Northern Lights Dancing Around Ardee Bog

The Northern Lights ( Aurora Borealis ) put on another great display around Ardee Bog on Thursday September 12th.

The solar storm that causes this phenomenon was not as intense as the one earlier this summer and the aurora was only faintly visible to the naked eye. The reason the camera images capture the aurora better is because the shutter was open for 15 seconds. The storm had peaked earlier in the day and was starting to fade by sunset at 8pm, ideally we needed to wait an hour or two for the sky to be dark enough to display it. We were very lucky to have clear skies for the duration of the storm and the moon wasn’t very bright either and was going to set around 10pm.

I had 1 regret from the shooting the solar storm earlier this year in that I took most of the photos from the same location and realised that I should have included some features of the bog in some of them.

I landed at the bog at around 10pm and lucky enough the storm was still strong enough to barely see with the naked eye. Stormanstown Bog is an ideal location as there is very little artificial light in front of you when looking North.

So I ventured out and took a few test shots to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. The shots looked good so I set up at the first planned location with a tree in the mid distance of the image. I used a small LED light to illuminate the foreground as it was far darker than the sky and I wanted to retain some detail in it. With those shots in the bag I headed for the main location I wanted to get, 1 of the larger bog pools. I got there and got set up but only managed to get a few shots before the display faded away. It would peak again later in the night but I was long gone home at stage.

I love the way the colours around the border of the pool reflects the colours in the sky with the Heather & Bog Asphodel lending a purple \ orange tint. The colours were not edited in the images, just the overall brightness and then the highlights and shadows.

Bog Appreciation Day

Thank you to everyone who came out to our @nationalheritageweek event on Sunday 18th.
We were delighted to show you around and to talk about the wonders of the bog.

Following our wonderful Ecological assessment report funded by @theheritagecouncil we were able to talk about the management recommendations given from Dr Catherine O’Connell who undertook the assessment. Understanding the value of these peatland habitats is so important. Being in community with the wonderful folk in FAB @ardeebog has been the so enriching. For me being in nature and having a sense of doing something positive in community with others amidst all the horrors and fear of this world is a real privilege.

Biggest thanks to all those who helped to make this event go so wonderfully well. Fiona @myelement_bog_forest for everything you did to help and all you provided to enrich the experience. Anne @anne.lennon2 who couldn’t be here but did so much physical prep clearing the paths so we could walk through. Also providing the event shelter and so much cheerleading from afar! There are many more to thank but @ardeesnapper Adrian for all your help in setting up and clearing up but most of all thanks for the beautiful photos recording the day and the flora and fauna seen on the way. Thanks also to Vanessa @tebbittv for her wonderful map for the day and ongoing mapping of the plot. More on this to follow.

If you would like to keep in touch please go to ardeebog.ie where you can subscribe. Also you can join our FAB WhatsApp group. DM if you would like to join.

We will be running meitheal days where you can come and help with clearing invasive species and other jobs - (The Irish word ‘Meitheal’ means ‘a collective effort for the greater good of the community’. Meitheal is an ancient Irish tradition of a group coming together for a common purpose and working together and for each other to ensure that all succeed in achieving their goal) . We always promise to have tasty food to fuel your efforts.

Finally massive thanks to @theheritagecouncil for their support. Also for promoting our event.

FAB @ardeebog

#peatlandsarethebestlands #bogisourheritage #lovenature #community #

Ardee Bog: Past, Present & Future Film Screening

We are really excited to announce that the film we produced in 2022 has been included in the programme for the 2024 Boyne Valley International Film Festival.

The film will be shown as part of the Made in The Boyne Valley programme on Friday 9th August, listed here

The screenings start at 16:00 at Droichead Arts Centre in Stockwell Street, Drogeda.

Tickets for the event can be purchased here

We are very grateful for the funding received from Louth County Council Heritage Fund and the NPWS Local Authority Action Plan Fund that enabled us to produce the film.

Summer 2024 Round Up

We would like to introduce you to the ‘Blog About The Bog’ where we to keep you up to date the with the activities that the group and it’s members are involved in..

We’ve listed some of the highlights of the wonderful nature that we recorded on Stormanstown Bog this year.

Frog Study

We discovered a few pools of frog spawn in late February and decided to start tracking them. 1 day I arrived to discover that the mating season was still ongoing!

We started monitoring the pools and this lasted for about 3 months, by which time the froglets seem to have emerged from the water and moved away from the area.

Northern Lights ( Aurora Borealis )

Getting to see the Northern Lights ( Aurora Borealis ) has been a bucket list item for me for a long time and I’d been making enquiries about taking a trip to Iceland or Norway with a group over the coming winter to hopefully see them, but I did say to myself that it wouldn’t be the same as seeing them closer to home.

I’ve made a few unsuccessful attempts to capture them locally over the years and have been following a few website \ Twitter accounts for forecasts. They regularly highlighted the type of figures we would need to see on the forecasts for the display to be visible in our area. Imagine my surprise in early May when the alerts started coming in and the figures were off the charts! There was only one place to be that night so I headed for the bog.

It truly was an awesome experience to witness this phenomenon standing in a place that is so close to my heart.

These are some of the images I captured over the space of an hour that night.

Adrian Crawley ( bucket list item smashed )

I will be adding more content on a regular basis of things I notice when I’m out walking through the bog. with the dogs