Member, Minnesota The Loons of Big Pelicanpaper Association (in spirit)
E-EditionArchiveAbout · Contact · Privacy · Terms · New Here? · RSSAdvertiseSubscribe
Vol. CXXIX — No. 35  •  Misquah, Minnesota  •  The Chain of Lakes
Tuesday, September 8, 2026  •  The Last Tuesday of Summer
The Misquah Pilot-Independent loon seal
The Voice of the Chain of Lakes

The Misquah Pilot-Independent

“Where the coffee’s hot, the lakes are cold, and all the children are above average.” — Serving the Chain since 1897.

Front Page › Lakes & Outdoors › Current Edition

The Loons of Big Pelican

One Went

Greta Solberg checked Saturday and found two. She checked Sunday and found one. The second bird is still on the water.

By Tim Brevik  •  September 8, 2026

A single juvenile loon alone on Big Pelican Lake
One juvenile loon remained on Big Pelican Sunday after its sibling left sometime between Saturday evening and Sunday morning. — Pilot-Independent photo

MISQUAH — The first of Big Pelican’s two juvenile loons is gone. Greta Solberg, 12, checked Saturday evening and had two birds. She checked Sunday morning after church and had one, and checked again Sunday evening, and Monday, and this morning.

One bird. The north-end one, by her identification, which she has been making all summer and which I have no reason to doubt.

Nobody saw it go. That is ordinary; they leave at night or in the early morning, alone, without any of the circling and calling that people expect and that would make a better story.

The remaining bird is feeding and flying and behaving exactly as it did last week. There is no way to know how long it stays. Two weeks is common. Six is not unheard of. Ice is the outside limit and ice is a long way off.

The log entry for Sunday reads: SEPT. 6 — ONE.

Accuracy matters here. If you see something that needs correcting, send it to the newsroom. Material corrections are noted online and in the next print edition.
Corrections policy · Editorial standards · Letters policy · Contact the newsroom
More from this edition
Sixty-Four Degrees and Climbing Out of SummerTwenty-Two Guests, Nine Cabins Closed, and the Docks Come Out in Two Weeks