Aurora – Tails From The Bird House

or perhaps

Does it still count as a Blog if I only post every few months???

I have to get a better handle on this thing (he says to himself knowing full well nothing will happen).

In June last year we had a few nasty storms come through the area. My Lady and I were sitting in the parking lot of the town Visitor Centre and watched as the clouds worked their way across the river from the west. My Lady suggested I take a photo, so I happily obliged. The phone panorama worked quite well.

Also in June My Lady and I went to Niagara Falls to see the new Tunnel attraction. We did the evening tour that included an interactive light display that we found informative and entertaining. Then we took the elevator down to the Tunnel, and made our way out to the viewing area beside the Horseshoe Falls. Spent a little time here and had to protect the camera occasionally so it didn’t get too wet. This attraction might be really cool to see at night when the Falls freeze up and the lights are shining on it.

In September our town has a little event called The Uncommon Festival. It’s a great time for fans of Steampunk and Wizardry to dress up in their favourite cosplay outfits and hang out with like-minded friends. We have been a couple of times and some of the costumes are really fantastic. I went in the evening this year and watched as a bunch of “Pirates” and “Soldiers” entertained the crowd by firing cannons as well as muskets and blunderbuss toward the river. Got a couple of interesting photos.

In the fall we went out towards the Bracebridge area hoping to see the autumn colours, unfortunately we were a little bit early so we checked out some waterfalls instead. However we did get to see the partial Lunar Eclipse.

A few weeks after that we headed north along Lake Huron to visit Goderich and Bayfield. Pretty little towns and a couple of our favourite day trips.

Would you believe that Birding has still been going on? Yup, even after our amazing journey to Texas, we still get out to look for birds whenever we can. If you have been reading my past posts you would likely have seen most of the regulars that come by, however we did have a few new ones that deserve a mention.

Then of course along comes the time to spend on the Holiday Beach Hawk Tower, helping to count whatever happens to be flying by.
This year we had an amazing young gentleman who was able to pick up the calls of birds flying by, and was so fast with his camera it was like watching an old western gunslinger shoot a coin out of the sky. He was able to get some awesome photos of birds that I couldn’t even see.

Remember the Pelicans that came by in the early spring last year? Well it looked like they had a great time in the breeding grounds, and they made their way back to our little marsh, and took up residence for a month or so. Often there were over 1000 Pelicans on the marsh at a time.

So 2024 was an amazing year for people who enjoy looking at the sky. The sun has been very “dirty” with sunspots throughout the year, and I have really enjoyed getting some shots of it. Then of course we had the major event of the spring (perhaps a lifetime) with the Total Eclipse in April.
In May we had the Aurora that sadly we stayed in bed for, followed up with the August aurora that we fortunately had a chance to see.
Did you know that in October we had another aurora? This one I am calling a MAJOR EVENT, perhaps even going so far as calling it an AURORAGASM (surely better than sex?). I have never seen anything like it before, and one young lady in our group was in such awe that she said “It’s so beautiful I feel like crying!”
I’ve been asked if the actual views were as good as the photos, and all I can say is that once our eyes were adjusted to the dark, all the colours were easily visible. So even while the camera was taking 8 second long exposures, I was still able to observe and enjoy. At one point the sky was Red all the way over our heads.
Wait until you see the photos below.
And just a week after that we were able to see Comet A3 with our naked eyes (it was difficult, but once you knew where to look it became easier). The photos look better as I took a number of photos a few seconds long each, then stacked them to really show what the tail looked like.
And we can’t forget the previously mentioned Partial Lunar Eclipse

Winter came in with a vengeance this year. It was cold all across North America, and we had our few days of it as well. Not only that, but we actually got some snow! Nothing like in the traditional snow belts, or what was going on in Toronto, but more than we have seen since coming down here. And with the cold weather, the snow stayed longer. The marshes froze over and people were out skating and playing hockey on them, the Detroit River was on and off frozen and Lake Erie had large ice shelves reaching far out from the shore.

But winter did bring in some of the winter birds, like Horned Larks, Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs and Dark Eyed Juncos, while others tough it out throughout the year, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Nuthatch, Blackbirds and Starlings and a good number of ducks.

We also have a few Raptors that are comfortable with the winter weather. Red Tail Hawks, Coopers Hawks, Northern Harriers, and of course Bald Eagles. I submitted the photo below of the Adult Bald Eagle to our local CTV news channel, and it appeared as the Photo Of The Day on the following day. Unfortunately we missed seeing it, but one of our friends sent me a text letting me know that they saw it.

Slowly the months turn over and March makes itself known by bringing in the warmer weather, and the promise of a new birding season.

My Lady and I went to a nearby Provincial Park in early March and as we were walking along the road a dark streak flew in front of us and landed in a tree. I got my binoculars on it and we were thrilled to see a Pileated Woodpecker! We hadn’t seen one since before we left Toronto, and although we hear of one visiting the area once in a while, we were never in the right place at the right time.

All winter we had an impossible time finding any owls, and after lamenting our woes to one of our friends, he advised us of a place that we should be able to see some. Fortunately he was right, and we had a couple of wonderful days observing a number of Short Eared Owls hunting.

A couple of weeks later another friend pointed out a Screech Owl sitting in a box.

It took a little while longer this year for the Pelicans to return to Holiday Beach, but it’s nice to be able to say that they are making their way through with a bit of a stopover here. Sadly the marsh is at its lowest water since before we moved down, and all of the birds are having a harder time finding food. This includes the Pelicans. There have been a few days where they weren’t seen at all after their earlier arrival.

