Tuesday (15-February-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, House Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal. First Chipping Sparrow this year.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Indoor Hydroponic Update. AeroGarden Bounty 01 (Day 30): Bok Choi doing well. Harvesting leaves almost every day. Drinks a lot of water, and needs extra liquid fertilizer. AeroGarden Bounty 02 (Day 30): Rouge d’Hiver, Black-seeded Simpson lettuce, Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, and Dill doing well. Harvesting leaves from the lettuce so not to block light from the basil plants. AeroGarden Bounty Elite 03 (Day 22 and 30): Genovese Basil and Dill doing well. Two of the Parsley and one Thyme sprouted. The 2nd Thyme and Chives have not sprouted. AeroGarden Bounty Elite Seed Starter 04 (Day 7) Heirloom Red Cherry Tomatoes (4/5) sprouted. Golden Harvest Tomatoes (2/4) sprouted.


AeroGarden Bounty. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

AeroGarden Farm 01L (Day28): California Poppy, Oriental Poppy, Laurin’s Grape Poppy. Farm 01R (Day 28): Hungarian Bread Seed Poppy, Red Poppy, Turkish Tulip Poppy. Farm 02L (Day 28): Somniferum Mix, Red Poppy, Red Poppy Mix. Farm 02R (Day 28): Oriental Poppy, Hungarian Bread Seed Poppy, Turkish Tulip Poppy, Red Poppy, Somniferum Mix Poppy.


AeroGarden Farms 01 and 02. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

AeroGarden Farm 03L/03R (Day 22): Swiss Chard, Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Mustard Greens. After taking the images, harvested some of the larger Kale and Collard Greens leaves that were blocking the smaller plants. May have to re-think the number of plants per farm. AeroGarden Farm 04L/04R (Day 22): Oregano, Rosemary, Tarragon, Thyme. The larger plants in row D are supposed to be Sage, but I think they are something else???


AeroGarden Farms 03 and 04. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

AeroGarden Farm 08L (Day28): California Poppy, Oriental Poppy, Laurin’s Grape Poppy. Farm 08R (Day 28): Hungarian Bread Seed Poppy, Red Poppy, Turkish Tulip Poppy. Farm 09L (Day 28): Somniferum Mix, Red Poppy, Red Poppy Mix. The poppy plants were pruned to leave only 1-2 plants per position. Farm 09R Seed Sprouting Tray (Day 23): Row A: Snapdragon, Max Orange Wonder, Outside Pride (5/8); Row B: Chrysanthemum, Robinson’s Mix, Outside Pride (7/10); Row C: Iceland Poppy, American Meadows (8/11); Row D: Calendula Mix, Outside Pride, (5/10); Row E: Sweet William Mix, Outside Pride (5/8); Row F: Columbine, Multicolor, PopCool Seeds (1/10); Row G: Osteospermum, Ecklonis Mix, PopCool Seeds (6/11); Row H: Osteospermum,, Whirligs, PopCool Seeds (0/9); Row I: Blue Eyed Daisy, PopCool Seeds (1/8). I will start transplanting the larger seedlings to a regular farm. I have also included a time-lapse video of the Farm O9R seedlings.


AeroGarden Farms 08 and 09. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (121.8 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (27.6kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Solar Panels mostly clear of snow, but the temperature dropped below 10°F so supplemental resistance heating was required. Deficit of 92.4 kWh.

Friday (11-February-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed in the backyard, at the birdfeeder and on the patio: Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, Dark-eyed Junco. Other than one Dark-eyed Junco, the small birds stayed away while the hawk and vultures were in area.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse video of Osteospermum seedling taken with a Leica SL2s camera and Laowa 24 mm f/14 macro probe lens (24 mm, ISO 2000, f/40, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro, and time-lapse video created with PhotoShop CC (1080p, 12p).

Daily Electric Energy Used (80.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (43.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Sunny. Deficit of 36.8 kWh.

Saturday (29-January-2022) — New Jersey

Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

When I woke up 6+ inches of snow already fell during the night. An additional 2 inches fell during the day. The snow finally stopped by 15:00. During the night, a fox was sighted by the infrared video camera off the patio.

Snow Covered Trolls (David J Mathre)
Sixteen Trolls Covered with Snow. Image taken with a Leica Q2 monochrome camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/4, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)
Snow Covered Trolls. (David J Mathre)
Backyard Panorama with 18 Trolls Covered with Snow. Composite of seven images taken with a Leica Q2 monochrome camera and 28 mm f/1.7 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/4.5, 1/200 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro. The new Panorama feature within Capture One Pro didn’t work with this set of images, so the panorama was generated with AutoPano Giga (David J Mathre)

Birds of the day on a snowy day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco, White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Videos using the Snow Blower, and Red Rover to clear snow from the driveway. The tensioning spring for the PTO belt on the Snow Blower was loose. It was pretty hard to get it back on when the temperature was below 20°F. I needed to use a crow bar to push the belt wheel back far enough to attach the spring.

Daily Electric Energy Used (113.6 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (0.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. The solar panels were covered with 8+ inches of snow. The suplemental resistance heating kicked on at night as the outdoor temperature dropped below 10°F. Deficit of 113.6 kWh.

Wednesday (19-January-2020) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, House Finch, Dark-eyed Junco.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.


Birds of the day. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Time-lapse videos: Day 3 of the Bok Choi seeds sprouting. Both videos are of images taken every 1 minute for 5 hours 45 minutes then displayed at 12 frames/second. I cut some of the paper retaining ring to get better visibility of the seedlings growing. During the second video, an invasive Asian Ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis) and an invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) were caught crawling by the Bok Choi seedling.

Ladybeetle. (David J Mathre)
Invasive Asian Ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis) investigating the Bok Choi seedlings. Image taken with a Leica SL2s camera and Laowa 24 mm f/14 macro probe lens. (David J Mathre)
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. (David J Mathre)
Invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) investigating the Bok Choi seedlings. Image taken with a Leica SL2s camera and Laowa 24 mm f/14 macro probe lens. (David J Mathre)

Daily Electric Energy Used (92.0 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (34.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. The sun returned after a day of rain then snow. Deficit of 57.5 kWh.

Tuesday (28-December-2021) — New Jersey

Wintertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Day 5 of the Tree Project. Time-lapse video, removing a diseased pine tree.

Daily Electric Energy Used (59.4 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (9.9 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy. Deficit of 49.5 kWh.