Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Northern Mocking Bird, Eastern Bluebird, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal. A flock of birds (tentative) flew into a tree, then left. I haven’t seen a Northern Mocking bird at the birdfeeders for a long time. This one was yelling at the Blue Jays, that were yelling back.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Infrared video of a Possum up close on the patio.
Red Rover time-lapse video. Moving black mulch, used to cover the Daffodil patch, Forsythia, and Lilac shrubs along the west side of the property. Temporary deer fence around the shrubs until the new Deer fence is installed.
Daily Electric Energy Used (53.1 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (14.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 39.1 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
The Opossum is back.
Little Planet Time-lapse Video. Afternoon on the back patio. Tried to use a chipper to grind up the Canna stalks. Didn’t work, they are too fibrous and still wet jamming the chipper. Continued to clean up the Soft Pots. The second time-lapse video shows troll around the patio fireplace. Recorded with a LabPano Pilot EE 360 camera, and processed with Premiere Pro using the GoPro FX Reframe plugin.
Daily Electric Energy Used (71.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (8.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy and cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 62.8 kWh.
Weekly Electric Energy Used (468 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (143 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 325 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Blue Jay.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
The Opossum is back.
My main 360 camera a Garmin VIRB-360 is getting old and has been discontinued by the manufacturer. The one lens has a scratch, and a battery failed. I’ve started looking at alternatives. I did this once before, trying out the Nikon Mission 360 (discontinued), Ricoh Theta, Insta360 One 4K. Each had issues. Later, I found the Ricoh Theta Z1 16-GB model then 64-GB model to be useful. But with idiosyncrasies. They have an interval mode, but with a minimum interval of 6 seconds (jpg) or 10 seconds (DNG). I decided to look at some of the newer 360 cameras. Insta360 One X2 and Labpano Lab Pilot ERA.
The following night time-lapse video was taken with the Insta360 One X2. I set the camera up outdoors connected to an external USB-C power supply to take raw (DNG) images every 30 seconds. With the external battery, the camera continued taking images all night, even though the temperature dropped below freezing. Processing the raw images was a bit of a problem since the raw image is not the standard equirectangular format. You need to convert the images via the Insta360 Studio 2021 program (batch mode) to generate a standard equirectangular image. Adobe Photoshop doesn’t appear to make time-lapse videos with DNG files, so I also had to convert the images from DNG to TIFF (using Capture One Pro) before making the time-lapse videos. With this camera I will need a better workflow.
Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Insta360 One X2 camera. ISO 504, f/2, 2 sec. Insta360 Raw (DNG) format. (David J Mathre)Autumn Night in New Jersey. Image taken with a Insta360 One X2 camera. ISO 504, f/2, 2 sec. Equirectangular DNG (Raw) format after conversion via Insta360 Studio 2021. (David J Mathre)
Time-lapse Video (Little Planet View).
Time-lapse Video (Tunnel View).
Daily Electric Energy Used (67.5 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (28.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny but cold. Geothermal HVAC heating the house. Deficit of 38.6 kWh.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, European Starling, American Robin, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
Daily Electric Energy Used (57.9 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (11.1 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy. Deficit of 46.8 kWh.
Autumn Backyard Nature and Day Working Outside and in the Garage in New Jersey.
Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Common Grackle.
Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.
My Little Planet time-lapse videos for the day. 1) I cut the remaining Canna Lily plants and moved the soft pots into the garage to store them for the winter. I also decided to do the same for the soft pots containing the Gladiolus (probably too far north/cold for the Gladiolus corms to survive in the soft pots outdoors). I know it is an experiment to keep them in the soft pots. Only time will tell. 2) I covered the black mulch pile with a tarp before it rains on Thursday. Then attached the leaf vacuum to the JD lawn tractor and started to pick up some more autumn leaves in the front yard. I had to use a tie-down strap to hold the top of the leaf vacuum on straight. Unfortunately, I managed to snag a section of the ground fabric next to the fence locking up the mower blades. Then had a problem removing the mower deck from the lawn tractor. I know that I have removed it before, but one of the pins wouldn’t budge. ARRG!!! To be continued…
Daily Electric Energy Used (55.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (25.7 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Mostly sunny. The sun is lower, and the Sycamore tree sill has leaves blocking the solar panels. Getting colder outside so the Geothermal HVAC is heating the house. Deficit of 29.9 kWh.
