Northern Lights Videos Over Suomalainen Kirkko (Historic Lutheran Church)

I promised videos of last night’s Northern Lights display, and here are two short vids I took with my Sony A6300. These are NOT time lapse efforts, but photographed in real time which is a challenge for my camera. I wanted to show the colors and how the Aurora filled the entire sky. I have never seen such deep reds with my naked eye!

See my other post about this Northern Lights display which includes information about the historic church.

One still image …


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  • Just another night in northern Minnesota! (video link)
  • I turn the camera 360 degrees! (video link)


Lady Aurora Dances Over the Suomalainen Kirkko (Northern Lights at Historic Lutheran Church)

Oh my … wow!!! Last night was one of the best Northern Lights displays I have ever seen in my life, and even though these photographs were taken in northern Minnesota … for many of the images I was pointing my camera to the Southeast! I was able to see the reds very easily with my naked eye, and the Aurora Borealis filled the entire sky up to the zenith. Lady Aurora performed an amazing dance last night.

A few years ago I discovered the historic Suomalainen Kirkko (Finnish Lutheran Church) while out birding southwest of Duluth. At the time I remarked to myself that it would be a nice spot to watch the northern lights, but please understand I almost never drive south (in this case southwest) for a “dance session”. However, I knew clouds would be a problem from Duluth and to the north of my home town. Thus, I drove southwest. Uff Dah! Wow! Zowie! Last night was a night for the ages.

There will be a second post about this Northern Lights display when I have time to work through the videos which I took (real time, not time lapse). I tend to focus upon realism with my photography. Thus, these images represent very closely what I was seeing with my naked eye. I almost never see vibrant reds dancing across across the sky when watching the Northern Lights. However, last nights reds were everywhere.

A post with my videos is now published. Browse here.

Here is information about this fantastic church … Suomalainen Kirkko (Google Maps Location)

 

Red, White & Blue Patriotic Birding Plus Our National Bird!

Today was a great day of birding which started with a Sea Smoke Sunrise Over Lake Superior. Yup, only 10F as I headed inland from Two Harbors 20 minutes before sunrise, and the air water temperature differential made for spectacular conditions out over the lake. Now some folks might wonder about birding on opening day of deer hunting season in Minnesota, but if you know your habitat (deer hate bogs), and stay well away from any parked vehicles next to the forest (indicative of hunters) you will be fine. However, even if I think I am in the forest w/o anyone for miles around, I ALWAYS wear blaze orange or red.

Okay … why patriotic birding? The answer was simple. I saw beautiful red, white and blue colored birds … plus our national bird, the Bald Eagle! In additional I finally put out meat suet (hope the bears are asleep, or at least woozy). I am trying some bone marrow this year to entire Boreal Chickadees. I just drilled two holes through the bone, and then hung everything up using wire and ring eye screws. My final assignment was to place a BirdNet-Pi birdsong listening device deep in the wilderness.

On to the photographs … the Pine Grossbeaks were real special. Essentially nary a Pine Grossbeak was seen last winter. Today I watched a small flock.

Red: Pine Grosbeaks


White: Snow Buntings


& Blue: Blue Jays


and our National Bird: Bald Eagle