Category: Animals

  • Sometimes, Your Neighbors are a Bunch of Turkeys

    Guernsey State Park, WY, April 2025 It all started in the morning. John pushed the cat food bowls aside, and they made a “Gobble Gobble” sound. He poked the bowls a few more times, and they did not continue to “Gobble Gobble”. He told Kate that he thought we might have turkeys in our campsite.…

  • Animals at St. Vrain State Park

    Longmont, CO, April 2025 St. Vrain State Park is about 50 feet from highway 25, a major north/south route in the area. You can hear the traffic on the highway 24/7. The only exception might be when they close the road in the winter. For being as urban as it is, the park has a…

  • Washita NWR: Centennial Trail

    Washita National Wildlife Refuge, OK, March 2025 The state park and campgrounds are on the south eastern edge of Foss lake, and Washita National Wildlife Refuge is on the north western edge of Foss Lake. We had to go to Washita NWR because they have a cancel stamp for the national parks book. Sadly, the…

  • Did you know there are white deer that are not Albino

    Foss State Park, OK, March 2025 Growing up I always remember the albino deer at Fort McCoy. It was special when you caught sight of one. At Foss State Park visitors center, I learned that white deer exist that are not albino. There are white deer that have a little brown on them and the…

  • On the Right Tracks …

    Foss State Park, OK, March 2025 Foss State Park has a lot of red clay, so many of the animal tracks are pretty clearly captured in the red soil. After looking through animal track identification pages, this is probably a raccoon track. Those should be the two fore feet of a raccoon. We saw many…

  • Prairie Park Nature Center in Lawrence, KS

    Clinton State Park, KS, October 2024 The Prairie Park Nature Center is listed as one of the “Things To Do” in Lawrence, KS. We were not expecting much, so we were pleasantly surprised when it turned out better than expected. The nature center has more animals and animal artifacts than any other nature center we…

  • Promachus Rufides Anyone?

    Heron County Park, IL, August 2024 It sounds like it should be a cocktail, but it is a red-footed cannibalfly. They are also called bee panthers because they hunt bees. They are part of the robber fly, or assassin fly, family. The name reflects that they prey on other insects, including other robber flies, and…

  • New Site Same Park & we have Turkeys!

    We were scheduled to go to Clinton Lake State Park but decided to cancel based on feedback from other campers. Specifically, that the park has gone downhill over the last 4 years, dump stations closed and bathhouses closed. I called. As the person told us… only one of the bathhouses was open and it’s not…

  • Did you say Buck Moon?

    Summit Lake State Park, IN, July 2024 Today, I saw 6 deer in the park. This includes a buck that had just started getting it’s antler. The antlers had the velvet and weren’t that largest yet. This made me think of pictures I took last week of the July full moon. July full moon was…

  • Mounds State Park Indiana

    The state park is unique in the sense that it has mounds created between 200 BC and 200 AD. They were formed by the Adena culture. Here’s what I’ve been able to glean about the mounds in cliff notes… I summarized the above information from link – plan MDS.indd For me the illustration really hit…