Tag: Monarch Butterfly

Friday (14-August-2020) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Afternoon walkabout with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens. I am getting to like this camera. It is a bit heavy, but feels robust. The focus is fast, and does a good job tracking moving subjects. All of these images are hand-held using the in-camera sensor based image stabilization.

I didn’t plant wildflower seeds in the back wildflower meadows this spring. Only a few Sunflowers, Zinnia, Plains Coreopsis, and Sweet William flowers returned (self-seeded from last year). I am still getting Strawberries in the Grow Towers. A few Monarch and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are feeding on the remaining Thistle flowers. I also observed a Monarch butterfly laying eggs on a Milkweed plant. Kermit the Bullfrog was sunning itself on a log in the pond. I am still waiting on the township to remove the fallen oak tree.


Backyard Wildflowers. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Strawberry. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Strawberry. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens (DAVID J MATHRE)


Backyard Butterflies. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Kermit the Bullfrog on a Log. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Kermit the Bullfrog on a Log. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens (DAVID J MATHRE)


Northern Cardinal, Brown Thrasher, and American Goldfinch. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Downed Oak Tree post Tropical Storm Isaias. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Downed Oak Tree post Tropical Storm Isaias. Image taken with a Leica SL2 camera and 90-280 mm lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (60.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (56.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Clouds and rain. A deficit of 4.72 kWh.

Sunday (06-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Indoor Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens. After the rain and temperature dropping 40 degrees, I thought all of the Monarch butterflies left for Mexico. Today, I found one of the hundred or so that were here last week remained. It was spending its time feeding on the Cosmos flowers. Afterwards, I mowed the lawn. The grass is pretty dry, and the leaves from the trees are starting to drop. There are lots of black walnuts on the ground. This year I’ll leave those for the squirrels to collect. It’s too much work to dry them and then after cracking the black walnuts open, it is really hard to remove the nut meat. Finally, a Harvestman (daddy long legs) spider visiting a security camera in the middle of the night.

Click on the above image to access my Photoshelter gallery that contains the images in the following slideshow.


Daily Electric Energy Used (49.6kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (204 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of clouds. Overall a net deficit of 38.3 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (364 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (206 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Several cloudy days, and the indoor hydroponic systems came online. Overall a net deficit of 158 kWh.

Past Week Weather Conditions.

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Wednesday (02-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens. It was very hot and a bit windy. The wildflower meadow with Marigold flowers was still filled with Monarch, Painted Lady, and Common Buckeye butterflies. The deer don’t like Marigolds. The temperature is supposed to drop forty degrees and rain tomorrow. We will see how many butterflies are still around then. The Monarch butterflies should be leaving for Mexico pretty soon.




Individual images from the slideshows can be viewed here.

Daily Electric Energy Used (65.8 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (41.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun and very hot outside. The Geothermal HVAC used 14.1 kWh for cooling. The new hydroponic gardens used 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 24.5 kWh.

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Tuesday (01-October-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens. There must have been a hundred Monarch butterflies feeding in my wildflower meadows today. The Monarch butterflies were feeding on Cosmos, Zinnia, Mexican Sunflower, and Marigold flowers. At least one Monarch butterfly was caught, probably by a Praying Mantis. All that was left were the wings on the ground. The Painted Lady butterflies liked the Marigold and Lemon Mint flowers.


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



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


Daily Electric Energy Used (54.3 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (41.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. More sun in the afternoon and warmer out. The Geothermal HVAC used 6.1 kWh for cooling. The new hydroponic gardens used 8.7 kWh. Overall a net deficit of 12.7 kWh.

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Saturday (28-September-2019) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

My initial walkabout was with a Nikon D850 camera and 200-500 mm VR lens. I almost walked into a large spider web with a big spider. Probably some type of Orb-web Builder spider. As with yesterday, there were lots and lots of Monarch butterflies in my wildflower meadows. They were feeding on Cosmos, Zinnia, and Marigold flowers. I also captured images of two Common Buckeye butterflies. When going back in I found the Praying Mantis that I spotted in an image yesterday. Its belly was pretty full, so it has been successful capturing some meals recently. I can only wish it has been feeding on the Stink Bugs that have been trying to get into my house recently as the temperatures cool outside. I took some images with the Nikon D850 camera, then swapped to a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens + 1.4x teleconverter.

Hairy Spider hanging out. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 200-500 mm VR lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Hairy Spider hainging out. Image taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 200-500 mm VR lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)


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



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



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


Daily Electric Energy Used (56.5 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (37.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cloudy most of the day (with the Sycamore tree blocking the solar panels in the afternoon). The Geothermal HVAC system used (10 kWh) and the new indoor hydroponic systems running (8.7 kWh). An overall net deficit of 19.2 kWh.

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