hope we see you back. Have a great day and thanks again.


Hey guys, Eric Eric.com here and today we're going to be playing some Maple Story. For this series I'm going to be playing my Jett. I've wanted to play Jett for a while now. I've been funneling items and resources into this character for the past few months and with Savior out I figured that would be a good time to just go for it. So yeah, this is going to be my new main. This is going to be a long series I think. I'll be showing off my progression with the character and you're going to see lots of fails, lots of triumphs. At least I'm hoping. And yeah, let's just see where I go with it. Like I said, I've been transferring and upgrading equipment on this character for a while now but I haven't actually played it in a bit so I'm kind of curious to see what I can do at this point in time. So I'm here at the Chaos Zakum Zagum Altar and I'm just going to go ahead inside and let's just see what I can do. All right, going to some of the boss now. Actually first let me buff up. All right, let's do this. Just some good old Maple Story lag right here. All right, I think that's going to be it for today's video. Thanks everyone for watching and I'll see you guys on the next one.


Hi, I'm Megan Humphrey, and I am the Executive Director of Hands, and our mission is to get food to older adults who are low income. And today with me is David Hirschberg, and he is a lifelong Burlington resident. And we are going to be speaking with him about his family's role in the food industry in Burlington, of which is a long history. And first we want to acknowledge that Native Americans lived on this land first, and others started to settle in Burlington in about the 1700s. So when did any of your family first come to Burlington? My mother came in 1898 as an infant from Lithuania. And my dad came as a 16 year old from Lithuania also, and he came in 1912. So they had no connection before? No, they didn't. And did they initially come right to Burlington, or did they stop other places? My mother definitely came here. My dad didn't come through Ellis Island for some reason. He came through the port of Philadelphia. But I think almost all of the Jewish families in Burlington came from a place called Kovna. Now it's called Kunis. And I think they came because the peddlers that were peddling in New York and both sides of Lake Champlain, they would write back to Lithuania saying, this is such a beautiful place. It reminds you of Lithuania. The cows look the same. The water, the green, the pastures, and it's a very free place. You can celebrate your religion without any Cossacks coming in. And so that's why almost all of the people, the Jewish community, at that time came from Lithuania. And I can certainly understand why people would all begin to settle in one area, come from one place. I mean that happens with many, many immigrant families, they end up settling. So your dad, how did he start in the food business? He was not educated. He came here at 16. And he got a horse and wagon. And he was a peddler. And that's how a lot of people, that's how a lot of tailors, tin knockers, leather people, roofers. They did peddling and they walked around the state. My dad had it better than most because most of the peddlers were carrying something on their back. He at least had a horse and wagon. So he only really worked during the good weather, like from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And then unfortunately, other than when he was working, he was a gambler. He loved high-stakes poker. So he was almost like, they were kind of referred to him as sunshine fruit because you only worked in the good weather and gambled during the bad weather. Because that's the lean time for money coming in, certainly. And we're in Burlington so that's a longer season too. A typical week for my dad was they'd leave on a Monday and they'd go up to the islands to South Hero. And in those days it wasn't paved.  And they'd have to stay. There were no hotels or motels. And the Jewish peddlers had to stay in the barns. And that's when he learned poker because they all gambled all night long. And then he'd move on to Grand Isle and then North Hero and he'd wind his way back Friday to be back in time for the Sabbath. Wow. So that's a really big area because when you were talking about peddling, I was thinking it was much, you know, maybe a few towns around here. But that's a long way to go. Originally it was mostly in the islands. And he lived on St. Louis Street and he was just in a rooming house. And my mother's family lived across the street and he kind of had an eye for my mother. And she said, I'm not mirroring a peddler. So it kind of gave him, I don't know how long he peddled, but it kind of gave him incentive to sell his horse and wagon and to get a truck. And he opened up a little warehouse store on the corner of Uniskey Avenue in Grant Street. I think the Bernel family had a store there forever. And he didn't like retail. That was too small a time for him. So my mother's younger sister and brother kind of ran the store and he became the wholesaler. And he liked bigger dollars than paying five cents for a pound of potatoes or something. And