Live Loon Nest Cam

A Loon Family in the Northwoods

This camera looks out from a small island in Lake Vermilion, in far northern Minnesota, onto a nest where a mated pair of common loons tends its clutch. Run by the Vermilion Lake Association, the project follows the same loon family that has returned to this spot year after year to raise its chicks.

Sights and Sounds of the Lake

An Axis camera paired with a custom parabolic dish microphone delivers both a close view of the nest and the loons' famous wailing and tremolo calls. Beyond the reeds stretch the open waters and pine-lined shores that make Lake Vermilion one of Minnesota's most beloved lakes.

Watching Wild Loons

Loons are skilled divers and devoted parents, and this feed offers a rare, intimate window into their breeding season — from egg incubation to the first fragile days of the downy chicks riding on a parent's back.

Lake Vermilion

Sprawling across northern St. Louis County, Lake Vermilion is famed for its island-studded bays, clear water, and abundant wildlife, a cornerstone of the region's Northwoods character.