Here’s our pugnacious pomeranian Kodi after a recent hairdo. He sure looks dapper with the cute cut and the halloween cat themed tie.
And another Gulf Fritillary in the backyard.
And a squirrel on a recent evening. It has been hot lately.
I love catching birds in the act of landing or taking off like this one coming in for a landing.
Or this one getting ready to land on a suet feeder not pictured.
Every once in a while I catch critters of all types staring right at the camera even though there is no flash, click or other indication. Somehow they know!!
That’s all this for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.
I was geocaching at Tulsa’s Crow Creek Meadow when I happened across this butterfly. I do believe it is a Monarch.
Here is a video of it.
I was hiking on Turkey Mountain when I came across this bush with some sort of fritillary on it. My photo is too fuzzy for the online image searches to work properly.
Here is my wife Heather with our dog Kodi on an outing.
He is beginning to settle down after our roofing project. Here is expressing his displeasure with me. He’s a mess but we love him and are working with somebody help reduce his anxiety.
Our big thing this week is our new roof. It was supposed to take two days but it will end up being four because of our steep pitch. I know one thing, it is not the workers. They are amazing. They show up early and work hard until 6 pm or so with only about 30 minutes for lunch and then they clean up everything really well before they leave. I think they are amazing. They are loud though!
Our poor little Kodi did not like it one bit! He’s kind of anxious anyway so he had a hard time of it.
Lizzy the cat dealt with it by taking over Kodi’s crate.
We are almost done now. We just have to get the new guttering on Monday morning.
On another front we have had some visitors in our backyard. I was told by a professional naturalist that this is a Red Spotted Purple Butterfly. I think it is beautiful.
Google images told me that this is a Gulf Fritillary. It is also beautiful.
Found this little guy on Turkey Mountain. I think it is a rough green snake. I see more of these kind of snakes on the mountain than any other. Most of them are just a few inches long, this is the biggest one that I have ever seen. Maybe a foot long at the most. I love the graceful coils. It seemed kind of curious to me with the raised head. I tried to tell him to get off the trail or it was going to get stepped on.
Our purple coneflowers in our front flower bed. Purple coneflowers are the state wildflower of Oklahoma. These have a bumblebee and a moth on them.
A curious deer checking me out while I was geocaching in a pecan orchard near Tulsa. The orchard is huge and has lots of deer. A couple years ago I saw a huge herd of them running through it. This time there were lots of signs in the orchard. They are subdividing it for houses so kiss those big beautiful trees goodbye.
And Kodi the Pomeranian. He loves swimming in his little pool on hot days.
We have lots of geese in Oklahoma, especially golf course geese like these.
And how about Mother Goose with her perky little hat.
And big ole rabbits and Alice in Wonderland. (At a local library)
I went on a bike ride one day and I saw this Eagle fishing out in the middle of the Arkansas River here in Tulsa.
I saw this white pelican as well. There were not as many as there has been in the recent past.
Nearby I saw this great egret also fishing.
And a great blue heron.
A target of opportunity a short while later. This northern mockingbird landing on this wire right in front of me.
At Lafortune Park on a different day I came across this blue jay who sat still while I took his photo.
At home this week I got out of my car and saw this black swallowtail butterfly enjoying my wife’s purple coneflowers. People on instagram said “great job.” I just happened to be there, praise the butterfly.
Here’s a video of the butterfly.
Here is out little Pomeranian, Kodi. He is a bit much to handle these days. He won’t let me pick him up or even clip a leash on him. He’s a little dog with big feelings. And a bit wild eyed especially with this filter I put on his photo.
Now the squirrels have attitude. They don’t move when you tell them to do so. It’s like they say, you move, after you refill the feeder.
Most of our robins are down on the ground. This guy got up on the rooftop and sang for a while. I guess he is looking for love.
These grackles are just taking over!! At least they fly off when you tell them to.
My wife and I went on a hike the other day and came across this doe and her yearling. The young’in was jumpy, mom seed chill. They paralleled us on the trail for quite a ways.
This past week the family spent some time at Hochatown, Oklahoma near Beavers Bend State Park for a little R&R. Since I am retired we can take a weekend getaway during the middle of the week and avoid the crowds! We are not big on crowds.
We rented a very nice cabin with all sorts of amenities. The best thing was all the deer that came by to visit early in the morning.
Deer are really graceful but very wary. As well they should be.
So we sat still on the porch as they came by.
We went hiking a few days in the park. We found this little armadillo on our first hike. They really are intriguing creatures.
But then we come across this snake that Heather almost stepped on. She thought it was a copperhead which is of course venomous. I kept telling her to get close enough to see the shape of the eyes to make sure. She refused. INaturalist confirmed it was a copperhead. It was laying right on the edge of the trail and refused to move so we just edged around him best we could. It was one of the biggest copperheads I have ever seen.
Later on during a walk around our cabin neighborhood we come across Bigfoot. Neither Heather or Kodi were afraid of him one bit.
Kodi loved our getaway. We didn’t take him on any hikes but we did lots of walks around the cabin and took him to a dog friendly brewery. He had a great time. As did we.
We went kayaking while down there, here is an action shot of Logan. We didn’t see any critters on the water except for birds.
Speaking of birds, have you tried the Merlin app. A free app and you download a bird song library and then you turn it on and it ID’s the birds by their songs. It’s amazing. The only thing is that it doesn’t locate the little buggers for you. So now I’m just taking screen shots of what it is hearing. It is truly amazing.
A momma goose sitting on a nest on a sandbar in a creek flowing the through the grounds of Philbrook Museum of Art. Her mate was busy chasing people away, including us.
A little chubby squirrel snacking on the grounds of Philbrook.
Another squirrel perturbed by us sitting out on our patio.
Kodi the Pomeranian loves laying out in the sun.
A grackle getting a drink.
Kodi loves finding sticks. He exchanges them for a treat. Is that a spoiled brat looking face or what!
Lizzy the Cat gets kind of talkative every now and then. Critters are a hoot.
Another Lego critter from our trip to the Tulsa Botanic Garden. This one is a dodo bird. Which is extinct.
Heather, my wife, was gone for an evening and our little pomeranian Kodi got so lonely he decided he would sit with me. That hardly ever happens. He loves to play with me but gets grumpy if I try and do anything else like pick him up.
We had a really nice, warm, sunny day. Kodi went outside and just basked in the sunshine. He’s generally here, there, and everywhere but he was happy in the moment in the sun.
A walk in the neighborhood park gave us this great blue heron fishing in the creek.
On my walk around Lafortune Park found this guy and his girlfriend.
Also came across Mother Goose. Behind her you can see Alice and Peter Rabbit.
Here is a closeup of them.
I also found these feeding geese in a backwater of the Arkansas River on a recent bike ride.
I put my trailcam in the backyard again. I activated video. Stills are fine and are easier to edit but I like seeing the critters move. Here is a bird in the middle of the night.
That’s all my recent critter sitings. I’m linking withSaturday’s Critters. Go check it out.
My wife and I went to Philbrook Museum on Valentine’s Day and found this valentine’s squirrel out and about.
I took my “good” camera to Ray Harral Nature Center. I saw all sorts of birds and squirrels but the brush was so thick I couldn’t get a decent photo of anything, but I got this body shot of a squirrel with no head.
And they had a nice bug hotel. Does that count?
Kodi the Pomeranian and I are getting along a little bit better.
He had the zoomies the other day in the back yard and was quite playful.
