Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey — Early Flowers and Bees.
An Early sign, spring is coming!! The crocus and daffodil flowers across the street had their first blooms today. A few days ago I saw my neighbor raking the leaves off the section facing the south side of his stone wall. There were a few daffodil plants pushing out of the ground. Today, the first ones started to bloom, along with the purple crocus flowers. The honey bees noticed that there was some saffron to harvest. My daffodil’s are just coming out of the ground — however I noticed that the deer are nibbling on the early sprouts. I thought deer didn’t like daffodil’s — but I guess they are hungry…
Later in the afternoon, the NOAA weather alert on my Garmin radio/GPS went off and announced that a severe thunderstorm was imminent. I set up a camera to record the storm coming through and got one image of some lightning. Soon after the storm, the temperature dropped over 20 degrees.
First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 235 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flowers across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 148 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flowers across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — First daffodil flower across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flowers across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 153 mm, f/5.6, 1/210 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — First daffodil flower across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 148 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Early crocus flower with a honey bee across the street. Winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec) (David J Mathre)First Hint of Spring — Thunderstorm. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 14-24 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1600, 24 mm, f/18, 4 sec). (David J Mathre)
Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey: Turkey Vultures.
Images taken while on a walkabout in my backyard with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens. The picture of the Turkey Vulture passing the moon was a lucky “grab shot”. I’ve tried to repeat the shot many times, but have never been successful.
Turkey Vulture soaring past the first quarter moon. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)Turkey Vulture soaring in the afternoon sun. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)Turkey Vulture soaring in the afternoon sun. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)Male Northern Cardinal enjoying the sun. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)Pine cones in the late afternoon sun. Backyard winter nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/125 sec). (David J Mathre)
Winter returned with more snow. A few images from a walkabout in my yard after digging a path from the house to the road. The snow plows hadn’t been through yet, so I wasn’t going anywhere. The only bird I saw was a White-throated Sparrow. It looked cold, and just wanted the snow to go away.
It snowed last night. This vehicle is covered and won’t be going anywhere soon. I dug a path from the house to the street (but the street hadn’t been cleared yet). Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 48 mm, f/13, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)Winter part II. It snowed last night. The RV is covered and won’t be going anywhere soon. The propane tank in the RV is full in case the power goes out. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 31 mm, f/7, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)Winter part II. Pine needles peaking up from the snow. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 200 mm, f/9, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)White-throated Sparrow wondering when the snow will go away, and it will be spring again. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 200 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)Winter part II. Drip, drip, drip. Icicles above the front doorway. The gutter is frozen. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 18-200 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/5, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Winter star trails looking south from my backyard. Composite of ten images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 17-35 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 17 mm, f/4, 600 sec). A Nikon MC-36 intervalometer was used to trigger the camera for the 10 minute exposures (with a 3 seconds delay between exposures to allow the data to be written to the CF memory card.
Winter night sky — star and jet trails looking south. Composite of 10 images taken with a Nikon D3 camera and 17-35 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 200, 17 mm, f/4, 600 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, and the composite created using Photoshop CC (statistics, maximum). (David J Mathre)
Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey: Wintertime Birds.
Some birds in my backyard on a sunny winter day. Male & female Northern Cardinal and Turkey Vultures. Images taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens.
Wary male Northern Cardinal in the morning sun. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)Female Northern Cardinal in the morning sun. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)Turkey Vulture soaring in the morning sun. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/6.7, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)Turkey Vulture soaring in the morning sun. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
