Twelve-Years Ago (21-January-2008) — New Jersey

Backyard Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Morning backyard walkabout. Sighted a male and female Northern Cardinal, two European Starlings in a bush eating berries, a Robin in a tree and in a bush eating berries, and a White-throated Sparrow sunning in the morning sun.

Female Northern Cardinal perched on a branch. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Female Northern Cardinal perched on a branch. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 400, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Male Northern Cardinal perched on a branch. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Male Northern Cardinal perched on a branch. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
European Starlings eating berries. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
European Starlings eating berries. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Robin sunning in a Sycamore tree. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)
Robin sunning in a Sycamore tree. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)
Robin eating berries. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Robin eating berries. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 640, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
White-throated Sparrow. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
White-throated Sparrow. Image taken with a Nikon D300 camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

 

Monday (05-March-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey — Signs of Spring.

Early American Robin scouting out the backyard to see if winter is over. It should have been here a day earlier when there were many worms on the ground that had been forced to the surface because of the rain. The Robin will have to go hide again if we get the Nor’easter with the strong winds and heavy snow predicted for Wednesday.

Early American Robin scout checking out if winter is over. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). (David J Mathre)
Early American Robin scout checking out if winter is over. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). (David J Mathre)

Tuesday (21-November-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Autumn Nature in New Jersey — Robins and Blue Jays.

There were over a hundred robins, and dozen blue jays in my yard this morning. Some of the birds found my newly renovated bird bath. It was too cold for the birds to take a bath as the water in it was iced over. I am not sure if these birds were congregating before their annual migration south, of if there are some of the birds that plan to stay for the winter. I haven’t replaced the bird feeder since a bear took the last one out.

Red-breasted Robin checking out the newly restored bird bath. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/750 sec). (David J Mathre)
Red-breasted Robin checking out the newly restored bird bath. Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Fuji X-T2 camera and 100-400 mm OIS telephoto zoom lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/750 sec). (David J Mathre)


One-Year Ago (17-May-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

It has been raining a lot. Nibbles, the rabbit in my wildflower garden started eating the Italian (Crimson) clover. The Italian clover was part of the wildflower seed mixture I planted in the section previously used as the kitchen garden. I also saw a groundhog brushing its teeth with some rebar in the far backyard, a robin in the rain, and a squirrel with a nut. All of the wildlife images were taken from within the house. Later on I went outside with a macro lens to capture some flower pictures.

Rabbit nibbling on a Italian clover flower. Backyard spring in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 800, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Rabbit nibbling on a Italian clover flower. Backyard spring in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 800, 600 mm, f/4, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)


Friday (12-May-2017) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

After several days of cold, cloudy skies, and rain things cleared up for a bit. The clouds turned pink at dawn (only for an instant). Later on I saw a robin hunting in my backyard. It found a caterpillar for breakfast. One less butterfly this year… (check out a similar image from three years ago 03-May-2014). I took a cluster of rhododendron flowers inside to practice focus stacking. It was too difficult outside with the wind moving the flowers. I used a 9-cm focus rack. For the first two, the images were taken after adjusting the camera in 0.5 cm increments. For the third one, the camera was adjusted 6 cm in 1 mm increments. The images were processed using Helicon Focus (ver. 5.3) software. Let me know if you like method A (weighted average), B (depth map), or C (pyramid) for processing the images

Pink clouds at dawn from my back door. Spring in New Jersey. Image taken with a Leica T camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/3.5, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Pink clouds at dawn from my back door. Image taken with a Leica T camera and 11-23 mm lens (ISO 100, 11 mm, f/3.5, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Robin with a caterpillar. One less butterfly this year. Spring in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon N1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 160, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)
Robin with a caterpillar. One less butterfly this year. Image taken with a Nikon N1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 160, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)


Individual images from the slideshow can be viewed here.