We continue to get a lot of rain here in Tulsa. When it rains and I want to go hiking I use one of the sustainable trails in town rather than splash through the mud on my regular haunts. So this time I went to Ray Harral Nature Center in Broken Arrow, OK. Their trails are mainly asphalt with some gravel.
There are always lots of birds at Ray Harral but I hardly ever see them. At least with the Merlin App I can figure out what they are. I got lucky this time.
I spotted a couple of cardinals and they stood still long enough for me to get a fuzzy photo (or maybe phuzzy photo) of them. One in a shrub.
And one on the ground.
I saw a couple squirrels as well. In town they are not shy at all, out in the woods they hide. So I got one in a tree.
And another on the ground.
And this is our son, Logan, captured mowing the yard with my trailcam. He got offered a job yesterday (and accepted it) as a full-time paralegal for a law firm here in town. He’s worked very hard to get to this point. We are very proud of him. He’s going to have to give up shorts and tee shirts in exchange for a shirt and tie but hey, he can do it.
And another real critter. This is Sadie, our rescue terrier. She is very energetic and wants all the love. She is very sweet.
And sculptural. Somebody made an Adventure Lab geocache using some of the animal sculptures on Tulsa’s RiverParks trails. This is what I call the Bear Fountain. It’s a nice place to rest on a bike ride.
And a bobcat trying get duck or something. Very lifelike.
And some otters frolicking.
I completed the Adventure Lab. Completing it is its own reward!!
And here is a 20 second video showing some of the birds that visited my camera feeder this week.
One of the little darlings chewed through the wire between my camera feeder and the solar panel. This is the second time. This time they ran off with the wire connector. They did last time also but I found it elsewhere in the yard. This time no dice.
So it’s going to be splice time. I think they are mad because I am using habanero flavored bird food which the squirrels won’t eat.
So I don’t have any bird videos but how about a photo of our Pom, Kodi with his patriotic tie. Doesn’t he look like a dapper dog? He had a spa day. He loves the people at the groomers.
And here is our rescue dog Sadie. She loves to play. In this photo she wants me to quit snapping pics and throw that red ball.
Here is a cardinal caught leaving a feeder by jumping off. It looks like a bird version of Tom Cruise.
And this might be a female cardinal (correct me if I am wrong) landing on the feeder.
Between squirrels chewing up solar panel wire and Sadie chewing up my laptop power cord, I am getting pretty good at splicing wires.
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.
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.
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.
Sadie the rescue dog got her first spa day. I dropped her off for a trim and a bath. She seemed pretty happy when I picked her up.
Sweet Lizzy the cat is the queen of the house.
A bunny by day, from the backyard trailcam
And a bunny at night.
Some sort of bird, a grackle I’m guessing coming in for a landing on one of our feeders.
And a 53 second video on the birds that visited our camera feeder the past week or so. We have had tons of mourning doves, a few grackles, the occasional cardinal, some brown thrashers. Surprisingly, even though I am using the habanero laced feed there a few squirrels who eat hearty.
I went on a hike this week at Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I was rewarded with my first photos ever of an indigo bunting. I had seen them before but they are very flighty and usually behind a lot of brush. I come upon this perched on branch overhanging a trail. It sat there while I got my camera ready and I was able to take of shots.
They are such beautiful birds. We have painted buntings in Oklahoma but I have never seen one. I’d sure like to see and photography one out in the wild.
On the same hike I encountered this curious deer. We just kind of stood and looked at each other for a minute or two and it let me get a few photos of it. It never did run off. I finally walked away from it.
And now for the movies!!
First up is a compilation of birds from the past week captured on my camera feeder. Note that it takes literally about 200 videos a day. Almost all of them of doves, which although beautiful, are not interesting to me. With the use of habanero laced bird food, the squirrels pretty much ignore the feeder except for a very few who chomp down all the food they can, habanero or no.
This second movie is our rescue terrier Sadie romping around the backyard with the zoomies. She is the happiest little dog I have ever seen.
I aimed the trailcam at a hidden corner of the backyard and when I pulled the chip a few days later I found this image of a fox!! It is beautiful and very small. That pot is only about 15 inches tall.
And here is our rescue terrier Sadie leaping at something. When we play fetch with a ball she bounds after the ball leaping in the air as she goes. She’s a fun dog.
My wife and I found this goose family on a hike.
I think this is a yellow crowned night heron. I found it at Lafortune Park here in Tulsa. I’ve seen them along this creek before.
Here is Lizzie the cat. I am still recovering from my knee replacement surgery and I am itching to get back to yoga so I thought I would try an online class at home. Lizzie wanted to join in but wanted my mat. Found out that I am not ready for regular yoga quite yet. Fortunately there are challenging chair yoga classes that I can take.
And our sleepy little tiny Pomeranian, Kodi. He doesn’t know that he’s tiny is a problem.
A short 20 second video of a few of the birds from the bird feeder cam in our backyard.
The squirrels and bunnies are way too used to Kodi, the Pomeranian, who is more interested in barking at other critters than chasing them. Sadie is really interested in chasing them and is a lot faster than Kodi so the resident critters need to be more careful.
Speaking of Kodi here he is. Tail up high so we know he is in a good mood.
An action shot of me with the electric mower.
And Sadie again
And a male northern cardinal out wandering around the backyard for some reason.
Sadie wants to be friends with Lizzie the Cat and Lizzie is okay with that but wants boundaries set. So they will lay cheek to cheek like this but Sadie wants to clean LIzzies ears and when that happens there is a lot of hissing, spitting, yowling and Sadie getting his head whacked on the head by Lizzie’s paws.
An elegant mourning dove at the camera feeder.
A 24 second video of some of the birds at the feeder. You can see more mourning doves, a northern cardinal, a common grackle, and a house finch.
