It’s hot and humid in Oklahoma, USA these days. Yes, well it is July and that is what we get.
I don’t really mind it. We have air conditioning in our homes and cars and you just have to adjust your outdoor time accordingly and use precautions. Take water, use sunscreen, dress appropriately, (I wear a lot of tech fiber clothing that wicks perspiration away.) And try to do outdoors activities in the morning and very late afternoons.
And look out for your pets, they need lots of water and rest also.
So just get out and enjoy yourself and take lots of photos.
I went on a bike ride the other day. I saw this great blue heron and a turtle hanging out together on Zink Dam here in Tulsa.
Nearby was this egret fishing for their lunch.
An isolated American White Pelican was paddling around.
I rode my bike over to the other side of the river and saw these geese wandering around.
Slim pickings on the backyard trailcam except for a couple of dog pics. This is our pom, Kodi.
And our rescue terrier, Sadie. Her tail is always straight up in the air.
With my camera I captured this mourning dove on the camera feeder.
And a sparrow with a bit of fluff it found.
A squirrel checking everything out.
A brown thrasher
A house finch
Another sparrow, tiny enough to sit down on the flat part of the fence picket.
I went hiking on Turkey Mountain on Wednesday. I heard all sorts of birds and even spotted some but I wasn’t quick enough to take their photo. Oh well, I saw this guy though out in the open and it was polite enough to wait for me while I got my camera, focused and took a few shots. Merlin and google images tell me that it is a Western King Bird. I had never heard of such a thing but there it is. Number 19 on my recently started life list.
Here’s the Merlin screenshots on the smart aleck birds that I could hear and not see.
And here is a short 57 second video of some of birds showed up at the camera feeder the past few days.
From a drone flight in early June. Usually June is boring blue but we are getting lots of clouds this month.
And another flight a few days later. It looks like a giant hammer is fixing to pound Tulsa.
And from my first post-surgery bike ride. I had a knee replacement back in mid-February and have done a lot of Physical Therapy and exercise on my own as well. Earlier this month I went on my first ride. Six miles. The first two of which were ouch, ouch, ouch, on every pedal rotation until I got warmed up. So it is just a small ride. Earlier this week I did another of eight miles and it went well also.
It rained here a few days later and so for my hiking I went a park that has paved trails. Less erosion that way and I am all about Leave No Trace principles. (Hit the link to find out about the Seven Principles of Leave No Trace.)
Last week, my wife and I went to a free concert at Jenks Riverwalk. It’s a nice shopping/eating center right on the Arkansas River. I took a little break from the music to take some photos.
Last Sunday, Heather, Logan and loaded up and went down to the Tulsa State Fair and checked out the Route 66 Roadfest going on there. A celebration of all things concerning Route 66. This is the third year I have attended it and I love it.
1971 Pontiac GTO
Cars are a big part of Route 66. After all it is a highway and cars are best way to travel it.
Auburn Cord 810
Ford Model T
A core part of the show are five or so sections that take the Route 66 by decades and talk about what was happening with the road and what was happening with the country.
1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Galaxie Convertible.
There was a section of vintage travel trailers. These two ladies had this trailer and a bunch of associated things plus what I loved was they wore matching dresses color coordinated with the trailer. I hardly ever ask people if I can take their photo but I asked them and they seemed delighted to do so.
Our family of five in the 60’s also had a small travel trailer. We used a lot and I am sure that we saved lots of money but we were also very cramped. It was not too bad if the weather was good as you could always go outside. In bad weather though it led to lots of family togetherness. Much of it good, and some of it not so great.
Hey had metal glasses like those and a metal water pitcher. The iced water in such pitchers just seemed a lot colder than that in plastic water containers.
Everybody had these small phonographs. So nostalgic but I’ll take my Ipod with almost 6500 music tracks on it.
I love this two story travel trailer. Reportedly it has two bedrooms upstairs. What a spectacle that would be. What a nightmare pulling the thing in a strong crosswind.
1953 Buick Super Convertible Model 56C
My dad loved Buicks and I don’t know how many times he told me that you could tell how fancy the model was by the number holes in fender. So this was a three holer in his parlance, kind of like the Buick LeSabre. The Electra had four. We had a LeSabre when I was a kid. The first new car my parents ever bought. Dad saved money by getting it without air conditioning and then he salvaged parts from numerous cars in junkyards and built his own. It worked well but it took him months and it was kind of a complicated thing.
