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.
I fired up the trailcam in the backyard. It captured this handsome tuxedo cat sneaking up on something. We have all sorts of field mice and small birds hanging around the backyard.
It looks like he is looking at the overturned barrel planter.
Earlier in the day a squirrel was checking out the wheelbarrow.
Back the next day checking out the barrel.
We had another Coopers Hawk perched on our back fence right above the wheel barrow.
He stayed there quite a while and kept looking at the ground. I’m sure he was hungry.
Here’s our little Kodi dog, the Pomeranian sporting his Thanksgiving hairdo and tie. I swear he prances around after a new hairdo.
And here’s Lizzy with a Thanksgiving nap. She’s a championship napper. Nobody naps like a cat.
I hope everybody who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good one. Ours was a little quiet this year.
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.
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.
I went on a bike ride one day and I saw this Eagle fishing out in the middle of the Arkansas River here in Tulsa.
I saw this white pelican as well. There were not as many as there has been in the recent past.
Nearby I saw this great egret also fishing.
And a great blue heron.
A target of opportunity a short while later. This northern mockingbird landing on this wire right in front of me.
At Lafortune Park on a different day I came across this blue jay who sat still while I took his photo.
At home this week I got out of my car and saw this black swallowtail butterfly enjoying my wife’s purple coneflowers. People on instagram said “great job.” I just happened to be there, praise the butterfly.
Here’s a video of the butterfly.
Here is out little Pomeranian, Kodi. He is a bit much to handle these days. He won’t let me pick him up or even clip a leash on him. He’s a little dog with big feelings. And a bit wild eyed especially with this filter I put on his photo.
Now the squirrels have attitude. They don’t move when you tell them to do so. It’s like they say, you move, after you refill the feeder.
Most of our robins are down on the ground. This guy got up on the rooftop and sang for a while. I guess he is looking for love.
These grackles are just taking over!! At least they fly off when you tell them to.
My wife and I went on a hike the other day and came across this doe and her yearling. The young’in was jumpy, mom seed chill. They paralleled us on the trail for quite a ways.
The wind blows here in Oklahoma and with a motion sensitive trailcam I can get hundreds of photos of nothing really fast if I point it to a hanging bird feeder or trees. Wind the wind blows I point it at our bird bath or a stationary feeder.
We get a lot of robins showing up for a drink.
And doves
At the stationary feeder we offer whole peanuts and sunflowers seeds. Those are popular with squirrels, grackles,
and blue jays.
Not in our backyard but from the Tulsa Botanic Garden a monochromatic lego lion!!
