Tag Archives: Geese

Geese, a Turtle, and Other Critters

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A wedge of Geese at Tulsa’s Woodward Park. (I just love the various collective nouns for the different kinds of birds.)

Appeal to the Great Spirit

Also at Woodward Park, an equestrian sculpture, “Appeal to the Great Spirit.” It used to be at high school in Tulsa that got torn down. Fortunately it was saved. The original was by Cyrus Dallin in 1909 and is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Art.

A bison mural I found while working an Adventure Lab Geocache.

And I was in a creek bottom in south Tulsa replacing a geocache that went missing when this guy showed up to see what was going on. Usually I see snakes in this area, never any venomous snakes just rat snakes but no snakes today. I would rather see turtles.

I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out!!

Mainly Backyard Critters

Kodi being silly

Here’s a backyard cam of Kodi licking his nose.

Alan playing with Kodi in the back yard

And then playing with him.

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We have a tennis ball in the back yard. He loves chasing it all over the place.

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At night other critters come out. I have seen this bunny during the day.

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The way the eyes light up is spooky!!

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Lately we have this black and white cat checking things out. We still have people in the neighborhood who turn their cats loose and there are several feral cats outside as well.

Hey, a non-trailcam shot of some geese at a local park.

That’s all I got this week!! I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – Exploring Oxley Nature Center

I headed out recently to Oxley Nature Center in north Tulsa to hike the trails and see what kind of animals were out and about.

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During the middle of the day I didn’t expect to find any deer but I found a small family of three resting in the woods. They didn’t seem too bothered by me.

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This young one was browsing then laid down with its back to me. Go Away!!

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I found this cool butterfly resting on a trail. Google Lens tells me that it is a Gorgone Checkerspot. I have never heard of such a thing.

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This turtle was catching a few rays.

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Two grown and two baby geese (goslings). I’ve done my research and apparently you can’t call a group of geese less than five in number a gaggle of geese. A group of swimming geese is called a plump. So here is plump of geese. I find the names of groups of animals fascinating. My favorite is a Murder of Crows. So I can truthfully say that I have seen a few murders.

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A raft of ducks. I think this raft is blue wing teals according to google lens.

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And a solitary great blue heron.

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Too blurry of a photo for an ID but these birds were swooping all over the place. I got a new word maybe. A group of unidentified blurry birds flying really fast is called a Swoop. You heard it first here. You better check in often to keep up to date.

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I found this funky looking dragonfly on a trail. Not good enough of a photo to get google lens to give me results that I am happy with.

And on the home front.

Our six pound Pomeranian puppy Kodi is a bundle of energy. He hates to be separated from my wife. If she is outside he pogos at the door to join her. When she’s inside he wants in. I guess that he has separation anxiety.

That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out, lots of great animalcentric posts by some very talented photobloggers.

Saturday’s Critters – Home and Away

First up our puppy Kodi and cat Lizzy. They love to play and seem to enjoy each others company. Kodi is getting bigger and stronger versus Lizzy getting better at wrestling. She has developed a takedown that she uses on him sometimes. It is fun watching them.

Kodi is getting bigger and stronger all the time. We start him at puppy school in a couple weeks. We all know that they should rename dog school as owner school right?

Kodi is still very small. The smallest dog we have ever had. We found out that we can just park him in a laundry basket if we need to confine him a short while and his crate is not available.

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Still got my trailcam going in the backyard. I think this is a downy woodpecker.

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This looks like a squirrel but cannot be a squirrel because it is feeding from a squirrelproof bird feeder.

robin on the ground

We are getting lots of robins scratching around for food under the feeders.

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And we get rabbits at night.

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I captured a red shouldered hawk on our neighbors roof. They like rabbits. I’ve seen them this year land in our front yard and walk into the hedges and come out with baby rabbits and mice. Hawks have to eat to I guess.

I saw a goose in the parking lot earlier this week. It proceeded to wander on the main avenue nearby and somehow did not get run over.

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I went on a hike the other day and spotted this pair of geese. I think they must be nesting or something because they didn’t move much and were giving me the stinkeye from clear across the pond.

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And a fuzzy photo of a mallard paddling around the same pond.

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The same hike, I came across robins. This one blended into the tree it was perched on.

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This one was on the ground scratching around.

That’s a wrap this week!! I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out!

Critter Update from the Backyard and Beyond

From the Backyard TrailCam

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A male cardinal coming in for a landing

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And his lady friend a minute or two later

Squirrel

This squirrel is walking with purpose

rabbit night

This guy freezes

Out and About

Some turtle basking action at Hunter Park
Ducks paddling away
Geese and Ducks say hello at Swan Lake (No swans around)
Kodi is very distracted, all the time.
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At Woodward Park in the Daffodils, Kodi with my wife and son on a family outing last week.

At Home

Lizzie catching a nap in the front room.

From the Air

Kodi is not sure that he likes drones.

That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

Hiking at Oxley Nature Center

Last weekend, son Logan and I went for a little hike at Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center. I was hopeful that we would view some deer or other animals.

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Oxley has a diverse combination of meadows, marshlands, forests, creeks, and lakes.

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An old highway running through the refuge used to be US 169 the main route from the north to downtown Tulsa. It is now part of the trail system at Oxley. It is kind of handy after it has rained and the dirt trails are muddy.

We took some back country trails. We didn’t see any deer the whole time.

And we went out to the lakes and creeks.

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Makes for pretty scenes. There was not hardly anybody else out there even though it was a weekend.

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We finally some waterfowl. I think these are geese.

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I’m not sure what these are, sorry for the fuzzy photo. iNaturlist said “Ducks, Geese and Swans.”

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Another fuzzy photo. Too fuzzy for iNaturalist to do much with. It guessed “Wigeons and Allies.”

Pretty good little walkaround on a nice day.

And a bonus.

Our Pomeranian puppy, Kodi taking a nap in his toy box.

And my wife with Kodi. He’s a lot of fun but he is a handful.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Come check it out, especially if you love animals.

Skywatch Friday – A Family Walk at Oxley Nature Center

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Last Friday the family decided to go for walk at Tulsa’s Mary K. Oxley Nature Center. One of the best kept secrets in Tulsa. Acres and acres of trails, woods, marsh, lakes, and meadows and hardly anybody ever visits it.

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Well somebody had been visiting. We saw a few of these in the park but they didn’t look like they had been used.

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I love the big and small ponds, lakes, and streams on the property.

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It looked like some beavers had been hard at work.

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A sign needs either replacing or fetched.

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A nice surprise were some pelicans. They were cruising about. The geese seemed a little put off their visitors.

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Heather taking in the view near the photo blind.

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Yep, I’m a lucky guy is what I think.

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Heather and our gentle giant of a son, Logan checking out some storm damage from last year.

And here is our route. About 3 miles and a good mix of woods, open land, and water. We saw nobody else during our three miles.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday this week.

Saturday’s Critters – Trumpeter Swan

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A goose Trumpeter Swan I encountered Wednesday night. He was very cooperative and even posed for me. When I got a little closer he decided he had enough and waddled off into the water. Telling me to back off the whole time.

Thanks to my friends DrillerAA and EGCamera girl for setting me straight on what species this is.

Linking with Saturday’s Critters