red spotted little guy
Had quite a busy day, starting off with the late morning service at church, followed by a community lunch to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the church charter. Oddly enough, Louis was the youngest signatory of the initial charter, at the age of four.
Does he think he's camouflaged?
My breakfast nature-watch included a toad sighting on the porch in the back yard. Amazingly, this little fellow stayed put while I took as many photos as I wanted. I hope I didn’t terrify him too much.
Good hopping legs
My best attempt at identification is that he was either an Oak Toad (anaxyrus quercicus) or a Red Spotted Toad (anaxyrus punctatus), but neither of these species fit 100%. He was lacking the distinctive stripe down the back of an Oak Toad, and didn’t seem nearly as warty as all the images I could find of Red Spotted Toads. Any herpetology experts out there?
I really wanted to go for a swim here
There were miles and miles of sunflowers and other wildflowers.
After church I went on a bike ride (25 miles, 1:47) on roads up north of Edmond. I was looking forward to biking all the way up to a grid of roads that are light gray on google maps, thinking the traffic there would be non-existent. What I didn’t anticipate was that the roads would be unpaved! That alone would be fantastic with a hybrid or mountain bike (not so much with my road bike) if it weren’t for the massive dust clouds caused by any passing car. Oklahoma has been in a massive drought of course, which only compounds the issue. I improvised an alternate route without trouble. Square grids are wonderful things for the navigationally challenged!
By the time I got back, it was just about time to head over to Grandma’s place for dinner. We ate out at Applebee’s, which was mighty fine. They’ve got some killer queso nachos! And now begins the battle to stay awake until at least 10:00 pm…