Tag Archives: Animals

Saturday’s Critters – A Trip to the Tulsa Zoo

One of the great things about being retired is you really have a lot of time to do what you want to do. The other day I wanted to go to the zoo so I just went. The best time to go to the zoo is after school starts in the fall and during the week.

Notice the long line at the entrance. Not!! Zoo staff outnumbered visitors that day.

The first thing I did of course was go find a geocache. It involved the base of that rotating sculpture behind me. It was an earthcache so there were not a physical cache to find, I had to answer questions about the base. It took me a while but I think I got it.

And I passed by one of the pollinator gardens in the zoo. I spotted this Gulf Fritillary butterfly. What a beauty.

And this pipestone swallowtail.

And this hummingbird. I don’t know what kind and AI wasn’t sure. So if you know what kind it is please let me know in the comments. (Goes for any of the information in this post, let me know if I am wrong.)

From there I went to see the elephants. They are all Asiatic elephants. Elephants in zoos is very controversial. I get it.

And a komodo dragon.

And a kangaroo resting in the shade.

A pair of bald eagles.

A fuzzy photo of snow leopards chilling out.

An alligator floating in the water.

And a quartet of grey headed silverbills.

I took some short videos of other critters and then had my iphone stitch them together. The resulting clip is only 37 second long. Check it out if you have the time.

I loved my trip to the Tulsa Zoo. Do you like zoos? I love them.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – Art on the River

In early December I was on Tulsa’s RiverParks trails working on an art themed Geocaching Adventure Lab. I posted about it earlier and saved the critter themed art for this post.

Wolves are always a good subject.

I’m thinking this is a great blue heron. These murals were not part of the cache project but they are also beautiful and animal themed.

I believe this also is a great blue heron.

And this sculpture. I see lots of great blue herons while out on the trail. They are beautiful animals but they make the most awful squawk as a vocalization.

And right near the sculpture is a real life great blue heron.

And an American White Pelican. I see them sporadically. They are kind of touchy about people. I’ve learned I’ve had to sneak up on them.

Geese are everywhere, all year long on the RiverParks, and the whole town for that matter.

So yep, I completed the cache and got the coordinates for a nearby physical cache, and found it, so yep a good time.

If you want more information about geocaching check geocaching.com.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – Best of 2024

I’m on Instagram a lot and post at least once or twice daily about all sorts of things. I violate all the rules for growing your following and all that other stuff. I’m not trying to grow a following I just like posting photos and seeing what other people post. I use an app at the end of the year called “Top 9” and it shows what your top 9 photos were of the year. So this is the results for 2024

You can see my posts are pretty random and so is what people like of what I post. You can also see that I like post photos of animals. One of our cat Lizzie, and our pom, Kodi, some geese and my favorite is the squirrel getting miffed because we hadn’t refilled the bird feeder.

So if you are on instagram and we have connected yet, seek me out at @yogiab and lets follow each other. I’m already following with a bunch of blog friends.

Meantime, check out Saturday’s Critters where I am linking.

Critter Photowalk Around Lafortune Park

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

Saturday’s Critters at Oxley Nature Center

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.

Saturday’s Critters – Oxley Nature Center

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

Breaking out the Trailcam Again

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.

Saturday’s Critters – In the Darkness of Night, and More

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

A Trip to the Tulsa Zoo

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.

Weekend Critters – Our New Cat Lizzie

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.

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

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