he probably didn't enjoy being inside a building as much. It sounds like he was, you know, he wanted to be a moving around. So where, what was sold, either wholesale, was it all fruits and vegetables or was there other fruits? Yeah, it was fruit and vegetables. And so, and we're- I don't know much about the store, it's just that he told me retail was not his thing. And so he put them, but it didn't last very long, the retail part of it. The retail, yeah. So where did he get fruits and vegetables? I would imagine he would go to, well, mostly he would, when he could he'd always go to the local farmers. That's why I get a kick out of them talking about farm to table being this new concept. And he always, always supported the local farmers. In fact, even when we had the warehouse in my lifetime, although I never worked with my dad, but he had passed by the time I moved back to Burlington. He always used to say to the farmers, I know it's a long winter for you, so you leave something on the dock, you go in the office and get a check. So what would happen is one farmer would say to the others, if you want to get your cash on the barrel head, Louis Hirschberg pays cash. That's who you go to again. We were, we always had the best of everything because they knew they could get paid quickly. So he supported all the local farmers like the Mazes, the Burganties, Psy, Tracy. I was trying to think of a name of a guy at the mouth of the river who had a carrot farm, but I can't remember. But so, and then he would probably go to one of the local wholesalers like a Champlain Valley or a Vermont fruit, which was owned by the Fayette family, and probably buy- And get to fill in. Fill in, yeah. But he was a wholesale person as well. He was a wholesale. He would go farm to farm, store to store, and then later on, when he had the warehouse, then he started selling restaurants, and in those days, almost all of the restaurants were like, he was an immigrant, he came from Lithuania. Most of the restaurants in Burlington were Greek-owned, so that was what he did. So he was providing for the restaurants. But then he expanded beyond that, too, or your family did. He always had a good business, but he had some of the resorts, like Soul Basin Harbor, and there was a French school called Ico Champlain owned by the Chase family. And I think he probably played cards with a lot of those owners. He met a lot of the big, he hung out with a lot of these rich guys who owned businesses because he was a very personable guy. And so, but he ended up, you know, anybody, the Hotel Vermont was a customer, all the diners, restaurants. That's a lot. That's a lot of business. Yeah. And then, stores. A friend of mine was saying that there was a, that your family was also supplying fruits and vegetables for UVM for a while, at least for turnities. Yeah, but I don't think that was until, I think that was probably me. I don't know. I don't know if he ever got the University of Vermont. I don't know, or the hospital, but he's, but there were so many, there were, you know, the only really supermarket was Cullodenies. I think there might have been an AMP and maybe a Grand Union or something. But it was, and, but every little corner had a rest, had a store. Right. I mean, I think in Winooski, there were so many stores. In fact, one of his drivers, he turned him into a salesman because he could speak French and most of those owners in Winooski were French-speaking, so. And then, how did you get involved? Did you always want to work in that business? No, no, no. I was, I went to law school after UVM. And Judy and I moved to New Jersey because that's where she was from. And I was working for the Veterans Administration and we were handling claims. You'd sit at the table with a doctor and a business specialist and you'd rate the veterans and I was always in trouble because my boss was not a nice guy and he always kept saying, your claims are too high, you got to cut the veterans, I said that, I'm not going to do, that's not going to happen on my watch. That's right, right. I didn't get along well and then after a couple of years of battling all the time, I said to Judy, I'd like to move back to Burlington and I'll always remember what she said, you're my husband, where you go, I go. So we came back and my brother was less than thrilled because by that time it was just he and my mother and they didn't have a very big business and he said to me, I don't think this business is big enough. To support you. To support you, yeah. Because by that time I think I had three children so I said, well, I'll try to help make it bigger and he said, oh Mr. Big Shot, you don't even know a lettuce from a tomato but the first day on the job, he gave me a sales pad and said, IBM's been open for two or three years, see what you can do. So they only had I think 385 people. The employees there. At IBM and there was no security, there was no fence, I just drove my car around, rang the bell, two nice gentlemen came to the door, a guy named Hans Mueller who was the chef and a guy named Larry Gerlach who was the director of the food service and he said, where you been? We've been open for three years and I said, well, our family wasn't