Birds are identified by song or sight at 50 three-minute stops placed every 0.8 km. The BBS is coordinated by the Canadian Wildlife Service, and in Ontario by the Long Point Bird Observatory. The CLLS also helps teach Canadians about loon conservation and promotes conservation action. Volunteers check lakes during the summer for loon presence, chick survival and lakeshore development. Count data are used to measure long-term trends relating to winter bird distribution and abundance.
Sites consist of one to five stations in small to large woodlands.
Volunteers perform 10 minute point counts at each station twice in June, at which time all birds are identified by song or sight. As hawks migrate south in the fall, they concentrate along the north shores of the Great Lakes Returning in spring, they follow the Niagara Peninsula between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and continue along the Bruce Peninsula. Hawk migration counts are undertaken at strategic locations in these areas. Interested birders are welcome to come out to the hawkwatches, the dates and locations of which are given below. Volunteers survey for marsh birds, calling frogs and toads, or both birds and amphibians by sound or sight.