Category Archives: Animals

The Bison and Deer of Woolaroc’s Wildlife Preserve

My brother Bob drove all the way from Corpus Christi to Tulsa to have Thanksgiving with us. Logan and I decided to take him to the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve about an hour from Tulsa in the Osage hills. It is Frank Phillips old ranch. You know the guy who started Phillips Petroleum. He is long gone but the company he founded and his ranch are still going. I love the museum, but that is for another day. Today I am posting about the bison and deer on the preserve.

There are lots of bison there. I used an HDR technique to get halfway decent shots. I don’t know about you but bison shots are tough. They just soak up the light and end up being black blobs unless I overexpose the shot and then their surroundings look like they have been nuked.

There was a calf there. This one is red. I am not sure but I think somebody told me that all bison calves are red. Anybody out there know for sure?

Where does a bison lay down goes a variation on the old joke. You go make this guy move if you don’t like where he has planted himself.

There were lots of deer out Saturday. They are very watchful but not as wary as they would be outside the preserve.

I like how they lock their attention on you. I am not a deer expert mind you and the only thing I shoot them with is my camera but I think these are European fallow deer. There are also Japanese Sika deer and we saw some but they were far off. And hey readers, if I am mistaken let me know!

Whoops, what is going on over there.

Woolaroc has lots of other animals roaming loose. Just as we were leaving the gate a herd of elk appeared and they have Scottish highland cattle, and Texas longhorns.

Linking with Camera Critters and Saturday’s Critters

The Adventures of Me and SuperPizzaBoy on our trip to the Tulsa Zoo with a Canon Canonet

It was my 9/80 day off Friday. I work 80 hours over nine days and get every other Friday off. Son, SuperPizzaBoy and I decided to take a fast trip to the Tulsa Zoo even though we had some on again/off again rains. It turned out to be perfect, the weather was cool, and the zoo was deserted. That suits both SPB and I. We are almost anti-social at times. I mean I like people but when it is crowded, the stupid people are the main ones who show up, or at least make their presence known the most. I don’t want to step on any toes in case you happen to be a stupid person. I mean stupid people don’t decide to be stupid, they are born that way. They can’t help it. Oops Sorry, I digress. And besides they were no stupid people out and about Friday morning, or at least the ones that were well were dispersed. That may be the solution for stupid people, dispersion. You know how some companies, and many present day politicians, ~~used to~~ think that the “Solution to Pollution is Dilution” well maybe it works for stupidity. Maybe not though.

I brought along the fifty year old, plus or minus/ Canon Canonet that my Dad gave me last month. It is a solid hunk of metal, glass, and not much plastic with a light sensor which sets the fstop for a given shutter speed but otherwise is manual focus, film feed, film speed setting, and almost everthing. It sure is silky smooth to operate and the shutter is so quiet that I wondered for a while if it was working. I love it. It’s a real gem.

We saw some Siamangs. I had never seen them so active out on their island. It looks like the zoo staff had put their food in the white plastic jugs strung along the rope so the animals were moving out and across fetching and eating their food.

Here is SuperPizzaBoy with the Zoo’s statue of Ganesha, a Hindu god with an elephant head placed next to the elephant building which is closed for renovations. Some of my fellow Tulsa citizens periodically make a big deal about the statue saying that its presence at the city owned Zoo means that the city is trying to establish Hinduism as an official religion. These are people who really do need a life or a new hobby or something.At least in my opinion.

We saw a tiger, who was pretty loud. Sorry no zoom on my camera and I’m not cropping the photo. The pics today are all SOC!

And a lion who was also mouthing off. I’m wondering if the big cats had their breakfast yet.

These guys, within earshot, seemed pretty nervous. What do they feed those big cats anyway? You ever thought about that? I think these goats have thought about it plenty.

We saw some African Penguins. they are only about a foot tall. They are cool though.

SPB tells me that the penguins are his favorite critters at the zoo.

On the way out we passed the flamingos. Talk about lazy, they were still sleeping. Lazy or smart, I’m not sure. What are the going to do when they wake up? Sure is cool how they can sleep while balancing on one leg. Can you imagine how hard that is? Especially here in Oklahoma where the wind never stops.

So we went home, with a stop at Walgreens to get the film developed. I’m pretty happy with the results.

So what did you do on Friday.

Saturday, if the weather is good SPB and I might be going to Pawhuska (where the Pioneer Woman lives) to look at the Tallgrass Praire Preserve and the the bison who live there. Too bad Sweetie can’t make it, we could stop in and see Ree Drummond (aka “The Pioneer Woman”). She is a great cook but I think she’d lose in a cooking throwdown with Sweetie.

