January cold front

It got down to 18° here in Alpine this morning. Having the water feature here is saving me from worse cabin fever than I already have, while reliving the recent fun of Balmorhea... in my mind. LOL

I don't care for pansies, but they're better than no flowers. It's all we could find that withstands the cold.

Meanwhile, my son, Lee (living part time at the house near the oasis), is working on conserving as much water as possible. He put a metal tank into the empty stucco tank that he plans to fill from the above ground 60,000 gallon reserve tank, and then pump out of it to water the trees. It's still a work in progress. The pump in it is the one plumbed into the stucco tank. This way we won't have to put water directly into the stucco tank where much of it evaporates. The main problem I see so far is monitoring the level in the metal tank, and what will happen if a deluge fills the stucco tank. I think that keeping the metal tank full will keep it from floating, etc. during a flooding rain. It's not if, but when, that happens.

As for monitoring the level in the metal tank, the plan is to have it full before watering (and then refill after watering), and not use more than 1000 gallons for each watering. It's a 1500 gallon tank. We'll see. It's just not acceptable to dump precious water into the stucco tank. Hopefully, we can get it cleaned out and patched soon. It'll be hard for me to confine watering to 1000 gallons. Getting down into the tank to check isn't an option for me. Of course, when the pump stops putting out water, I'll know, but that could ruin the pump. Not to worry, we'll win!

There's a good chance of some snow later in the week. I'll take moisture however I can get it!

Caracaras at last

I've lost track of how many times I went to Balmorhea hoping to add Crested Caracara to my Reeves County list. The species was seen and photographed at the lake there in December of 2023 and into January 2024. Then again this past December. I kept trying, but never did see them. I've seen many caracaras, so I don't know why it mattered to have one more species added to my county list, but, for whatever esoteric reason, I cared. A fun challenge of a species rare for the county, I guess.

Only photo I know of showing the pair together

By this morning, I'd almost forgotten my quest for them, as I enjoyed lovely weather birding at Balmorhea State Park. Last time I was birding Balmorhea I did the park last, so decided to start there today. Early mornings are the best time for birding.

After a couple of hours of fun, I decided to go to the lake and look for the caracaras once again. Plus something else exciting might show up. As I was driving out of the park, headed toward the town of Balmorhea, my daughter called. I slowed to a crawl and drove along the shoulder while we talked. Just as we were about through, I couldn't believe my eyes. There, perched about 100-150 or so feet from the highway, in a field, was a pair of caracaras. I don't know if I would have seen them had I been driving faster and paying more attention to traffic. They were the last thing on my mind, at the time.

I turned around and went back to the park. Didn't feel like going to the lake after that. I was so excited, I figured I'd just check out the park one more time, then head back to Alpine. 

Back at the park, I saw a few different species for the day, including this Hooded Merganser. Always a nice find! A great morning!

2024 in review

I don't know how I made it in Alpine for nearly twenty years without my little water feature there. In mid January an Arctic cold snap sent temperatures plunging to 8° as I sat snugly by a fire watching birds out my viewing window at the water feature. It seemed like it had never been more popular. 

Late in the month, Lee made and welded cups to the bear-proof feeder to save on wasted seed and make it even more bear-proof. 

February came in with a bang, to my body anyway. On the first, I fell and got a goose-egg on my elbow on an already stressful day of doctor and dentist visits. 

We discovered birds couldn't get seed out of the feeder with the new cup/trays, so cut down the interior hoods over the ports, hoping the feeder would then be perfect.

Delays in finally getting my anticipated implant teeth, caused added stress. Had to start taking blood pressure medicine, hoping that would be temporary, but still on it.

March was so uneventful I only did three blog posts all month. It wasn't worth writing about then, nor is it now. More birders than birds, I would say. Lucifers arrived two weeks later than usual. 

April finally came, though it got off to a slow start.  In mid-April a Long-eared Owl showed up causing quite a stir for the two days it was there. This photo of it is by Renea Shepler. I did get a couple of poor photos of it, but nothing as awesome as hers.

Not until April's last week did things start getting crazy, when large groups arrived nearly daily! In the middle of that chaos, a big bear decided the oasis was a good place to take up residence.

Photo by Betty Stys

One visitor was recounting the birds she saw at the oasis, adding that she got a bonus bear too. I thought that was as good a moniker for the bear as any, so I dubbed it "Bonus Bear." Here is Bonus Bear's official portrait taken by Troy Williams.

