Enigmatic Lucifers

When Kelly Bryan did his Lucifer banding project between 2007-2019, he speculated that some Lucifers arrived, and began nesting in March, while another larger group arrived in May. Everything I've observed since then seems to confirm that hypothesis.

Kelly wrote that "May definitely marked the time frame that breeding activity in Lucifers kicked into high gear...." This came to mind today when I noticed a greater number of Lucifers at the feeders, as well as May gathering of nesting material. There are no fleglings yet, so that can't account for the increased activity. (Fledglings should start to show up from the March nesters any day though.)

Photo by Danny Salinas

While Kelly noted other possible explanations to do with food resources, etc, for whatever reason, there are more arrivals this month. Maybe someday they'll put trackers on these tiny jewels and we can learn more about what's going on with them.

I was very curious to see how the Scaled Quail would handle the new feeder spikes. They seem to not mind at all. And wonderful to note is the absence of bears.

Yesterday the oasis got its first monsoon of the year. Everything is brimful. For a while there won't be mosquitoes, so it's quite heavenly.

Hoping for rain

Stuck in town, watching storm radar, and it looks like the oasis may have gotten a nice rain this afternoon. Going down tomorrow with my son, hoping I won't have to water. Rather hard to see the landmarks on this cell shot of the computer screen. (I would've done a screenshot if I had thought I might post it.) Hindsight. 

It says "Nine Point Mesa" at the top of the screen, and just right of the big storm cell it says  "West Corazon Peak" so that gives you an idea of why I think we got rain, at least the edge of the cell. Highway 118 got the middle of it. The oasis is a mile west of W Corazon Peak, and 5 miles east of Hwy. 118..

Meanwhile, in town, I've had a Yellow-throated Vireo. Been trying to get decent photos, but my good camera is broken, maybe forever, so I'm doing what I can with my backup camera (Nikon Coolpix) First photo taken on the 18th and second taken today. Not sure they're of the same individual since I didn't hear or see one yesterday.

It sings all day long, but I seldom can locate it deep in the pecan trees, and when I do, it doesn't sit still long enough for me to get a photo. But, I eventually got the above. It's not a new species for me, or the place, and I've taken decent photos of it before, but always striving for something better. It's a fun undertaking when stuck in town!

UPDATE: Oasis got .2" and we didn't water the trees. Lots of birders present and I hadn't slept good last night in anticipation. Plus it sprinkled a little so I'm hoping for rain yet! Story of my life, it seems.

Magical oasis

 The oasis is the most lush it's ever been. Here are a few examples.

Early morning light

Path on north of dragonfly pond

Arroyo on north side of oasis

Townsend's Warblers always love the Catclaw Acacia, which is why I tolerate its vicious thorns.

And good bear news.... the rocks I arranged around the bear-proof feeder before leaving three days ago haven't been moved. The bear was smart enough to know that moving them wouldn't get him seed, so he moved himself elsewhere. Yay!

My son went to help water today, which was greatly appreciated. He mainly went because the pump in the water feature wasn't working and I couldn't fix it myself. It's fixed and running now!

And more oasis magic!. Lee located at least six more patches of the extremely rare Dark-Star Milkvine (Chthamalia atrostellata)! It's growing all up and down the arroyo above the oasis, with countless seed pods, including an old dried one from last year.

 Here there's a new seed pod forming at the base of a flower.

Bear battle won!

Maybe I didn't have the trail cam set optimally, but at least I did get six short clips that give me an idea of what transpired. The first clip starts after he's already moved the rocks, tested the bin, and now thinking. I don't know why the camera didn't pick up on him moving the rocks. This is the second clip, taken 12 minutes later.

Nearly 8 minutes after that, the camera picks him up again as he makes what I believe is serious attempt to get seed from the feeder. Lee watched the video and sees his tongue trying at a spot that Lee had figured was the closest he could come to the seed.  However, I don't think he succeeded or we would've seen a repeat of the action. Here's a screenshot, zoomed in, of the only, probably painful, attempt at getting past the spikes Lee welded on.

Failing in that, he makes a perfunctory attempt at checking out the hanging feeder, which likely he had done sometime in the past, without success.

 

One last attempt at the bin feeder a few seconds later.

The last clip shows him just standing there, defeated (I'd like to think). I wish I'd gotten more clips. I think I had the settings right. For some reason the camera didn't detect him all the time.There was no bear scat anywhere, and no return visits (the past 2 nights) after that first night with the spikes and bars added, so I consider the battle won at long last!

Bad news bears!

Lee and I arrived at the oasis near daylight, loaded for bear! Lee had brought his welder and was determined to prevent the bear from feeding at the feeder. The feeder was empty when we arrived, and there were two piles of bear scat replete with bird seed. While the bear hadn't been able to jerk the stakes out of the ground, he had jerked enough that the feeder could be jiggled. Apparently enough to shake feed out of it.

 Lee went immediately to work...

... while I watered the trees.

... and watched birds....

Common Yellowthroat male

I must say, the feeder is now a one-of-a-kind work of art! I just hope it works.

We didn't bother to arrange rocks around it this time. The House Finches seem comfortable with the new decor.

