I put my trailcam out last night for the first time in a long time. I checked it this morning and we had a mystery cat snooping around at 1:30 in the morning.
I haven’t been able to go hiking in the woods for a while because of all the rain we’ve had so I have been walking around Lafortune Park here in Tulsa a lot. I followed this squirrel down the trail for a 25 yards or so and he finally climbed up this pole and was looking at me chattering and flagging his tail. It was like he was saying “What!!”
We lost our beloved Abby (right) to lymphoma on Wednesday. She was a bright, energetic, highly engaged dog almost up to the end. She was the straw that stirred the drink, so to speak, among the pets in our house. On the left is her cat buddy Lizzy.
Abby always liked to update her barkbook status first thing in the morning despite our efforts to shush her. We had a cranky neighbor who more than once came over to our front door and pointed at her and growled at me about the matter. Fortunately, he moved somewhere else. I miss Abby but I don’t miss our miserable neighbor.
Abby’s loss was proceeded by the death of our dachsund mix, Ginger last September. Ginger was the boss dog of the house and brooked no nonsense from either the dogs nor the cats and would give me an earful if I was late with her meals.
Abby loved barking at my drone, at the neighbor’s dogs, at dogs, cows, and horses on television. She was very verbal.
These are LJ and Lizzy, brother and sister. They play with each other a lot.
Our remaining dog is Rascal, a Pomeranian. He’s kind of our baby but he is old now and has lung, heart, and hip problems. We don’t know how long he is going to be around.
He and Abby loved to hang out together and loved to go on walks with each other to go bark and their friends in the neighborhood. Rascal I think wonders what happened to his buddy Abby.
But he still loves walking even though we have to pick him up and carry him home after he sees his friends.
You know our pets just don’t live long enough but we have them and love them anyway.
I’ve been putting the trailcam out at night. Most nights I don’t get anything but I got this cat one time. I think it is somebody’s pet. It doesn’t have that lean hungry look of a feral cat.
I’ve caught him a few times stalking birds near our feeders during the day.
And we had a bunny one evening. I hope they don’t have a nest in the yard as it is quite sad when our dogs find the nest.
I captured this house finch the other day. I am thinking the bird right next to it is a sparrow.
And a dove scavenging seeds on the ground. They are not as skittish as other birds. They are not too smart with their nesting sites.
And our Lizzy chilling out with us in the living room.
We are having it all this past week. We had 80 degree temps, then snow with well below freezing temperatures. Today we are having dry winds that are going to create a fire hazard. Oklahoma weather in the spring is always interesting.
We’ve kept our feeders full. The squirrels dominate the feeders so I’ve been checking the action underneath. Lots of birds play well with others, dove, juncos, sparrows, cardinals they all see to get along. Bluejays and Grackles are more aggressive.
Sorry about all the orange flagging. The telephone company had all the lines relocated.
Them grackles are like a group of noisy teenagers.
Here at the end of the ten second video a bunch of them fly up to the tree.
We got a finch feeder and guess what, finches showed up.
A little bird bath action
And Rascal, our Pomerania shows up to see what all the fuss is about.
Rascal’s thick warm coat comes in handy when it is snowing. Sorry about the bad photo.
We turned our fireplace on for a little bit. LJ loves the fire.
That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of great posts there.
And one of our big fat squirrels checking the bath action out.
And LJ and LIzzie sharing a spot of sun in the house.
And to Oxley Nature Center. I think these are Pelicans. They were way up high and I had my long lens as long as it would get.
And some geese cruising down Coal Creek. I was looking for otters. The staff tells me I need to get there at 6 am to have a chance. I don’t see that happening.
About it critterwise for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’sSaturday Critters. Lots of great posts there. Check it out.
Rascal, our Pomeranian (the black blob to the left” sufferred a hip and knee injury some months ago and has been getting therapy including acupuncture and it is really paying off. We have been walking him and Abby for a mile every day and they love it and pout when we can’t take them out. We have a one-mile route through our greenbelt that takes them by the backyards of several houses with dogs. The dogs give each a good barking.
Our lady of leisure, Lizzy, has taken over this tray on our coffee table. She has a number of favorite napping spots in the house.
Here’s an artsy shot of LJ in the shadows getting some sun. Sun is the next best thing to the fireplace for him.
All our multitude of birds have disappeared. I put out the trail cam one day and all I got was this female cardinal, all day long.
I love to capture the blurs of birds as they fly off, so this was a week and a half ago.
