Loons have been present each summer on Star Lake as far back as anyone can remember. Usually families with chicks are observed, but some summers without chicks have gone by. There is a tradition that loons next on "Loon Island" the smallest of the five islands on the lake, which is basically a single bush surrounded by reeds. I have, however, never observed a loon nest there, nor anywhere on the lake I am aware of.

Loons migrate south each year to various ocean habitats.

From Tremolo, Fall, 2007, published by Loon Watch at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College, Ashland: "Loon chicks. . .will migrate to the ocean and stay there for up to five years. At about three years of age they will get their adult plumage, and may return north, but typically won't begin nesting until they are five years old. Loons that were banded as chicks have shown that some return to the lake or to the region where they were born."

A short entry in the Environment Section of National Geographic (2009) suggests that mercury may be affecting loons: causing "loony" behavior, smaller eggs, not chicks, and less ability to care for the chicks. The is a result of the fact that loons eat fish, and the fish at the top of the food chain accumulate toxic levels of mercury. (Mercurial Loons)

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