Weekend Reflections – Turkey Mountain

Wednesday evening after work I headed to Turkey Mountain. Much has been happening lately and I can always get my head on straight up on the Mountain.

It has been raining lately so the trails are not as dusty as they were last summer.

There are even some sizeable puddles alongside some of the trails.

I’ve been experimenting with puddle reflections lately. You can really do that during a drouth. The above is one of my favorites so far.

The Westside YMCA runs a day camp on the north side of the mountain. They had spruced up their trail signs. I could hear some loud drumming and yelling going on. I was curious about what was going on but I stayed away.

I did stop and take a pic of their fishing pond though. Nice to see them starting to fill up again.

A previous employer of mine has a pipeline that runs across the mountain. I’m big into connectivity and I’m very familiar with this pipeline and the network it connects to. If I bang it with a hammer (I’d never do that of course it would damage the coating) I can just imagine the sound traveling from here to almost every state in the lower 48 and Canada and also Mexico. I have maps so that I can show you just how that would work. Of course, you would have to put your ears to the pipe and listen very attentively to hear me hammering.

My new trailrunning friend. We ran together for a little bit but I was too slow for him so he waved and was off.

At the parking lot, two final reflections, Cityplex Tower and the full moon both reflecting the sun back at me.

Weekend Reflections

Camera Critters – Hunkering Down

Some critters are already getting ready for Winter.

Camera Critters

October Osage County – Camera Critters

Lets check out what is happening at the Animal Barn at Woolaroc. Frank Phillips‘ (founder of Phillips Petroleum Company) old ranch in Osage County about an hour north of Tulsa.

Woolaroc has quite a few critters. They can be as fun as the art in the museum and grounds.

Something about zebras? They are so graphic. That is actually a better quality in zebras than it is in people.Don’t you think?

I love the animal barn at Woolaroc (Are there barns that are not animal barns). I don’t trust this pair of jokers.

This little guy just wants back in with his mama. She is fine where he is. I know lots of human moms like that also. Love their kids

Something about goats is comical.

My favorite was this calf. It was major cute.

It was kind of shy and flirting with me.

Have you ever seen a cuter redhead?

Camera Critters

Romeo and Juliette

Big Romance last summer on a ranch in western Oklahoma.

Unfortunately Romeo (the white one) split and hasn’t been seen since. We don’t know whether he made a clean break or ended up being coyote bait.

Danged rascal anyway.

Camera Critters

ABC Wednesday – Today is D

The letter for ABC Wednesday is “D”

So I’m saying D is for Dogs!

Those are good Dogs, but not what I really meant.

From left to right, meet Ginger, Abby, and Rascal being tended to by a long suffering Washington Irving. Rascal is kind of hard to see. You know how hard it is to photograph a black dog. Lets try this:

Yes, Rascal does have a face.

ABC Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday – What are you looking at?

Wordless Wednesday

Professional Bull Riding – Express Classic

Friday night SuperPizzaBoy and I attended the Professional Bull Riders Express Classic here in Tulsa at the BOK Center.

I had never been to one before. It was a cross between a fireworks show, rock concert, and a rodeo. Their was fire, flame, and loud music.

The United States Air Force swore in a whole load of recruits. The crowd cheered the “Young Warriors.”

There was a mouthy, hip hop, sarcastic clown with his own mike. He was giving the crowd, the contestants, and the announcers a lot of lip. Apparently, he is famous. He is going to be at Bass Pro in Broken Arrow if you would like to go see him.

And of course, they had pretty girls who apparently were wearing theirlittle sister’s clothes because they didn’t quite fit or cover everything.

We had demonstrations on the latest on lawn mowing technology.

But mainly we had bulls and bull riders, lots of them. I grew up in small towns all over the west and attended lots of rodeos. The bull riding event was the favorite but it wasn’t like this.

These bulls are big and powerful. In the contest between cowboy and bull, the bulls won. Not very many riders were able to go the eight seconds.

Cowboys were flying left and right. One landed on his head, one got kicked in the face, and another got pushed down in the back. Professional Bull Riding was the original extreme sport and is considered the most dangerous event in sports.

Many of the cowboys are from Brazil. They are very tough looking guys.

We rate the event at five smiles out of five.

Check out the PBR web site, lots of good information there. There is an extensive section on their policies and procedures on animal welfare. Included is a lot of information on injury rates.