bees - David Mathre Photography

Thursday (04-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

For the Fourth of July, I did my walkabout with a Nikon D850 camera and a different macro lens. This time an older Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 VR lens (some of the time with a TC-E III 2x teleconverter). During the night a racoon knocked down a sunflower plant while trying to climb up the birdfeeder. I was specifically looking for insects that are attracted to the flowers and wildflowers. The larger bumblebees like the Cosmos flowers. The Poppies attract honey bees and hoverflies. The hoverflies also like the Chicory. Lots of Poppy images. The other flowers and wildflowers include: Red allium, Black-eyed Susan, Blue Flax, Chicory, Coreopsis, Cornflower, Cosmos, Godetia, Larkspur, Leopard’s bane, Love-in-a-mist, Phlox, Siberian Wallflower, Sunflower, and Zinnia. While out stalking the flowers and insects, I also got images of a young fawn just outside the electric fence and a neighborhood cat.

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

Neighborhood Cat -- was hunting songbirds under the birdfeeder until I came out with the camera. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE) — Neighborhood Cat — was hunting songbirds under the birdfeeder until I came out with the camera. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (56.5 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (81.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The sun was out most of the day, so I generated more power than the geothermal HVAC system needed to keep the house cool.

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Saturday (18-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I’m back from a 10-day trip to Germany. It was hot and dry in Germany, but apparently hot and wet in New Jersey. The grass needs to be mowed, the weeds need to be pulled, and the patio garden cleaned up. Some of the tomatoes are ripe, but others rotted. The tomato leaves are turning yellow (too much water, or need nitrogen fertilizer?). Several of the hot peppers are bright red and ready to be picked. There was one remaining yellow squash, and two white eggplants. The wildflower garden continues to attract butterflies and bees. This was the first female black swallowtail butterfly that I have seen this season. A bumblebee was pollinating the basil flowers. There were several Monarch butterflies feeding on the zinnia wildflowers. I also made a quick trip to the local weekly farmers market. It is smaller than the daily markets I saw at several public squares in Germany.

Female Black Swallowtail Butterfly. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/4, 1/950 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Bumblebee on Basil Flowers. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/4, 1/1100 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Thursday (06-July-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

The deer keep sniffing around my wildflower meadow. There are several young fawns with spots that pass through the yard with their herd every day. I don’t mind when they eat the grass. Many more wildflower pictures, several with bumblebees working the flowers. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. It is smaller than others that I have seen, so it may be the Snowberry Clearwing Moth. The other interesting thing I saw in the garden were Japanese beetles that appear to be eating the hated “mile-a-minute” vine that has become invasive. As long as the Japanese beetles don’t eat too many of the wildflower plants, I am going to leave them alone.

Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe or Hemaris diffinis). Backyard summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)

Japanese Beetles eating the hated "Mile-a-Minute" vine in my backyard wildflower meadow. Summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre) — Japanese Beetles eating the hated “Mile-a-Minute” vine in my backyard wildflower meadow. Summer nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (ISO 400, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)

Thursday (01-Jun-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

The yucca plants have started putting up the flower stalks. I have a real problem with deer nibbling on the shoots before the flowers can even open. Last year I wired yellow plastic grocery store bags, sort of to act as scarecrows. It sort of worked, but I did get comments from the neighbors. This year I am trying deer netting — more as a deterrence. If this doesn’t work I will need to extend the electric fence. The carpenter bees are drilling more holes in the cedar siding on the front of the house.

Yucca stalk with flower buds. Backyard spring nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/6.4, 1/90 sec). (© 2017 David J Mathre)

Saturday (25-February-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey — Early Flowers and Bees.

An Early sign, spring is coming!! The crocus and daffodil flowers across the street had their first blooms today. A few days ago I saw my neighbor raking the leaves off the section facing the south side of his stone wall. There were a few daffodil plants pushing out of the ground. Today, the first ones started to bloom, along with the purple crocus flowers. The honey bees noticed that there was some saffron to harvest. My daffodil’s are just coming out of the ground — however I noticed that the deer are nibbling on the early sprouts. I thought deer didn’t like daffodil’s — but I guess they are hungry…

Later in the afternoon, the NOAA weather alert on my Garmin radio/GPS went off and announced that a severe thunderstorm was imminent. I set up a camera to record the storm coming through and got one image of some lightning. Soon after the storm, the temperature dropped over 20 degrees.

First Hint of Spring -- Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 235 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec) (David J Mathre) — First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 235 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec) (David J Mathre)

First Hint of Spring -- Early crocus flowers across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 148 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec) (David J Mathre) — First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flowers across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 148 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec) (David J Mathre)

First Hint of Spring -- First daffodil flower across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre) — First Hint of Spring — First daffodil flower across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)

First Hint of Spring -- Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1600, 24 mm, f/4, 4 sec). (David J Mathre) — First Hint of Spring — Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1600, 24 mm, f/18, 4 sec). (David J Mathre)