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 another 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.

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.

Why I hate March

It's bad enough that March is the windiest month of the year, but on top of that, almost every single Feb-Mar everything leafs out, only to be zapped by a freeze in March. Yesterday, I watered at the oasis. Green and lovely, stuff blooming everywhere. The Huisache trees were becoming loaded with leaves and blooms. It was over 90.°

Huisache is very frost tender, so I can only imagine how they look today after last night's freeze. Here in town, I tried to protect the apricot tree that was loaded with fruit and lush leaves. At 5 AM, as the temperature reached freezing, I turned on a sprinkler below it. Here it is at daylight. All I can do now is hope some of the fruit survives.

A visitor took this Lucifer Hummingbird photo at the oasis yesterday. I think it has a damaged bill.

Photo by Sharon McCanahan

Spring indeed!

I finally got to the oasis on the 6th of March. Lucifers didn't disappoint! I observed nest material gathering, but couldn't get a decent photo. Today Kim Morse got these photos of it, which I really love! Thank you, Kim!

I am concerned about the material though. It's some kind of man-made strapping, like nylon, that may seem like spider webs, but doesn't have the requisite stretch that their nests need as the nestlings grow. When I get back down there I'm going to replace that strap with wire.

The Mountain Laurel is blooming beautifully. This one is 7 feet tall and I never water it.

I'm finally feeling better, almost recovered from my winter illnesses (bronchitis earlier and recent UTI). Winters are so hard on me.

Spring is in the air

My spring will be official when the first Lucifer arrives. Could be any day now, but unless a visitor sees it, I probably won't get down there until late next week.

My niece came by while I was there watering. She had her tractor with her, as she was doing some work on her own driveways. She offered to work on my road, and I happily accepted. I knew it would mean I'd have to rake wherever she did work, but it would be well worth it! 

She did good work with what she had to work with... rocky rubble. She worked on it for three hours, with me there guiding her. I was already exhausted from watering all day, but wasn't going to let anything stop me. 

I spent the night at the oasis, finished watering early the next morning, then demanded of my body to rake the three places she had worked on.  The only part of the road that I'm not satisfied with now is the big hill itself. Not much can be done with it without pouring cement. That'll have to wait for another day. Except for the big hill, I think low clearance vehicles could do the road, but sure safer to have decent clearance. Without that, a person could park and walk up the big hill. It's about half a mile from the oasis.

Surprisingly, raking was more doable than I had feared it would be. Although I can't raise my left arm, I discovered I can drag a rake, albeit painfully. Pain was only about a 3 or 4 (out of 10). I also picked up a zillion rocks. 

I had been quite discouraged lately, and now I'm re-invigorated!  And two days later, I don't think my pain is really worse than before I missed my nap, and overworked for those two days. After all, the bones are already bone-on-bone. A corticosteroid shot didn't help, nor does physical therapy. It's possible that I won't hurt it any worse, as long as I use reasonable care. I'd sure hate to not use it if doing so doesn't make it worse. And I guess if I do make it worse, then I'll quit. Old age isn't for the faint-hearted. I know falling is the biggest danger at my age (almost 86) so I do take great care in walking.

Visitors are already using the road.  And next week I'm hosting a Sul Ross University class. All good!