Tag: wildflowers

Eleven-Years Ago (08-October-2007) — New Jersey

Autumn Nature in New Jersey.

Monarch Butterfly. Eleven-years ago while driving home from work I saw purple wild flowers on the side of the road at an abandoned golf course in Hillsborough. I pulled over to see if there was a picture. The purple wildflowers attracted dozens of Monarch butterflies providing more colors.  I took this image with my favorite 80-400 mm telephoto zoom lens. The hard part was working at the minimum focus distance for the lens (~ 7 feet). I needed to keep stepping back to get the image in focus. One more reason I always have a camera with me.

Every year after that I would check the place at the same time of the year, but never saw as many wildflowers or Monarch Butterflies. The last several years the place became a construction site for a highway bypass and interchange. Now that the construction is complete and the bypass open, it looks like wildflowers may come back. We will see if the Monarch Butterflies come back in the future.

Monarch Butterfly. Late Fall Nature in Central New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)
Monarch Butterfly. Late Fall Nature in Central New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon D2xs and 80-400 mm VR lens (ISO 100, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec). (David J Mathre)


Individual images in the slideshow can be viewed here.

Tuesday (21-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Morning walkabout in the yard with a macro and telephoto lens. Flowers, wildflowers, black swallowtail butterfly, and the immature American Goldfinch that has been pulling the petals off the Zinnia flowers.



Goldfinch that has been pulling the petals off the Zinnia flowers. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Goldfinch that has been pulling the petals off the Zinnia flowers. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 70-300 mm VR telephoto zoom lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Monday (20-August-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Current wildflowers in bloom. Chinese Forget-Me-Not, Delphinium/Larkspur, Cosmos, Zinnia, Black-eyed Susan, Four O’clock, and Phlox.


Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Friday (27-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

I am glad that I protected one section of my wildflowers from the deer. The main flowers in bloom right now are a variety of different colored Zinnia and Cosmos. These, especially the Zinnia are attracting Monarch Butterflies, Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies, and Clearwing Hummingbird Moths. Plus there are several other smaller butterflies, bumble bees, honey bees, and wasps that are also being attracted to the flowers.




Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.

Thursday (26-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Afternoon walkabout in my garden with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens. Flowers & Bugs.



Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.