Through My Lens – Brunch and a Hike on Turkey Mountain

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I’m still way behind on my posting. This is about a hike I took on Turkey Mountain on the last Sunday of March.

Turkey Mountain is ultra popular now days especially on the weekends. So on the weekends I generally head to the northwest side of Turkey Mountain. The YMCA has the Herman and Kate Kaiser YMCA there. They have paved parking, flush toilets and their trails interconnect with Turkey Mountains. Plus I am a Y member, so I go there and check in. So I stopped at the lodge and checked in and on the way out one of their people told me that they had a barbecue lunch going on and I was welcome, and I didn’t have to pay. Oh, free food. Sign me up.

Smoked brisket, smoked sausage, corn pudding, potato salad, and a peanut butter cookie.

So I went in and got me a plate and it was delicious. I’m not totally into free food plus I love the Y. My wife teaches classes at two other Y’s in town and I use the Y’s also. Plus the Y on Turkey Mountain holds a special place in my heart. They hosted the first trail race I ran in (and a bunch more besides.) They provided a venue for the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition to host Leave No Trace when they came to Tulsa. Anyway the Herman and Kate Kaiser Y is a special place and they had QR cards around there where one could make a donation so I donated a modest sum. Talk about an unexpected meal, it was great.

So, fortified off I went.

I saw butterflies,

Birds like this robin

Question Mark Butterfly

And more butterflies

and more, except this might be a moth.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

And yet another butterfly. And a bonus wasp hovering over.

Some decent trails

Wildflowers

More Trails.

And a turtle at Pepsi Lake.

So almost four miles

Plus my Merlin App picked up: Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wrens, and Tufted Titmice on my outing.

What a special day. Thank you to the nice people at the Herman and Kate Kaiser YMCA for making the day special.

2026 No Kings Day in Tulsa

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I saw this post on facebook from the White House account that declared that President Trump and King Charles of Great Britain were Two Kings! That’s cool I thought and then remembered that I haven’t done a No Kings Protest post from the late March when Tulsa along with the rest of the country participated.

This is my second No Kings protest. The first one last fall, I painted a sign and everything and my wife and I went to the protest and held our sign up and had a great time. As did everyone else there.

This time I just brought my camera. I saw a lively, chill crowd of all ages. Families, old folks, kids, some brought their dogs.

Lots of signs. I love the signs.

Not a policeman in sight, nor were they needed.

There were lots of speeches. I’m not a speech listener. I’m not even a photographer, I am a picture taker! And I took a bunch of pictures.

Some people went to some lengths for their signs. Others were much simpler.

I didn’t see any counter protesters.

I didn’t see any signs that said “Two Kings.” I think Tulsan’s are okay with King Charles of England being King over there. He’s welcome to visit. He’s very gracious guy and kind of witty in that dry English manner. Plus he hasn’t sent his military over to threaten us.

They come here to train. Years ago there were some British troops training at Oklahoma’s Camp Gruber. They came to Tulsa’s Drillers AA baseball team. They sat together and chanted soccer cheers. Everybody loved it. They drank massive amounts of malted beverage but they rode a bus back to camp so they were safe.

Any no riots,

No anger, some strong language.

Just people expressing how they feel.

I think the whole country made a statement. I think everyone is fine with not having a king.

Skywatch Friday – Close to Home and Downtown

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Some stormy skies one early evening in the neighborhood.

The morning after a stormy sky in the neighborhood. More threatening skies and a new roof going up.

On a dogwalk at our neighborhood greenbelt. A very sunny and bright afternoon. I love new leaves in the spring. Talk about fresh and green.

Tulsa Earth Day Celebration

On Earth Day I was manning a booth in downtown Tulsa representing the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition. This is a view of the food trucks. It was also food truck Wednesday. I ended up getting some very spicy and flavorful Thai food.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

Saturday’s Critters at Home and in the Woods

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Here is Lizzie, the queen of the household, in one of her cat poses. She often crosses her paws when in cat pose and I had never seen one paw pointed up.

