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)
The daffodils on the south side of my house think that spring is near. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 28-70 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 70 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec).
The daffodils on the south side of my house think that spring is near. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 28-70 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 70 mm, f/2.8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Testosterone pumped-up male Brown-headed Cowbird. This guy keeps attacking its reflection in the window. It kept up with this all day yesterday and is back this morning. Some of the time his girlfriend sits and watches his antics. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 450, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec).
Testosterone Pumped-Up Male Brown Headed Cowbird. Image taken with a Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 450, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Spotted Fawn Walking Into the Sun. The Doe is still wary with her new child and stays more than 150 feet from the house. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 500, 600 mm, f/4, 1/640 sec).
Spotted Fawn Walking Into the Sun. The Doe is still wary with her new child and stays more than 150 feet from the house. Image taken with a Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 500, 600 mm, f/4, 1/640 sec). (David J Mathre)
Poppy Seed Pod. Composite of 16 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens (ISO 100, 105 mm, f/3.8, 1/20 sec) using Helicon Focus. The pink in the background is a way out of focus pink poppy flower.
Poppy Seed Pod. Composite of focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens. Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and Helicon Focus. (David J Mathre)
