Tuesday (31-March-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

One of the neighborhood cats hunting. Reminds me it is time to spread cotton balls that have been soaked with ivermectin around the backyard. The birds and mice bring them back to their nests which then helps to eliminate deer ticks.

Neighborhood Cat hunting in my backyard. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 250, 400 mm, f/6.4, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
Neighborhood Cat hunting in my backyard. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 250, 400 mm, f/6.4, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.1 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (17.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy and rainy all day. A deficit of 41.3 kWh.

Monthly Electric Energy Used (1865 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and monthly Solar Electric Energy Produced (1277 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. A deficit of 588 kWh. Maybe we will be positive in April…

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Tuesday (24-March-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

One of the neighborhood cats that often patrols my yard. At night looking for mice, in the day chasing the birds away from the bird feeder. It looks like one eye might be infected.

One of the neighborhood cats. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 1600, 100 mm, f/6.4, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)
One of the neighborhood cats. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 1600, 100 mm, f/6.4, 1/60 sec) (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.8 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (57.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of sun. A deficit of 2.4 kWh. Power was out for a couple of hours in the morning. For safety reasons, power from my solar panels is disconnected when the external power supply is down. I don’t know the reason for the power outage, but when I went online to report it got a message from PSE&G that they already knew that there was an outage in my neighborhood. I need to look into either a large battery backup, or an automatic backup generator.

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Thursday (23-January-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

In addition to the regulars (House Finch, Blue Jay, and Northern Cardinal) at my bird feeder this morning, a Goldfinch with it winter colors stopped by. All of the bird left when one of the neighborhood cats showed up.


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


Neighborhood Cat under the Bird Feeder. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 180, 600 mm, f/4, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Neighborhood Cat under the Bird Feeder. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 180, 600 mm, f/4, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (88.7 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (30.4 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny Day. A deficit of 58.3 kWh.

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Saturday (30-November-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Nature at Night.

Cat, mouse, and rabbit on my patio — all caught on an infrared video camera.

Daily Electric Energy Used (83.0 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (27.9 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy.  The day started sunny, then the clouds came in. Overall a net deficit of 55.1 kWh.

Monthly Electric Energy Used (2144 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (734 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Overall a net deficit of 1410 kWh. Although this means I will need to pay a power bill to PSE&G this month, I am getting SREC credits that will cover the expense.

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Saturday (23-February-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Wintertime Nature in New Jersey. Maple Syrup Week 3.

Before going over to help with the maple syrup boil-down, I noticed a cat sitting under my patio bird feeder. While there a squirrel walked right behind it, and when the cat noticed — the squirrel got chased. It is not the same cat that I saw while starting the fire to cook down the maple sap.



Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.