Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

Days 217 to 219: Birds of the Aurora!

Year 1, ,

The past several nights have been fantastic for viewing and photographing the Northern Lights up here near the Canadian border in Minnesota. My total number of sleep hours remains small, but the fun quotient is HUGE! Obviously the 365 “Days” of bird photo project must be continued. Thus, here are my aurora birds!

However, before the Aurora bird photos, here is one of my photos from my Northern Lights night sessions (see next blog entry for many more). This particular photo has gone viral via Flickr Explore, and has had several thousands views so far in just a couple of hours.

Northern Lights Over Boulder Lake
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Day 217: Dive, Captain Dive: Ruby Throated Hummingbird
217-Birds-365-Ruby-Throated-Hummingbird-Takeoff-Dive

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Day 218: Canadian Geese in Final Landing Approach
218-Birds-365-Geese-Landing

 

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Day 219: Great Blue Heron Inspecting Me!
219-Birds-365-Great-Blue-Heron-Rain

Day 212: Lunch now being served at Hoeg Hollow

Year 1

Our heavy fog and mist in Duluth continues courtesy of Lake Superior. While we have a hard time getting about 65F, down in Minneapolis St. Paul the temperatures are soaring into the 90’s. I think I’ll stay up here in the Northland. Having said all of that, taking photographs in the fog is difficult due to issues ranging from low light to auto focus difficulties. Thus, today I retreated to using my own yard and bird feeders for photography subjects. It was easier to find the birds, and I could focus upon “motionless” birds (i.e. had to use longer shutter speeds).

American Goldfinch
212-Birds-365-Goldfinch-Lunch

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Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
212-Birds-365-Ruby-Throated-Hummingbird-Lunch

Days 208 & 209: Photographing in the fog and rain

Year 1,

Taking bird photographs on dark gloomy days is at best difficult. The combination of rain, heavy clouds and fog dramatically limits the available light. Given birds tend to move around quickly, not being able to use fast shutter speeds is a real handicap. My only solution is to find birds at rest … surprisingly today’s bird was a hummingbird … one of the most active birds around! You can tell just how dark it is by looking at the ruby-throated hummingbirds throat. Although it is ruby colored, the available light (or lack thereof) made it look black.

Day 208: Great Blue Heron
208-Birds-365-great-blue-heron

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Day 209: Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
209-Birds-365-ruby-throated-hummingbird