Friday (29-October-2021) — New Jersey

Autumn Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Birds of the day viewed at the birdfeeder and in the backyard: Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch.


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

Images of a new solar-powered water fountain in the birdbath at different exposures/shutter speeds (1/100, 1/30, 1/13, 1/8 sec).


Water Fountain in a Birdbath. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Today I figured out how to attach a rear weight and tool box to the 3-point connection on the rear of Red Rover. It took a while to figure things out, and I can see I need to get a variety of pins to hold the connectors. Also, I couldn’t adjust the turnbuckle on the 3-point hitch stabilizer chains. The jam bolt was “jammed” too tight. Will probably need to take it off and put the turnbuckle onto a vice. Job for another day. Then moved the last of the deer fence pipes from the metal pallet.

Assembling the Shelter Logic “Shed in a Box” Storage Shed on a windy day. The first thing the hieroglyphic assembly instructions show is two people, and that it can be completed in 2 hours. By myself, it took a lot longer…

Daily Electric Energy Used (39.2 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (12.5 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. Cloudy most of the day. Deficit of 26.7 kWh.

Friday (17-April-2020) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

At or under the birdfeeder — a Chipping Sparrow in the morning and a female Northern Cardinal in the afternoon. I cleaned out the bird bath, and the solar-powered fountain is now running. It is supposed to freeze tonight so we will see if it is running again tomorrow. A pink tulip flower. The deer nibbled on the plant, but it still survived. The deer at the back of the yard are looking through the electric fence trying to decide if the green plants inside the fence are edible wildflowers or weeds that they don’t like.

Chipping Sparrow. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 320, 600 mm, f/4. 1/1250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Chipping Sparrow. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 320, 600 mm, f/4. 1/1250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Female Northern Cardinal. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 12520, 600 mm, f/4. 1/1250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Female Northern Cardinal. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 12520, 600 mm, f/4. 1/1250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Bird bath solar-powered fountain. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 320, 600 mm, f/4, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Bird bath solar-powered fountain. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 320, 600 mm, f/4, 1/1250 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pink Tulip Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/4. 1/1250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pink Tulip Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/4. 1/1250 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Scraggly looking Deer. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/4. 1/125 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Scraggly looking Deer. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 1600, 600 mm, f/4. 1/125 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (61.1 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (54.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Lots of clouds. A deficit of 6.8 kWh.


powered by Ambient Weather