My Fun Bison Encounter

I have a herd of bison to share with you today. There are pictures and a video that shows what I found on my newest adventure. These bison are the completely wild ones from Broken Kettle Grasslands that I've shown you before. But I think maybe I have better pictures this time.

The bison have been coming up kind of close recently so I've been able to get pretty good pictures. I feel lucky about this because most people that drive that road never see them at all. Most people don't even know the road is there because it's just an old unremarkable dirt road in the country.

Here's on that was standing off a little by itself. I thought you might like a good close-up of just one.

This picture shows you what I saw while I was standing there looking at them. You can see they weren't very close, but I could see them pretty well. I'm glad I have a good zoom on my camera.

Notice there is a pond separating them from me. That pond might be the reason they've been coming down to this area of the grasslands. There are other ponds in their home, but maybe they just like this one right now.

If you look closely you can see a couple of the bison hiding in the tall grass. There were lots more standing in that grass. It was kind of hard to find them all. Every time I looked again I'd find another one.

The herd is kind of big. You can't really tell that from the pictures. I think the video does a little better job of that.

I did a little better job with this episode of Rat TV than the last one. This video is the second one where I used the Windows 10 Photos app to create it. This time I added a little special effect. Can you spot it?

If you like bison then you'll like this video. As you can see by the pictures, there are plenty of them here.

Since I've been a little slow with my blogging recently my words here are a bit clumsy. I'll be getting back into things now that fall is over. I wish I could solve that fall thing I have. But it's too late to try again this year, so I'm just going to enjoy the winter.

I've been out a bit more lately so I have plenty of material to share with you now. I'll have more on that in my next post. And I now have a good reason to go out to some good places to explore a bit more, so I'll have lots of good stuff in the future. I'll bring that all to you soon. And until then I'll talk to you later.

Wild Turkeys At Broken Kettle Grasslands

Today I'll share with you some genuine wild turkeys in their natural habitat. These aren't city turkeys that I've shown you before or turkeys that lurk by the side of a busy road. These turkeys live inside a place called Broken Kettle Grasslands, which is the largest area of free wild prairie left in America. These turkeys are truly wild and free.

I thought with Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow this would be a perfect time to share these turkeys with you. For those of you who are not American, we celebrate Thanksgiving here every year to show our thanks for what we have. We think of it as part of what being an American is all about.

As you can see in the top left of this turkey photo, there is that mysterious object from my previous post. Before I go on I have to admit that I lied to you again. I do that much more often than you'd think. I'm a terrible liar. I knew what this was all along. I just wanted you to find out for yourself. It's more fun that way, and now you'll remember it longer than you would have otherwise.

But I'm still not going to come right out and tell you. Where would the fun in that be? If you really want to know the answer to what the mystery object is, then go to my last post and read the comments. It's there that you will find the answer. When you're finished you will feel happy and exhilarated because of that fun little quest I sent you on.

My newest episode of Rat TV is an interesting experiment I'm trying. The Windows 10 Photos app has a new feature where you can make your own videos with a few simple clicks of your mouse. I made this with a combination of pictures and a video. Let's see how it turns out.

The app to make the video is pretty cool. It enabled me to do in a few seconds some of what it took me hours to accomplish before. I think I'll still use my main video editing software for special stuff, but this quick app is good enough for most things.

I've been telling you recently how I've been having a bit of trouble with my nature stuff. Some of it came from a bit of fall depression that happens to me every year. But much of it also came from just being too busy for any of this fun stuff.

I think I may have solved this problem now. I have now finally found a time in the day to set aside for my blogging activity. I don't usually do much of anything else during this time so I think I have plenty of time to get my blogging done. So after a short time to organize everything just a bit I think I may be able to get back up and running like I want. And with that, I'll talk to you later.

What Might This Mystery Object Be?

I know. I know. It's another one of these one picture posts. But this one picture is kind of interesting by itself, and necessary for the post. That's because I'm not exactly sure of what we're looking at here. Maybe a more rural person might know. My experience is in more urban outdoor stuff.

I found this object far away from me where the buffalo (bison) roam at Broken Kettle Grasslands. It looked like a giant shield from where I was standing. I took lots of pictures of it, but the camera's focus seemed to slide off of it. I think that's because it has that camouflage look to it. It looks to be maybe a tent or a trailer or maybe a shed. Maybe it's some kind of observation space to watch the bison. I don't know.

On an unrelated note, my fall depression seems to be ending now that fall is coming closer to a close. Hopefully, I can bring myself to begin posting more often again. I do have a few things to post now. Right now the only things slowing me down are some unexpected problems I've been having with some of my things around here, such as extra work and general mechanical problems with some of my property.

Anyway, what do you think? Do you know what the object in my picture might be? Or maybe you have a good wild guess. Even a humorous guess is welcome, and maybe even more welcome than something else. So go ahead and let me know what you think because it'll be really fun. I'll talk to you later.

Glitches And Flowers

It seems like yesterday and it seems like years ago. When it was still warm I found these tiny flowers at the end of a dark nature trail under lots of trees. I always meant to post my best pictures of them but my phone glitched and my best pictures were lost.

I took this picture with my big camera and it came out okay, but not the best. I have found that my phone takes excellent close-ups. My big camera does not. And now because of that, I bring both cameras along while I'm out on one of my everyday adventures.

So now after a little bit of unrelated downtime, I've realized I have to become a bit more organized. So I'm making a plan to take along with me on my next little adventure. My problem has always been finding cool pictures I like in the fall. My task is to find them, and I'm going to look in lots of places. So until then, I'll talk to you later.

Large Milkweed Bug Nymphs

These pictures area few weeks old because I haven't had time to share them and I really haven't felt like it until now. I'm trying to conquer a bit of fall fatigue I get every year about this time. I really planned on making this a nice big complicated post, but let's just see if I can keep it a bit simpler than that.

What you are looking at here are Large Milkweed Bug Nymphs (young ones). I've seen small milkweed bugs before, but this is the first time I've ever seen the large kind. A simple search on this site can find some very interesting, and an even somewhat scientific post about the small ones.

I'm not going to bore you with too many details about these bugs here, but you can find plenty of information with a simple web search. You should do it simply because your fingers need the extra exercise. Go on, it's good for you.

This picture above gives you a pretty good view of these bugs. Bugs can look kind of disgusting to the human eye sometimes if you're not prepared for them. Don't you think? Especially when they're all huddled together like these.

Here's one boring its head into a milkweed pod. They're one of the few kinds of creatures that eat these plants. If you look closely you can see that those big black parts on its back aren't all the way attached. Can you guess why? You're smart so I'll let you figure it out.

Even though they are on more than one pod, most of these bugs huddle together with each other.

It's kind of interesting how I found these bugs. You wouldn't guess it, but I was driving along and I spotted them from my truck. The picture above is just about what I saw that made me stop. It's amazing what you can find when you are looking.

I posted this last picture just because I wanted to give you one last look at them. I'm fascinated by these bugs. Bugs can be disgusting, but they are also very interesting. There were ladybugs and boxelder bugs all over my garage this fall, like every year, but I neglected to get any pictures. Now I wish I would have gotten a few.

Most people like ladybugs, but I've noticed in the past several years that we have a new kind that bite. It only hurts a little bit, but it doesn't feel pleasant. I've written about them in the past and they are a new different kind than from long ago years past.

So anyway, I'll try to begin posting more often again soon, but I'm not promising anything just yet. I still need to find some inspiration to shake off this fall depression. It will happen, but I'm not sure when yet. and with that last negative note, I'll talk to you later...