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.
I went on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness the other day. I found this deer back in the brush. By the time I turned manual focus on, this deer and their two companions were gone.
Got a mile or so further and came up on some birds. I think they were tufted titmice. They were also hard to focus on but I got a few shots. They are extremely grainy because the birds are extremely small and even with my 300 mm lens I had to crop them a lot.
Merlin told me that it heard a northern flicker and a cardinal in the area as well. I spotted a northern cardinal and its mate but they were moving around too much for me.
And later at the far northern end of Turkey Mountain at Pepsi Lake I found these mallard ducks. It looks like two males were romancing a female. Today is Valentines day so I wonder what they got her.
I also saw a great blue heron.
At home a male cardinal visited the efeeder.
A dark eyed junco. I love these guys.
A house finch. Such loud voices from very small birds.
The other day I was outside with the dogs and I noticed this squirrel frozen in place on a branch.
I think it was worried about these crows who were on a wire in the green space behind our backyard. I had never thought of crows being a threat to squirrels, but what I read on the interwebs is that they sometimes will attack young squirrels but are hesitant about taking on grown squirrels because apparently grown squirrels will fight back.
It has been very cold here in Tulsa after our snow. Sadie has finally adapted. She loves to go outside and run around in the snow.
It exhausts her though. So she falls asleep in my lap while I’m watching tv at night.
Snow doesn’t phase our little Pom Kodi at all. We put him on a diet and it seems to be working so now he’s wanting to play fetch with me and Sadie, and he and Sadie chase each other around the house. He’s livened up quite a bit.
I’ve been trying to keep the birds fed using suet balls and other high energy foods. This cardinal wasn’t complaining.
I think this is a Carolina Wren that came by for a bite.
We get dark eyed juncos both on the feeder and on the ground.
There is something special about juncos.
And the opposite for the quiet juncos at the bluejays. Squawk, squawk, they say whenever they visit,.
A through the window photo.
And we get lots of doves. This one is all puffed up against the cold.
We had a bunch of hawks one afternoon. Noisy and boistrous.
Lots of squirrels.
That’s it for this week.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of great photographers who love all sorts of animals.
I went hiking with a friend on Friday, we came upon this family of deer. My friend is kind of a speed hiker so I didn’t even take time to move myself so the one deer occluded by the tree was free. Oh well.
Various native pollinators have really been at work on my wife’s pink hibiscus shrub in the back yard.
And squirrels, boy do have squirrels. Most of them ignore the habanero flavored bird food but interestingly there are a few that love it.
Lizzie the cat loves to nap but when I get close to get a shot of her napping she always wakes up.
Long lines at the camera feeder. It is very popular.
Scattered birds
A bluejay (I think) at the peanut feeder
A 22 second video of some of the birds that visited the feeder.
We continue to get a lot of rain here in Tulsa. When it rains and I want to go hiking I use one of the sustainable trails in town rather than splash through the mud on my regular haunts. So this time I went to Ray Harral Nature Center in Broken Arrow, OK. Their trails are mainly asphalt with some gravel.
There are always lots of birds at Ray Harral but I hardly ever see them. At least with the Merlin App I can figure out what they are. I got lucky this time.
I spotted a couple of cardinals and they stood still long enough for me to get a fuzzy photo (or maybe phuzzy photo) of them. One in a shrub.
And one on the ground.
I saw a couple squirrels as well. In town they are not shy at all, out in the woods they hide. So I got one in a tree.
And another on the ground.
And this is our son, Logan, captured mowing the yard with my trailcam. He got offered a job yesterday (and accepted it) as a full-time paralegal for a law firm here in town. He’s worked very hard to get to this point. We are very proud of him. He’s going to have to give up shorts and tee shirts in exchange for a shirt and tie but hey, he can do it.
A squirrel with a long tail just chilling on the fence watching me take his photo from inside the house.
A compilation of four videos recently from our ebird camera. A male cardinal, a mourning dove, a squirrel, and a grackle. We have lots of visitors to our feeder.
A squirrel getting a drink and scrutinizing the trailcam
Catching Kodi, the Pomeranian, in the back yard
I went on a hike at Ray Harral Nature Center. Most of the critters were elusive. This fat little guy watched me while I walked by as he ate his lunch.
I could hear birds but didn’t see them except for glimpses of the cardinal.
I still haven’t seen a Carolina Wren in real life. I don’t add birds to my life list unless I see them and get a photograph. I think I am up to eight birds on my list. Don’t laugh at me.
I went on a walk along the Arkansas River and saw these. I think they are seagulls.
That’s a wrap. I’m wishing everyone and their families a Happy and Healthy New Years.
