Tag Archives: MN North: Boulder Lake

Emerald Isle to Emerald Isles Aurora via UAL!

Year 12,

According to United Airlines I was flying over Greenlands’ Graah Fjord last night (Wikipedia Link) as I composed most of this post (content edited and expanded the next day before publishing). All I know is United Airlines service was superb on UAL Flight 981 from Dublin to Chicago (and then on to Duluth). My thanks to Flight Attendant Beth who took this image of me working on my wildlife photographs while I was flying home over the north Atlantic. Molly if flying on to a Greek Island to enjoy some time with a friend for her “70th birthday treat”.

For Molly’s birthday treat, we decided to treat ourselves travel first class for the first time in our 42 years of marriage. It was definitely a very enjoyable way to edit images, and then send pics to all our kids and their spouses noting how how were spending their inheritance! Okay … back to what you subscribe to me for … birds and wildlife. The images accompanying this post were edited on a Boeing 787 flying at 547 mph up at 37,000 feet with Prince Christian Sound of Greenland off to my right.

Eurasian Oystercatcher

European Stonechat

Oh yes … this post title mentions “from the Emerald Isle to the Emerald Isles” and something about the Northern Lights. I arrived home at my house in Duluth by 7 pm, and was in bed by 7:45 pm having been awake for almost 24 hours straight. Given the six hour time difference I woke up at 1 am local … wide awake. Within a few minutes I heard my local owls hooting outside the house. Of course I decided to go out on the deck in the middle of the night (couldn’t sleep given the 6 hour time change) to better listen to Amy (the female Great Horned Owl). I then realized the Aurora Borealis was popping. Twenty minutes later I was in my car driving 35 minutes to Boulder Lake … to watch Lady Aurora dance above the “Emerald Isles”. Life is good!

Northern Light s Real Time Video in NE Minnesota on March 8, 2025

Year 12,

35 seconds of last night’s Northern Lights display in NE Minnesota. This is NOT an enhanced time lapse. This is “real time” as I watched it at Boulder Lake a bit north of Duluth. The only post processing I performed was to remove color (i.e. reduce color saturation) and digital noise because I wanted folks to experience what I saw. Cameras tend to record the Aurora as having much more green than what we typically see in NE Minnesota. Finally, my camera is NOT an expensive device. It is a Sony A6300 (released in 2016) using 3200 ISO and an aperture of 2.0 on a wide angle lens. I try to focus on realism in my astrophotography (i.e. what I am able to see with my naked eye, as opposed to the camera which can see a broader light spectrum). My approach is not better than photographers who choose to record more light than me. Photography is art.

Video Link for this blog’s email subscribers

And of course here are a few still images from last night’s dance by Lady Aurora. My only post processing edits in a manner similar to my video was to tone down the colors (remove green) and sharpen the photographs. The almost full moon (70% of full last night) often washed out a Northern Lights display, but last night it allowed me to better photograph the landscape. There were very defined shadows from the moon (my tripod, me, etc).

I knew from personal experience, that when the arc stats to get intense, the dance will normally start soon.

Lady Aurora is dancing!

The Northern Lights Glowed Last Night!

Year 6

I finally left the house last night at 1:45 am to watch the Northern Lights. The technical numbers and clouds were underwhelming till that point, but when the skies cleared and Ovation Aurora jumped into the 60 Gw range (power reading), I jumped out of bed. It was cool, clear and crisp last night out at Boulder Lake (28F), but the views were fantastic. While there never was a huge dance, conditions rose to a G2 Aurora storm levels and the intensity of the “green glow” was amazing to both the camera and the naked eye.

Don’t forget, tomorrow (Saturday, the 26th) is my free book rollout event … Snowy’s Search for Color. There will be both children’s book readings, and I will give adult bird talks which focus upon winter birding in the Duluth area. (see details)

These two images were taken about 3 am.