The Polar Vortex is over! As I type out this post on Saturday morning it is a balmy 13F above zero (-10.5C)! Given there is no wind and the sun is shining, my ski will be heavenly a bit later this morning.
My own “last hurrah” was photographing the Aurora Borealis two nights ago. When my Northern Lights alarm awakened me at 12:30 am, a quick check of the technical numbers and cloud cover weather radar which revealed clear skies 20 miles to my north, by 12:45 am I was out the door and driving north. 37 miles later I arrived at a remote lake (Stewart Lake) and watched a nice display. The temperature was -17F as Lady Aurora danced across the sky for me including a small substorm. By 3:15 am I was home back in my nice warm bed. Here is a taste of what I watched.
Realizing many of you have never seen an ice road, I also took this photograph as the Aurora was calming down. I used a small flashlight to give about a one second burst of light to illuminate the scene. The structure on the right in the image is the dock at the boatlanding. I took my photos from terra firma only because the extra elevation made for a more interesting picture. I did walk quite a ways out onto the ice road checking out photo angles. 
Birding has not been a total bust in this cold weather. Over the past few days I have found lots of Pine Grosbeaks at a nearby old berry farm, and an immature red-tailed hawk which a Snowy Owl actually found for me (long story … thanks Snowy). The cold weather returns next weekend. The ice is forming rapidly on Lake Superior … here’s hoping trips to the Apostle Islands Ice Caves are in my near future (near solid Lake Superior ice).
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An exciting report, Richard. I didn’t know one could see Northern Lights this time of year in Minnesota nor did I know there was an app for predicting them. Interesting too that my current bedside reading material is a July 2017 Discovery magazine with a two page spread on why and how Northern Lights are formed. Fascinating! Thanks for the post.
Steve et al: While the Spring and Fall equinoxes tend to have the most nights with good conditions, it is possible to have displays year round in northern Minnesota. My process generally is to await an alert from my app followed by checking out this information: 1. Is the moon either below the horizon or at least not bright. 2. What are the Ovation Aurora numbers. I like 45GW or higher with an increasing short term trend (i.e. rising not falling). 3. Is the time of night between 2 hours after sunset and 2 hours before sunrise (true darkness). 4. Does weather radar (cloud cover in NE Minnesota) show lots of clear sky.
If this information is all positive I get out of bed and go Aurora watching. See my Northern Lights page (access via the menu bar) for the tools I use.