1936 Auburn 852 Boattail Speedster.
1955 Chevrolet Bel Air
There were a ton of mid 1950’s Chevrolet Bel Air’s at the show. I always thought they looked cool
1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1
There were loads and loads of Ford Mustangs as well.
1957 Ford Thunderbird
The 1950’s Ford Thunderbirds, in my opinion, were some of the most beautiful cars ever built. I especially like the unique colors.
Land Rover Defender
I love the Land Rovers, especially the vintage models.
Volkswagen Karman Ghia
This was the prettiest car at the show. The Volkswagen Karman Ghia.
Next year is the centennial of Route 66. There are going to be big events all over the place including the Routefest in Tulsa.
I don’t know why the trailcam took this photo. Maybe it has become sentient and is going to replace me? Or maybe it has developed empathy and wanted to help me out.
There is nothing like shadows on a freshly mowed yard.
It has been raining a lot in Tulsa lately. It makes the trails muddy and I don’t want to damage them so I go places with more sustainable trails. Fortunately Ray Harral Nature Center in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow has asphalt paved trails so that is one of my go to’s when I get the yen to go hiking when things are muddy.
I found this male northern cardinal. I brought my good camera and he was nice enough to sit still while I got his photo. I saw glimpses of other birds but didn’t get their photos.
Found this young squirrel playing coy with me.
I used the Merlin App to track who else was around. I got a glimpse of a red-eyed vireo. The Fish Crow called loudly as did the Carolina Wren.
I spotted this painted rock in one of the pollinator gardens at the center. I put it in my pocket and carried it around during my hike and then put it in a different pollinator plot not very far from where I found it. I used to love making painted rocks and hiding them. I am going to get some paint and sealer and try again. I’m not much of an artist and I settled on a yellow sunburst on a blue background. A friend of mine mocked me saying that Walmart was going to sue me for infringing on their logo.
When I first started I hid them way too well and nobody was finding them. I guess from my geocaching background. So I started putting them in more visible places and that worked out better.
A bunny wandered into range in my backyard trailcam.
And a brown thrasher.
Yesterday we got a reprieve from the rain so son and I mowed the yard. I mowed the front as he caught up on his beauty sleep. I trimmed the front and backyards. My 35 year old cord electric trimmer finally quit a couple weeks ago and I got a nice battery powered model to replace it. Much more powerful and convenient than dragging a cord around all over the place.
So son mowed the backyard. He likes to be creative in his patterns. Used to drive me crazy cuz of all the mohawks he left but now he is still creative yet no more mohawks. (Mohawks are unmowed strips of grass that look kind of like a Mowhawk haircut.) I think he got tired of mowing the yard twice.
It got hot, yesterday, here I am all cleaned up doing my zombie walk in the 105F heat. (I don’t think it got to 105 but it was still hot.)
Don’t forget to cheer for the Oklahoma Thunder Sunday evening when they battle the Indiana Pacers in the final game of the NBA Championship!
I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out. Lots of talented photographers participate.
I fired the drone up over the backyard last week toward the end of the day.
It had been raining and I wanted to go hiking so I went to Broken Arrow’s Ray Harral Nature Center. A beautiful place with many paved hiking trails so one can go hiking while adhering to Leave No Trace guidelines. The end of the hike I found this composition with flowers, trees, and a sky. Nothing earth shattering, just kind of pleasant.
A collage of some of the birds visiting our camera feeder.
Clockwise from top left:
A house sparrow feeding a chick right on the feeder.
What google lens tells me is a northern mockingbird.
A brown thrasher.
A house finch
A great tailed grackle
A northern cardinal.
Literally 90% or more of the birds at the feeder are mourning doves. Sorry I didn’t include a photo of one of them.
I’m using habanero flavored bird food supplemented with dried meal worms. Squirrels do hate the habanero flavor but strangely enough there is the odd squirrel that just gobbles it up.
I launched the drone the other day. It wasn’t sunset time but there were clouds and light so off I went. This is 40 meters over my backyard in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looking west.
And then I turned the drone 180 degrees to the east and pointed the camera closer to the ground.
And, as you can tell, I played with the photos a little bit. I used a program called Dynamic Auto Painter and used one of their watercolor presets.