So how many of you got to see the Blood Moon in March? I actually stayed up all night and had my camera taking photos every 20 seconds from pretty well start to finish. I have this little compilation here, instead of putting in too many photos.

Well, after March comes what I like to call “Birding Season”. April and May are some of the best months for the inbound migration and Holiday Beach and Point Pelee are going to see a lot of us again this year. Of course this means I will likely have a couple of thousand photos to go through before I can put together another posting. Hopefully you will all be patient.

Does that get us all caught up? Maybe, but I am sure I am missing a lot. Maybe I will remember it in time for my next posting (whenever that turns out to be).

Thanks again for reading, hope you are still enjoying what you see.

Till next time.

It’s amazing the stuff you can re-learn when you have a bit of time on your hands, and the ability to understand what your teachers were trying to explain when you were younger.

As a child I was interested in space, after all it was the time of the Apollo missions and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

In school we learned about the sun and the 9 planets (yes Pluto was still a planet back then), and we learned about eclipses, the planets orbiting around the sun, the moon phases, and a little bit about the Northern Lights.

As mentioned in my last post I finally had the opportunity to see Totality during a Solar Eclipse, but this posting is more about Auroras than eclipses.

In the big city there is so little opportunity to see the Aurora, but there have been a couple times that I can remember.

Once in my early 20’s I was out late at night walking in the Warden and Finch area of Scarborough, when I happened to notice an odd green wash to the sky in the north. As I watched it seemed to move and change. At first my mind went to HG Wells and the War of the Worlds, but then my brain worked it through until I realized that I was seeing the Aurora, otherwise known as The Northern Lights. I was filled with excitement and so very happy to have seen this, from such a busy place.

Sadly there were no cell phones at that time (oooh, that must have been such a long time ago Grandpa!), and I didn’t have a camera either, so all I have is a memory.

The next time I saw the Aurora was with My Lady when we visited Alaska and the Yukon. We were in Dawson City in late August of 2005, doing laundry while on a tour, and I stepped out of the laundromat, looked up at the sky, and observed a green glow forming overhead in the late twilight sky.

We were tired after a very full day of touring, and after finishing the laundry my poor Lady wanted to go to sleep. I pleaded with her to come with me to the river (where it was darker), but she really was tired. Eventually I was able to persuade her to come with me, and as I led her while she sleep walked, she let me know that she was not pleased.

That changed when we got to the river.

As I set up my camera (yes, I had one this time – it was even a digital too!), My Lady lay down on a picnic table and looked up at the sky. Green waves, Pink ribbons and Purple streaks greeted our eyes. She was entranced and immediately wide awake.

At one point the sky right above us went into a corkscrew and turned a full revolution, before my camera was ready, and then disappeared as quickly as it started.

We stayed and watched the sky for a couple of hours until the show faded away. As we headed back to the hotel, My Lady mentioned that it was even better than sex.

The next time I saw that green glow was when I was driving up the 427 to the 401 while heading to work. There it was low on the horizon, greeting me like an old friend. Again this time, only the memory.

And a few years ago, My Lady and our Son and Daughter In Law were watching the Perseids meteors in Lion’s Head Dark Sky area, and were thrilled to see some of the familiar colours vaguely showing in the north. This time I had a camera, and even knew a bit more about how to use it. Surprisingly I was able to help a couple other people capture the beauty on their own cameras as well.

Which brings us to May of 2024.

We belong to a group of birders and we send messages when a bird of note is being seen. Sometimes a message comes in later in the night, or the summary email from EBird comes in and we get the message ding after 10, when us old birds are trying to go to sleep.

One night in May we were just falling asleep and had the “ding” come in. Neither of us bothered because we figured it was the EBird summary.

In the morning when we woke, we checked the message and were very sad to see that someone had sent a message telling everyone to get outside, the Aurora is fantastic right now. And we slept through it.

Since then we have been keeping a closer eye on the weather and the Aurora Alert sites online.

Now, swinging back to the sun. Right now we are in a high point of the 11 year cycle that the sun goes through, and we are seeing an immense amount of Sunspots. These Sunspots coincide with the increase in Aurora / Northern Lights, and the greater the Sunspot, the greater the chance to see the Aurora.

Over time I have purchased Solar Filters from Thousand Oaks and Celestron, and have been trying to photograph the sun when it is especially spotty. These filters go on the front end of the lens and block all light, except that from the sun. DO NOT TRY TO PHOTOGRAPH, OR LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY, WITHOUT A PROPER FILTER. YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR EYES.

A few nights ago everything seemed to align, and we felt that there was an opportunity to (hopefully) see the Aurora. The sky was going to be clear enough, and the Alerts showed that the Aurora was dipping further south into our area.

Knowing that the best viewing would be to the north, My Lady and I jumped into our vehicle and headed to the north end of the county, along the shore of Lake St. Clair, and waited as darkness fell and our eyes adjusted.

Eventually I was able to see some colour showing up in my camera with a 10 second exposure, and we began taking a few more photos.

Soon after we moved to a different area where it was darker, but unfortunately had a bright red light flashing off to the right side. We stayed here because it was the best place we could find. We were joined by a lovely couple, and shortly after another lady arrived, who all stayed with us for an hour or so as we watched the sky to the north ripple in greens and tower in purples. Eventually this too faded away, and it was time for us to make our way home, once again feeling elated at being able to observe something so magnificent.