I went for a bike ride on the trails alongside the Arkansas River July 5. The weather broke and the temperature was quite nice for a change. I took one of “good cameras” with me and this is part of what I saw.
A slider turtle basking on a rock.
I saw a bunch of great blue herons. Lonesome sentries all up and down the river.
And several white egrets.
And one of each in the same frame.
So this blurry photo was at the far end of my camera’s range. iNaturalist thinks it might be a golden eagle. I think it might be a young bald eagle. Any suggestions?
And here is a plump of geese. I love collective nouns for wildlife and geese seem to have more than any other animal. “Plump” is new to me and I love it.
And here is a group of people fishing just below Zink Dam. I get nervous when I see this because you have to wade out there through some fast moving water.
And another group below the dam. Note the guy in the middle has a dog on a leash.
The dam and nearby trails is not open to the public yet but I guess that doesn’t apply to this couple who showed up so the guy could take photos of the woman.
And this guy, far from the dam, in a legal spot chilling, listen to music maybe while pondering the river.
I went on a bike ride on Tulsa’s RiverParks trail system along the Arkansas River.
I spotted this bale of turtles out basking in the hot sun. The interwebs tell me that bale is the collective noun for turtles.
I focused in on the boss bale. At least it was the biggest one.
Just a few white pelicans out and about. The interwebs say the collective noun is squadron, pouch, pod, or scoop. So I am calling these four a pouch of pelicans.
And just below the Zink Dam there was this group fishing.
And here is my turnaround spot with the River Bears in the background. It was a hot day!!
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Come over and join the party.
For Father’s Day my wife and son treated me with a trip to the Tulsa Botanic Garden. I took my macro lens along and captured way too many bloom photos. I especially like to capture the insects on the blooms like this fritillary.
And lots of bumble bees out and about in the garden just pollinating away.
And a wasp or two.
And I saw a lizard of some sort darting among the plants. There was also a cool as a cucumber garden cat but I was a neglectful blogger as I did not get its photo.
I took a hike on Turkey Mountain. I didn’t see any big critters but I captured this fritillary in the leaf litter.
And a dragonfly hanging out on a fallen tree.
I’m really enjoying my Merlin Bird App. While hiking I would hear different birds and call up the app and it id’s them for me. I would look and look and only every once in a while spot one but the foliage would be way to thick to get a decent photo so I would move on.
I am still having fun with my trailcam at home. I move it around. I get lots of images but very few “hits.” That’s okay. I love this male cardinal.
I also like to get birds in action like the one above coming in and the one below with the female cardinal leaving.
The squirrels love the feeders and tend to dominate. My wife and I will periodically go outside and tell the squirrels to get lost.
My wife and I went on a bike ride on Tulsa’s River Parks. Stopping at what we call the Bear Fountain is always a refreshing rest stop.
The other day I had some time so I ventured off to north Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center to get some nature time. I wibbled and wobbled for about two miles slowly and saw a few critters.
From the porch at the visitor center overlooking the pond I found this bale of turtles swimming about. I googled what a group of turtles is called and it said that a group of turtles is called a “bale.” I love the names for groups of animals. My favorite is a “murder” of crows.
After the visitor center one enters a meadow where I found this black swallowtail butterfly getting something to eat. I saw lots of these critters in the park but they are really hard (for me) to photograph in the woods with the alternating shadow and sunlight. The meadow was a lot easier.
I saw lots of deer including this young one who didn’t like me and headed off across the mud in the creek behind him. I didn’t mean to stress him out.
There were lots of deer about. I’ve heard tell that the staff at Oxley think they are overpopulated with deer. It wouldn’t surprise me since every once in a while standing in a spot with good visibility I sometimes spot two or three widely separated groups.
I saw this deer on one of the trails. At first, due to its muddy feet, I thought it was the deer I saw earlier in the creek mud. Turns out that was a male, you could see the horns beginning to grow, and this one doesn’t have them.
I stalked this great blue heron for several minutes. It was fishing and didn’t want its photo taken so it kept moving away from me.
I finally got a photo of it out in the open.
There were lots of birds out there but I had trouble spotting them. I used my handy dandy Merlin bird ID app to identify them. Still couldn’t see them through all the tree foliage and brush.
I did spot this bird and got a photo of everything but its head. I think it is a downy woodpecker.