My favorite bird of the day was a visiting Hepatic Tanager.

I put the trail cam on the feeder. I look forward to checking it in several days. Might be interesting. The unwelcome mat worked, so maybe an unwelcoming feeder will too. We have no choice but to live with bears.

Not so "bearproof" feeder

Got a message from a bird photographer early this morning, with the attached photo.

What it means is that a bear outwitted the electical bear zapper. So Lee and I rushed down there (from Alpine) to see what we could do. I decided I didn't want the zapper anymore. It's barely esthetically tolerable if it works, and it was functioning properly, as far as Lee could tell, when he left a few days ago.

The bear had ripped the zapper off the feeder and turned it off, maybe accidentally. Possibly the ground wire wasn't working right, who knows. At any rate, Lee removed the zapper and plugged the hole the broken off mounting pipe had left in the feeder. Then he drove stakes deep into the ground that he fastened to the feeder base so a bear can't swivel the feeder.  Afterwards, we didn't get picky about how we arranged rocks around it. I'm sure a bear will soon rearrange them!

From studying past videos, it seems the bear can't get seed out without twisting the feeder around and around. If the bear is able to jerk the anchors loose, as surely it will, Lee plans to weld spikes to the hinge. That's what the bear is using for leverage to turn the feeder. Just because we've failed for over 20 years, doesn't mean we won't win. We're getting closer. It doesn't appear, that for all the destruction the bear wreaked, that it actually got seed from the feeder. (When we electrified the feeder, we made the base harder to swivel) Less left to destroy now. Yup, we're winning!

UPDATE: Early next morning....

At least the bear wasn't able to swivel the feeder. That's progress. We're going to go down and weld bars protecting the ports and maybe weld  some spikes in pertentent places.

Rare new flower species at oasis

We were excited when a birder discovered Dark Star Milkvine (Chthamalia atrostellata) growing at the oasis. It's quite rare and localized. A lifer for us! 

My sister is convalescing from hip replacement surgery, but she managed to get herself into the location to see it. We collected a specimen for Dr. Powell, the expert on Big Bend plants.

Dr. Powell wrote this to my sister, "As far as I know, this would be the fourth documented locality in the world." (He's the author of this huge tome on plants.)

Photo of one of our blooms taken by Troy Hibbitts

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UPDATE: The name I first posted it by was Matelea atrostellata, but I have since learned the name has been changed to Chthamalia atrostellata. The four documented locations for it are two in the Christmas Mountains (including ours), one in Big Bend National Park (Cattail Falls), and one in Coahuila, Mexico. I have observed at least eight seedpods in our patch of them.

Couple of firsts for me today

I got up before daylight and headed to a private residence near Ft. Davis where a lifer Golden-crowned Sparrow awaited me. I saw it immediately upon arriving, but spent another hour trying to get a decent photo of it. It was well worth the effort!

Then it was home to eat lunch and take a nap before participating in my first real book signing, held at the local bookstore, Front Street Books. It was fun!   (The book has a chapter in it about me and my oasis.)

2026 BIG SIT!

We had our annual Big Sit yesterday, and it was miserably cold and windy. Worst Big Sit weather ever, plus we had it earlier than usual so more people would be able to participate, which meant fewer migrants. Not surprisingly, we tallied the fewest birds ever during such an occasion. I ran a long extension cord with an electric blanket to the viewing area which helped some participants survive better. Some warmed up in their cars occasionally. I retreated to my cabin periodically.

Best two species of the day were a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird* and a pair of  Northern Parulas.

A male Townsend's Warbler and an Indigo Bunting were enjoyed also.

The oasis is lush after a rain a week or so ago. Migration has begun! Gonna be exciting! 

UPDATE: Got these photos of the Big Sit, taken by participant Maryann Eastman.

The electric blanket is beside me on the last photo, taken on a rare moment when no one was using it.

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*Some experts think that hummingbird may be a hybrid Black-chinned X Ruby-throated.

Oasis looking lovely!

I pushed myself to go water and service feeders yesterday, even though I end up getting sick when I do it. At daylight, when I stopped by the bear-proof shed to retrieve the watering hoses, I smelled something dead. I sniffed inside the shed and was relieved to not smell it inside. Put the hoses inside the bed of my pickup and headed to water. Just before dark as I was putting the hoses back into the shed, I was watching for snakes and noticed a dead and very smelly carcass four feet from the shed door. Turned out to be a bobcat. (I suspect it died giving birth.) Don't know how I missed it earlier. I guess in the cool morning twilight, snakes weren't on my mind. 

Thankfully, that freeze on March 15th didn't do much damage. A few persimmon trees had frozen leaves on them, and some new growth on live oaks got zapped, but, surprisingly, the Huisache trees were fine. And they were what I thought would be damaged first. Sorry, no photos. Too exhausted to carry a camera around while watering in the 96° heat.

I think this spring migration is going to be great! We're going into a wetter El Niño pattern also. It won't arrive until summer, but I have plenty of water until then, and a dry spring concentrates migrants to the oasis. I just have to hang tough!

In town recovering. Habitat here is greening up nicely, and the Black Locust trees are in bloom.