Wednesday (05-December-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

The black squirrel returned. I took a sequence of images of it eating a nut on my patio. It then jumped up onto the bird feeder. Time to electrify again! After chasing the squirrel away, the birds came back. Including a shy female Northern Cardinal. Later in the afternoon, the Turkey Vultures started showing up. They are spending the nights in the neighborhood. Some in the conifer trees, and some on the roofs of homes. So far they have not tried to roost on my solar panels. The first set of vulture images were taken using a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 lens. The image quality is degraded since they were shot from inside through a double pained insulated window. The other Turkey Vulture images were taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera using a brand new Fujicon 200 mm f/2 lens. The Fuji 200 mm f/2 lens is heavy, but not as heavy as the Nikon 200 mm f/2 lens. The Fuji lens is white (to keep it cool when in the sun?), and includes a lens mount that fits onto Arca-Swiss tripod mounts. The Turkey Vulture images taken with the Fuji lens look sharp (all were taken hand-held). I look forward to going out and using this lens some more. It also includes a 1.4x teleconverter that I will need to test.








Saturday (01-December-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Some bird activity at the bird feeders — American Goldfinch and Blue Jay. But then the rogue Black Squirrel figured out how to get up and work on the sunflower seeds. Afterwards, I reconnected the electric fence cable to the bird feeders. It shouldn’t impact the birds since they don’t touch both the ground and feeder at the same time. The squirrel on the other hand has two paws on the grounded center post.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Goldfinch at the Bird Feeder. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 280, 600 mm, f/4, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Friday (30-November-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

I noticed a black squirrel eyeing the bird feeder on my patio today. For the past 25 years, the squirrels in my backyard have all been the grey variety. I do remember seeing a black squirrel in Princeton several years ago. So maybe the black ones are expanding their range.

alt_title. (David J Mathre)
caption.Black Squirrel. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 500, 600 mm, f/4, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)


alt_title. (David J Mathre)
Doe sticking here tongue out. about me. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (ISO 720, 600 mm, f/4, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)


Individual images in the slideshows can be viewed here.