Welcome to the Gunflint Trail Loon Chicks

We usually don’t start seeing loon chicks until around the 4th of July. Guests haven’t reported seeing them in the Boundary Waters yet but there are a couple of loon chicks in our neighborhood. The loon nesting platform in the bay of Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center had a pair of loons who began nesting very early this year. They successfully hatched two loon chicks at the beginning of June!

Loons are so much fun to watch with their chicks. I’ve observed adult loons teaching their chicks how to fish and it is very neat. The adult starts out by feeding the chick a minnow by placing it in the chick’s mouth. Then the adult will drop the loon in the water right in front of the chick so it has to get its beak wet. The next step requires the chick to dip it’s head into the water because the adult releases the minnow just beneath the surface of the water in front of the chick. I’m not sure how many days the adult loons have to do this but it sure is an amazing process.

We welcome you to the Gunflint Trail where you can help us welcome all the new loon chicks coming soon.

Gunflint Trail loon chicks
Loon and chicks

Leave a Reply