Tuesday (29-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Outdoor Nature in New Jersey

Now that hunting season has started, the deer spend more time close to the house. They know that they can’t be shot within 400 feet of an occupied house.


Click on the above image to access my PhotoShelter gallery with the individual images in the following slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (69 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (11.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy and rainy all day. Biggest usage Hydroponics (22.4 kWh), servers and computers (18.9 kWh), kitchen (6.4 kWh). Overall a net deficit of 57.6 kWh. Some of the excess usage in the kitchen was the oven being used to re-season a cast iron stir-fry pan.

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Tuesday (10-September-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

The deer are getting bolder and getting closer to the house. Here a doe is just outside my patio. The buck with a rack of antlers is next to the back wildflower meadow. I am guessing he got his antlers caught in the electric fence and panicked destroying a section of the electric fence. These images were all taken through a window impacting sharpness.


Daily Electric Energy Used (40.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (38.7 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy much of the day. Starting to warm up outside. Overall a net deficit of 1.8 kWh.


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Eight-Years Ago (07-August-2011) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature New Jersey.

Young Buck sticking its Tongue out. Note it has “mile-a-minute”  vine stuck to its side. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR II lens (ISO 280, 200 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5.

How and when the mile-a-minute vine (invasive weeds) were transported into my yard. Within a few years the vines took over much of my backyard – killing many trees. The vines are more aggressive than the wild grape vines and poison ivy vines. It has taken significant effort to reclaim the yard.

Young Buck. Backyard Nature in my Backyard -- Summer in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3s and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR II lens (ISO 280, 200 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Young Buck. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR II lens (ISO 280, 200 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)


Click on the above image to access individual images in the slideshow.


Three-Years Ago (05-August-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

There was a herd of over two dozen deer in my backyard that evening. Then this doe decided to reject a young buck with its new antlers. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 800, 200 mm, f/2, 1/160 sec).

Lets Dance. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 800, 200 mm, f/2, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)
Doe Rejecting a Young Buck. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens (ISO 800, 200 mm, f/2, 1/160 sec). (David J Mathre)

Thursday (06-December-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

I spent much of the day using the new Fujinon 200 mm f/2 lens with the included 1.4x teleconverter shooting the birds (house finch, blue jay, red-bellied woodpecker, common grackle, black-crested tufted titmouse, and junco) and other critters (cat, grey squirrel, and deer). in my backyard.