Tag: Monarch Butterfly

Sunday (30-September-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Now that the sun is back out, I noticed a Monarch Butterfly feeding on my small Zinnia flowers. It needs to leave for Mexico pretty soon, as it is starting to get cool at night. I had to use the jpg image, because neither Adobe or Capture One recognize the raw files from the Fuji X-T3 camera.

Update: The latest update to Capture One (11.3) does recognize the raw file. The pink flower is not overblown when Capture One was used to reprocess the image. Also, when I reviewed my image database I found images of Monarch Butterflies from late October last year.

Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). JPG image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro. (David J Mathre)

Sunday (19-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

It rained most of the morning, so I wasn’t able to get out until the afternoon to check out the garden towers on the patio. Between the timed sprinklers and all of the rain while I was in Germany, most of the plants survived. Indeed lots of invasive weeds and vines. I was able to pick  the ripe Italian and Cherry tomatoes. I had to discard a bunch of the tomatoes that had rotted. There were some giant cucumbers that I missed before traveling. A number of the hot peppers turned red, so I also picked them. There were flowers blooming on the morning-glory vines growing up the trellis on my chimney.

Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Bloom. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Monarch Butterfly on a Pink Zinnia Bloom. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Garden Tower Harvest (Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Hot Peppers). Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Garden Tower Harvest (Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Hot Peppers). Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Garden Tower Harvest (Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Hot Peppers). Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Garden Tower Harvest (Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Hot Peppers). Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Morning Glory Blooms on the Chimney Trellis. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Morning Glory Blooms on the Chimney Trellis. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tree Fungus. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tree Fungus. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Horned Worm remnants after being eating by tiny wasp parasites. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Horned Worm remnants after being eating by tiny wasp parasites. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Saturday (18-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I’m back from a 10-day trip to Germany. It was hot and dry in Germany, but apparently hot and wet in New Jersey. The grass needs to be mowed, the weeds need to be pulled, and the patio garden cleaned up. Some of the tomatoes are ripe, but others rotted. The tomato leaves are turning yellow (too much water, or need nitrogen fertilizer?).  Several of the hot peppers are bright red and ready to be picked. There was one remaining yellow squash, and two white eggplants. The wildflower garden continues to attract butterflies and bees. This was the first female black swallowtail butterfly that I have seen this season. A bumblebee was pollinating the basil flowers. There were several Monarch butterflies feeding on the zinnia wildflowers. I also made a quick trip to the local weekly farmers market. It is smaller than the daily markets I saw at several public squares in Germany.

Female Black Swallowtail Butterfly. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/4, 1/950 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Female Black Swallowtail Butterfly. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/4, 1/950 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Bumblebee on Basil Flowers. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/4, 1/1100 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Bumblebee on Basil Flowers. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/4, 1/1100 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)



Friday (27-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I am glad that I protected one section of my wildflowers from the deer. The main flowers in bloom right now are a variety of different colored Zinnia and Cosmos. These, especially the Zinnia are attracting Monarch Butterflies, Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies, and Clearwing Hummingbird Moths. Plus there are several other smaller butterflies, bumble bees, honey bees, and wasps that are also being attracted to the flowers.




Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.

Wednesday (25-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

After the morning rain, a Monarch Butterfly and a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth showed up in my wildflower bed next to the house. There also were a lot of Bumble Bees working the flowers. Up on the patio, the Caterpillar was still eating my Dill herb. The Tomato Hornworm covered with the predatory wasp cocoons was still hanging on. A Stink Bug was feasting on a green tomato — I knew they were vegetarian, but don’t want them eating my vegetables. Finally,  a weird-looking spider (Darth Vader, or out of Aliens) was guarding its web.






Bumble Bee on a Red Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Bumble Bee on a Red Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Caterpiller Eating My Dill. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Caterpiller Eating My Dill. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tomato Hornworm covered by Parasitic Wasp Cocoons. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tomato Hornworm covered by Parasitic Wasp Cocoons. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Stink Bug eating My Tomatoes. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Stink Bug eating My Tomatoes. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)


Individual images from the slide shows can be viewed here.