Tag Archives: Birds

Backyard Warm Afternoon Critters

Last Monday it was warm, all day. I declared it a shorts day and took a drink, my book, and camera out to the backyard.

Robins were out and about.

This is the same robin only on a fence and turned away. Amazing to me how they look like a completely different bird.

The mourning doves were out and about. They are such calm birds.

I got some golden hour light on this one.

This is a 29 second video summarizing the non-sparrow birds that visit the camera feeder. I’m up to about 220 visits a day. Almosts all of them house sparrows with some juncos thrown in. So what I call interesting birds is not very many. That’s okay.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.

RiverParks Art Themed Adventure Lab Geocaching

Another wildlife art themed Adventure Lab Geocache popped up on the Tulsa RiverParks so I ventured out there on a cold day to figure it out.

It was done by the same guy that did another one a couple months ago. So you key on these wildlife sculptures, and you have to get some information from the accompanying plaque to prove you were there. Also, you get a clue to a real geocache in a container.

The Moose and Me – could be a book title.

So I hobbled up and down the RiverParks trails chasing down these clues.

Geese

A bald eagle. I have seen real ones cruising up and down the river and perched on logs in the river.

I did spot a hawk looking for his lunch.

And I saw white bird, maybe a seagull, I don’t know flying up ther river.

So I got my certificate that I completed the cache. I was also the “First to Find” for it. That is a big deal to us nerdy types. I found the real associated cache and was the FTF for it as well. It felt good to get out of the house after the stretch of nasty weather we had.

I still have my bird camera going. I get over 120 hits and day. I’m going to say literally 95% are house sparrow, 3% are juncos, 1% are dove, and 1% are squirrels. So here is a one minute video of selected birds for the past week.

That is it this week. I hope everyone is doing well.

Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – 25 January 2025

These are some older photos from our trailcam that I had on the back patio back when it snowed.

A dark eyed junco (toward the bottom of the photo)

A squirrel, we have lots of those and they eat a lot.

A male Northern Cardinal

A female Cardinal, (under the chair to the right)

I think these are a pair of house finches.

Kodi, our Pomeranian, loves the snow.

He also likes being snug and warm. It was so much of a fight to get him in the crate we just let him sleep in his bed beside our bed. He stays in it all night and has no problem settling down for the night. Win/win.

Lizzie never quite gets enough nap time.

Here they are together in the living room.

A couple of geese I found at the local mall.

Still loving my bird camera. I am getting about 140 visits a day. So this is a 30 second video showing the different species of birds that come visit. House sparrows, cardinals, black eyed juncos, mourning doves, an occasional house finch. It’s quite the device.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – Backyard Birdcam

Big news for me this week is that I bought an internet connected, solar powered, birdcam and got it installed in the backyard.

It is pretty easy to install and set up. Given the time of year I haven’t had too many customers yet. A couple of squirrels, a Carolina Wren, and female Northern Cardinal. I’ve had more squirrels but I throw snowballs at them if I see them.

They come in short videos about ten seconds long. I used an iphone app to stitch them together and then uploaded to youtube. It is only 12 seconds long.

Lizzy allowed me to take her portrait. She is the sweetest cat we’ve ever had.

And then she winked at me. I don’t know what is up with that.

I filled up all the feeders and this blue jay helped himself to a peanut.

The squirrels helped themselves to another feeder with sunflower seeds in it.

I got Kodi patrolling the perimeter.

And three dove on the ground.

After it snowed Kodi spent some time out in it. He seemed to like it.

I think that is a lonely Junco off to the left.

After a while the brat wanted in.

He posed for his portrait on the steps.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Weekend Critters – Waterfowl

Earlier this week I went on a hike at Oxley Nature Center. I heard all sorts of birds and got brief views of some of them. The only photo I got is of these waterfowl on one of the ponds on a long shot. I think they are mainly ducks and maybe a couple of geese.