Trail cam video showed the bear energetically rotating the feeder on its pole, and jiggling it, getting the seed out that way. We wanted to concrete it in so it couldn't be moved or jiggled, but the concrete would need days to set, and wouldn't set with a bear at it nightly. So we contacted Texas Parks & Wildlife, who promptly came down and helped us hook up a solar electric devise they had me go purchase. I greatly appreciate their expertise. It did the trick! 

After a few zaps, the bear moved on. I'd still like to concrete the feeder in, mostly for looks and also so we can put rock perches there for the birds like we had previously, but I'm afraid to. Not positive it would still be bear-proof if we do.

Before electrification

May arrived, hot and dry. Spring migration didn't produce any very interesting species, but lots of birders and sufficient birds to keep visitors happy. Keeping the oasis watered and maintained, while doing my best to stay fit, was about all I accomplished in May.

In June I was nearly out of water, so made the difficult decision to cut back on watering from about 5 hours a week to around 2½ hours. I carefully selected which trees to water and which weren't worth the cost in time and water. That way the oasis could hopefully be sustainable, and hopefully, I'd be physically able to continue doing it, without torturing myself. Mid-June, about the day after my decision, we got a big monsoon and everything filled up. I still felt determined to go with the new schedule. At some point it'll be necessary, so why suffer in the meantime. And as long as I have feeders, I'll have the species most sought after by birders. The oasis just may not look as lush, but everything has a price. 

The best June bird was a short visit by a Broad-billed Hummingbird.

July was cooler, with occasional small showers, but no bird activity to speak of, other than the regular nesting species.

Even though August is the middle of monsoon season, the oasis got no rain. A boring month.

September was cool, but otherwise much the same. It seemed most migrants were avoiding the drought-stricken area, although toward the middle of the month, some fall migrants trickled in. I always enjoy seeing migrating vireos, and the occasional Black-Capped Vireo, when one drops by.

In October I got a couple of fun migrants, including this handsome Hooded Warbler.

Meanwhile, my habitat in Alpine was producing some nice migrants, including this Blue-headed Vireo,

...and this Wood Thrush, among other species.

By November, I had pretty much given up on getting any rain. The oasis had barely gotten any more precipitation than our driest year of 2011. (Map as of Oct 29)

This year was only marginally better off due to that late spring rain, plus now having the above ground 60,000 gal. reserve tank that I didn't have back then. This time there isn't the option of hauling in water. Not only is it no longer being sold at Terlingua Ranch Lodge, but I'm physically no longer able to deal with the hauling. No other option except to eke by with the help of the reserve tank.

The first oasis Blue Jay dropped by briefly on Nov.1.

One interesting fall bird was a hybrid Anna's x Rufous Hummingbird that showed up at my Alpine feeders in late September and stayed until early December.

Other than the hybrid, December was a really boring month. Just grateful to be alive and well! The oasis survived another La Nina year! I look forward to a better year in 2025!

Balmorhea State Park

I learned something today about coots. That's one reason birding never gets old. So much to learn. I'd been seeing occasional reports on ebird of Red-Shielded American Coots. To me they looked like all the coots I've ever seen in my life, so I consulted our reviewer, Steven Cardiff. He said all American Coots in our country are the Red-shielded variety, so it's the same no matter how you report them. 

Today I went back to Balmorhea but this time, instead of just birding the lake, I quit before I was too exhausted to bird the state park there also. It had been under reconstruction for the last two years so today was my first time there since it reopened. These photos shows the long row of spiffy new canpsites. All they seem to lack is AC.  😀

My assessment is that the campgrounds are significantly improved and updated, but the rest is much the same.  I was pretty tired by the time I got there, but enjoyed it nevertheless. I'm not usually able to get close enough to ducks for good photos, so that was fun, even if they were just common species (2 Lesser Scaups and a Ring-necked Duck).

Once again, I didn't see the caracaras, but not surprised. The best bird of the day was a Gray Catbird at the state park that, regrettably, I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of. Here's where I saw it, which is still my favorite spot at the park. You can't really tell from this photo, but there's a small waterfall there. It carries water from the spring-fed swimming pool to the cienega in a spot I've never seen anyone else, even though the park was quite busy today, as it usually is.

Back to Balmorhea

Couldn't resist another visit to Lake Balmorhea. Ebird had showed quite a few birders going there on the 16th, so I went on the 17th, hoping birders would be there, but none were.

