Skywatching and Other Watching

I launched my drone the other day and went up 50 meters over the back yard. We had a little color for the sunset, not much, but some great clouds.

Sunday morning I went geocaching up in the Tulsa suburb of Catoosa. Came across this ammonia plant. I’m a chemical engineer so I like this kind of thing plus they use lots of natural gas both as a feedstock and for fuel for their processes.

Also in Catoosa, there are lots of pecan orchards up there. People hide geocaches near them and deer like to graze in the grass underneath. That is all coming to a screeching halt soon. They are subdividing this huge orchard. Makes me want to cry.

Went on a walk around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. A big sprawling park that incorporates a high school and their various ball fields, a regular and par three golf course, several little league baseball fields, an American Legion baseball field, this high school baseball field as well as a softball diamond for the women, a public library, some gardens, an indoor and outdoor tennis complex, a public swimming pool, some great picnic areas and wonderful playparks for kids, and a three mile long walking/running path winding around all these facilities. I love it. Great photo ops.

Still at Lafortune, I love construction equipment.

A pond,

And lastly at Lafortune. My favorite moose.

My wife and I took a 2.7 mile hike at Turkey Mountain. Went by the hub, the highest point on Turkey Mountain. It’s about 300 feet above the lowest point on Turkey Mountain but hey it has a great view.

Looking Happy at the Start!

I ran a 5K trail race on Turkey Mountain last Saturday. When I say I ran it, I meant I walked it although I did trot some of the flat slightly downhill segments. I started out in last place but I passed a lot of people during the course of the race. Funny thing is that when I finished the race there were people already there who I had passed. I didn’t care but that happens in these races sometimes. Nobody cares especially since it wasn’t anybody who was in contention to place. I’ll have a separate post about the race later. Maybe.

So that is about it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World

Saturday’s Critters – June 1, 2024 Edition

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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.

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I saw this white pelican as well. There were not as many as there has been in the recent past.

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Nearby I saw this great egret also fishing.

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And a great blue heron.

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A target of opportunity a short while later. This northern mockingbird landing on this wire right in front of me.

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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.

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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.

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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.

I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out.

Beavers Bend State Park Getaway 2024

Last week we went to southeast Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park for a few nights. So we had only two full days and we packed a lot of fun during that time. Two hikes, a kayak ride, several dog walks and lots of sitting by the fire, making smores, grilling burgers, playing cornhole, and sitting in the hot tub.

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The first hike was along the Mountain Fork River below the Broken Bow dam on what I think was an old logging road.

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It was kind of fun paralleling the river.

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The farther we went the smaller the trail became. It ends at about 1.5 miles in so it makes a good out and back route of about three miles.

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The second hike was alongside the Broken Bow Lake formed by the dam. It was also fun.

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Toe Cam!!

And we went for a short kayak paddle on the Mountain Fork River just below the dam. I’m not much a kayaker but I was able to handle the little rapids they had right at first (most would call those rapids a ripple). It was calm water and there were not many people.

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It was a very calm time.

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It made for some great reflections.

You may notice however that I blew out the sky on these photos. Sorry excuse for Skywatch Friday, right! I have the technology to put whatever sky I want on but that seems like cheating. And you know here at Skywatch Friday, we are very inclusive our various skies, even the ones blown out by untalented amateurs.

Gray skies and all we had a great time.

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

Memorial Day 2024 – A Day to Remember

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Boots in memory of those who died serving their country

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Donated Veteran Casket Flags at Broken Arrow’s Floral Haven Cemetery

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Honoring Veterans at my 50th High School Reunion in Albuquerque last summer

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Cemetery at Oklahoma’s Fort Reno

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Graves of Italian Prisoners of War at Fort Reno.

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German POW’s at Fort Reno from World War II who were in Oklahoma.

Saturday’s Critters – Hochatown Deer, Snakes and Sasquatch

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.

I’m linking to Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – Mountain Fork River

The family went on a little mini-vacation to Oklahoma’s beautiful Beavers Bend State Park where we went hiking, kayaking, and other fun activities. Above was from a kayak outing down the Mountain Fork River in the park. It may not fit what your idea of Oklahoma is. It’s not all cows, wheatfields, and windmills.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

No Northern Lights for Me!!

Our family flat out missed the northern lights extravaganza last week. We tried but there was too much light here. I had lots of photos from our backyard to the northern sky but none of them showed anything. Oh well, I think there was just too much ambient light to show anything.

I launched my drone and I got some late sunset photos. The drone’s controller was squawking at me the whole time about not enough light, blah, blah, blah. I thought we were masters of our technology but it seems to have a mind of its own sometimes. So the above is the sky to our west.

And this is to the northwest. Waayyy too much light.

We have had lots of weather here. Here is a storm cloud to the east from our gym parking lot. Generally we don’t have to worry about the storm when it is to the east but we do worry about the people who are in its path.

After we went home I launched the drone. It was kind of windy and the drone controller was telling me to get it back because the wind is about to carry it off. That has only happened to me once and I had to do the mission abort thing. It worked it brought the drone back home back against a strong wind. It is almost panic inducing. Anyway, turns out that the storm under the clouds was just rain, no rotation, no damage. Which is good.

So I was hoping for some northern light photos. I saw lots on social media and I feel kind of left out. Some wags who also didn’t have any luck posted their plain pics with some colors obviously added. I thought that was funny the first couple hundred times I saw it.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.