Category Archives: Year 7

BWCA: Dark Sky Sanctuary!

Background, Year 7

Who has not looked up at the night sky and stared in wonder at its beauty and majesty? Unfortunately, most of you have never seen truly dark skies. Here in northeastern Minnesota we are truly blessed, and the International Dark Sky Association has just recognized that fact. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area has just been named the 13th night sky gem in the world by the Association … a location with truly dark skies not affected by human light pollution. Read an article in the Duluth News Tribune written by John Myers about the announcement which features two of my BWCA Northern Lights images, and some other great photos by other folk.

The BWCA is about 60 miles north of my home. Thus, when I want some truly dark skies, in addition to standing out on my own deck, a one hour drive gets me to locations that reminds one of time immemorial. (see Dark Sky Map of North America)

Here are the photographs featured in the newspaper article that I took of the Aurora Borealis at BWCA entry points.

The Pagami Creek Wildfire Area on Island River north of Isabella, Minnesota

Little John Lake at the end of the Arrowhead Trail (a daytime image taken 6 hours earlier at the same exact location is included!)

A map I made showing the photograph locations

A Dark Sky Map of the eastern part of North America

I will be spending a week up in the BWCA at the end of the Gunflint Trail in the very near future!

Finally … one more image. The first two photographs featured in this blog post were taken during one of the most phenomenal nights of my life. The Northern Lights danced all night as I moved from location to location. Two hours before sunrise found me driving south towards home. I was so exhausted that I pulled into a public boat launch 40 miles north of Two Harbors on Greenwood Lake. I got into the back of my Subaru Outback and lay down to catch a few winks. God thought otherwise! As the dawn light appeared in the eastern sky, the Northern Lights exploded once more and were able to overpower the sunrise. Amazing! By far this was the most amazing sunrise I ever watched in my life. I took this selfie.

Blue Bonanza!

Year 7,

September is one of my favorite time to go birding. While I never know what birds I will see, I rarely am disappointed in terms of seeing great variety. Yesterday afternoon, I hiked over to find Hoot (unsuccessfully), but found well over 30 American Restarts flitting around the pine grove where my owns often hang out. In addition, there were good numbers of other migrating warblers. My key takeaway … get out there and enjoy the migration.

One of my rules during migration is generally not to look for specific kinds of birds, but to pick known good birding habitat and enjoy the hit parade. This morning in my own yard it was non stop Blue Jays. At times I could see well over 20 jays at once … my feeders were a big hit.

Two days ago I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog at sunrise. The numbers of American Kestrels was amazing, and I had an extremely rare sighting … a Red Headed Woodpecker. The other staff / naturalists for the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog only knew of one other Red Head ever being seen in the Bog area. We are north of their preferred habitat.

I don’t normally take videos of my own feeders, but this morning’s blue demanded an exception! (video link for email subscribers)

Fall Arrives!

Year 7

The temperature this morning on Northstar Lake was 39F. There is a freeze warning for tonight. It was very obvious when the winds switched from the West to the North yesterday afternoon, and the temperatures started to drop. Migration is now in full swing, and we have entered the “no snowy owl period” in North America. Basically this means there are now zero eBird reports of Snowies on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and these beautiful birds are now working there way south … generally in tandem with huge flocks of snow geese that provide easier food. The owls are south of the Arctic Ocean, but have not reached any small population centers in northern Manitoba or Saskatchewan when birders will file reports or their GPS tracking devices check in with Project Snowstorm. Sometime within the next few weeks the Snowies will check in. The earliest I have seen a Snowy along the North Shore is the end of October. However, some buddies of mine who hunt ducks and geese in North Dakota see them much earlier.

I found this Bald Eagle shortly after sunrise this morning. I think it was angry I had stopped near some roadkill, and was expressing its displeasure at me. I took a few photos and moved on quickly. If you maximize the first image, enjoy the eagle’s tongue!