BIG PELICAN — The loons have returned to Big Pelican, appearing first near the north reed bed on Sunday morning and then, by Monday, behaving as if the lake had been holding their reservation.

Lake Association volunteer June Sather confirmed two adults near the familiar nest area west of Cormorant Point. She reminded boaters to keep their distance, slow near the buoys, and avoid the human habit of loving wildlife by getting close enough to bother it.

“They know where they are going,” Sather said. “Mostly we are the ones who need signs.”

The pair’s return lines up with the usual post-ice-out window and has already been noted by resort guests, anglers, and one man who insisted the call at 4:50 a.m. was “a little much.” Sather said that complaint will not be forwarded to the loons.

The Lake Association plans to place nesting-area reminders by the landing before Memorial Day weekend. Tim Brevik has offered to tape a note to the bait shop coffee pot as well, which may be the more effective location.

The report fits the larger pattern on the Chain this spring: cold mornings, soft afternoons, and a lake system waking unevenly from one bay to the next. Big Pelican has been first to draw traffic, Whitefish first to produce theories, and Mud Lake first to remind everyone that not all water wishes to be popular.

The Lake Association asks boaters to watch for loons, slow near channels, and use the landings as landings rather than places to hold reunions. Tim Brevik added one more rule from behind the bait counter: if a person has to say “I’ll only be a minute” at the ramp, that person will not be a minute.

By late week, the story had already changed in the usual way. The weather was a little colder, the fish a little larger, and every decision that had seemed questionable at the time was now being described as strategy.