Northern Lights 3/17/2015 (with video)

    For the first time in about ten years I was able to observe and photograph a display of the Northern Lights.  A Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun on March 15 sent a shower of charged particles that interacted with Earth's magnetic field.  The ejected matter actually arrived early in the predawn (EDT) hours of March 17.   During the daylight hours for the eastern US the intensity of the interaction increased dramatically,  giving skywatchers in the eastern hemisphere a vivid display.
    Just before the onset of dusk for my location there was a slight drop off in the Auroral activity.  Usually this signifies a trend downward and the end of the geomagnetic storm.  But as the sky started to darken a quick check of spaceweather.com  showed that the fall off was just temporary and the activity re-intensified.

  Before astronomical twilight had begun the display was detected by my camera, as I set up on the roadside leading to Ludington State Park.

Green glow visible in twilight

   Who knew that a road that leads nowhere but the park, would suddenly become the busiest road in Mason County.

Long exposure of passing car

  To avoid headlights washing out my photos I climbed over the dunes and reset-up the camera

   It wasn't the best display I've ever seen but I had my best camera I'd ever photographed the aurora with.

  I strung together about 200 still photos and made a video that I put on youtube.  Here is the link.
Video of Northern Lights

Broad-winged Hawks 9/18/2014 with video

    Thursday September 18, produced a third straight day of 39K+  Broadwings migrating over the lower Detroit River.  The official count at Lake Erie Metropark was in the upper 30,000's.  A similar if not greater number was observed but not counted at the Pt. Mouillee SGA Headquarters.  At Pt. Moo we enjoyed mostly high altitude but often straight over head views of this remarkable phenomenon.  The strong NNE wind gave the birds a tailwind that had them mostly streaming with any kettling limited to a couple of revolutions, then back to straightforward flight.

    

  Another year another pair of distant sparring Bald Eagles

  In the next photo the Broadwings are gaining altitude that is taking them into the clouds.

  The past few mornings the waning moon has been in the sky and many broadwings have been on a path that put them in the same field of view with it.  Although the hawks were flying high they weren't effectively at infinity as the 250,000 mile distant moon is.  In order to try to get them both in focus I stopped down my lens to f/20 and still didn't succeed in getting them both sharp.

  By 5:30 activity subsided at Pt. Moo, so I headed to the LEMP count area to see what the official counters came up with.   When I got there I found that they must have just left as the flow of hawks there had also stopped.   Seeing only two unfamiliar cars in the lot, I just did a quick loop and intended to continue on home.  But as I getting back on the road I gave a quick look back and thought I saw a kettle of hawks over the river.  I circled back into the parking lot, parked and grabbed my binoculars and walked out to the river's edge.  The birds that I had seen from the car had moved on behind the trees, 

    I ran into a couple of birders sitting on a bench near the counters table.  Thinking they had been there for the afternoon count, I asked them what they had seen.  Turns out, Phil and Mimi had just arrived, from Farmington Hills, five minutes before I had and thought that since the counters had stayed until 6 PM the previous day they would still be there.  Officially the count ends at 4 PM they only stay later when the migration continues through that time.  As we talked of Sandhill Cranes, warblers and the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I noticed a naked-eye kettle crossing the river toward us.  Over the next half hour we got great views of 500-600 Broad-wingeds, a couple of Bald Eagles and a Northern Harrier.

  Below are the birds I watched with Mimi and Phil.

 Click on the links below for a couple of short shaky videos of the hawks from Pt. Mouillee.

Broadwinged Video 1

Broadwinged Video 2

Pelicans in better lighting (with video) 7/17/2014

  I photographed the American White Pelicans at Pt. Mouillee again this morning.  The birds were closer and the lighting was better.

"Then the teller said  'Do you want that in large bills'"

Great Egret which stand 40" tall, dwarfed by the Pelicans

No idea what's in there.  A turtle? A kitten? 

Broad-wingeds 9/14/2013 (with video and prediction)

UPDATE:  Prediction :   Hawk Watch data analysis for the Lake Erie Metropark site shows that by Sept. 16 only 17% of the season's broadwings have gone through but by the 19th that jumps to 85%. With 28% occurring on the 17th and 26% on the 18th.  So the strong north winds forecast for Monday should bring many more Broadwings but possibly south of LEMP hawk count site at places such as the Pt.Mouillee Headquarters or even the Roberts Rd. parking lot.  For Tuesday the potential for a big day is even greater as it fits the calendar perfectly but the lighter winds are going to lose their northerly component.  The LEMP site could experience an excellent count but with winds shifting around mid-day to east-southeast,  the birds may cross farther north.

   How appropriate that the milestone 100th post on this blog is about Broad-winged Hawks? For it was the Broadwing migration back in 1991 that drew me to Hawk Watch, which led to photographing birds and birdwatching in general.

   Yesterday I spent the morning and early afternoon at the Lake Erie Metropark (LEMP)  Hawk Watch catching up with old friends and getting a preview of the wave of Broadwings that will pass by in the next week or so.  Several times in the history of the LEMP Hawk Watch over 100,000 hawks have been seen in a day.

Broad-Winged Hawks at Lake Erie Metropark

Sparring Bald Eagles

Three Bald Eagles

Sharp-shinned Hawk glides past preoccupied  Eagles

Immature Red-tailed Hawk

Osprey

American Kestrel

   I left the park about 2 pm and headed back to my house, where I had yet to see a single Broad wing this month.  That all changed during the 4 o'clock hour when I had over 500 fly over at a relatively low altitude.  Here are the photos (plus video) I took from home.

I can see the migration from my house

And now the movie............