very aggressive it was just my mother and brother and they were selling who they were selling but I'm here now and if you'll give me the opportunity, I think you'll like what we sell because we have a good product. So he said, well, I'm buying from a local company and I'm not happy with them and if I give you an order when would I have it? I said, I'll be backing the truck up tomorrow at 6.30, he said, okay, here's a little order, let's see. So that's what he did and that's what I did and he looked at everything and he said, oh my God, this stuff is so much better than what we're getting. So as IBM grew, so did our company, it kept getting bigger. And then after a couple of years, they said to me, if we wanted frozen foods, could you help us? I said, for IBM, we'd build a freezer. So and then a little bit later, as they kept growing and we kept producing like we were producing and they were really terrific people to do business with and all we wanted was good quality. They never asked your price and I said, you don't have to worry about that because I'll treat you with respect and so we always gave them a good price. We always had a great product and then we started bringing in canned goods for them. We built an addition on the warehouse. So then we became a full service house and then we really, really started to grow and I was kind of the rainmaker because I was the outside guy and wherever I went, University of Vermont, the medical center, fancy restaurants, they'd all say to me, well, who's your biggest accountant? I'd say, IBM has been so kind to me. And so that's, we just kept growing and growing and growing and at that time, afterwards, I think Champlain Valley became more of a beer distributor, they had Schlitz beer, which was a big beer in the state of Vermont and the Fayettes kind of got out of the food business. So we really grew. Yeah. And that left some space for you. So where, you must have had a, where was the warehouse? Well, we, my dad had bought a warehouse, I think it was probably in the late 20s, down on the corner of King and Battery. It had been a railway express garage and he bought that and that's where we had our, so they're all the food companies right in a row. There was, we were on the corner of King and Battery and the next building down was the Fayettes and they were on the corner of Battery and Maple and then further down in the rail yards was Champlain Valley, they were on Champlain. So the three major wholesalers were all on Battery Street. And is, did some of the food come in by train? Is that why you were located down there? Well, the Fayette family were really big and they had a rail line that came right up to their door. So I think that's probably why they were down there.  So what was, do you have an earliest food memory? Can you remember anything from being a kid? Well, I remember when I was a kid I used to go with my dad to the different farmers to pick up stuff or they could always use an extra hand helping deliver or unload the truck when it came in from the market and when I had my first jalopy at the age of 16, he had a gas pump down there so he allowed me to go down and fill up the car with gas so yeah, we would hang out there once in a while. Yeah. And so, I guess something about it. But my older brother loved, he was always, always wanted to be in that business and the younger brother always wanted to be in that but I had no thought about it at all. That's interesting. So was your younger brother ever involved in it? Well, he was when my dad died but he didn't get along with the older brother and nobody else did either so he left, he was in Boston and when I came back and we started to get really successful, the younger brother called me and said, you think there's room for me to come back and I said, you're family and my mother said of course there's always room because she was, my mother really got involved in the business later on because they needed someone to take care of the books because my dad, you know, it was his little piggy bank and a poker player and it's not a good thing so it became, the business became stabilized once my mother got there taking care of the books and the money but my father was pretty devious, he would sometimes have the wholesalers on the market send my mother dummy bills and she'd pay the bills and they'd give him the cash and so he had a sickness, I mean, it was, he loved gambling. And that's hard on your mom because she's thinking she's... Yeah, she was a great shooter and a playing gal and expected you to work hard, I mean, you know, I get a kick out of the teacher saying how hard it is now with the parents always coming in and complaining about, you know, you're not treating junior properly and our generation, the teacher was always right so my mother said don't ever complain and so if I misbehaved in school or something my mother always took the teacher's part so it's a little different than it is today. So when you went to a farm to pick up the food was it packaged already or did you have to clean it? Well, I remember Tracy's corn was always in bags, the carrot farmer was always in bags and the mazes, you know, they would, the mazes would bring it right to the