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During our last visit to the Tallgrass Prairie, the songbirds were out entertaining us as we drove by. A few of them would sing long enough for us to capture them before taking off to their next resting place. We took the pictures out of the car window trying not to spook them. I'm really impressed with my new camera and long lens. I can crop down heavy in a shot like this one and I still have great detail. As my dad always preaches, you have to have the eyes in focus. I think I got this one.
When we visit the John H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, we usually stop at the visitor center for a pit stop. There are always house sparrows flying around the buildings and they are too fast to capture. Once in a while, they will take a break on the fence. This young lady stopped long enough for me to get in a few shots and this was my favorite.
This was my favorite shot of the day while exploring the John H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie yesterday. We saw this scissor-tailed flycatcher capture this bug and then fly to the fence. I don't know about you, but my mom always told me not to play with my food. This guy threw the bug up in the air a few times and caught it before it decided to eat it. I'm always hoping to capture wildlife doing something different and interesting and this was something that I hadn't seen before. Made my day.
This group of deer were the only ones that we saw while visiting the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. They watched us for a minute and then went back to feeding except for the lookout. I've noticed that it seems like when I encounter a group of deer, one of them always watches me to make sure I don't do anything to threaten them. She watched us carefully until we drove off to our next shot.
While we were driving around the loop in the Tallgrass Prairie outside of Pawhuska today, we came across one group of bison close enough to the road to capture. Bison are the highlight of the nature preserve, and we were lucky enough today to come across this group. All the other groups were way too far off the road to capture.
The bison typically have their calves in the Spring, and we were hoping to capture them on this trip. This little guy was laying down in the grass when I think he realized that mama had wondered away. He jumped up and ran towards these two bison. One of them was his mom. I got a pretty good shot of him as he was running, and it was a pretty good day of shooting.
We drove down to the Tall Grass Prairie outside of Pawhuska, OK. The Tallgrass Prairie is a preserve for bison, but they also have a lot of other wildlife living there. On this trip, we didn't see very many bison near the road, but we did get a few birds to pose for us. There are always sparrows nesting in the eaves of the visitor center. This guy was working on his nest near the restrooms. He let me take about a dozen pictures of him before he took off. This was the best one.
This youngster was not super steady on his feet.
Checking the grass for breakfast.
Our first image of the Chipping.
The stare down! White-tail were out feeding by the dozen this morning. A bit unusual to see so many.
His left side looked like it had some unusual marks in the hair. He acted perfectly normal during the photo session.
Looks like the storm delivered a nice snow to the Tall Grass Prairie, Oklahoma.
I promise this is going to be my last owl shot, unless I get one flying with a rabbit. I had to share this one with you because of the intensity of the hunt and God’s amazing design in the wings and eyes of these creatures. So many inventions and designs created by humans were inspired by God‘s design in nature.
The wing tips, about midway up the wing, remind me of Winglets designed by NASA. The turned-up tips on airplane wings, winglets are vertical extensions of the wingtips that improve fuel efficiency and cruising range by reducing drag. The Wright brothers and Leonardo da Vinci studied birds in flight to understand the physics of flight, and a recent article in Nature Magazine (01/07/2016) describes the design of an engineered eyeball that mimics the iris, lens and cornea of a human eye. It’s probably nowhere near as good as this owl’s eye, but then the designers were only human, trying to duplicate God’s design.
Colossians 1:15-17 tells us that He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Jesus, the one that we celebrate December 25, is the one who created biology, physics, chemistry, aeronautical engineering and light and love and beauty and the bridge that restores our broken relationship with God. Seek him as the Wisemen of old did.
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My wife and I went out to see if we could find some owls this afternoon. She prayed that we would find some cooperative owls. This one flew right toward me with the sun setting behind me and dove right in front of me. You would have thought I had a rabbit costume on. Prayers answered!
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A short-eared owl at the Tallgrass Prairie preserve in Oklahoma, take a moment to look up from his hunting and check me out.
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The Prairie had a heavy overcast sky today, makes good photos a bit of a challenge.
While we were exploring the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, I spotted this eagle flying near the road. He flew into this tree that was a little distance from the road. I had my long lens on, and this was the best image I got of him. He did fly around a little for us, but I couldn't capture him. My parents have been coming to the preserve for years and said that this was the first time they've seen an eagle here. Even though this isn't my best eagle image, I thought I would share it because of how rare it is to see eagles here. Happy clicking!
This is the fawn I posted earlier at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve that turned her back me and gave me a butt view. Eventually, she became more comfortable with us and started feeding again. I was able to get this better view of her and share it.
The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is a few miles out of the town of Pawhuska. The main attraction is the bison that roam freely here. When you're lucky, you can find other animals like the deer we saw on this trip. We saw a bald eagle on this trip, but he was too far away to get a great picture of it. If you're in the area, this is a great location to shoot wildlife.