Category: Nature

Views of nature and the natural world. Plants, animals, and wildlife from around the world.

Saturday (10-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

The weather forecast indicated the night sky would be relatively clear for a couple of nights. I hope to capture some of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The moon would be out for part of each night, so not ideal conditions. But I figured I would try. I set up a Nikon D810a camera with a 8-15 mm fisheye lens (ISO 800, 12 mm, f/4, 8 sec) to capture images all night (2550 images in total). It takes a lot of time to process all of the images for a Time-lapse video, and several Star Trail images. Lots of Jet Trails. How many Meteor Trails do you see?  The Time-lapse Video is best viewed in a dark room.


Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slide show.


Daily Electric Energy Used (61.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (73.43 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. I needed to clean the oven, and cooked dinner in the oven adding 3.7 kWh to the total used. Daily net surplus 11.6 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Friday (09-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I came upon a pair of Trolls that found a large Mushroom rising from the pile of black wood chip mulch.

Hiking Trolls Discover Large Mushroom. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hiking Trolls Discover Large Mushroom. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (57.2 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (69.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Load of laundry (4.4 kWh) adding to the total used. Daily net surplus 12.1 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Thursday (08-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens. Flowers (Poppy, Zinnia, Bee Balm, Larkspur, Sunflowers), Insects (Silver-spotted Skipper, Tiger Swallowtail, Painted Lady, Common Buckeye, Bumblebee, Snowberry Clearwing Moth, Eastern Leaf-footed Bug), and Frogs (Kermit the one-eyed Bullfrog). I didn’t notice the pair of Eastern Leaf-footed Bugs mating on the Thistle flower until processing the images.


Flowers. Click on the above image to access the individual images from the slideshow.



Butterflies, Moths, Bees, and Eastern Leaf-footed Bug. Click on the above image to access the individual images from the slideshow.



Kermit the One-eyed Bullfrog. Click on the above image to access the individual images from the slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (57.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (64.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Daily net surplus 7.4 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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Wednesday (07-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout: I went out with a Nikon D810a camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Flowers (Chicory, Zinnia, Cosmos, Sunflowers) and Butterflies (Silver-spotted Skipper, Tiger Swallowtail, Monarch). The last five of the images are of a Female Intermediate Black Tiger Swallowtail.


Flowers. Click on the above image to access the individual images from the slideshow.



Butterflies. Click on the above image to access the individual images from the slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (50.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (45.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of clouds, rain and thunderstorms during the day. Daily net deficit 4.6 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions

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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.