Tag Archives: MN North

Snowy Owl Snowstorm!

Year 12

The Snowy Owls have arrived back in Minnesota! It took a while for them to make their grand entrance. Other areas throughout the North Central States, particularly Wisconsin along Lake Michigan were seeing the large white birds, but Snowy Owls anywhere in Minnesota within a few hour drive of my home have been a tough find. All of that changed yesterday, when I took a long drive and over the course of 24 hours saw not one, or two but three Snowy Owls! I should know from prior birding years our owls normally hold off till about mid December to make their grand appearance.

Of the three birds … only one Snowy Owl was cooperative in terms of posing for photographs. Here is that bird … photos increasingly close to sunset.

And one of the non cooperative birds … way up on a high tension power line sleeping away the afternoon (not unusual).

Northern Lights Videos Over Suomalainen Kirkko (Historic Lutheran Church)

Year 12,

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 …

Video Links for Blog eMail Subscribers

  • 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)

Year 12,

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)