Sadie, the rescue terrier and Lizzie.

Kodi and Sadie at the window

I was cleaning out the bird camera the other day and I noticed Kodi the Pom and Sadie wanting in. The bird camera was live so I got these two live on the bird cam. Kodi is good about going outside and “dogging” by himself. Sadie doesn’t dogging by herself, she’ll dog with a human or with another dog. They had had enough dogging and wanted in.

I went on a hike on Turkey Mountain the other day and came across this guy. A Giant Redheaded Centipede according to google images. Kind of a fearsome looking critter and is supposedly venomous. We let him go on its way. It was in its home and we were just visiting.

I found this dragonfly on Turkey Mountain as well. When I was a kid in Utah I was scared to death of these things and I can’t remember why now.

White Tailed Deer on Turkey Mountain

I also found this white tailed deer on Turkey Mountain as well in a small meadow. Very curious. You can see the hindquarters of another deer to the right.

And this squirrel I found while hiking at Ray Harrall Nature Center.

And a one minute twenty second video of the various critters on the bird feeder recently.

After I made the youtube video above, an eastern bluebird paid a visit. Only ten seconds. Playing flickr videos is a little awkward you have to go way below the video to see the play button.

And that is it for this week. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

Rock Creek Route 66 Skywatch

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Recently I went to the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check out the Rock Creek Bridge. A must stop for Route 66 fans especially since this year is the 100th year of Route 66’s existence. The bridge is open to foot traffic only.

From there I ventured back into Sapulpa and found this Umbrella Alley. I love all the colors. The day I was there the wind was blowing pretty hard through the alley and the umbrellas were dancing. As they say in the musical “Oklahoma”

**“Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain,
And the wavin’ wheat can sure smell sweet,
When the wind comes right behind the rain.”**

If you love wind. Move to Oklahoma, we have lots for everybody.

I also found this brand new place, The Waypoint Lounge! I was sure it was a bar for geocachers. But alas, it is an event space with lots of amenities. Check the link. It is hard to make money off of geocachers. They really like free stuff.

Back home, a view down the road in my neighborhood.

I don’t have copyright

And I finished a jigsaw puzzle. I google lensed it and it is Hallstatt, Austria. Sure is pretty place is what I think.

NGC 6357/Pismis 24 (Chandra/Webb)
I don’t have copyright

And from our outer space. This is from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope augmented with data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. It shows “Nebula NGC 6357 that contains Pismis 24, a young cluster of stars about 5,500 light-years from Earth.”

To me this is breathtaking.

So that’s a wrap for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Mid April Edition

An early morning (for a retired guy) shot Saturday morning. I love Spring mornings even when it is 42F. They warm up fast. That is our terrier mix adoption dog Sadie off to the left. Today (Sunday, the 19th) is her “Gotcha Day.” We brought her home one year ago today. She is a little sweetie.

A tree with its shadow during a dog walk in our neighborhood greenbelt. I’ve been playing around with the miniaturization feature in my IPhone’s Camera+ app.

A photographers blind with scattered shadows at Ray Harral Nature Center in Broken Arrow.

Weekly Critter Photos – 18 April 2026

Here is our terrier mix rescue Sadie. Sweetest dog ever and she loves taking a nap in the sun after chasing rabbits and squirrels all over the back yard.

And a turtle I found crossing a trail at Ray Harral Nature Center in Broken Arrow, OK. Something about turtles, they are crossing everything from trails to freeways right now in Oklahoma.

A Komodo Dragon at the Tulsa Zoo.

A “tower” of Giraffes milling around at the zoo waiting to be fed. I love collective nouns of animals. Tower is new to me and might be my favorite. A murder of crows is pretty high up there also.

Fun fact: See the green pipe in the background. That is for the zoo’s elephant enclosure. It was donated to the zoo by one of my previous employers, ONEOK, Inc. It is brand new pipe with the green coating used for buried pipe to protect it from corrosion. The pipe and its coating costs a fortune.

A lone rhino picking through their hay.

Thank you for checking in. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters