{"id":797,"date":"2005-11-12T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-12T19:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/?p=797"},"modified":"2005-11-12T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-12T19:16:00","slug":"wichita-mountains-interlude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wichita-mountains-interlude\/","title":{"rendered":"Wichita Mountains interlude"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I was feeling drained of new ideas on Friday after a busy, but productive week, so I set my sights on the one place in Oklahoma that is guaranteed to rejuvenate the spirit: the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>. The place is a 60,000-acre reminder that God doesn’t live inside a church. These mountains are the oldest in North America and there’s something really grand about their reliable presence.<\/p>\n

The weather in Oklahoma has been dry and warm this season so the trees are just giving up their leaves without a lot of fanfare and color. But oh, my goodness, there’s nothing drab about the prairie and tall grasses this year. <\/p>\n

Friday was another beautiful day – clear skies and temperatures in the 70s when good friend Terri Underhill<\/a> and I headed to the refuge. It’s a 90-mile drive that goes quickly when you’ve got two avid birders in the car and a few hawks soaring overhead. (They were probably all Red-tailed Hawks<\/a> but we worked really hard to make them into something else!) <\/p>\n

We wanted (of course) to find a really rare bird but found instead a beautiful day, some charming birds and a great photo op of a bull Elk. Isn’t he incredible? I so enjoyed watching him and a small herd of females and young that his portrait gets posted on this blog instead of the very best picture of a Hermit Thrush<\/a> I’ve taken. That says a lot, huh?! <\/p>\n

Our best birding spot of the day was on the trail beside French Lake. We played the call of the Eastern Screech-Owl<\/a> and had a few curious birds come to check it out. The Dark-eyed Juncos<\/a> (newly arrived from their far northern breeding grounds), Tufted Titmice<\/a>, Carolina Wrens<\/a>, Ruby-crowned Kinglet<\/a> and the Hermit Thrush kept us busy as we tried to get photos of these birds as they flitted around the black-jack oaks. The refuge also provided a chance to chase some Chipping Sparrows<\/a>, an Eastern Phoebe<\/a> and a Red-headed Woodpecker<\/a> around a field near Jed Johnson Lake. <\/p>\n

It wasn’t the birdiest of trips but any day spent with elk, buffalo and prairie dogs is a great one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was feeling drained of new ideas on Friday after a busy, but productive week, so I set my sights on the one place in Oklahoma that is guaranteed to rejuvenate the spirit: the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. The place is a 60,000-acre reminder that God doesn’t live inside a church. These mountains are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backyardbirdcam.com\/birdblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}