When ATMI staff heard youth producer Nathan Pobieglo has aspirations to be a wildlife journalist, they knew he was the perfect fit for a new collaboration as part of a grant from Alaska Conservation Foundation.

The task is to keep a dedicated audience of loon enthusiasts updated on the lives of a loon pair living on the nest island at Connors Lake and dog park near the Anchorage airport. This means helping to monitor and maintain wildlife cameras at the nest, filming new footage in the field, writing scripts, editing and posting updates to the Alaska Loon Cam YouTube channel. Nathan will document the incubation of eggs and hatching of loon chicks, among other events at the nest.

“I can’t overstate how excited and honored I am to have a part in it,” Pobieglo said.

Along with regular updates on the happenings at the nest, he plans to explore the project history through the YouTube series.

In 2019, Alaska Conservation Foundation received the Jean Tam Loon Conservation Endowment Fund to maintain the nest island. Jean Tam and Scott Christy built and maintained the nest each year until the couple died in a plane crash. This year students at Steller Secondary School launched the nest as part of an intensive project. Teacher Joseph Jackson has been helping with maintenance of the nest cams as occasional difficulties with the solar panels arise.

The team members at ATMI say technical difficulties with the project can make work tedious and joyful at the same time.

“Sitting here trying to get these loon videos to download from the webcam makes me feel like we are living in the early 2000s trying to pirate music on Napster,” Media Production Mentor John Kendall said.

The clips seem to download at the speed of dialup and the downloads regularly fail. When the team manages to get one clip downloaded for use in the video, they all celebrate. So far highlights have included two new loon eggs and a late night muskrat sighting.

ATMI will update the channel with about 10 to 12 videos this summer, you can follow Alaska Loon Cam at Youtube.com/@AlaskaLoonCam.