While out on a drive through the forest roads today I happened across two male mergansers fighting over one female. The birds were on a fast-moving creek and the males were chasing each other up and down the swift water. It was quite a sight to see. Eventually one of them chased the other off and the two shown in this photo swam upstream together.
I'm still going through images from the Aurora Storm that occurred on April 23-24, 2023. This one was taken looking down the road from my driveway. This night ranks in the Top 3 of the Aurora events that I've seen in northern Minnesota. It was simply unbelievable.
Beautiful sunset this evening! Loved how these rays were shooting up from behind the clouds. A magical moment.
So many cool images from the aurora event of April 23-24, 2023. I'm still working through all the photographs I made that night. These made me think of a comet. For those that are interested in camera/lens used and exposure settings, here they are:
Above Image: Camera: Nikon Z7 II. Lens: Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 at 14mm. Exposure length: 10 seconds. Aperture: f/2.8. ISO: 1000.
Below Image: Camera: Nikon Z7 II. Lens: Nikon Z 14-24mm f/2.8 at 14mm. Exposure length: 25 seconds. Aperture: f/2.8. ISO: 400.
I love watching beavers in the spring. Probably the main reason for that is they are easier to find, as there are limited pockets of open water. And, they are often hanging out in these open pockets of water. This evening I came across this young one that was right near the forest road I was driving on. He/she did not seem to be bothered and hung out very nonchalantly less than 50 feet away.
2023 is shaping up to be a banner year for the Aurora Borealis! Last night we had another incredible display of the northern lights, the second such storm in the past month! I was out watching and photographing the sky from about 10 PM until 2:30 AM. The lights were showing no signs of fading when I called it a night. It's incredibly hard to walk away from such a beautiful display but I needed to get at least a few hours of sleep before heading in to work. Here are some quick edits after a quick review of the photographs I made. For those interested in ordering prints, I will try to get these onto my website sometime in the next week. For now, enjoy the views as I saw them through my camera lens!
It's kind of hard to believe that a week and a half ago we had temperatures approaching 60 degrees (some parts of Minnesota even saw temps in the upper 80's!). Since that warm spell, we have had two significant winter storms. Just yesterday/last night we had a big storm that dumped over 12" of new snow on us. And, technically, it is spring... which meant that it was wet, heavy snow. It seems a little crazy to get that much snow this late in April, but it is by no means unprecedented. We have had plenty of April snow storms over the years.
Even though I'm ready for spring and summer, I still find the day after a snow storm to be a very beautiful time to be out in the woods. Today I went for a drive and saw this beaver dam and lodge way out in a large meadow, with some open water near the culvert running under the road. The lodge looked like it was tired of winter too, and I could easily imagine the beavers huddled inside, patiently waiting for warmer weather, just as we all are.