warehouse, Sam Mazza was a very handsome man, he was a wonderful guy and he would bring strawberries or whatever right to the plant. Blueberries were an interesting thing, they were no cultivated blueberries in those days but my dad made a connection with a farmer over in upstate New York, a fellow named Louis Joubert and they had blueberries like a couple of months a year and I think we were the only ones that had this connection and we had chains from Springfield, Massachusetts and all these different places calling and saying could you bring down a load of blueberries because it was kind of unique in a short season so he always, he was a very personable guy and he made these connections and we loved it because a couple of times a year the farmer had a huge family and they'd bring us over and we'd have like a Sunday dinner that was sumptuous, it was amazing, so those are always fond memories of these big farms and that and that connection with them and then when we got to a point where we were too big for the Manan's market then we started sending a trailer of our own with our own driver and we got a broker so we weren't actually on the market like my dad was, we had a broker who was doing the buying force and they'd send the and our trailer would go down and pick it up and down to when you say down to Boston so that really expanded it and then sometimes we would we would bring in a load of potatoes we would share it with one of the other wholesale distributors because I was thinking when you were talking about blueberries I was wondering if one way to make to make yourself stand out was to have something different that another wholesaler didn't have but it's also interesting that you would share things because that also makes sense well we were very very friendly with the Fayette family they were a wonderful family and and in fact when they were going out of business the brothers went around to the different customers that they had and they said you know the Hirschberg boys are doing a good job and after they went out of business they had like Freddie Fayette had a big family I don't know eight or nine daughters or whatever was they would come down and buy big boxes of oranges and apples for the kids so we were very friendly not so much with the Champlain Valley family that was we were never close with them but that was a little more competition yeah well it was different yeah that was different interesting so when how old were you when you started working with your family when you came back came back in 1962 so I was 30 years old so had you worked when you were younger when you were younger kid were you part of you know I would help sometimes with deliveries or unloading trucks but the two other brothers that were in the business when from the time they were young they always like hanging out at the warehouse or going on the road with some of the salesmen that was I was too busy playing football and basketball and that wasn't my thing right um boy we've gone we've gone over a lot and so what what would a typical day be of yours at work once you started or is there no such thing no some days we'd go in like when my younger brother came back he didn't get along with the older brother so my mother and I thought it'd be a good idea to keep him on the road so he did amazing he went up to Franklin County and we had not done anything and he got a lot of the stores up in Franklin County but the most amazing thing was he went up to Stowe and in those days nobody was going lodge to lodge right and Eddie went every single he knocked on every door and they said you're going to deliver right to our door that's amazing so that was and even the mountain company he said to him we'll even we'll even get our truck close to your lift so we can put it on the on the oranges and apples on the chair and take it up to the mountain so Eddie did an amazing job getting almost every single account on the mountain road because he would say no to that exactly great service to get a wholesale price right right but I think in the old days there was a IGA store down in the village of Stowe and I think before we started knocking on every door they had to come down to that that's where they were getting it you know getting paying a retail price so here Eddie's knocking on every door and we're delivering twice a week you know with fruit and produce and frozen foods and right can good so he did that's another big market then for you so that was a huge market so did you ever look back and say it was was ever regret about coming back and working with the family business never well the relationship with the older brother he was difficult he was I mean the family would probably still own it and it just got to a point where I said to my mother you know this isn't no matter how much we're doing it's this isn't working so the younger brother and I cashed out and the older brother really couldn't run it without us so nine months later he sold the business which is now I mean the roots of that business are now owned by Cisco because it passed a few hands there were two guys that my brother sold it to and then they sold it to some guy from Maine and unfortunately he got into a horrible car accident