As part of our trip to southeast Oklahoma’s Hochatown we visited the Beavers Bend Safari Park. They have quite a collection of animals. Many in enclosures and others out in the woods confined by fences but otherwise roaming around. I’ll post about the roaming animals next week.
Common Emu
A vervet monkey. Sorry about the camera focusing on the cage instead of the animal.
At the end of May we took a little trip down to southeast Oklahoma and stayed in a cabin close to the Beavers Bend State Park. A favorite place to go for us that is not too far. It was a combination getaway and birthday celebration for our son, Logan.
Driving around we came across this deer in the middle of nowhere. Deer are prevalent in the area.
I am not sure if this was the same deer or not.
We went on a hike on the Lakeview Lodge Trail at Beavers Bend State Park. We love the trail. Not many people, it is not too technical nor does it have huge elevation changes. We saw this far away deer and several of its friends. They all stayed away from us and disappeared eventually.
The woods were full of birds. We could hear them and spot small birds here and there. Thank goodness for the Merlin App to listen to the bird chatter and id them for us.
At the cabin we spotted this tree frog late one evening. Sorry about the grainy fuzziness of it. It didn’t stay long.
The State Park has its Woodland Heritage Center where they cover all sorts of things about life in the woods. The logging, the history of the area, woodland firefighting. They have this large piece with Smokey Bear. My dad was a Forest Ranger for the US Forest Service in the West. We went through the museum with him years ago and he kind of brought the exhibits to life with his knowledge, experience, and insights. He is gone now but I feel close to him every time I go through the museum. Lots of happy memories there.
And we celebrated son, Logan’s birthday while were down there. Lots of family memories down there.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check them out. Lots of animal lovers who are also good photographers.
Here is out Pomeranian, Kodi with his dog toy. He is a little dog with big feelings and when he gets them hurt this is how he consoles himself.
This Kodi, with our rescue terrier, Sadie. They don’t like it when my wife is gone. Sometimes Kodi howls to express his sadness.
And this is our backyard feeder with a female cardinal and a dove sharing the space. I am getting about 500 to 600 visits a day from various birds. Literally 95% or so doves or sparrows. Hardly any squirrels any longer since I used chili or habanero pepper laced bird feed and safflower seeds intermixed with other feeds.
Back in late April I went on a hike at Oxley Nature Center here in Tulsa. I have a new mirrorless camera that I was trying out. It is very light and has a hand strap so you can carry it easily and take photos quicker. So off I went.
I think this is a red-headed woodpecker. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Same bird, a few feet away. It’d be nice if the birds would have some manners and come and perch within a few feet instead of back behind stuff.
I think this is an eastern bluebird.
I don’t know what this is. Google lens was confused as well.
A couple of ducks paddling around Coal Creek.
Three deer checking me out from the tall grass.
An indigo bunting maybe. I’ll have to be getting a zoom lens for my new camera I think.
And a poem from Sasha Martin who was Oxley’s Artist in Residence a few years ago. Her poems are scattered throughout Oxley. I them.
I went on a bike ride the other day along the Tulsa’s Riverparks trails along the Arkansas River. The first time in a while. The sun was shining and the wind wasn’t too bad and I took my superzoom camera with me. I stopped at the Zink Dam to rest a bit and take a few photos. Things were busy there.
In a pool just downstream of the dam, the great blue herons were fishing.
A pod of American Black Tipped Swans had the area downstream of the herons to themselves.
Segregation, A station of great blue herons in the pool, pelicans downstream. I love collective nouns.
A pelican on a rock with a goose.
Naptime!!
A great blue heron standing siege.
And a fellow human fishing. I think see this guy a lot.
And in other matters. Here is 41 second video of birds I liked on the birdcam in the backyard this week.
A male northern cardinal captured on the camera feeder in the backyard. I used a hipstamatic filter on the image.
Big Foot on the loose on Turkey Mountain.
Another male Northern Cardinal in teh backyard
I love the House Finches when they come to call.
I leave a few peanuts on the feeder. The blue jays and cardinals appreciate it and sometimes squirrels. I use jalapeno flavored birdseed and saffron seeds in the feeder. Birds love them but squirrels don’t like it.
These images are from late March and early April. I have fallen way behind on my posting. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.
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.
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.
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.
Here is our terrier mix rescue Sadie. Sweetest dog ever and she loves taking a nap in the sun after chasing rabbits and squirrels all over the back yard.
And a turtle I found crossing a trail at Ray Harral Nature Center in Broken Arrow, OK. Something about turtles, they are crossing everything from trails to freeways right now in Oklahoma.
A Komodo Dragon at the Tulsa Zoo.
A “tower” of Giraffes milling around at the zoo waiting to be fed. I love collective nouns of animals. Tower is new to me and might be my favorite. A murder of crows is pretty high up there also.
Fun fact: See the green pipe in the background. That is for the zoo’s elephant enclosure. It was donated to the zoo by one of my previous employers, ONEOK, Inc. It is brand new pipe with the green coating used for buried pipe to protect it from corrosion. The pipe and its coating costs a fortune.
