Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Sunday Night at the Movies: Forest Fires & Foxes!

Before the days of YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime, the network TV stations often had a show named Sunday Night at the Movies! The idea was the network would pick a popular movie and all us Americans would watch same.

Tonight, I bring the 365 Days of Birds Sunday Night at the Movies … In fact … even like when you attend a flick at any good theater I am providing you with a great animated short prior to the main feature! Long time readers of my blog know I love chasing and photographing the Northern Lights. Thus, I was thrilled to finally discover this week what actually causes the Aurora … an Arctic Fox painting the lights with its tail!

Yours truly watching a simultaneous Aurora and sunrise this summer near the Canadian Border in northern Minnesota.
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And now for our main feature … many of us bird the Pagami Creek Forest Fire region northwest of Isabella (Tomahawk Rd). A few days ago I discovered this video on YouTube; . it is training for US Forest Service rangers. In the video six rangers who were in the BWCA at the time of the fire were working to warn and evacuate people. However, the fire expanded dramatically and quickly; they were themselves overrun by the fire and only saved themselves by deploying fire shelters in the middle of Insula Lake. The video is 35 minutes long, but I found it interesting to hear first hand accounts about what it’s like to have a wildfire catch up to you, and overrun your position. I am actually going up there tomorrow morning with a friend. There will be lots of snow on the ground!

Lady Aurora Did Not Dance!

The Aurora Borealis would not come out and dance last night. It was shy and hid behind the clouds! Actually made for a cool picture!

The Northern Lights photo was taken about 8:20 pm, and given the almost full moon combined with the fact it was not yet truly dark (2 hours after sunset of 8:35), my camera settings were quite different … ISO of 800; Aperture of 2.0; and Exposure of 6 seconds.

Oh yes … our yard was also invaded by late season migrating birds!

Boulder Lake north of Duluth

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Slate-Colored Junco

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White-Throated Sparrow

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Bicycling Under the Aurora Borealis

Yesterday Molly and I finished 1,371 miles of self-supported bicycle touring which found us riding along the shores of Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan.  We were on our bikes for 33 days and during that period we never, not even once:

  • Watched any TV
  • Listened to a Radio
    and
  • Rode in a Car

I will admit we bring tablets along in our panniers, which we use to keep in touch with the world and upon which we download lots of books from our library. Imagine if you can what it is like to disconnect from the normal media and transportation methods and see America at 12 mph. (read my daily trip bike diary)

Perhaps my favorite experience from the entire trip was watching the Northern Lights out over Lake Huron. I only had 30 minutes before the moon came up and washed out the dancing lights with its brightness. I only wished I had thought to insert my bicycle into a photograph before the display was dying down. Still, it’s a neat picture. The location is Drummond Island on Lake Superior, but not too far from the Straits of Mackinac and Lake Superior.

Aurora Borealis by Bicycle
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Our Final Route … we started and finished in Milwaukee
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