Tag Archives: 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 – Squadron, Scoop, or Brief, your Choice

I have a new toy. An action camera. Not a GoPro but a knockoff that costs literally one tenth of what a GoPro does but is only 60% as good. It’s my second of this type and it is really good. I experimented on Kodi with it. He couldn’t figure out if it was a toy to play with or food to eat. It is pretty tiny.

So I also experimented on Lizzy the Cat with it. I think that people who experiment on pets are terrible, don’t you.

I went on a bike ride the other day. I stopped for a rest break at the Turkey Mountain lower parking lot. I saw this dinosaur skeleton off in the woods on a trail meant for children.

Later in my bike ride I happened on this “pouch” of American White Pelicans on a sandbar in the Arkansas River. I love all the various collective nouns for birds. My favorite is a murder of crows. Other terms for a group of pelicans are “squadron”, “pod”, “pouch” or “scoop”. You can always call them a flock, other terms are “brief”, “raft” or “rookery.” I love it.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – In and Out Edition

Here’s a sculptural critter, some sort of heron I think at the Linnaeus Demonstration Gardens.

And another artistic critter. This little girl on the back of a turtle at the Tulsa Botanic Garden.

I hardly ever use my drone for critter photography and this is “Appeal to the Great Spirit” at Woodward Park. I used my drone to get a different perspective on this sculpture.

In the backyard I got this squirrel getting his photo taken.

And a bunny out past 3 am.

And this leaping squirrel.

And some birds buzzing the backyard on a high speed low altitude run.

And these guys going for suet feeder.

And a Canadian Goose at Woodward Park contemplating the pros and cons of staying vs migrating.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

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 – Dog and Butterfly

I was geocaching at Tulsa’s Crow Creek Meadow when I happened across this butterfly. I do believe it is a Monarch.

Here is a video of it.

I was hiking on Turkey Mountain when I came across this bush with some sort of fritillary on it. My photo is too fuzzy for the online image searches to work properly.

Here is my wife Heather with our dog Kodi on an outing.

He is beginning to settle down after our roofing project. Here is expressing his displeasure with me. He’s a mess but we love him and are working with somebody help reduce his anxiety.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Critters Big and Small – Under a New Roof

Our big thing this week is our new roof. It was supposed to take two days but it will end up being four because of our steep pitch. I know one thing, it is not the workers. They are amazing. They show up early and work hard until 6 pm or so with only about 30 minutes for lunch and then they clean up everything really well before they leave. I think they are amazing. They are loud though!

Our poor little Kodi did not like it one bit! He’s kind of anxious anyway so he had a hard time of it.

Lizzy the cat dealt with it by taking over Kodi’s crate.

We are almost done now. We just have to get the new guttering on Monday morning.

On another front we have had some visitors in our backyard. I was told by a professional naturalist that this is a Red Spotted Purple Butterfly. I think it is beautiful.

Google images told me that this is a Gulf Fritillary. It is also beautiful.

That’s about it for this week. I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Saturday’s Critters – On the River

Egrets and great blue herons sharing the prime fishing spot downstream of the Zink Lake Dam.

More sharing downstream of the dam.

A closeup of a great blue heron.

Here is one fishing with one leg. Or maybe sleeping. I don’t know, its eyes are open.

And a human fishing from the rocks at the dam.

Headed back to the car on the bike path I come upon this gaggle of geese.

These pics are from my bike ride early this week. My knee has been feeling much better. I woke Wednesday and I had some bad back spasms. My wife drove me to the Urgent Care and the on duty Nurse Practioner, prescribed me some muscle relaxers, and she gave me the old man side to side hug telling me that I should take a week off from my bicycling, hiking, weight training, and yoga. My wife was in there and thought it was a hoot that I am officially elderly and harmless in the medical world’s eyes. I’m good with it, I will never say no to hug from somebody nice. So this morning (Saturday) I woke up and I think I might live for a little while longer. Yesterday I wasn’t so sure. Tell you what though, the medication makes me not want to drink alcohol. I’m afraid my stash might be getting out of date.

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters

35th Anniversary Celebration at the Zoo

Earlier this week, Heather and I had our 35th year anniversary. It doesn’t seem that long in some ways but we have been through a lot together.

We decided to celebrate by grabbing our son and heading off to the Tulsa Zoo.

A highlight for me is that there new cubs, just born. They had a video feed into the nursery where momma tiger was giving her cubs a bath. Pretty cool.

Dad was close by, resting.

Lots of cats were resting, like these cheetahs.

And a jaguar.

An Aldabra Tortoise was on the move.

And these giraffe’s were not sleeping either.

These red and yellow barbets were sitting at attention.

And the red panda was up in their lair snoozing away.

The African penguins were getting ready for a dip.

The scarlet macaw was showing off.

The kanagaroo was frozen in place.

The gator was dreaming gator dreams.

A bald eagle was surveying the landscape.

The long tail finches were lunching.

The blue iguana was smiling at everybody.

The pink flamingoes were carefully guarding their new chick. I found out that a group of flamingoes is called a Flamboyance. I love it.

We had a great time!!

I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.

“Saturday’s Dam Critters”

Last Tuesday I loaded up my bike and went for a ride on the RiverParks trails here in Tulsa mainly to check on the brand spanking new pedestrian bridge and dam across the Arkansas River. I purposely missed the “Big Dam Party” that RiverParks put on for the opening over the Labor Day weekend.

So here is the new bridge, 1000 feet long from bank to bank. The dam is just on the other side of the bridge.

After big crowds during the party, I had the bridge to myself.

Down below the dam I saw this Great Blue Heron.

And a great egret.

And at one spot there were a bunch of egrets and blue herons together.

And three cats resting on the riverbank. Actually one cat and two Komatsu’s.

And a human critter jogging.

And two other human critters walking their dog.

And some oil and oil product storage tanks for the nearby refinery. A human critter on the bridge asked another human critter what they were for and the person said that President Biden outlawed oil storage in city limits and they were pretty sure that the City of Tulsa took them over to store water in case of a drought. Okay then. (Not true by the way).

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Saturday’s Critters – Birds of a Feather

This sight greeted me the other morning. A red shouldered hawk squatting on my trailcam in our backyard. I think he was looking for a mouse. We have bird feeders in the backyard which attracts a few birds and a whole bunch of squirrels and a few mice.

The trailcam captured this cat in our backyard a while back. I’m thinking he might be carrying a mouse in his mouth.

I went to Philbrook Museum of Art the other day. I saw this squirrel resting for the intense midday heat.

And this big ole hippo sculpture made out of car bumpers.

I rode my bike on the Arkansas River the other day and found this egret fishing in the Arkansas River.

And this group of geese hanging out.

And this cross species collection of egrets and great blue herons sharing their fishing grounds.

After years of construction Tulsa is opening up the new pedestrian bridge and putting the new Zink Lake Dam into service this weekend. I’m going to wait until the hubbub has died down a little bit before I go check it out.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.

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