For Father’s Day my wife and son treated me with a trip to the Tulsa Botanic Garden. I took my macro lens along and captured way too many bloom photos. I especially like to capture the insects on the blooms like this fritillary.
And lots of bumble bees out and about in the garden just pollinating away.
And a wasp or two.
And I saw a lizard of some sort darting among the plants. There was also a cool as a cucumber garden cat but I was a neglectful blogger as I did not get its photo.
I took a hike on Turkey Mountain. I didn’t see any big critters but I captured this fritillary in the leaf litter.
And a dragonfly hanging out on a fallen tree.
I’m really enjoying my Merlin Bird App. While hiking I would hear different birds and call up the app and it id’s them for me. I would look and look and only every once in a while spot one but the foliage would be way to thick to get a decent photo so I would move on.
I am still having fun with my trailcam at home. I move it around. I get lots of images but very few “hits.” That’s okay. I love this male cardinal.
I also like to get birds in action like the one above coming in and the one below with the female cardinal leaving.
The squirrels love the feeders and tend to dominate. My wife and I will periodically go outside and tell the squirrels to get lost.
My wife and I went on a bike ride on Tulsa’s River Parks. Stopping at what we call the Bear Fountain is always a refreshing rest stop.
I was on a hike here in Tulsa and scared up a group of about three deer. We had a little faceoff for a while. All I had was my phone camera so you have to really look hard to see the deer. I love seeing deer on a hike!!
I captured a squirrel and some birds on my backyard trailcam a few weeks ago.
My sister Ellen, her husband Irv, and my son Logan took a little trip to Woolaroc’s Museum and Wildlife Preserve about an hour or so from Tulsa. We saw lots of critters including some bison.
They had some juveniles, “red dogs” but they wouldn’t group up. Come on guys, how about some cooperation. Move together. Look at the camera.
I have no idea what they are looking at.
And a group of deer at a Preserve Lake.
They had an animal barn and with this sad little donkeys. All donkeys look a bit sad don’t they.
And a sad little pony.
And maybe the saddest story. This guy was a longhorn cow that lived at Woolaroc and got moved to southeast Oklahoma for a time. His proud horns drooped because the grass didn’t have the minerals needed to keep them up. He’s immortalized now.
Taylor Swift dropped her new double album “Tortured Poets Department” the other day. Kodi and I listened to most of it on the back patio. Kodi loves catching rays and grooving to new tunes. I think he may be a Swifty.
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!!
I fired up the trailcam again the other day (It had run out of juice and I forgot to set the clock and calendar) and there was a rabbit in it, for hundreds of photos.
That’s the bad thing about trailcams, weeding through all the photos. If you have video it is that much worse. So this rabbit has been having a party in this corner of the backyard.
Captured a squirrel image as well
Son and I went hiking on Turkey Mountain the other day. We found this great blue heron fishing in the Arkansas River. There was heavy brush along the banks so I didn’t get his head very good.
Nearby, this fat robin was looking right at me.
I heard a distinctive “snuffling” sound in the leaves close to the trail and sure enough, an armadillo.
I love armadillos. You can get really close to them.
I’ve got tons of photos of squirrels from my backyard trailcam. This is the only one I have where the squirrel seems to have spotted the camera. I’ve seen other critters, rabbits and raccoons look at the camera on night photos but never a squirrel. Anyway I like this guy bending his flexible neck to check the camera out.
Here in the USA we have an almost nationwide deep freeze going on. Stay warm and bring your pets inside folks.
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.
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