Category Archives: Year 12

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!

Where’s Waldo Going Today? Wilderness Trek!

Year 12

Here is today’s planned route. My first stop will be my bird feeders at Greenwood Creek, then via Isabella to Sawbill Landing. The snowpack inland from the big lake is still very deep. If I see more than four cars per hour once I head north from Two Harbors (20 minutes from my house) it will be a traffic jam! Once I leave Isabella I would expect to see zero other people. I am looking forward to a day in the wilderness. This route was planned based upon my knowledge of the area, the hour by hour weather forecast (particularly cloudy coverage, winds and temperatures), and the sun angle / position relative to my location and direction of travel.

Owl Irruption Update … Down on the Farm Great Gray!

Year 12

Many folks have asked me if the owl irruption is over in NE Minnesota. The answer is “yes” and “no”. The huge influx of owls on the North Shore of Lake Superior has been over for some time. However, this irruption was originally a southward movement irruption … owls moving south but as they hunted out areas they ran smack dab into Lake Superior. Owls do not like flying over large bodies of water, and thus there was a traffic jam of owls along the shore of the big lake. Eventually most of these owls worked their way down the shore past Duluth (a few staying to hunt good habitat) and spread out across northern Minnesota. There were also lots of owls that just flew directly south and never smacked into Lake Superior.

All these Great Gray Owls are now working their way back north. Some will choose to become year round residents in the Boreal forest & bogs of northeastern Minnesota and join our resident year round Great Grays. Some owls will work their way back up to the border country with Canada and beyond … into eastern Manitoba and NW Ontario.

This morning I found a few Great Grays well away from the North Shore and Sax-Zim Bog. They seemed to be following traditional spring migration paths which other bird species also utilize. Thus, with hard work and research there are still more owls around than normal, but the days of a Great Gray Owl on every other Scenic 61 signpost are gone!

I hope you enjoy my “Down on the Farm” Great Gray Owl photographs. Each farm was near good owl habitat, and remember … in the winter these of owls eat meadow voles.

Great Gray hunting from an Antique Hay Mower

Sticking the Landing! The owl eventually dropped straight down and caught a vole next to the mower

Great Gray hunting a farm field next to the forest