Category: Nature

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

Saturday (30-June-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nature in New Jersey.

Earlier this spring I noticed a tiny bird, smaller than a sparrow entering a small hole near my front door. The hole had been the access point for an intercom system that was removed when I installed a new Ring video door bell. I covered the hole with gaffer tape, and was going to fill it with wood putty, but the bird took the tape off and built a nest. When the bird flew into the nest it would often set off the Ring motion detector. The bird would also fly out of the hole when a delivery person rang the door bell. I finally got some images of the birds feeding the new hatchling(s). I also think that I have identified the bird as a house wren. The head of the young bird is almost as big as the parents, and this evening I noticed both of the parents dancing around, fluttering their wings, and chirping loudly on my door step. I think they are trying to convince junior that it is time to leave the nest…

House Wren Nest at My Front Door. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 1600, 80 mm, f/11, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
House Wren Nest at My Front Door. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 1600, 80 mm, f/11, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
House Wren Nest at My Front Door. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 1600, 80 mm, f/11, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
House Wren Nest at My Front Door. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 1600, 80 mm, f/11, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
House Wren Nest at My Front Door. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 1600, 80 mm, f/11, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
House Wren Nest at My Front Door. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 1600, 80 mm, f/11, 1/80 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)


Friday (29-June-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Harvey Jr. trying to hide in the tall grass. This is the first rabbit I have seen this year. Normally, I will have photographed many by now. This one is pretty young, and doesn’t appear to have ticks in its ear. Also, the ears have not been chewed on, so no fighting between rabbits yet.

Harvey Jr Hiding in the Tall Grass. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/210 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Harvey Jr Hiding in the Tall Grass. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/210 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)

Thursday (28-June-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Afternoon walkabout with my new Nikon D850 camera and a 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Looking to see if there were any new wildflowers. There still are no where as many wildflowers as last year… I may have to go back to the electric fence as my security video show the deer coming by every night and trimming most of the wildflowers before they bloom. Individual images can be viewed here.


Wednesday (27-June-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summer Nighttime Nature in New Jersey.

Firefly Trails using a Nikon D850 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens.

Firefly Trails. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/16, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite generated with Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum) (David J Mathre)
Firefly Trails. Composite of images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/16, 30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and composite generated with Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum) (David J Mathre)

 

Wednesday (27-June-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Afternoon walkabout with my new Nikon D850 camera and a 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens. I was interested to see how the high resolution camera would do hand-held taking pictures of flowers on a cloudy day with some wind. I was impressed. I now need to try out the focus stacking capability of the camera for taking macro images of stationary flowers — indoors and with the camera on a tripod. Individual images can be viewed here.