Thursday (16-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Turkey Vulture, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Red Rover time-lapse video of the day. Today’s project was to attach the Woods PD-25 post-hole digger on Red Rover. Took a while to get it installed. Read the safety manual several times. When completed, dug the first of 170 holes for the deer fence project. Small issue of a bolt rubbing one of the safety shields, and a shear bolt falling out (didn’t shear, nut must not have been on tight enough). Tech from Belle Mead motors stopped by to fix the rubbing issue.


Daily Electric Energy Used (50.3 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (27.5kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 22.8 kWh.

Tuesday (14-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, European Starling, Northern Mockingbird, House Sparrow, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco. I think this is the first time I have observed a House Sparrow at my house.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Nervous fox checking out the patio. Hope it finds some of the rats.

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 21.7 kWh.

Monday (13-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Colorful Clouds at Dawn. Composite of eleven images taken with a Leica CL camera. Images were processed with Capture One Pro 22, including the panorama stitching. This is a new feature in the just released update to Capture One Pro. Previously, I would have stitched the images with AutoPano Giga (a program no longer supported) or PTGui. The stitched image size is 16309 x 5365 pixels. At 300 dpi, the print would be 54.4″ x 17.9″.

Colorful Clouds at Dawn. (David J Mathre)
Colorful Clouds at Dawn. Composite of three images taken with a Leica CL camera and 23 mm f/2 lens (ISO 800, 23 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec). Images processed with Capture One Pro 22. (David J Mathre)

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, House Sparrow, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal. I think this is the first time I have observed a House Sparrow at my house.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (60.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 28.6 kWh.

Sunday (12-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, European Starling, American Robin, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Common Grackle, Northern Cardinal.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Night sky and star trails using a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera. One limitation is the camera takes a 2nd blank (shutter closed) exposure to subtract out sensor noise anytime the exposure is > 4 seconds or the ISO is > 100. With other cameras from Nikon and Fuji, I am able to turn the long exposure noise reduction off, Also, when taking an interval collecting both DNG and JPG the camera stops collecting images after 5 minutes (60 exposures). When recording DNG images, the camera collects 50 minutes (600 exposures). Images were processed with Capture One Pro, and the star trails created using PhotoShop (statistics, maximum).

Star Trails. (David J Mathre)
Moon and Star Trails. Composite of 60 images taken with a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/2, 4 seconds). (David J Mathre)
Startrails. (David J Mathre)
Moon, Star, and Jet Trails. Composite of 600 images taken with a Leica Q2 Monochrome camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/2, 4 seconds). (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (53.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 23.1 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (400 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (128 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 272 kWh.

Saturday (11-December-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Turkey Vulture, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (46.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (2.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy and Rain. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 43.5 kWh.