Tag Archives: Deer

Saturday’s Critters at Home and in the Woods

Here is Lizzie, the queen of the household, in one of her cat poses. She often crosses her paws when in cat pose and I had never seen one paw pointed up.

Sadie, the rescue terrier and Lizzie.

Kodi and Sadie at the window

I was cleaning out the bird camera the other day and I noticed Kodi the Pom and Sadie wanting in. The bird camera was live so I got these two live on the bird cam. Kodi is good about going outside and “dogging” by himself. Sadie doesn’t dogging by herself, she’ll dog with a human or with another dog. They had had enough dogging and wanted in.

I went on a hike on Turkey Mountain the other day and came across this guy. A Giant Redheaded Centipede according to google images. Kind of a fearsome looking critter and is supposedly venomous. We let him go on its way. It was in its home and we were just visiting.

I found this dragonfly on Turkey Mountain as well. When I was a kid in Utah I was scared to death of these things and I can’t remember why now.

White Tailed Deer on Turkey Mountain

I also found this white tailed deer on Turkey Mountain as well in a small meadow. Very curious. You can see the hindquarters of another deer to the right.

And this squirrel I found while hiking at Ray Harrall Nature Center.

And a one minute twenty second video of the various critters on the bird feeder recently.

After I made the youtube video above, an eastern bluebird paid a visit. Only ten seconds. Playing flickr videos is a little awkward you have to go way below the video to see the play button.

And that is it for this week. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

Critters found on Turkey Mountain and More

I went on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness the other day. I found this deer back in the brush. By the time I turned manual focus on, this deer and their two companions were gone.

Got a mile or so further and came up on some birds. I think they were tufted titmice. They were also hard to focus on but I got a few shots. They are extremely grainy because the birds are extremely small and even with my 300 mm lens I had to crop them a lot.

Merlin told me that it heard a northern flicker and a cardinal in the area as well. I spotted a northern cardinal and its mate but they were moving around too much for me.

And later at the far northern end of Turkey Mountain at Pepsi Lake I found these mallard ducks. It looks like two males were romancing a female. Today is Valentines day so I wonder what they got her.

I also saw a great blue heron.

At home a male cardinal visited the efeeder.

A dark eyed junco. I love these guys.

A house finch. Such loud voices from very small birds.

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A squirrel caught on the trailcam.

Inside the house, Lizzy the cat was snoozing.

Kodi the Pomeranian was being his cute self.

Sadie was cuddling up in a throw.

That’s all folks. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – White Tailed Deer

A couple of legacy photographs of deer at Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center.

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A lone deer on one of the water pipeline rights of way that run through the park. Oxley is my go to place for finding deer.

Another legacy photo that I had on the default setting of private that indicates that I have never published this photo before. A group of three deer including one looking at me right in the eye.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – White Tailed Deer of Oxley Nature Center

During a hike at Oxley Nature Center last Sunday I saw a few deer out and about. They were not in the open they were in brush and trees. So I got to practice simultaneously manual focusing, and aperture. Not that good at it but I got a few decent photos.

I love seeing deer out in the wild.

It is always so unexpected.

Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – Oxley Nature Center

Last Sunday morning I grabbed my camera, bug spray, and sunblock and headed to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center to see what I could see.

Right at the visitor center entrance I found this bush quivering with all sorts of butterflies. Can’t really see all of them in the photo so check out the short video below.

It was a good start to my outing.

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I went a little ways into the trails and found this guy, a red spotted purple butterfly from what google lens tells me.

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And later on I found a great blue heron looking for their lunch. A bonus turtle is in the background.

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And a female cardinal with her lunch in her beak already.

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Another view of the same bird.

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And a very fuzzy view of an indigo bunting. Those little guys are active flitting here and then there. I am still learning how to spot the little ones and take photos of them. Sometimes I just have to be happy with spotting a glimpse of them.

Matrix of Merlin ID's

So I heard a lot more birds than I got photos of them. It is nice hearing them and the Merlin app is wonderful deciphering what kind of birds there are.

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Sometimes I see a lot of deer at Oxley. The Oxley staff says they are overpopulated with deer. There is lots of food for them now, not so much in the winter. Below is a short video of the fawn.

I looked all over for their mom and didn’t see it. They are generally protective of their babies.

So I wibble wobbled around the preserve for a little less than three miles and enjoyed myself thoroughly. And to part, a poem from the former Artist in Residence at Oxley, Sasha. I thought it was pretty cool. And short, I love short poems.

Thank you for visiting. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.

Saturday’s Critters – Last Weekend of July

I went hiking with a friend on Friday, we came upon this family of deer. My friend is kind of a speed hiker so I didn’t even take time to move myself so the one deer occluded by the tree was free. Oh well.

Various native pollinators have really been at work on my wife’s pink hibiscus shrub in the back yard.

And squirrels, boy do have squirrels. Most of them ignore the habanero flavored bird food but interestingly there are a few that love it.

Lizzie the cat loves to nap but when I get close to get a shot of her napping she always wakes up.

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Long lines at the camera feeder. It is very popular.

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Scattered birds

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A bluejay (I think) at the peanut feeder

A 22 second video of some of the birds that visited the feeder.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – Indigo Bunting and More

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I went on a hike this week at Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I was rewarded with my first photos ever of an indigo bunting. I had seen them before but they are very flighty and usually behind a lot of brush. I come upon this perched on branch overhanging a trail. It sat there while I got my camera ready and I was able to take of shots.

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They are such beautiful birds. We have painted buntings in Oklahoma but I have never seen one. I’d sure like to see and photography one out in the wild.

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On the same hike I encountered this curious deer. We just kind of stood and looked at each other for a minute or two and it let me get a few photos of it. It never did run off. I finally walked away from it.

And now for the movies!!

First up is a compilation of birds from the past week captured on my camera feeder. Note that it takes literally about 200 videos a day. Almost all of them of doves, which although beautiful, are not interesting to me. With the use of habanero laced bird food, the squirrels pretty much ignore the feeder except for a very few who chomp down all the food they can, habanero or no.

This second movie is our rescue terrier Sadie romping around the backyard with the zoomies. She is the happiest little dog I have ever seen.

That is it for this week. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

Thanksgiving Weekend Critters

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I fired up the trailcam in the backyard. It captured this handsome tuxedo cat sneaking up on something. We have all sorts of field mice and small birds hanging around the backyard.

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It looks like he is looking at the overturned barrel planter.

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Earlier in the day a squirrel was checking out the wheelbarrow.

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Back the next day checking out the barrel.

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We had another Coopers Hawk perched on our back fence right above the wheel barrow.

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He stayed there quite a while and kept looking at the ground. I’m sure he was hungry.

Here’s our little Kodi dog, the Pomeranian sporting his Thanksgiving hairdo and tie. I swear he prances around after a new hairdo.

And here’s Lizzy with a Thanksgiving nap. She’s a championship napper. Nobody naps like a cat.

I hope everybody who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good one. Ours was a little quiet this year.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

A Home Where the Deer Roam

Red River, New Mexico, high in the mountains was home to a bunch of deer.

This guy was watching me closely as I hunted for geocaches in the local cemetery.

Near the ski areas we saw lots of deer.

Near our condo we saw deer close to the river.

Walking the short hop to town we would see deer in the neighborhood.

Ducks liked the area as well. They seemed very acclimated to humans.

This one was ready for her closeup.

I loved seeing the duck convoys patrolling the river.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.