I am still not much of a birder. I am hiking along and I can tell that I am really close and yet I hardly ever see the smaller birds and the cardinals are very skittish and stay in the brush so it is hard to get a photo of them. It is fun that with the Merlin App I can at least identify them. Still I only have about five birds on my life list. Oh well.

Back home here is Kodi the Pomeranian resting.

And Lizzy the cat resting trying to escape from the house cleaners.

On the human little critters. Halloween is just too stressful for Kodi so we go dark. Turn out the porch and driveway lights and the lights in the rooms at the front of the house. So something funny happened. This group of kids showed up and rang the doorbell anyway and misread out “No Soliciting” sign.

That’s a wrap, linking with Saturday’s Critters this week.

Saturday’s Critters – Backyard Edition

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.

Saturday’s Critters – On the Trail and at Home

I was hiking on Turkey Mountain and came across this black stick. Only it wasn’t a stick.

It was a friendly rat snake. We looked at each other for a little bit and then keeping his eyes on me he folded back along side his body and headed into the woods. I wish I had a video of it.

I was on a bike ride and while crossing the Arkansas River I spotted this big bird on a tall tree spreading his wings out. I don’t think it was an eagle but maybe a Turkey Vulture. The only birds I have seen do this were Anhinga’s down in New Orleans a few years ago. Sorry for the photo but all I had was my cell phone. Thank you to the dear readers who suggested that this bird is cormorant. I do believe that is right.

We are getting lots of rabbits in our back yard. Thankfully our dog Kodi ignores them.

And a blast of birds from one of our bird feeders.

That’s all for this week. I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out. Lots of talented photographers post there.

Backyard Trail Camera Shadows

I got a trail camera that I use just for the backyard. Mostly I train it on our bird feeders or baths and occasionally on the ground to see what kind of critters are lurking there. It is motion activated and during windy times tree and shrub branches can set it off. It’s a numbers game. I’ll literally get 1000 to 2000 shots and I get maybe two to four that are worth anything. I don’t do video any longer because screening and editing video just takes too long.

This time though I captured a couple of bird shadows.

I love the grackle shadow on the fence. The grackle is above and to the left of the shadow. Grackles are just noisy riotous birds. I wish they would go away. They do make cool shadows though. There is another bird to the left of the feeder and at the same angle. We don’t see his shadow though.

I think I finally figured out this photo. The Shadow shows a long bird. Who knows though because at nearly noon, the sun is pretty high. I’m thinking that is from the bird up above and to the left of the shadow. It looks like a hawk or something. Maybe a small sharp shinned hawk. We have lots of prey for them. I’ve seen the hawks land on the ground and walk into shrubs and come out with baby rabbits. We also have squirrels and lots of birds.

I am linking up with Lisa’s Shadows Shot Sunday

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.

Saturday’s Critters – Tortured Poets and Pomeranians Edition

I was on a hike here in Tulsa and scared up a group of about three deer. We had a little faceoff for a while. All I had was my phone camera so you have to really look hard to see the deer. I love seeing deer on a hike!!

I captured a squirrel and some birds on my backyard trailcam a few weeks ago.

My sister Ellen, her husband Irv, and my son Logan took a little trip to Woolaroc’s Museum and Wildlife Preserve about an hour or so from Tulsa. We saw lots of critters including some bison.

They had some juveniles, “red dogs” but they wouldn’t group up. Come on guys, how about some cooperation. Move together. Look at the camera.

I have no idea what they are looking at.

And a group of deer at a Preserve Lake.

They had an animal barn and with this sad little donkeys. All donkeys look a bit sad don’t they.

And a sad little pony.

And maybe the saddest story. This guy was a longhorn cow that lived at Woolaroc and got moved to southeast Oklahoma for a time. His proud horns drooped because the grass didn’t have the minerals needed to keep them up. He’s immortalized now.

Taylor Swift dropped her new double album “Tortured Poets Department” the other day. Kodi and I listened to most of it on the back patio. Kodi loves catching rays and grooving to new tunes. I think he may be a Swifty.