Here is out Pomeranian, Kodi with his dog toy. He is a little dog with big feelings and when he gets them hurt this is how he consoles himself.
This Kodi, with our rescue terrier, Sadie. They don’t like it when my wife is gone. Sometimes Kodi howls to express his sadness.
And this is our backyard feeder with a female cardinal and a dove sharing the space. I am getting about 500 to 600 visits a day from various birds. Literally 95% or so doves or sparrows. Hardly any squirrels any longer since I used chili or habanero pepper laced bird feed and safflower seeds intermixed with other feeds.
Back in late April I went on a hike at Oxley Nature Center here in Tulsa. I have a new mirrorless camera that I was trying out. It is very light and has a hand strap so you can carry it easily and take photos quicker. So off I went.
I think this is a red-headed woodpecker. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Same bird, a few feet away. It’d be nice if the birds would have some manners and come and perch within a few feet instead of back behind stuff.
I think this is an eastern bluebird.
I don’t know what this is. Google lens was confused as well.
A couple of ducks paddling around Coal Creek.
Three deer checking me out from the tall grass.
An indigo bunting maybe. I’ll have to be getting a zoom lens for my new camera I think.
And a poem from Sasha Martin who was Oxley’s Artist in Residence a few years ago. Her poems are scattered throughout Oxley. I them.
I went on a bike ride the other day along the Tulsa’s Riverparks trails along the Arkansas River. The first time in a while. The sun was shining and the wind wasn’t too bad and I took my superzoom camera with me. I stopped at the Zink Dam to rest a bit and take a few photos. Things were busy there.
In a pool just downstream of the dam, the great blue herons were fishing.
A pod of American Black Tipped Swans had the area downstream of the herons to themselves.
Segregation, A station of great blue herons in the pool, pelicans downstream. I love collective nouns.
A pelican on a rock with a goose.
Naptime!!
A great blue heron standing siege.
And a fellow human fishing. I think see this guy a lot.
And in other matters. Here is 41 second video of birds I liked on the birdcam in the backyard this week.
A male northern cardinal captured on the camera feeder in the backyard. I used a hipstamatic filter on the image.
Big Foot on the loose on Turkey Mountain.
Another male Northern Cardinal in teh backyard
I love the House Finches when they come to call.
I leave a few peanuts on the feeder. The blue jays and cardinals appreciate it and sometimes squirrels. I use jalapeno flavored birdseed and saffron seeds in the feeder. Birds love them but squirrels don’t like it.
These images are from late March and early April. I have fallen way behind on my posting. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.
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.
https://flic.kr/p/2s9BXr5
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.
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.
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.
I got a new camera bird feeder and fired it up. Seems to be working great so far. The squirrels have not chewed through any wires mainly because there are no external wires to chew through.
Male Cardinal
Female Cardinal
House finch
Another house finch
I’m still using hot sauce laced bird food and the squirrels hate it but still they hop on just to check it out. I put a half handful of peanuts in the cup this one is checking out. The cardinals love the peanuts and the squirrels do as well.
A few critters I have taken photos of on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area
A turtle on a stick at a pond.
A beetle on a rock
A robin on the ground. Robins are the only birds polite enough to show themselves and pose until I can get them in focus and snap a photo. The other little buggers flit here and there in the brush, never stay in place very long. They are aggravating.
A butterfly. Google lens tells me it is a “Question Mark Butterfly.” I have never heard of such a thing.
Google Lens tells me this is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.
This turtle was on the edge of a trail trying to climb that rock in front of it. I decided to help the little bugger out and lift it up and over the rock. After I did that it acted all kind of perturbed like it didn’t need my help. Deal with it is what I told him.
I loved my old bird feeder but it finally gave up on my a week or so ago. It’s weakness was that it had a separate solar collector from the feeder. The squirrels like to chew through the power cable between the two and birds liked to perch on it. I spliced the wires several times and took measures to protect it but it wasn’t enough. So I got a new model with an integrated solar collector on the roof of it. No exposed wire.
A female cardinal. The camera is a big hit. I get over 300 birds a day visiting it. I limit the food because I cannot feed them all.
A male cardinal.
A crow come to call and gave the camera the evil eye.
Lots and lots of mourning doves. They tend to eat a lot.
I rigged up my trail cam to keep an eye on the bird cam.
Lots of birds look right at the camera.
And an old guy with a funny hat mowing the weeds in the back yard.
And a 24 second short video compilation of some of the bird feeder videos. At the end there is a few second segment of a black swan chasing geese off the neighborhood pond. Special note, it is not 3026!
