The success of our study depends critically upon the contributions of research fellows, who learn about field research and carry out side projects while making field observations upon which many of our findings are based. This tireless crew arises at 4 a.m. each morning and visits 5-6 territories, verifying identities of territory owners and intruders alike by their color bands. They also track reproductive activity of breeding pairs. Each fellow also identifies a season-long research project for which they collect data and present a short research talk at the end of the field season. In the past, fellows have conducted field projects that have helped shape goals of the larger project, uncovered new patterns of loon behavior, and sometimes become research papers published in scientific journals.