Category Archives: Year 4

Lady Aurora Danced at Midnight! (Northern Lights)

Year 4,

I watched Lady Aurora dance at midnight! She was shy at first, and forced me to wait for over 3 hours behind her “green glow”, but the queen of the night skies finally came out and performed!

My photos were taken last night (March 1/2) on a frozen lake in northern Minnesota. The temperature was 10F with a brisk wind starting to blow out of the Northwest. The Northern Lights display last night was NOT a “classic” rays shooting skyward. Instead bands of color turned on and off, sometimes blinking to appear only for a few seconds, followed by the lights flashing on in a totally different part of the sky. Totally cool … just different.

Finally, it pays to dress warmly. I had on thermal underclothes, a wool sweater, a jacket liner plus a heavy coat. In addition to gloves, I was wearing a pair of heavy mittens. The coup de grace were my Steger Mukluks. My toes were nice and warm the entire time I was outside!

On my Facebook page some friends asked me if I would share my photography settings. Here are the details for my selfie … ISO = 3200; Exposure = 10 seconds; Aperture = 2.0 with White Balance set to Auto. I was using a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera with a Rokinon 12 mm wide angle lens. My Northern Lights page gives much more details about viewing the Northern Lights and camera settings. These photograph settings were “not” what I started with last night, but a totally dark sky (no moon) caused me to up the ISO while an active Aurora allowed me to shorten the exposure.

In terms of the question … “Do these images approximate what I actually saw?”. The answer is “yes”. I do not like to push my light sensitivity up (ISO) and record something completely different than what I saw with my naked eye. If I am going to stand for hours in the extreme cold on frozen lakes, I want my camera images to reflect my actual experiences! In addition, it would have been extremely difficult to see last night’s display if I had not been in northern Minnesota in an area almost devoid of any light pollution. Unfortunately most Americans live either too far south, or in urban areas where cities lights do not allow one to experience the wonder of the night time skies.

Lady Aurora Dances

In a Frozen Bog … Waiting and Watching the Green Glow

Cold Carnival, Hot Birding!

Year 4,

Yesterday I enjoyed showing some new friends around the Northland. Fabio, Rita and Jon flew to Duluth from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the hope of escaping the heat and craziness of Carnival while at the same time doing some winter birding. Even though the birding was hot, it was also cold (-8F inland from Lake Superior to start the morning). For the past few days they had made repeated trips up to Sax-Zim Bog at sunrise and sunset. While they had seen lots of cool winter birds, the elusive Gray Ghost of the Forest, the Great Gray Owl had eluded them.

To put it mildly they were more than pleased while visiting “my owling grounds”. On our first birding stop of the morning we found a Great Gray Owl within just a few minutes. Later that morning we found a flock of snow buntings winging their way northward to breed up on the Arctic tundra. Life was good!

While I did not join my new friends birding this morning, I was not surprised to find them on the North Shore a bit after sunrise. Pleasant words were exchanged and then I pointed them towards another Great Gray Owl. I think it was truly a good Carnival!

Here are a few images I took of the Gray Ghost during this morning’s snow squall. The combination of the snow (dark skies) and light wind made for perfect owling conditions. Finally I’ve included some backyard birds from yesterday afternoon. The sun came out for a few hours and some locals made an appearance in my yard!

Gray Guard in a Snow Squall (My first view of the morning … the owl is enforcing a “no trespassing” sign which I would not dream of disobeying!)

Highway Curve and Talons (This owl actually flew from a perch over 100 yards distant and landed less than ten yards from me! It used the sign for almost five minutes as a hunting perch. I did not even breathe!!!)

Great Gray Owl on the Hunt (In the second photo it is not glaring at me. Rather, it has missed its target vole and is intently concentrating. A few seconds later it pounced 5 yards further away in search of its prey)

Backyard Birds (Pileated Woodpecker and Black-Capped Chickadee)

Hawk Owl Love!

Year 4

Somehow it would be difficult to imagine the two Northern Hawk Owls having a song written about their love in a manner similar to the Captain and Tennille’s hit, Muskrat Love! However, make no mistake about it; these two birds which I found in The Big Bog are an item. The female had a rather nice day. She just perched in the tops of various trees, enjoying the unseasonably warm February sun while the male hunted and caught voles which were then presented to her as evidence of his affection! While I was never able to record one of these exchanges on camera as it would occur 1/4 mile plus away from my location, it was fun to watch. I do have one image of the two owls sharing a tree at the end of this post. Given all the hunting the male was doing, both for himself and his lady friend, I was able to capture a few flight shots.

Flight Shots!

The Hunter!

Singing Out! (i.e. The male is singing / hooting to his love in this image. The owl does not open its mouth, but you can see the ruffling neck feathers)

Do not block my favorite hunting perch! (i.e. this is what you see just before a hawk owl zooms by your head at a distance of less than two feet! It landed on a snag eight yards behind me.)

Northern Hawk Owl Love … the female is on the upper left.