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In every corner of Minnesota, there are good stories waiting to be told of places that make our state great and people who in Walt Whitman’s words “contribute a verse” each day. That's the theme of our series “Wander & Wonder: Exploring Minnesota’s unexpected places.”
When Sheila Johnston retired with her husband to a home on Upper Gull Lake, she blended her interests in kayaking and photography and spent hours on the lake watching and photographing loons.
Her hobby grew to a passion as she learned of the challenges loons face from nature and humans. One experience, though, drove her to action.
She’d fallen in love with a pair of loons — Ole and Lena — nesting near her home in one of the channels that connect the Gull Lake chain. She watched them often at a distance, but the loons grew comfortable seeing her kayak and would pop up to visit or bring their chicks near.
After a busy July Fourth holiday that packed Upper Gull with boats, Johnston went to check on the loons. "Lena came and popped up right in front of the bow of my kayak, so close she could have almost touched it,” Johnston recalled. “I just said, ‘Lena, why are you coming so close today’?"
When the loon swam into some nearby rushes, Johnston spotted a dead loon chick she believed had been hit by a boat. The mother loon, said Johnston, spent days wailing by her dead chick. “It was the most heartbreaking thing to hear, and I decided then we need to do better."
In the years since, she’s become a fierce defender and rescuer of the birds, so much so she’s known now as the “loon lady.” She writes about and photographs them, helps with research — and will occasionally call out boaters driving too fast near loons.
She says more needs to be done to save Minnesota’s state bird, and anyone can help.
‘That’s what we’re dealing with’
Johnston’s advocacy began by designing and building signs with her husband urging Gull Lake boaters to slow down and watch for loons.
"During July, coming in and out of those channels, it is like a metro freeway traffic in both directions going full speed," Johnston said as she sat in her kayak recently near Ole and Lena’s channel.
She gets angry when she sees watercraft speeding close to loons or not slowing down in areas where loons nest.
"I talked to a young guy last year who ran his jet ski right into a social gathering of loons, and we had a serious conversation, and he said, ‘Well, this is my lake, and this is where I like to jet ski,’” said Johnston, 70. “That's what we're dealing with."
While loons face many challenges — predators, competition for territory, long migration — many of the threats are human-caused.
Lead poisoning from ingesting lead tackle accounts for up to 25 percent of all adult loon deaths, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Being hit by boats or tangled in fishing tackle also cause injuries and deaths. Sometimes, well-intentioned people are the problem.
“We've seen people throwing minnows to loons and feeding loons, and then what happens is they start to get acclimated to coming up to boats to get fed, and they get really close to fishing boats, and then they can get hooked,” said Johnston.
Shoreline habitat loss can reduce nesting habitat for loons. A study in Wisconsin has found loon chick survival is declining and reduced water clarity that hampers the ability of adults to catch fish is thought to be a key reason.
The Wisconsin research has expanded to Minnesota and a report on findings is expected later this year.
A 2023 report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources found that results of 30 years of population monitoring “suggest that Minnesota’s adult loon population is stable” but juvenile loons are showing “a small but detectable decline.”
‘They are so resilient’
Johnston works with the local lake association on education and efforts to protect loons. In addition to the loon warning signs on private shorelines, there are also buoys in some channels warning boaters to watch for loons. More lake associations are joining the effort.
She also coordinates the Minnesota loon rescue organization, recruiting and coordinating volunteers to help loons hit by boats or tangled in fishing line. The organization is growing but needs volunteers in the northwestern and west-central areas of the state, she said.
She also collaborates with the Loon Project, a research initiative examining threats to loon populations in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Johnston says she’s seeing some small successes in her work. She sees people respond to the signs posted near nesting areas on Upper Gull Lake.
“When I’m in my kayak, if a boat comes through that has the grandparents and the parents and the kids, the kids will read the sign, and then they'll tell whoever's driving the boat to watch out,” she said.
For Johnston watching loon pairs persevere over the years inspires her to keep fighting to protect them.
"They just carry on. They are so resilient, they just keep fighting to live and survive and come back again the next year, and that's what we all need to do. We all just have to keep carrying on when things get rough in life.”
She’s become a familiar figure paddling the Upper Gull chain of lakes in her kayak.
"People would just stop in their boats and say, ‘Are you the loon lady?’ I would say, ‘Well, I guess I am,’” she said. “And so, now I am.”
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