Tuesday (01-September-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The immature Baltimore Oriole is willing to stand up to a gang of Blue Jay’s.

Morning at the Birdfeeders: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole, and Northern Cardinal.


Morning at the Birdfeeders. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Contact me if you are interested in a Time-lapse Video of the Morning at the Birdfeeders. My setup for the birdfeeder images is a Nikon D850 camera and 200 mm f/2 VR lens set to take one image every 5 seconds over a 5 hour period (~3600 images). The new time-lapse video format is 720p (1080 x 720 pixels) and 1 frame/second. The length of the video is about 1 hour in a 1 GB MP4 file. The previous time-lapse videos of the birdfeeders were at 12 frames/second, and to be honest were too fast to identify the birds.

I went out with the DR Power Brush Mower to mow the wildflower meadows. Not much is blooming anymore, and the weeds including the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine are starting to take over. I attempted to capture the exercise with a Garmin VIRB-360 camera both on a fixed tripod, and a tripod I carried over my head. While mowing the sections I kept finding adult Praying Mantis which I tried to move away from the mower. The Praying Mantis are “good” bugs.


Saving the Praying Mantis. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

The fawns still have dots. While cooking dinner I saw these two in one of the wildflower meadow sections that I didn’t mow. You can see that the weeds have taken over. The deer seem to be immune to the electric fence.


Fawns with Spots inside the electric fence. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 18.7 kWh.

Sunday (26-July-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Something different. Need to catch up with all of the recent images. Time to get out an mow the yard.

Pair of young fawns with spots. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 200 mm f/2 OIS lens and 1.4x teleconverter (ISO 12800, 280 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec) (David J Mathre)
Pair of young fawns with spots. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 200 mm f/2 OIS lens and 1.4x teleconverter (ISO 12800, 280 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec) (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (69.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (74.3 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny and hot all day. A surplus of 4.8 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (456 kWh) from Sense. Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (450 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. A deficit of 6 kWh.

Monday (29-June-2020) — New Jersey

Early Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day: Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, American Goldfinch, and Turkey Vulture.


Summer Birds of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed at my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Flowers of the Day: Purple Allium, Red Poppy, Blanket Flower, Teasel, Four O’Clock, Garlic Scapes, Delphinium, Larkspur, Garlic Scapes, Black-eyed Susan, Sunflower, Pink Poppy, and Foxglove.


Summer Flowers of the Day (portrait). Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed at my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Summer Flowers of the Day (landscape). Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed at my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Critters of the Day: Squirrel, Spots the Fawn, Rabbits, and Red Fox. This was the first time since last winter that I have seen Rabbits in the backyard. Within five minutes, the Red Fox showed up and the Rabbits disappeared.


Critters (mammals) of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed at my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (66.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (83.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Lots of Sun. A surplus of 17.9 kWh.


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Thursday (18-June-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day — Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, Gray Catbird, Chipping Sparrow, Blue Jay, and Tufted Titmouse. The Eastern Phoebe continues to sit on the nest.


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

Spotted Fawns  at Daycare. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 200-500 mm f/4 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Spotted Fawns at Daycare. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 200-500 mm f/4 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pair of Spotted Fawns dropped off at Daycare. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pair of Spotted Fawns dropped off at Daycare. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pair of Spotted Fawns dropped off at Daycare. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pair of Spotted Fawns dropped off at Daycare. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (40.5 kWh) from Sense. The daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. More clouds than sun. A deficit of 9.0 kWh.


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Saturday (23-May-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the Day — Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue-Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Eastern Phoebe. There continues to be lots of action at the Eastern Phoebe nest with both parents feed the new hatchlings.


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

Spring flowers of the day — Poppies (California, Oriental, Red), Dame’s Rocket, Five-spot, Rhododendron, Johnny Jump Up, Babies Blue Eyes, Bachelor Button, Cornflower, Sweet William, Dianthus, Siberian Wallflower, Daisy, Foxglove, and Tulip Tree.


California, Red, and Oriental Poppies. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Flowers of the Day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Barely a week old, and the new Fawn with spots is running around the yard. So far lucky that there are not many cars on the road as its only natural predator is the automobile.


Spots. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (47.7 kWh) from meter readings the Sense Home Energy Monitor. The daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy much of the day. A deficit 0f 15.2 kWh.


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