Aurora Storm over the Border Lands

 

Boy, am I glad I went out for a second round of photographing the auroras tonight!  After 1:00 AM the lights had died way down and I kind of thought they were done for the night.  But, it was such a serenely calm night that I decided to just sit by the water for a while and enjoy the peacefulness. Around 2:00 AM the lights started to pick up again and between 2:30 and 4:00 AM the auroras were just spectacular! Even the intense full moon was no match for the lights. Moonlight will often wash out the view of the aurora but not on this night. I haven't looked through all of my images yet... I need some sleep first... but of the ones I did look through, so far this one is my favorite. 

Aurora and Full Moonlight

 

This is going on right now!  The aurora is currently at "STORM" level... and yes, there is a full moon, but you can still see plenty of activity in the sky. One nice thing about a full moon is that it illuminates the foreground quite a bit, where normally you would see only dark, black shadows. This photo was made at 11:17 PM. I'm heading back out for more...

September Ruffed Grouse

It seems to be a pretty good year for Ruffed Grouse. I've seen quite a few of them the past couple of weekends. I saw this group on a local logging road and another one that was in a tree surrounded by beautiful yellow leaves. Seeing them in a tree is always a treat, as they spent the vast majority of their time on the ground.  

Beaver Pond, North Side of Gunflint Lake

 

One of the largest beaver ponds I've ever seen, on the Ontario side of Gunflint Lake. I love exploring the forest roads in Ontario. So many cool places to discover. On this day I had spent all afternoon driving to this location on some very rugged logging roads and was rewarded with these beautiful clouds lit up from the setting sun.