A wedge of Geese at Tulsa’s Woodward Park. (I just love the various collective nouns for the different kinds of birds.)
Also at Woodward Park, an equestrian sculpture, “Appeal to the Great Spirit.” It used to be at high school in Tulsa that got torn down. Fortunately it was saved. The original was by Cyrus Dallin in 1909 and is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Art.
A bison mural I found while working an Adventure Lab Geocache.
And I was in a creek bottom in south Tulsa replacing a geocache that went missing when this guy showed up to see what was going on. Usually I see snakes in this area, never any venomous snakes just rat snakes but no snakes today. I would rather see turtles.
Last week I worked this table (the guy there in the photo is not me) at the Monarchs on the Mountain event at Tulsa’s Chandler Park. There were no monarch butterflies around but we celebrated them anyway.
This critter showed up at the booth and stayed for a while crawling around and checking out our giveaways and information. I didn’t know what it was but iNaturalist tells me that it is a wheelbug. There were lots of enviromental type people at the event and they all said, don’t hurt it, it’s good. So I let it crawl and around and told people they could figure out what it was from iNaturalist or Google Lens. Kids got a big kick out of it. And so did I. What a learning opportunity.
A few days ago my wife and I attended an event on Turkey Mountain as guests of the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. We had a good time. The highlight was seeing this Red tailed hawk. She was very calm even though she was the hit of the party.
Friday I went on a hike on Turkey Mountain. I took my “good camera” even though it was hot and the middle of the day. For taking photos of critters, cell phones definitey have their limitations. I didn’t see too many critters but I go this dragon fly’s photo.
I also got this turtle on a log at Pepsi Lake. I have no idea how he crawled up the log to the top.
And I was able to pick out this photo out of some thick trees. I was so proud of myself for capturing the image of a rare bird. I ran the image though google lens and it turns out that it is a robin. You just can’t see the red breast but the eyes are a giveaway. It’s still a good photo though, right? Hey I like it. Real birders amaze me. They can find the birds and take photos of them. I can hear them and get glimpses of them but they are gone by the time I get my camera ready.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out. Eileen is a real birder who can find the birds, ID them, and get the photos.
I headed out recently to Oxley Nature Center in north Tulsa to hike the trails and see what kind of animals were out and about.
During the middle of the day I didn’t expect to find any deer but I found a small family of three resting in the woods. They didn’t seem too bothered by me.
This young one was browsing then laid down with its back to me. Go Away!!
I found this cool butterfly resting on a trail. Google Lens tells me that it is a Gorgone Checkerspot. I have never heard of such a thing.
This turtle was catching a few rays.
Two grown and two baby geese (goslings). I’ve done my research and apparently you can’t call a group of geese less than five in number a gaggle of geese. A group of swimming geese is called a plump. So here is plump of geese. I find the names of groups of animals fascinating. My favorite is a Murder of Crows. So I can truthfully say that I have seen a few murders.
A raft of ducks. I think this raft is blue wing teals according to google lens.
And a solitary great blue heron.
Too blurry of a photo for an ID but these birds were swooping all over the place. I got a new word maybe. A group of unidentified blurry birds flying really fast is called a Swoop. You heard it first here. You better check in often to keep up to date.
I found this funky looking dragonfly on a trail. Not good enough of a photo to get google lens to give me results that I am happy with.
And on the home front.
Our six pound Pomeranian puppy Kodi is a bundle of energy. He hates to be separated from my wife. If she is outside he pogos at the door to join her. When she’s inside he wants in. I guess that he has separation anxiety.
That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out, lots of great animalcentric posts by some very talented photobloggers.
