Found this little guy on Turkey Mountain. I think it is a rough green snake. I see more of these kind of snakes on the mountain than any other. Most of them are just a few inches long, this is the biggest one that I have ever seen. Maybe a foot long at the most. I love the graceful coils. It seemed kind of curious to me with the raised head. I tried to tell him to get off the trail or it was going to get stepped on.
Our purple coneflowers in our front flower bed. Purple coneflowers are the state wildflower of Oklahoma. These have a bumblebee and a moth on them.
A curious deer checking me out while I was geocaching in a pecan orchard near Tulsa. The orchard is huge and has lots of deer. A couple years ago I saw a huge herd of them running through it. This time there were lots of signs in the orchard. They are subdividing it for houses so kiss those big beautiful trees goodbye.
And Kodi the Pomeranian. He loves swimming in his little pool on hot days.
We have lots of geese in Oklahoma, especially golf course geese like these.
And how about Mother Goose with her perky little hat.
And big ole rabbits and Alice in Wonderland. (At a local library)
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.
I saw this white pelican as well. There were not as many as there has been in the recent past.
Nearby I saw this great egret also fishing.
And a great blue heron.
A target of opportunity a short while later. This northern mockingbird landing on this wire right in front of me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A momma goose sitting on a nest on a sandbar in a creek flowing the through the grounds of Philbrook Museum of Art. Her mate was busy chasing people away, including us.
A little chubby squirrel snacking on the grounds of Philbrook.
Another squirrel perturbed by us sitting out on our patio.
Kodi the Pomeranian loves laying out in the sun.
A grackle getting a drink.
Kodi loves finding sticks. He exchanges them for a treat. Is that a spoiled brat looking face or what!
Lizzy the Cat gets kind of talkative every now and then. Critters are a hoot.
Another Lego critter from our trip to the Tulsa Botanic Garden. This one is a dodo bird. Which is extinct.
Heather, my wife, was gone for an evening and our little pomeranian Kodi got so lonely he decided he would sit with me. That hardly ever happens. He loves to play with me but gets grumpy if I try and do anything else like pick him up.
We had a really nice, warm, sunny day. Kodi went outside and just basked in the sunshine. He’s generally here, there, and everywhere but he was happy in the moment in the sun.
A walk in the neighborhood park gave us this great blue heron fishing in the creek.
On my walk around Lafortune Park found this guy and his girlfriend.
Also came across Mother Goose. Behind her you can see Alice and Peter Rabbit.
Here is a closeup of them.
I also found these feeding geese in a backwater of the Arkansas River on a recent bike ride.
I put my trailcam in the backyard again. I activated video. Stills are fine and are easier to edit but I like seeing the critters move. Here is a bird in the middle of the night.
That’s all my recent critter sitings. I’m linking withSaturday’s Critters. Go check it out.
My wife and I went to Philbrook Museum on Valentine’s Day and found this valentine’s squirrel out and about.
I took my “good” camera to Ray Harral Nature Center. I saw all sorts of birds and squirrels but the brush was so thick I couldn’t get a decent photo of anything, but I got this body shot of a squirrel with no head.
And they had a nice bug hotel. Does that count?
Kodi the Pomeranian and I are getting along a little bit better.
He had the zoomies the other day in the back yard and was quite playful.
We were without a backyard fence temporarily until one could be built so when our dog had to go outside one of us went with him. So this is really a long shadow selfie from our backyards, clear across the greenbelt and to the property fence on the far side. I love looking tall and skinny, Kodi loved looking like a big dog.
I went on a little bike ride last week on the RiverParks Trails and stopped for a little rest in the sun.
I also went on hike on Turkey Mountain and took this shadow and tree selfie.
This is our sweet Lizzie. She has a sad face she is really a good cat.
And this is our juvenile delinquent, Kodi the Pomeranian. Most of the time he is a sweet dog but he has issues that we are working on. My wife, who he really loves, has left town for some training so he and I are together this weekend and we have had some challenges but we are making it work. I jollied him into going on a walk which took the edge of his anxiety and later we played for a bit and he let me pet him for quite a while.
The weather broke for a little bit the other day so I went hiking on Turkey Mountain. Towards the end of my outing the sun almost broke through and the birds high in the trees all broke out in a cacophony of birdsong. I only had my phone with me so I got no photos and I made this video just for the sound. It was great. Since then, we are back to misty rain. We were supposed to have a work day on the mountain Sunday but put it off for a month due to the muddy conditions.
That’s about it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.
Christmas and the end of the year buzzed by really quickly this year. Sorry I have been incommunicado all the sudden but hey, I’m back. So I’ll bring you up to speed.
A few days before Christmas we joined another couple for a Christmas music show at historic Cain’s Ballroom featuring several very talented local singers and musicians.
Isaac Hanson, of Hanson, showed up and played a couple of songs. Heather and I remember when he was just a little boy and played for free at local events with his brothers. He’s all growns up now and has a whole bunch of kids of his own.
Heather made her traditional gingerbread cookies. They are always a hit.
They go fast.
We made a visit to my brother Bob at his residence.
And gathered around the tree.
On Christmas Day we went to my MIL’s house and we opened gifts and had steak and baked potatoes for Christmas dinner. Bad blogger me, didn’t get any family photos.
A couple days later Heather, son Logan, Kodi, and I drove a roundabout route to Colorado Springs. My sister and BIL were hosting their family for Christmas. We hadn’t seen them for years so they graciously assented to our presence.
They are an active and fun loving bunch. If you are going to hang with them you better get up early and be prepared to stay late. They were very welcoming to us crashing the party.
Here is Logan with my sister and BIL’s dogs. The little dog is Maisey and is very sweet the big dog is Aspen. Aspen kept trying to play with our little dog, Kodi but Kodi was intimidated.
Sister and her husband treated us all to the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs. It was great. There are lots of things to look at and videos of past performances and artifacts like the costume above worn by Peggy Flemming who won the Gold Medal in figure skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics. I always thought she was classy and elegant.
Back at my sister’s house, Kodi went for a walk and got to meet Jasper the horse and get sniffed and inspected really good by the horse. I think our city dog thinks he doesn’t want become a ranch dog.
On the drive back to Tulsa Kodi found an earth cache. A specialized form of a geocache. So now I call him Kodi the Geodog.
I also got a shadow photo of Kodi so I guess he is a shadow dog as well.
