Wednesday (22-July-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Morning: Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Carolina Wren, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove, and White-breasted Nuthatch.

Birds of the Afternoon: Chipping Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, and Mourning Dove.

Daily Electric Energy Used (63.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (65.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun with clouds. A surplus of 2.4 kWh. Power glitch due to thunderstorm caused Sense to go offline until the detector was rebooted.

Tuesday (21-July-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Morning: Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove.

Birds of the Afternoon: American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove.

Daily Electric Energy Used (67.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (77.6 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun with clouds. A surplus of 10.2 kWh.

Monday (20-July-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Morning: Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay,  Downy Woodpecker, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove.

Birds of the Afternoon: Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay.

Daily Electric Energy Used (74.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (73.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun with clouds. A deficit of 1.0 kWh.

Sunday (19-July-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day: Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, and Carolina Wren. Morning time-lapse video (06:08-09:02), Afternoon time-lapse video (16:34-20:21).

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (72.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun with clouds in the afternoon. A surplus of 6.7 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (391 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (481 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A surplus of 90 kWh.

Saturday (18-July-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day: Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Gray Catbird, Black-capped Chickadee, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Downy Woodpecker. Something different, I set up a D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens to take an image every 5 seconds. Then processed as a time-lapse video.

Butterfly of the Day: Common Skipper?.

Small black butterfly (Common Skipper?). Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Small black butterfly (Common Skipper?). Image taken with a Nikon N1V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

There definitely are two types of Clearwing moths were present. They prefer pink to purple flowers (Bee-Balm, Lemon-Mint, Bergamot, Larkspur, Delphinium). The Clearwing Hummingbird moth (Hemaris thysbe) is larger, and has light-colored front legs. The Clearwing Snowberry moth (Hemaris diffinis) is smaller, and has dark/black colored front legs. I am trying different camera lens combinations to see which is the best to capture images of these moths.


Clearwing Hummingbird Moths (Hemaris thysbe) captured with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens. Individual images from this slide show can be viewed at my PhotoShelter Gallery.

NOTE: IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS VIEWING THE SLIDE SHOWS PLEASE TRY A DIFFERENT BROWSER AND LET ME KNOW WHICH BROWSER YOU ARE USING. THANKS!!!

Daily Electric Energy Used (61.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (80.8 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of sun. A surplus of 19.3 kWh.