Month: September 2018

Sunday (16-September-2018) — New Jersey

Late Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Today was the second day in a row that the sun showed itself. Several young bucks with new antlers paraded through the yard. They appear to like to eat the acorns that have fallen onto the driveway. The ground is still very wet with mushrooms popping up every night. I caught one of the house trolls admiring the two types of mushrooms. For the last several days, I have been seeing some rather large spiders in the garden. Today, I got images of one with a funnel like web. The other one had an egg sack the size of a marble that was attached to its posterior. Finally, I still have a number of flowers and wildflowers in bloom. Behind an electric fence to keep the deer away.





Individual images from the slideshows can be viewed here.

Saturday (15-September-2018) — New Jersey

Indoor Late Summer Nature in New Jersey.

In addition to all of the crickets making noise outside, I heard one in the house last night. When I woke up this morning, I found Jiminy in the laundry room. He stayed still long enough for me to grab a camera with a macro lens. Afterwards, I helped him find his way back outside to be with his friends.

Jiminy Cricket. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Jiminy Cricket. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)

Five-Years Ago (15-September-2013) — New Jersey

Late Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I was stalking a small Green Heron at the local Sourland Mountain Preserve trying to get some images of it catching a fish or frog. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the middle of the pond. Two Canada Geese started a full out smackdown. It was like a junior high school fight. The other geese in the pond formed a circle and made noises supporting their team. The small Green Heron didn’t know what to think.

I used the images I took  (Nikon 1 V2 camera, FT1 adapter, and 180 mm f/2.8D lens) to create a short time-lapse video. The burst mode with the Nikon 1 V2 camera was really useful to get lots of images in a short period of time with all of the activity.

Five-Years Ago (14-September-2013) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Summer Nighttime Sky Over New Jersey.

[Updated from five-years ago. Added a slideshow with the 25 individual frames extracted from the video.]

Last night the sky was clear, and the waxing gibbous moon (61%) bright, so I set up a couple of cameras with big lenses out on the deck. One of the systems (Nikon D4 camera TC-E III 20 teleconverter and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 400, 1200 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec)) was set to record video (1080p, 30 fps). While reviewing the videos I noticed one with something (a bird?) passing in front of the moon. Played back at 10 fps shows the transit to occur over 25 frames. The bird is not very clear, or in focus relative to the moon. Someday, I want to catch a satellite transiting in front of the moon.


Individual images from the slideshow can be viewed here.

Thursday (13-September-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

All of the recent rain is keeping my trolls happy as they watch the mushrooms grow. It has been more than a week since the solar panels have generated more electricity than I have used in a day.

Troll Tending the Mushroom Garden. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/4, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Troll Tending the Mushroom Garden. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 200, 105 mm, f/4, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)