insects - David Mathre Photography

Wednesday (02-June-2021) — New Jersey

Springtime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Lot of images today. Birds, Frogs, Snakes, Insects, and Flowers. The Brood X Cicadas are everywhere and continue singing their love song.

Birds viewed in the backyard and near the patio birdfeeder: American Robin, House Finch. The American Robin was feeding on a Cicada.

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

Kermit the Bullfrog and all of his relatives in the pond are getting fat fast this spring. Presumably out feeding on the Cicadas.

Bullfrogs in the pond. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

While working on the back wildflower meadow, I turned over some cardboard and found this Garter Snake.

Garter Snake. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Insects/bugs observed during the day include Cicada (Brood X), Dragonfly, Damselfly, Grasshopper, Cabbage White Butterfly, Water-walker, and tick(?).

Insects and other bugs. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Spring flowers blooming: Love-in-a-Mist, Red Poppy, California Poppy, Sweet Alyssum, Rhododendron, Baby Blue Eyes, Sweet William, Daisy, Blue-eyed Grass, Beardtongue Foxglove, Siberian Wallflower, Evening Primrose, Clematis, Honeysuckle, and Poison Ivy. The Poison Ivy flowers were on a giant 3 inch diameter vine climbing on a dead tree.

Love-in-a-Mist. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Red Poppy. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

California Poppy. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

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

Poison Ivy Vine and Flowers. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (51.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (56.2 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sun and clouds. A surplus of 4.5 kWh.

Tuesday (02-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Since I knew it was going to be hot out, I went out early to pull the invasive “mile-a-minute” vine from the section planted with daffodils. The daffodil flowers are long gone for this year and the section is getting full of weeds. While working outside, I wear a cotton jumpsuit to avoid being bitten by a tick. Been there, done that, don’t want it to happen again. I filled up a wagon load of the “mile-a-minute” vine before I got too hot. While pulling the weeds, I came across a toad that was living under the weeds. I decided to use a Leica CL as my main camera for the day. The following two images were taken using the 18-56 mm lens. The wildflower, and wildflower with insects images were taken with the 55-135 mm lens, and finally the rainbow image was taken with the 11-23 mm lens.

Mile-a-minute Vines. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Toad. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18-55 mm, 55-135, or 11-23 mm lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Click on the above image to access individual images in the wildflower gallery.

Click on the above image to access individual images in the insect gallery.

Backyard Evening Rainbow over the Weather Station. After the Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/4.5, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (54.9 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (66.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The outside temperatures were high, so the geothermal HVAC system was working hard.

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Eleven-Years Ago (08-October-2007) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Monarch Butterfly. Eleven-years ago while driving home from work I saw purple wild flowers on the side of the road at an abandoned golf course in Hillsborough. I pulled over to see if there was a picture. The purple wildflowers attracted dozens of Monarch butterflies providing more colors. I took this image with my favorite 80-400 mm telephoto zoom lens. The hard part was working at the minimum focus distance for the lens (~ 7 feet). I needed to keep stepping back to get the image in focus. One more reason I always have a camera with me.

Every year after that I would check the place at the same time of the year, but never saw as many wildflowers or Monarch Butterflies. The last several years the place became a construction site for a highway bypass and interchange. Now that the construction is complete and the bypass open, it looks like wildflowers may come back. We will see if the Monarch Butterflies come back in the future.

Monarch Butterfly. Late Fall Nature in Central New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)

Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed here.

Four-Years Ago (15-August-2012) — New Jersey

Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Summer Insects at the Sourland Mountain Preserve and my backyard. Images taken with a Nikon N1 V1 + FT1 + 70-300 VR lens.

Katydid (looks like a leaf)
Dragonfly
Tiger and Black (or Spicebush) Swallowtail
Large Milkweed Bugs on Milkweed Seed Pods
Large Milkweed Bugs on Milkweed Seed Pods
Large Milkweed Bugs on Milkweed Seed Pods
Great Spangled Fritillary
Locust
Robber Fly (with prey)
Bumble Bee

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Nine-Years Ago (11-August-2007) — New Jersey

Backyard and Sourland Mountain Preserve Nature in New Jersey.

An album of summertime nature images from my backyard and the Sourland Mountain Preserve using a Nikon D2xs camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.