As posted recently the family did a New Year’s Day Hike this year. I took along my telephoto lens and didn’t find much to point and shoot out at. Toward the end we came across a pond that had some ducks of some sort so I reached out with my camera and the results were not that good but hey this is the only thing I got that day. Highly cropped.
A few days later we were home and I got wondering what bird was singing so I went out in the backyard and there were three robins high up in a tree just singing their heart out.
I had to use the manual focus because of so many big and small branches in the way and again, these are highly cropped.
And so this is my humble contribution to Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out, Eileen has GOOD photographs posted by bloggers there.
I went on a hike the other day and encountered some deer. I love seeing deer. They are so beautiful and graceful. They are not hunted on Turkey Mountain and so are not skittish at all.
I went geocaching at a local park and saw some ducks paddling around on a pond.
Kodi and I were playing in the backyard and he decided to take a little rest break in the leaves.
This week I have a Tiger from the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls, ID some years ago. I had a minor procedure done on my ear early this week and I had to take it easy a few days so I didn’t get out and about. So I’m bringing this photo from a trip to see my father way back when. Idaho Falls’ Zoo is small but mighty!! I love how it is so chilled out and relaxed.
Sometimes I set up the trailcam and leave it out for a week or two without checking on it and then I go pull the chip to see what is on it. The last time I did it there were hundreds of images but really nothing to see. It is tripped by motion and Oklahoma is windy so shadows and waving branches trigger it.
The only other images I got were of our dog Kodi, and sometimes me and or my wife in the backyard. Here’s Kodi lurking around at night.
He likes to chase tennis balls so sometimes we have late night play sessions.
He loves chase but he doesn’t bring it back to me.
I didn’t have any new critter pics this week and was about to check out the archives when Lizzie the cat jumped up on the coffee table and said what about me? So I took her photo. So she is my Saturday Critter this week since it is Caturday, right?
Here’s our one year old pomeranian, Kodi. He was kind of shaggy so he went to the groomer today and he got all trimmed up and got a special Thanksgiving tie to boot. He tore it off very quickly but we got a photo of him.
Here he is in the back yard. He loves picking up acorns and bringing them inside to trade for a treat.
And a black and white cat who shows up when it is dark.
And sometimes in broad daylight.
And a first sighting for this light colored cat.
And of course squirrels. We are inundated with them.
We have a tennis ball in the back yard. He loves chasing it all over the place.
At night other critters come out. I have seen this bunny during the day.
The way the eyes light up is spooky!!
Lately we have this black and white cat checking things out. We still have people in the neighborhood who turn their cats loose and there are several feral cats outside as well.
Hey, a non-trailcam shot of some geese at a local park.
That’s all I got this week!! I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters
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?
My backyard trailcam captured this image of a squirrel munching on an acorn. We have a bumper acorn crop this year. The squirrels can’t keep up with them. Our little dog Kodi has learned the trick of picking one up and bringing it inside where we give him a treat to trade.
We have a few little rabbits who romp around in our yard.
Young Kodi howls when my wife leaves. He’s inconsolable in his sorrow.
The howling kind of irritates our sweet cat Lizzie. I can just see her thinking, “Suck it up dog!”
I went hiking on Turkey Mountain earlier this week. I encountered, several times, a family of three or four deer. This was the best photo I got. Lots of trees made focusing difficult. I love seeing deer in the woods.
And I saw this butterfly. Google tells me that it is a Red Admiral.
And I was walking along and I heard a woodpecker up in the trees. I looked and looked and saw this one but he wouldn’t stay still very long. Sorry for the grainy cropped shot.
And here is our Pomeranian Kodi. He’s cute as all get out and likes me 95% of the time but watch out for the other 5%.
I woke Lizzy the cat up from a nap the other day. She was not amused.
And I captured the image of this little bunny in our backyard early Friday morning. We have a lot of hawks in the neighborhood and they feast on little bunnies.
Kodi loves going places so we took him on a hike at Ray Harrall Nature center. He did two miles and never slowed down. His little feet were moving fast.
And that is my critter report this week. I am linking with Saturday’s Critters.