It got cold here on Tuesday or so. Our Lizzy has discovered the fireplace. She toasts both sides evenly. She hasn’t quite figured out why sometimes it’s not warm there. She will lay in front of it when it is not on with a quizzical look on her face.
She also loves reclining on things like a Roman Empress. The foot of the bed, a stack of freshly laundered towels, she loves leaning on stuff.
And she hates being wakened up from a nap. Here she looks like an unmade bed. Talk about grumpy.
All LJ, Lizzie’s brother, cares about is treats. Greenies or deli turkey slices are his favorite. Here is on the back of the sofa standing watch at the refrigerator.
And here is Abby, our happy girl. She loves eating and giving other dogs a good barking.
And Rascal, our rescue Pomeranian (all our animals are rescues). He’s such a diva. He has a hip injury and gets acupuncture and physical therapy. The ladies that run the place love him and he knows it.
Our in the back yard we are continuing to feed flocks of birds. I love the cardinals especially.
Here is a male making a sideways jump. Male cardinals are divas also.
On the ground below the feeder we have a whole other group of birds including mourning doves and bluejays and tons of sparrows.
Squirrels eat more food than all the birds combined.
Some of them are getting very plump.
Lots of snow, ice and cold weather in the USA right now. I hope everybody is staying warm and safe. There is a burger place here in Tulsa that serves coffee in a cup and saucer. Something about that is warming in itself.
I have a new gadget to play with! A trail cam (GardePro A3) that I got this week and started “messing with.” Trying to figure out how it works.
So I have a couple tripods that I have been using, a short one, and a tall one to mount the thing on. All I have is a typical suburban lot, no trails nor woods. Just my back yard.
So what I have been capturing are squirrels, cardinals, blue jays, and lots of sparrows at our backyard feeders.
I’m really loving the cardinals.
Lots of seed spills on the ground so I have spent some time capturing that.
So far it has been lots of fun. I have it on motion sensing and it takes one still photo and ten seconds of video.
So I end up with lots and lots of images and video and I’m finding that it takes some time to wade through it to get unique captures.
This juvenile Coopers Hawk showed up and checked things out. I captured its image with a conventional camera through my living room window.. I’m sure they like the feeders also. We see bird and squirrel parts every once in a while. I think there is a nest close by. I have seen other hawks in our yard the last month or so.
The first evening I had the trail cam I set it on the back patio to see if any big critters showed up, and just me!!
So, you veteran trail camera people, do you have any good tips for me?
I love the time between Christmas and New Years Day. The days leading up to Christmas are all in a rush especially if somebody in the family gets ill. Afterwards you can relax a little bit hopefully. I took advantage of one bright, sunny, day and went on a bike ride.
One of my favorite trails is alongside a turnpike on one side and fields and farms on the other. I ran into a mutt and jeff combination of horses.
You got the little one, all cute and fuzzy.
And the older one, both looking for something better to eat than the dry grass on offer.
I got to the end and rested a bit in the shadow of a billboard.
When I came home, this guy was waiting for me. iNaturalist tells me that this is a Coopers Hawk. He was using our mailbox as an observation perch. We have lots of squirrels and bunnies in the neighborhood and he was looking to eat one of those cute little critters.
Hey you know, cute little critters don’t live forever and hawks have to eat to right?
Are you on instagram? If so, are we following each other? My handle is @yogiab. These are my top nine posts for the year. I love instagram.
Do you live close to Tulsa? Come join in the First Day Hike and Scavenger Hunt on Turkey Mountain. It was supposed to be New Year’s Day but we postponed it until Saturday, January 8th from 8 am to 5 pm. Check out this facebook post for the details. We are hiding the above repurposed jewel boxes for people to find. They are going to have various Turkey Mountain stickers and key rings to find. There are also going to be a bunch of tee shirts hidden on the trails for people to find.
Do you like the cd cases. I repurposed them and designed and printed new covers and the liner notes are the Leave No Trace seven principles. I hope that I am not spoiling the surprise. The RiverParks Authority posted the photo on their website so I figured I can post my own photo on my site.
That’s about it for now. I wish everybody a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2022. Take Care!
I am linking with the following memes. They are all fun so check them out!!
Our cat Lizzie has always liked Christmas. In particular the trees. She used to climb them but she is too fat do that now. Still when we put them up she shows up and gives them a good sniffing.
She has to check out fake evergreen closely.
My wife bought new cushions for the chairs in the front room where the big tree is. Lizzie loves them. She would rather lean on something than lay on it.
Time for a nap. I’m wondering if she is dreaming of sugar plums.
