Month: June 2019

Sunday (16-June-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Wildflowers in bloom and my urban garden. The yucca plant sent shoots up to flower. The local deer really like these, and if I don’t catch and protect the shoots I don’t get any of the yucca flowers. These flowers bloom at night, around a full moon and attract some large moths. Lots of red poppies and cosmos flowers. Other flowers include the blue spiderworts (open for a day, every day new ones), cornflowers (bachelor buttons — attract goldfinches), morning glory vines, and daisy’s. The garden towers are full of fruits and vegetables. One of my sunflower plants is taller than I am. It is also supporting a burma gourd (water gourd plant) that I hope to get some gourds this year.







Daily Power Use (74.2 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (42.05 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Power use is up since I reduced the indoor temperature provided by the WaterFurnace Geothermal HVAC system. Will raise the indoor temperature to 72°F for tomorrow. The power was also out for a little over one hour in the morning. For safety/code reasons, if the PSE&G power is down, my solar panels are disconnected from the grid. I’m thinking of getting a couple of Tesla PowerWall batteries so this doesn’t happen in the future.

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Sunday (16-June-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

I noticed a squirrel running from my patio that has a big belly. Either it is expecting, or has a large tumor (or Alien). Went a grabbed a camera with a telephoto lens. Before it left, I told it to stay away from the raccoon trap.

Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Squirrel with a Heavy Pouch. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (74.2 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (42.05 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Power use is up since I reduced the indoor temperature provided by the WaterFurnace Geothermal HVAC system. Will raise the indoor temperature to 72°F for tomorrow. The power was also out for a little over one hour in the morning. For safety/code reasons, if the PSE&G power is down, my solar panels are disconnected from the grid. I’m thinking of getting a couple of Tesla PowerWall batteries so this doesn’t happen in the future.

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Saturday (15-June-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Kermit and his Bullfrog brothers and sisters have been making lots of noise in the back pond. I am finally able to get close enough to get some images. Earlier in the year they have been very skittish — jumping into the pond with the slightest bit of motion. The pond is also full of many tadpoles, so there should be many more frogs through the summer. I have not seed the turtle yet this year.

Kermit the Bullfrog in the Backyard Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bullfrog in the Backyard Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)



Dragonfly at the Backyard Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)
Dragonfly at the Backyard Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)


Kermit the Bullfrog in the Backyard Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)
Kermit the Bullfrog in the Backyard Pond. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (David J Mathre)

Daily Power Use (63.2 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (80.32 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Power use is up since I reduced the indoor temperature provided by the WaterFurnace Geothermal HVAC system.

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Saturday (15-June-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

The deer are getting gutsy, moving in closer to my wildflower meadows, and nibbling on the recently planted forsythia and lilac shrubs. This one was making a salad out of some recently planted wildflowers under the weather station.

Doe with an Attitude. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 OIS lens + 1.4x teleconverter (ISO 320, 280 mm, f/4, 1/1800 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Doe with an Attitude. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 OIS lens + 1.4x teleconverter (ISO 320, 280 mm, f/4, 1/1800 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)


Daily Power Use (63.2 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (80.32 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Power use is up since I reduced the indoor temperature provided by the WaterFurnace Geothermal HVAC system.

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Sunday (09-June-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey — Firefly Trails.

I repeated the firefly trails image shoot from last night. The moon was still out (waxing crescent) and it was pretty bright. This time I set up my night time camera Nikon D810a with a 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 105 mm, f/16, 240 sec) to take a series of 40 images. Note that I changed ISO, aperture, and exposure time. I also pre-focused the camera while it was still light outside. As before the raw images were processed with Capture One Pro and the composite image generated using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). This time the focus was better and I didn’t need to use and post processing focusing tools. I’ve also provided a slide show with enlarged images where the original image was separated into a (6 x 6 ) 36 image grid. Next time I will try with a camera that doesn’t have as high a resolution sensor.

Firefly Trails. Composite of 40 mages taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 105 mm, f/16, 240 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, Photoshop CC, NIK Color Efex Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Firefly Trails. Composite of 40 mages taken with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 400, 105 mm, f/16, 240 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, Photoshop CC, NIK Color Efex Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)


Daily Power Use (est 52 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (85.94 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The power use is an estimate since there have been a number of data dropouts since Friday about noon. I am waiting on a response from Sense regarding the problem.

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