Monthly Archives: June 2024

City Park Shadows on a Hot Day

Out in a city park on a hot day. The shadows are nice and very welcome. You can tell it was after a windstorm a couple days before with all the debris on the ground.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Saturday’s Critters – Arkansas River Critters

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.

Skywatch Friday – Father’s Day at the Tulsa Botanic Garden

For Father’s Day early this month, Heather and Logan treated me to an outing at the Tulsa Botanic Garden.

I see where taking photos at an angle is artistic, so here we are.

I loaded up my macro lens and off we went. I love taking photos of the blooms as wells as the whole plant. I know very little about flowers but I love the colors.

I loved the colorful yarrow

And all the other flowers

Daylillies were putting on a show.

I couldn’t get enough of them.

Zinnias are always a favorite.

The garden arranged for several sports cars at a local museum to be on display as well. I love the Jaguar E type. Who doesn’t love a twelve cylinder engine.

Vintage Corvette’s are the best.

And an MG-TC. A beautiful car.

I posted this photo on my of my blog entries last week. I didn’t know what the deal was. I called the Garden’s office on Wednesday and they told me that these bison are moved down to the gardens as part of their Christmas light show. So I will have to check it out later this year. Mystery solved.

So I had a great Father’s Day.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World

Shadow Shot Sunday – Flat Rock Shadow

I was on a hike the other day and saw this perfect little shadow on a flat rock.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Saturday’s Critters – Mainly Little Ones Today!

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.

I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – Geocaching, Baseball, and a Mystery

Nowdays I do my geocaching on Sunday mornings. Nobody else is up for hours so I am not missed when I leave. I was chasing one at a children’s playground. I love the tree I found on the way.

The playground was a no go. I think I know where it is but I am not going to look for it when there is even one kid anywhere close to the playground. Time was, when my son was little I would turn him loose in the park and look for the cache. He’s 26 y/o, hates geocaching, loves sleeping in, and doesn’t like playgrounds any longer.

I went to the County Fairgrounds and found a cache associated with this train engine. It was my third try.

I found another one at a church where they had multiple “Little Free Libraries.” They were not just about book but things like petfood, snacks, toys, etc. I thought the concept was pretty cool. Pro hint, the cache was close to these but not in any of them.

And I found a cache associated with this Little Free Library. I have never seen a Midcentury Modern Little Library before. Have you. It was in a section of Tulsa dominated by MCM houses.

And hey, we had Flag Day recently so I got up early and flew my flag. There was only one other person in the ‘hood who flew his flag and it was upside down, on purpose and he flies it every day. I am not sure what that honors.

And for Father’s Day Heather and Logan took me to a baseball game. I am down with that any time.

Nothing better than live baseball. Nothing worse than televised baseball. Do you see a baseball and Civil Rights legend out in left field?

I’ll make it easier on you! That’s Jackie Robinson. One of the benefits of the Tulsa AA Minor League team being associated with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And hey, I promised you a mystery!! Here it is. A herd of blue and grey plywood bison out grazing in the Osage Hills north of Tulsa. More on this to come.

That’s Skywatch Friday for this week!!

Tulsa’s Backyard Blaze Trail Race – 2024 Edition

As reported earlier I walked/trotted a 5K race on June 1 here in Tulsa: The Backyard Trail Race at the Herman and Kate Kaiser YMCA on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. That Y calls themselves, Tulsa’s Backyard, and if you have been there you can see why. It is a beautiful Y situated on the edge of an Urban Wilderness. Tulsa RiverParks, who administers the Turkey Mountain Wilderness Area, call themselves “Tulsa’s Front Yard.” So now you know that Tulsa has both a front and a back yard. And sorry, I haven’t even started the post yet. I am already way off topic.

The Y has a lot going on. A huge deluxe swimming pool, sports areas, splash pads, a gym, a ropes course, kayaking, fishing, hiking. They got it all going on.

And a really nice lodge with offices, reception, and checking in a large multipurpose room, verandas. It’s great.

And a really nice scenic pond.

There was a light cool fog in the area that morning.

And then we had the start for everybody. I’m not sure how many raced. Not that many but those that did had a good time. I stood right by the starting line and took this video. When I was done I stepped to the left and crossed the start line myself.

By that time, everybody was way ahead of me.

Didn’t bother me in the least. Do I look bothered?

So I got to hike by myself during the cool morning. I trotted the sections that were smooth, flat and slightly downhill.

Don’t you just love a twisty turny trail in the woods? I do.

We went through a small meadow.

And alongside some pipeline construction. The original route went on the right of way but had to be rerouted during construction. Trail race organizers have to be flexible that way. No whiny babies. It turns out that my most recent employer was letting my previous employer use their right of way for the their own pipeline after they lost their right of way due to some highway construction. Tell you what, when I was still working we talked cooperation but we didn’t do it. You would just string it out until they figured out something else in pure desperation. In the Oklahoma natural gas industry you had to have sharp elbows. It was rough!! Now I guess everybody is holding hands and singing Kumbaya. I don’t quite believe that and I don’t think you should either. And here I am digressing again.

Anyways, I digress, We started at the north end of the photo above and headed south. You can see the big mix master we went through in the middle before we headed back. I passed a few people so I didn’t finish last. The main thing is that I finished, vertically. I didn’t have to crawl past the finish line.

I got myself a bottle of water and a pancake. I could have had more but all I wanted was one.

And they had some decent swag: A nice shirt and a wooden branded in medal. I am not a fan of medals but I like this one. I’m using it for a bookmark. People are all wound up about race medals now days. Hey give me a nice tee shirt and I am happy.

I’ll be back next year if the run this race again. It is a great, well run, race with a wonderful vibe.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World.

Backyard Trail Camera Shadows

I got a trail camera that I use just for the backyard. Mostly I train it on our bird feeders or baths and occasionally on the ground to see what kind of critters are lurking there. It is motion activated and during windy times tree and shrub branches can set it off. It’s a numbers game. I’ll literally get 1000 to 2000 shots and I get maybe two to four that are worth anything. I don’t do video any longer because screening and editing video just takes too long.

This time though I captured a couple of bird shadows.

I love the grackle shadow on the fence. The grackle is above and to the left of the shadow. Grackles are just noisy riotous birds. I wish they would go away. They do make cool shadows though. There is another bird to the left of the feeder and at the same angle. We don’t see his shadow though.

I think I finally figured out this photo. The Shadow shows a long bird. Who knows though because at nearly noon, the sun is pretty high. I’m thinking that is from the bird up above and to the left of the shadow. It looks like a hawk or something. Maybe a small sharp shinned hawk. We have lots of prey for them. I’ve seen the hawks land on the ground and walk into shrubs and come out with baby rabbits. We also have squirrels and lots of birds.

I am linking up with Lisa’s Shadows Shot Sunday

Hiking at Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center

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.

I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – Backyard Dronephotography

We’ve been having scattered cloudy days in Tulsa. Those potentially turn into decent sunset shots. So if I can try and be home then and launch my elderly mini drone up to about 150 feet or from my backyard and see what I can see.