Photographer blind shadows at Oxley Nature Center
Boardwalk Shadows also at Oxley Nature Center.
A tree with premature balding Manion Park in Tulsa. You can see the photographer’s selfie at the bottom. He had premature balding starting about 55 years ago! He tells everyone that he doesn’t waste his hormones growing hair.
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.
Last Sunday morning, I attended Church of the Trees at Oxley Nature Center.
I saw the light right after I started. I loved the sun in the forest and I love the poem that a former “Artist in Residence” at Oxley wrote.
I love short poems. I really like the title of this one, “Sunfall.” There is a reason we need to have poets. They know what to call things, and how to describe them.
Found me a new favorite tree.
And instead of stained glass we had the light filtering through these leaves.
I loved the light on the trees bordering a water pipeline right of way in the park.
And another long boardwalk.
And a maple leaf near the end of my walk.
And bonus video content, only 71 seconds long.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
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.
I went a little ways into the trails and found this guy, a red spotted purple butterfly from what google lens tells me.
And later on I found a great blue heron looking for their lunch. A bonus turtle is in the background.
And a female cardinal with her lunch in her beak already.
Another view of the same bird.
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.
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.
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.
One day late in October it was very windy. Windy days I like to go to Oxley Nature Center, especially their Sierra Club Trail. You can hear the wind howling in the treetops but it is calm down on the ground.
And I hardly ever see anybody. This trip I encountered only one person. A guy headed towards me looking kind of angry and upset. I had my spidey senses going but he passed me without looking up. I could hear him walking past in the leaves, crunch, crunch, crunch. Any change in the pattern and I would have looked around. But nothing happened. I’m not going to begrudge anybody needing a little solace in the woods.
I took a small garbage bag and my grabbers with me. The places I go hike there is hardly ever any trash. This day I found just a few cans and wrappers and that was it. Put the trash in the trashcan at the trailhead at the end of my hike.
It was a feast of Oklahoma style fall color. We don’t have a whole lot of color in the fall besides some yellows and browns. I’m okay with it.
Here’s a little reddish color for you. My Merlin ID app was going crazy with all the birds in the area. I was going crazy with inability to see such birds, except as small specs when they took off. I saw lots of squirrels and a glimpse of a deer. Kind of a zero day for photographing animals.
And a short video of the wind in the treetops.
And at the end, I see where a city surveyor had set up shot. I hope that they are not putting a new freeway in!!
A little shy of 3 miles, a nice walk in the woods is what I thought.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World.
Sorry about this fuzzy photo of these twin fawns in the shadows I saw at Oxley Nature Center. Of course one was looking away and then they exited to my left to their mother.
I was at Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center and came across this bee hive in a downed tree and the bees were active. So I stood off a ways with my camera and took a bunch of photos but I couldn’t tell at the time if they were any good. I got home and I got this bee coming in for a landing. I was pretty happy with the photo.
More backyard bunnies at the house.
Lizzie chilling at home
At Lafortune Park I found this guy and his girl testing out the pond.
And the moose is loose!!
A squirrel getting a snack
A couple of geese getting their feet wet.
A sure sign of spring.
And another great blue heron. They are all over town this spring.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters
I went walking a couple times at Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. Treated to the sunset one time.
I noticed this brush with beautiful coral flowers. Google lens tells me that it is Chinese Quince.
The redbud trees are starting to bud out. The Eastern Redbud is Oklahoma’s State Tree. I love them.
Fuzzy pic of people playing golf at one of the golf courses there.
Memorial High School has a baseball field that they were using.
I also went geocaching at Expo Square. I didn’t find the one here but I love this locomotive. It is retired now but pulled logging trains in southeast Oklahoma for years.
And checked out the Golden Driller there. It is dressed up in honor of City Year Tulsa’s tenth anniversary. They are the sponsor the people I tutor for. City Year is under attack for pushing a “woke ideology.” I’ve been tutoring grade school kids for five years now and the only ideology I have been trained to push on the kids is learning how to read.
Another geocaching stop. I didn’t find this one either but I loved the windmill in the stiff Oklahoma breeze.
Another time I went to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center and walked the trails.
And enjoyed the views.
As you can I have been busy.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. and My Corner of the World
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.
A shadowy walkway leads from the visitor center of Oxley Nature Center in Tulsa to their trails.
An confluence of shadows and reflections make for an interesting shadow pattern at library in Tulsa.
“Negative Shadows” form on the side of a hospital in Tulsa.