and couldn't run the business and the family were hot dog people and didn't want to run that so I think they sold the Cisco and now Cisco is the big I think yeah Cisco is probably the largest food distributor in America I would think I don't know yeah because that that truck is everywhere and they do a lot of big but there you know there are other but I thought I was out of the once we got out of there we did other things but then I got a call from the guy from Black River Produce that said they're having trouble breaking into Burlington and Mark said would you come to work for us because everywhere we go they say you gotta call David he's the guy that owns Burlington right so I went to work for my thought would be a year and it was a long time and they got really really big and they just got bought out so and I don't and I think the Cooper family owned Bob Cooper owned Burlington food and they got bought out so I don't think any local people the original the original people yeah I think right I mean the Fayettes are gone the Lumbra's are gone there's nobody and Bob Cooper is not he's still alive but I don't think he owns he doesn't own the business so they were all bought by major companies so when you see these trucks performance or Cisco or US food they're those aren't local right and it's interesting because I've heard you say that your dad didn't know how to read and write at the beginning but then he ended up owning this very large he couldn't multiply things he was really a smart guy I think if he would have had an education you probably wouldn't have gone into the food business but you know he couldn't yeah he came here at 16 didn't have any schooling but he was he was a hard worker and he worked really hard to make that happen for sure which is which is a story for many people who came came to America and for our family and for me in particular I had a nice place to come back to because living in New Jersey wasn't my favorite thing we went there because Judy's family was really close and she wanted to you know and that was fine but she's loves Burlington and and she had a great career at the University of Vermont and she's been one of the stalwarts of our synagogue forever so you know it's been a great glad you came back I am too and the reason we're still in our house is that the kids keep saying you're not going to sell the house are your grandpa well we probably should have sold that long ago but we're where we are and that's where that's where we'll end up that's great but thank god during the COVID we weren't in a retirement home right right no that's good I'm glad you're at your home thank you so much this was really really interesting and I appreciate it and the people in Burlington have been wonderful to our family but IBM is really has was the key for me personally because they they opened up every door because people had such respect and so the university was terrific to us the medical center all the fancy restaurants so that's great we had a good run well it's good and you earned that reputation so thank you that's good it was uh I never felt like I had customers I always felt that they were friends and that's that's the way it worked out I mean we had so many Asian restaurants because one of the restaurants taught me phonetically how to count to 20 and I had a list of about 20 and so every time a new Asian restaurant would come in they'd say if you go to David right he could speak Chinese I couldn't speak Chinese right but they would they would like their orders be called in at 10 o'clock at night and they'd play mahjong all night long so Judy's saying here you struggle in college in Spanish and here you're taking orders from Chinese restaurants at 10 o'clock but but um a priceless to something I never needed it was just a thing built on friendship and trust and so you respect people who respect you and so it was a good run that's great yeah well thank you very much thank you for having me


If your hands and feet lock into this kind of claw position when you're really anxious or have a panic attack, this is why it happens and this is why it's not dangerous. When you're anxious and afraid, your breath is gonna change. Some people automatically start panting like a dog, others automatically hold their breath. Some people intentionally try to do deep breathing to calm down and in all cases, you can accidentally wind up hyperventilating. That means that the gases in your blood get all mixed up and three results of that would be numbness in your face, your hands and your toes and this thing, which is called carpopetal spasm and it's really alarming but it's not dangerous. Now you'll think that it's anxiety and panic doing something horrible to your body, but it's not. It's the way you're breathing when you're anxious or panicking that causes this. Even if you do accidentally hyperventilate when you're anxious, it can be really scary but it can't hurt you and it's something that could be addressed. Learning and practicing basic skills that help you slow down and even out your breath can help you avoid this common mistake. It's not gonna make things instantly better but it certainly will help not make them worse and that's something.


