Beaver Brothers at it again.

Here's a quick pictorial from my morning walkies on Saturday. Though overcast and cloudy, the sky was totally different than the day before, full of texture and color with breaks of cerulean blue.

Facing west

The triangular bowl between highways--north

I'll admit that I walk the same path daily (see the strip of white below the hotel? That's the path), but it isn't always the same. That is what is so wonderful about nature, always changing. One of the three highways is pictured (the building in the pic is a hotel), the second highway is to my right and the third is at my back. The grove of trees border a tributary creek. Somewhere along this creek my beaver buddies live.

 This was the original evidence that the beavers had returned. This picture was taken near the hotel in the previous pictures.

That poor little tree has become this. :-) They finished the job of taking down the tree, and though you can't see it in this picture, there are branches missing. They have started gnawing off branches to make a den or dam . . . or simply because their teeth needed honing down.

Who knows what goes on in a little beaver mind?

Not far from the downed tree, under the creepy bridges, I found these tracks. For all I know about critter prints, these could be from raccoons and not beavers, but they're cute aren't they?

Oh, what are the creepy bridges?

Since these three highways intersect, there are numerous interchanges. Behind the trees in the picture with the hotel are the creepy bridges. The path does a hairpin turn of probably about 180 degrees. It runs straight beneath the two, double-laned bridges, but you can't see around either corner. You can't hear anyone coming from either direction, due to location AND the loud noise of the cars whizzing by. Definitely creepy. A good place to hide a body creepy. I keep my nunchuck water bottle handy along with my pepper spray.

And backtracking to the original picture (away from the hotel) we go under another highway (brighter, airier and seriously less creepy!) and we have to cross the creek. A few years ago, the city put in the bridge to connect the walking trails. I'm sincerely glad because if you wanted to cross the old way, you had to hop, skip and jump across using wobbly rocks!  I'm taking this picture from between the rails.

Look at the tree in the center of the picture. Notice the lighter blond wood at the bottom. Yep, my beaver friends are at it again on a new tree. I tried to find the area where they are building their home, but suspect it's near the boggy part of the creek. That's where it was before, hidden from prying eyes and the sounds of the highway are muffled.

I think that's where I would live--if I were a beaver, that is.

Later, Peeps!

The Beavers are Back!

Today was early walkies day since the kidlet has Honor Choir practice at 7:10 on Tuesdays. I don't mind walking early especially since the time change has made it light enough to see. It isn't quite so creepy, ya know.

Anyhoo, as I've mentioned in the past, my morning walk takes me to an area where three highways meet, forming a bowl and a creek runs through this bowl. A few years ago, the city built a bridge over this creek. And while this makes it easier for walkers, joggers and bikers, they also destroyed a beaver dam in the process.

But guess what?

While I didn't actually catch sight of one of the orange- and buck-toothed little critters, I did see evidence that that are back! This picture was taken from the walking trail across the creek.

Too cool, huh?

Well, I think so. I'll keep my phone handy to take pictures of any wildlife I see.

Morning Walks

Yesterday, I wrote about the little toad dude I found dead in my pool skimmer. And this blog is sort of a continuation of yesterday morning.

As you know I've been walking six days a week since mid-June. My weight loss total is now 19 lbs! YAY! Anyway, since we had a decent amount of rain the previous night the air temperature was a wonderful 75 degrees, instead of the usual 85-90 degrees at 7 AM.

So I lollygagged a little bit on my walk, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. And this is a feat considering the walking/bike path runs next to a major expressway!

--actually the path goes next to one expressway, under two more expressways and one four story tall on ramp, which usually has barn swallows living in their mud houses.

The path meanders in the dead spaces around the expressways, but it's far more than just barren areas. Before the path passes under the first overpass, it goes over a bridge that crosses a creek. For years we had to jump from rock to rock to cross this creek, but a couple years ago they finished the bridge. This was the first time in months that there was water in the creek.

Not just water--rushing water. The dull roar of the water passing over the rocks brought a smile to my lips. The first, but certainly not the last one. It was wonderful listening to the music.

A few years ago, before the bridge was built, this little creek also housed beavers. We never saw the beavers, but we did see their dam and the trees they took down. Like I mentioned before this area has quite a bit of wildlife for being in the city. I've seen wild turkeys, coyotes, hawks, and of course the smaller critters.

I kept walking and watching the antics of the birds swooping and diving over the field, catching bugs. It took me a few minutes to realize they were juveniles of the bird pictured, practicing and strengthening their wings.

This is a Scissortail Flycatcher. Oklahoma's state bird. Isn't it beautiful! I love these birds. The reason I knew they were juveniles was because they hadn't developed their long tail feathers yet. A few of them had one-inch long feathers that stuck out beyond their regular feathers, but most of them had blunt tails. And there must have been a few families together because there were about 8-9 of them.

As I continued back home, I kept seeing a doggy shadow popping up behind me. I could hear two guys talking as they jogged so I kept on my merry way. And up pops a border collie trotting next to me. I love dogs, but I wasn't going to pet it because 1) this dog was off leash (illegal), 2) I had finally got into my walking groove.

So the joggers passed me along with the dog. BUT the dog was so interested in me that he kept looking back and not paying attention to his masters. First he stopped in the path of the jogger on the left who had to do a weird hop to keep from falling on his face. And then the dog scoots under the feet of the right jogger who seriously stumbled and had to recover his footing. Serves him right. If he had his dog on a leash, the dog wouldn't have tripped him.

So my daily chuckle out of the way, I continued my walk. I didn't see much of anything else except a blue jay. With this heat there hasn't been very many birds out except starlings and grackles. And they're just plain boring to look at.

I love walking. I see so much of nature around me. And I also think about my story. Hopefully, now that my other obligations are out of the way, I can settle down to write.

Later, Peeps!