I posted earlier this week about a photowalk I took around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. I saved my animal pics I captured on the walk for Saturday’s Crittes.
One Goose by Land
Two Geese by uh well, pond.
A squirrel sniffing the dirt
A Yellow Crowned Night Heron (I think, feel free to correct if I am wrong).
And a lonely duck.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters
Last week I went to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center. I went in search of otters. The staff reports that they are active on Coal Creek at 8 am in the morning. Well I got out there at 8:30 and I didn’t see them, I don’t think. Near the old beaver lodge which they reportedly have taken over I could see that something was moving under the water chasing fish. I didn’t know if they were otters doing the chasing or if it were bigger fish chasing the smaller fish. So another otter failure but for some reason I didn’t mind.
So I started hiking around looking at what I could see.
Oxley has nice wooded areas, lakes, ponds, streams, and swampy areas. All sorts of terrain and it is pretty flat and the trails are all in good shape so it is easy to move around the preserve.
I saw a great blue heron flying around.
And a closeup, sorry for the fuzziness.
I came upon a limpkin. A tropical wetland bird that has a large range in South America and in the USA in Florida. It is an apple snail eater but they can eat other snails. As apple snails have migrated into south Louisiana the Limpkins followed them. Nobody knows why they are in Oklahoma now. Supposedly Oklahoma has seven of them now, three of them at Oxley. They have been here a few years so I guess they like it. You can read the Cornell Labs writeup here.
And way off in a swampy area I saw these waterfowl feeding.
I saw several groups of deer in the preserve.
And a couple of ducks of some sort.
And more deer. I think I saw four small groups of them.
They were staying in the woods. They were being careful but not skittish like deer in hunting areas get.
They are beautiful animals.
I didn’t find the otters but you know the fun is in the looking for, right?
I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.
In early August I ventured up to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center.
They have lots of deer up there. Sometimes I find them and sometimes I don’t. This time I found three groups.
They are wary but not skittish like deer who have been hunted.
If you stand still long enough, they ignore you.
I found this mama with a fawn.
Lots of birds out that day also. They were way off so the photos are a little fuzzy.
And a dragonfly!!
I am linking with Saturday’s Critters
A dashing squirrel
A cottontail cooling off.
A red bellied woodpecker getting a snack
Little cottontail “Bugsy” helping out with the weeding.
A spying squirrel
A Rocking Robin
Mr. Grackle checking it out
A peaceful dove
Another squirrel
I’m helping out a biology professor doing research on native pollinators
Tagging the take
Bugsy getting a drink!
Mr. Kodi the Pomeranian getting possessive about his stick.
Check out some more of God’s creatures at Saturday’s Critters.
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.
Peace for Ukraine!
I am linking with Saturday’s Critters by Eileen
The other day on a cold, sunny, brisk day we went to the Tulsa Zoo for an outing.
We saw lots of critters including this Caiman.
And a couple of Mexican Beaded Lizards.
Lots of different kinds of rattlesnakes. We are no strangers to rattlesnakes in Oklahoma. There are lots more outside the zoos than inside.
A Komodo Dragon
This was son Logan’s favorite, A Fennec Fox, taking a nap.
And some goats.
A hungry looking Tiger.
And a beautiful regal Lion.
It was a great way to get out of the house safely. They are regulating the number of visitors at any one time and have mask mandates for the inside exhibits. All the other visitors were complying with the masks and spacing requests. You can’t just walk up to get in you have to get a reservation. Check out TulsaZoo.org for more information.
I’m linking with Saturday Critters come check it out.
We have a new kitty in the family. Her name is Lizzie.
She is a rescue cat that we got from our vet.
She is so curious about everything that is going on in the house.
The story was that she was thrown out of a car window in a Hobby Lobby parking lot here in Tulsa. That makes me really mad and really sad at the same time. How could somebody do that to such a small defenseless animal?
So she is our s now, or maybe we are hers, or maybe both I don’t know. She has really made herself at home.
Our big old diabetic cat LJ has even adjusted to her. Lizzie likes to play with LJ’s tail and LJ doesn’t seem to mind at all.
There is nothing like having a new little critter in the house.
Sunday afternoon the family traveled from Tulsa down to the country outside of Bixby to Carmichael’s Pumpkin Patch to pick out the family pumpkins for Fall.
We saw some greedy goats.
And some cute little goats. At what point do they turn into shameless beggars?
We saw a lonely, humiliated chicken sharing its space with a rabbit and a tiny little pumpkin.
And a pot bellied pig looking a little frazzled trying to take care of her youngins. (Youngin is a word in Oklahoma just in case you are wondering. Other words have disappeared. Nobody knows what a Democrat is here any more. Except for some old timers who don’t really want to talk about it too much.
And we saw brahma cow. aaaa 
And a few llamas.
And some youngins making a little selfie nest in the pumpkins. Aren’t they cute. I wasn’t the only one taking pics of them making a selfie. Look at the lady across the way.
Oh yeah, we did find a couple of pumpkins!!!
This is a resident bear at Yellowstone Bear World in Rexburg, Idaho. I call the post “Essence of Bear” because I blended a drawing rendition of the original photograph with the photograph (at about a 20% drawing/80% original ratio) to bring out some of the features of the animal because the original photograph was like a silhouette of the bear with his muzzle.
This is Macho, a horse stabled near where my son goes to school. Don’t worry about his ribs showing, I have it on good authority that he has bad knees and they limit his eating in order to keep his weight down and make it easier on him. So he is well cared for. Notice all the bright green grass? We have had some great soft rains and good sunshiny days lately. Things are really green around here.
I took the pic on late in the afternoon Thursday and I liked how he had a little bit of afternoon color on his flanks.