The British Library has been working with the Qatar National Library and the Qatar Foundation since 2012. It's all about opening up the library's collections to as wide audience as possible. So we've been working on developing a website that's the Qatar Digital Library, putting as much content and as many expert articles, making it available for users in English and Arabic and making it completely free. I believe that creates a new dialogue between our generation and the older generation to talk more about the history and to have information from both sides. So it is unique. We've been delighted with the success of the project so far. More than a million items have been digitised. That's in itself an extraordinary achievement and that's a lasting achievement now. But the reach to users has been fantastic. Over a million users, nearly nine million page views. These are very, very significant figures and it's only set to grow now as the whole project becomes part of the mainstream culture of scholarship about the region. The partnership with the British Library through the QDL affords us the opportunity to offer to our patrons and researchers a material that we wouldn't be able to find or access any other way. This chart is on the indie offers records and is on the QDL. As you can see Qatar has a fully formed peninsula here with a detailed history of how the chart was made and all the previous surveys that they based it off of. The Qatar Digital Library is for everybody. Scientists, geographers, people who are interested in the present but want some historical background or people who are just taking a look for illustrations, for novels, for artwork. The possibilities are endless. It's very useful to the researchers. Not only from Qatar and the Gulf area but from all over the world. You won't find other digital libraries out there with the sorts of resources that we have in QDL because of the geographically specific content. It makes it very strong for Qatar and for the region in terms of a resource and it's something we're very, very proud of. This is my favorite item in Qatar Digital Library Portal. Giving you such an access online, wherever you are to a material with that kind of resolution that will help the researchers to do their research better and easy and wherever they are. We are diving in history and looking around so it's like a door to the 19th century. It's nice being a part of this. It's like I'm contributing in the next step of technology and history being together. The immediacy of access to records has been really extraordinary. The provision of metadata, of keywords suddenly opens up vistas to research which were not possible with paper archives. We've been incredibly pleased by how well the Qatar Digital Library has done. It's a real gem of a partnership for the British Library. There's something really quite special about the international libraries coming together and producing this wonderful resource. We are happy that we extended our project into Phase 3 and we are hoping to be able to cover additional material that shed more light on the state of Qatar and the Gulf and the Arab world in general. We've been on a journey to really push the boundaries, test what's possible in terms of creating a global digital resource and the prospect for knowledge exchange, partnership. Different teams from both libraries getting together to learn from each other is going to be part of the story of the next few years.


From there to state, the commissioner for information, Charles Aniago, says the governorship candidate of the APC, Ovi Omar Gigay, should not waste his funds in court. As residents voted and believed in the PDP by voting Sharif on over Oborowari, Aniago made the statement from speaking on newsmen in Asabata state capital. He noted that a victory for Oborowari is a victory for the residents and that the governor-elect is ready to work for role. So you understand that going to court will amount to just wasting funds and I know that those funds will be useful to his party because that party is heavily bruised on account of this defeat. But we have said we will work with him, we will work with other members of the APC and those who decant, we do hope that in the course of time they will realize that integrity pays. It doesn't happen to me that they should integrity. If after working with us for this number of years and just less than a week, less than three days, less than two days, you are jumping ship. So we hope that they will put themselves of that integrity deficit. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Okay, so now we're looking more zoomed in from the kidney in this particular video So this is our renal pyramid. So this will be the medullary region And the cortical region you can see way up here on top would be that renal capsule Okay So here is the cortical radiate artery. We talked about in another video The individual white sacs that you're seeing here are the renal corpuscles Inside the renal corpuscle is the glomerulus glomerulus drains Into the proximal convoluted tubules the squiggly part here Then the loop of Henley comes down into the renal pyramid Comes back out to the distal Convoluted tubules which all drain into the collecting duct