I also found this waddling of ducks in my wandering. Ms. Google tells me that a group of ducks on the ground is called a “waddling.” A “badelyng” or “badling” are also acceptable terms.
I had a great time. You know one species I didn’t see once I got away from the parking lot? Humans. Not a single one was sighted out on the trail. I love being retired and getting to do outdoors stuff during the week. I still feel like I am playing hooky after all these years.
Found this little guy on Turkey Mountain. I think it is a rough green snake. I see more of these kind of snakes on the mountain than any other. Most of them are just a few inches long, this is the biggest one that I have ever seen. Maybe a foot long at the most. I love the graceful coils. It seemed kind of curious to me with the raised head. I tried to tell him to get off the trail or it was going to get stepped on.
Our purple coneflowers in our front flower bed. Purple coneflowers are the state wildflower of Oklahoma. These have a bumblebee and a moth on them.
A curious deer checking me out while I was geocaching in a pecan orchard near Tulsa. The orchard is huge and has lots of deer. A couple years ago I saw a huge herd of them running through it. This time there were lots of signs in the orchard. They are subdividing it for houses so kiss those big beautiful trees goodbye.
And Kodi the Pomeranian. He loves swimming in his little pool on hot days.
We have lots of geese in Oklahoma, especially golf course geese like these.
And how about Mother Goose with her perky little hat.
And big ole rabbits and Alice in Wonderland. (At a local library)
I went on a bike ride one day and I saw this Eagle fishing out in the middle of the Arkansas River here in Tulsa.
I saw this white pelican as well. There were not as many as there has been in the recent past.
Nearby I saw this great egret also fishing.
And a great blue heron.
A target of opportunity a short while later. This northern mockingbird landing on this wire right in front of me.
At Lafortune Park on a different day I came across this blue jay who sat still while I took his photo.
At home this week I got out of my car and saw this black swallowtail butterfly enjoying my wife’s purple coneflowers. People on instagram said “great job.” I just happened to be there, praise the butterfly.
Here’s a video of the butterfly.
Here is out little Pomeranian, Kodi. He is a bit much to handle these days. He won’t let me pick him up or even clip a leash on him. He’s a little dog with big feelings. And a bit wild eyed especially with this filter I put on his photo.
Now the squirrels have attitude. They don’t move when you tell them to do so. It’s like they say, you move, after you refill the feeder.
Most of our robins are down on the ground. This guy got up on the rooftop and sang for a while. I guess he is looking for love.
These grackles are just taking over!! At least they fly off when you tell them to.
My wife and I went on a hike the other day and came across this doe and her yearling. The young’in was jumpy, mom seed chill. They paralleled us on the trail for quite a ways.
This past week the family spent some time at Hochatown, Oklahoma near Beavers Bend State Park for a little R&R. Since I am retired we can take a weekend getaway during the middle of the week and avoid the crowds! We are not big on crowds.
We rented a very nice cabin with all sorts of amenities. The best thing was all the deer that came by to visit early in the morning.
Deer are really graceful but very wary. As well they should be.
So we sat still on the porch as they came by.
We went hiking a few days in the park. We found this little armadillo on our first hike. They really are intriguing creatures.
But then we come across this snake that Heather almost stepped on. She thought it was a copperhead which is of course venomous. I kept telling her to get close enough to see the shape of the eyes to make sure. She refused. INaturalist confirmed it was a copperhead. It was laying right on the edge of the trail and refused to move so we just edged around him best we could. It was one of the biggest copperheads I have ever seen.
Later on during a walk around our cabin neighborhood we come across Bigfoot. Neither Heather or Kodi were afraid of him one bit.
Kodi loved our getaway. We didn’t take him on any hikes but we did lots of walks around the cabin and took him to a dog friendly brewery. He had a great time. As did we.
We went kayaking while down there, here is an action shot of Logan. We didn’t see any critters on the water except for birds.
Speaking of birds, have you tried the Merlin app. A free app and you download a bird song library and then you turn it on and it ID’s the birds by their songs. It’s amazing. The only thing is that it doesn’t locate the little buggers for you. So now I’m just taking screen shots of what it is hearing. It is truly amazing.
My trailcam picked up an apparently disgusted squirrel wondering just when we are going to refill the bird feeders. I think it wants to talk to the manager.
