Andy Swartz
A loon was spotted Monday morning on Lake Monona with a fishing lure affixed to its face and wing.
Linda Grenzer runs Loon Rescue out of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, with her husband, Kevin. Wednesday night Grenzer posted on Facebook an update to the two-day saga of a wounded loon spotted on Lake Monona. “A Madison Community Coming Together to Save a Loon in Distress,” she wrote. “Once rescued a disturbing find that X-rays revealed!”
Michael Lemberger
Andy Swartz jumped in Lake Monona to capture the loon, which was swimming near the shore. Nade Stade then offered his rain jacket for wrapping up the bird before retrieving the transport container he had prepared.
The group was alerted to the “hooked” loon Monday morning by Nate Stade and Andy Swartz, who saw it near Olbrich Park. Stade sent Grenzer a picture showing a bright green fishing lure affixed to the loon’s head and wing.
That day the loon was observed still diving well and swimming great distances to avoid capture.
Monday night Grenzer asked for help rescuing the loon on the group’s Facebook page. The post was shared more than 400 times, including on Reddit.
Tuesday morning the loon was spotted by the John Nolen Drive bridge. Two Loon Rescue team members drove to town from Oshkosh to try to capture the loon and Stade was also monitoring the situation. With instructions from Grenzer, Stade also prepared a transport container in hopes of the eventual capture of the loon.
Grenzer says in an interview Thursday that the loon evaded many attempts at capture by diving and swimming away when anyone got too close. She says they knew the loon would eventually weaken and that would be their best chance at capture. But they were aware of the challenge on a lake this size: “We have searched for loons on 300-acre lakes,” she says. “We don’t have these monster lakes up here.” (Lake Monona is more than 3,000 acres.)
Early Tuesday evening Swartz went for a bike ride to check on the loon. He saw it floating near the shore by the John Nolen causeway. With his bike gear still on, he got in the water and tried to flag down a nearby boat. “I started waving my arms at them. A guy wearing a bike helmet in the lake waving his arms — I think it got their attention. It’s not normal,” Swartz says, laughing.
As the boat approached the loon it swam closer to Swartz, who was then able to grab it with his hands.
They got the loon on the boat and the fishermen attempted to remove the lure and line with pliers. When that didn’t work, Swartz, in a MacGyver-like move, pulled the Leatherman multi-use tool he carries in the back pocket of his bike shirt. The men were able to remove the lure and the line, but not part of the treble hook that was deeply embedded by the loon’s eye.
Andy Swartz, right, drove the injured loon to Merrill where he met Kevin and Linda Grenzer of Loon Rescue. The Grenzers then drove the loon to the Raptor Education Group in Antigo.
Swartz then called Stade who was biking with his friend, Michael Lemberger. “They were 100 feet away!” recalls Swartz Thursday morning. Stade offered up his rain jacket so they could cover the loon’s head and Stade rode home to retrieve his cargo bike and the transport box he had prepared.
All three then biked back to the east side with the loon in the cargo rack. They then stopped at the house of a friend who is a vet ophthalmologist. She examined the loon but determined she could not safely remove the hook because it was too deep.
Swartz drove that night to Merrill to hand the loon off to Grenzer. She and her husband then drove the loon to the Raptor Education Group Inc. in Antigo where Marge Gibson, executive director of the clinic, met them (after hours) at 11:30 p.m.
Gibson was able to cut the remaining hook that was exposed and the hope is it will “fester out” eventually. They decided to let the loon rest and do a full exam with X-rays in the morning. It was then that the “disturbing find” was revealed: the loon had been shot in the chest, most likely with pellets from a steel shot gun.
Gibson from the Raptor Education Group could not be reached immediately Thursday morning. Grenzer says that the loon is on antibiotics and had started to eat a bit last night. She says if the loon had not been injured it would have likely migrated with the rest of the loons that left Madison about two weeks ago for lakes up north.
Swartz says an enormous amount of “serendipity” fueled the effort to save the loon. “I live about a block from Nate and Nate lives a block from Michael and he lives a block from [the veterinarian]. We are all cyclists. Nate and I are paddlers.”
He hopes the outpouring of support for the loon will help bridge the perceived “urban/rural divide.” “I think it’s important that the rural and Northwoods people know how deeply this got into the awareness and psyche of the Madison people,” says Swartz who grew up in rural southern Michigan and has lived in Madison since 1989.
He also shares his 25-year-old son Caleb’s reaction to the news of the loon’s capture. “Incredible!” he texted his dad. “It takes one to catch one.”
As for Grenzer, she says “it was like a big team village that came together for this loon,” adding, “It took a community of caring and wonderful people to get this loon caught.”
Anyone with knowledge about the shooting of the loon should contact the DNR tip line at 1-800-847-9637.