Then I went again on the 19th, sure that some would be there. How can I not see birders there twice in a row? But none. I like birders to be there because more eyes see more, plus they usually have scopes and big camera lenses that help identify distant species. On my own, I'm able to identify fewer species. However, most were easy to ID, including these Western Grebes and Ring-billed Gull.

Yesterday I didn't go and there were several birders there. Just my luck! But none saw the caracaras either, so I didn't miss that. They didn't see any that would have been lifers for me that I missed either. But they did see a couple of species that would have been new for my Reeves County list. No big deal. I had fun anyway. Going more often helps familiarize me with what's there, thus improves my ebird list, and reduces my frustration. Maybe I'll go again soon. Nothing is going on anywhere else. I don't even have the hybrid hummer in Alpine to entertain me, anymore. Bleak! Here's one of the two Rufous hummers I have in town.

The days will start getting longer tomorrow. That always  cheers me up, which doesn't make sense since January is usually our coldest weather. But Lucifers are only two months away! 

Still going.....

I went to the oasis a couple of days ago to water trees. Had to get into the tank to move the pump deeper into water. It was icy cold so I hurried. Will have to start using the reserve tank after this. 

It'll rain eventually. Watering keeps things alive, but not thriving. I think it's partly because harvested rain water has salts in it. We need good soaking rains, with the microbes they contain, to leach the salts out of the soil. 

I went to Balmorhea Lake today to keep my birding skills, such as they are, alive, but it wasn't a very successful trip. It was about my fourth time to try for the pair of Crested Caracaras there, again without seeing them. I'll keep trying. I need the practice on shorebirds and such, anyway.

Greater Yellowlegs

Thanksgiving

I took the opportunity to ride along with my son to my daughter's place in Rockport for the holiday. Had hoped to see 100 species in the county (Aransas). The weather was so cold and windy that I birded mostly from the car, only making it to 78 species. My daughter accompanied me on a couple of my forays. All in all, I had a great time. She and her husband have an awesome vacation rental there that she generously offered a discount to birders, so if you or anyone you know are interested, here's the link. Be sure to say you're birders.

https://www.vrbo.com/3540451

Here are a few of my favorite photos from Aransas County.

Meanwhile, the oasis is... well, still there. Not much happening these days

As always, so much to be thankful for!

Kudos

Kudos to frequent oasis visitor, Matt Walter, whose oasis photo of a Gray Fox graced the front page of the local newspaper, The Big Bend Sentinel, today.

Hard copy

Online copy

My back seems a bit improved, so I'm optimistic, although I'm sure I'll need to be real careful henceforth, and not lift anything over ten pounds. Birding is pretty boring lately, in spite of the continuing hybrid Anna's x Rufous Hummingbird here in town.

Bathing

Earth oven construction

Now that my creative son is living almost full time at the oasis, he decided to make a pizza oven (horno or earh oven).  It's a lot of hard work. Here's a link to a short video of him making the clay coating from the clay on our big hill. (I think you can click side arrows to see more of them.)

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMgboVZ6Iy-eF-Rgp4TXXa-X6llm_FTbW3JT-sKCVcANbjVAx5JezMoiJoCUIU5aw/photo/AF1QipOjVtkDqsICJ3K-CWwDlhluzjWUb95wM-suM4pY?key=SnFKMlBkTHBzUVlvR2RDOEFRckVQSkNuRERBa3NR

I know nothing about earth ovens. I hope it works good for him. It's not done yet, but here's how it looked when I last saw it. I'll post photos of it when it's done and in use.

The hybrid Anna's x Rufous Hummingbird is still visiting my feeders in Alpine, going on two months now. Otherwise, nothing going on. Might be a long winter ahead if wintering birds avoid this drought-ridden region.

Drought

In 2011 we had our dryest year ever, with only 2.25" of rain for the year. This year is shaping up to be the second dryest year. So far we're at 2.89" and likely won't get any more rain this year, although I'm always hopeful.

Yesterday, I went down and frugally watered trees. Not much bird activity to entertain me.The best photo I took for the day was of this Black-throated Sparrow. No matter how often I see or photograph them, there's something irresistible about them. Maybe it's that tuxedo look.

The biggest surprise of the day was a California Spreadwing. I hadn't see one since early July. Not only that, but it was the only ode I saw all day. Hopefully, when it rains, there'll be a population of them here like there was a couple of years ago.

Of course, the Lucifers are gone, and of course, I miss them! Life is good, so not complaining!