Tag Archives: WI North: Richard Bong Airport

Spectre the Snowy Owl!

Year 2

Found Spectre this morning! Yup, all the Snowy Owls I discovered in Superior, Wisconsin last winter had “wing bands” which indicated their “00” number, like “07”, and thus their license to kill! This snowy was unbanded; figured it had to be Spectre!

Hope this bird hangs out at the same location for a while. It is in a great spot for observing the hunt, and not so industrial! Enjoy the video and photographs.

Spectre the Snowy Owl
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Spectre’s Nemesis
Spectre

Photographing the Dark Side Using the Sony NEX-5T! (Yr. 2: Day 27)

Background, Year 2,

Early in the afternoon, just prior to dusk I found three Snowy Owls. This owl photograph started another round of “dark side” photographs … taking images of the northern night!

For two nights in a row I have headed north of Knife River, Minnesota and chased the Northern Lights. These photos were taken about 3:15 am last night (night of Feb 17-18). The Aurora colors were a bit better than the previous night, but I still missed the light pillars. Some back lighting is present from a distant security light.

These night time photos were taken with my new SONY NEX-5T. My primary reasons for purchasing this camera were twofold: low light photography and landscape photography. The NEX has exceeded my expectations even with the kit lens. Here in northern Minnesota, the combination of the Lake Superior wilderness and dark night skies allows me to spend significant time out in the wild with my camera. I was looking for a high quality, light camera which I could easily pack into the back country with me. Here is what I have found:

  • Trying to focus on infinity for night photographs initially threw me off given there is no infinity hard stop while using manual focus. However, this issue was easily solved once I learned to to set the ISO to 24,600 (increases light sensitivity) and point a red laser on a distant tree or object. When the red light is as crisp and small a circle as possible, one has achieved infinity focus. After focusing I set the ISO back to the desired level.
  • No need to use the bulb setting … use a two second delay when pushing the shutter for landscape and night images
  • I was disappointed that a charging unit did not come for the battery, but I made a purchase of a backup battery which included a wall plug-in charging unit. I do not like having to insert the USB cable into the camera to charge it. Bad things happen when a camera is resting on a desk or table next to a computer.
  • Although I was worried that the minimum aperture of 3.5 would not let in enough light for night images, and I would have to purchase an additional wide angle low light lens, the kit lens with its 3.5 aperture has worked superbly in low light.

Snowy Owl Just Before Dusk
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Knife River Night Lights
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Lake Superior Snow Buntings! (Yr. 2: Day 17)

Year 2

Snow Buntings, guests from the Arctic Ocean where they spends their summers, are beautifull small birds which visit northern Minnesota in the winter. Minnesota is their winter warm climate destination, not Florida. Quite frankly, they are true snowbirds!!!

There are two difficulties when trying to photograph these birds:

  1. Snow Buntings are hard to find
  2. Snow Buntings are small and spook very easily

Today, in what can only be described as miserable conditions (freezing drizzle and 35 mph winds), I hit the jackpot! I found a small flock of snow buntings, and after over 40 minutes of trying, was able to maneuver within fifteen yards while they rested after their morning feed. Approximately every minute I had to stop and clean the accumulated frozen sleet off my camera lens. However, the results were worth the effort!

Snow Buntings of Lake Superior!
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