I was out and about in Tulsa’s Woodward Park the other day looking for daffodils and tulips when I found this family of cardinals. Dad, at the top, Mom and a couple of chicks.
I had my macro lens on my “good camera” so I got a closeup of dad. I think he is close to needing a touchup.
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My wife took our little Kodi the Pomeranian to get groomed and came home with this Kodi the Bear Cub. Kodi loves getting groomed and made a fuss over. Of course he’s a guy and we guys all love feminine attention.
He loves to go swimming. We had a warm day and Heather put some water in his little pool and he just hops in and out and back in again.
Lizzie the Cat is kind of turning into my cat. Here she is sitting on my lap watching the NCAA Basketball Championship Tournament.
We had some pretty cold mornings. Here is a puffed up mourning dove trying to warm up.
Linking up with the brilliant photobloggers at Saturday’s Critters
A mourning dove perched on our backyard fence.
A house sparrow looking for a bite to eat at one of our feeders.
Our Pom, Kodi had a date at a neighborhood dog park the other day. We are looking for a bigger female to help calm him down. We met with a foster parent who brought a Pomski (combo Pom and Husky). It didn’t seem like a good match so we’ll just continue looking. It was nice being outside!!
Our tabby Lizzy, continuing her knee healing mission with me. She likes it when I put the ice packs on my knee so she can go lay on me.
On other knee news, I have been released from home health PT. In fact I got cleared for not using the walker any longer, nor a cane. I can just walk. Slowly. The home health nurse said that I was the only one of her patients who got knee replacements the same week I did that is walking on their own. I will say that I worked my butt off on both the pre-surgery exercises and then again on post surgery. So I start at studio PT hopefully next week. Right now I can go to the gym but no submerging the incision in water. They advised me not to drive just yet and I agree with them. I like being chauferred around by my wife. My wife has been a lifesaver on this surgery recovery in a bunch of different ways. I’m a blessed man, what can I say.
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Here is our little Kodi Bear, Kodi. He had been ignoring me since I had my surgery and now he is acting more interested and comes and checks on me. I used to play with him a lot but it is kind of hard now since I can’t reach down to the ground very easily to grab his toy and throw it. He has some aggression issues but he is one of the cutest dogs I’ve ever known. The lady that we got him from nailed it. She said he is a little dog with big feelings.
I post photos on instagram a lot and since my surgery I am going to the archives more and re-editing images. This is a llama that some friends of ours had. They got Mrs. Llama to help protect their sheep from feral dogs and coyotes.
And here is a video of my great escape. I’ve been doing PT daily and getting stronger but not at the pace I would like. So the other day when the coast was clear I grabbed my walker and headed out the front door and one of our security cameras captured me as I made my great escape. I only went a quarter mile round trip and it felt great. I am going to build up my distance every day. PT is challenging but it hurts. I love walking outside in the sunshine.
Five Mourning Doves waiting for somebody to refill the bird feeder one chilly morning recently. They kind of puff up to help keep themselves warm is what I read.
Last Monday it was warm, all day. I declared it a shorts day and took a drink, my book, and camera out to the backyard.
Robins were out and about.
This is the same robin only on a fence and turned away. Amazing to me how they look like a completely different bird.
The mourning doves were out and about. They are such calm birds.
I got some golden hour light on this one.
This is a 29 second video summarizing the non-sparrow birds that visit the camera feeder. I’m up to about 220 visits a day. Almosts all of them house sparrows with some juncos thrown in. So what I call interesting birds is not very many. That’s okay.
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Another wildlife art themed Adventure Lab Geocache popped up on the Tulsa RiverParks so I ventured out there on a cold day to figure it out.
It was done by the same guy that did another one a couple months ago. So you key on these wildlife sculptures, and you have to get some information from the accompanying plaque to prove you were there. Also, you get a clue to a real geocache in a container.
So I hobbled up and down the RiverParks trails chasing down these clues.
Geese
A bald eagle. I have seen real ones cruising up and down the river and perched on logs in the river.
I did spot a hawk looking for his lunch.
And I saw white bird, maybe a seagull, I don’t know flying up ther river.
So I got my certificate that I completed the cache. I was also the “First to Find” for it. That is a big deal to us nerdy types. I found the real associated cache and was the FTF for it as well. It felt good to get out of the house after the stretch of nasty weather we had.
I still have my bird camera going. I get over 120 hits and day. I’m going to say literally 95% are house sparrow, 3% are juncos, 1% are dove, and 1% are squirrels. So here is a one minute video of selected birds for the past week.
That is it this week. I hope everyone is doing well.
These are some older photos from our trailcam that I had on the back patio back when it snowed.
A dark eyed junco (toward the bottom of the photo)
A squirrel, we have lots of those and they eat a lot.
A male Northern Cardinal
A female Cardinal, (under the chair to the right)
I think these are a pair of house finches.
Kodi, our Pomeranian, loves the snow.
He also likes being snug and warm. It was so much of a fight to get him in the crate we just let him sleep in his bed beside our bed. He stays in it all night and has no problem settling down for the night. Win/win.
Lizzie never quite gets enough nap time.
Here they are together in the living room.
A couple of geese I found at the local mall.
Still loving my bird camera. I am getting about 140 visits a day. So this is a 30 second video showing the different species of birds that come visit. House sparrows, cardinals, black eyed juncos, mourning doves, an occasional house finch. It’s quite the device.
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The weather has been both warm and cold lately. Kodi loves laying in the sun on cold sunny days. Talk about a look of bliss on his face.
We were wondering how he would do with snow and he loves it. Doesn’t bother him a bit.
So I’m loving my camera bird feeder. The squirrels love it to so I chase them off whenever I can. This past week I had house sparrows, carolina chickadees, house finches, and both sexes of cardinals. I found a new feature on the camera that I have used. I can talk to the squirrels that at time overwhelm it. I yell at them to “Git out you dang squirrels” and the run off. It also has an alarm, I can make it go off from my phone and that really gets them away.
Them squirrels are raiders. Here is a shaky video of one of them who took the top off of a bird feeder and was just helping himself.
That’s a wrap for this week. Stay warm everyone. I’ll be watching the NFL playoffs this week.
I visited with my knee surgeon yesterday and I am on for the middle of next month. After the Superbowl though.
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Big news for me this week is that I bought an internet connected, solar powered, birdcam and got it installed in the backyard.
It is pretty easy to install and set up. Given the time of year I haven’t had too many customers yet. A couple of squirrels, a Carolina Wren, and female Northern Cardinal. I’ve had more squirrels but I throw snowballs at them if I see them.
They come in short videos about ten seconds long. I used an iphone app to stitch them together and then uploaded to youtube. It is only 12 seconds long.
Lizzy allowed me to take her portrait. She is the sweetest cat we’ve ever had.
And then she winked at me. I don’t know what is up with that.
I filled up all the feeders and this blue jay helped himself to a peanut.
The squirrels helped themselves to another feeder with sunflower seeds in it.
I got Kodi patrolling the perimeter.
And three dove on the ground.
After it snowed Kodi spent some time out in it. He seemed to like it.
I think that is a lonely Junco off to the left.
After a while the brat wanted in.
He posed for his portrait on the steps.
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