Another day, another setback

This will give you an idea of the latest setback.

It seems the new springs have more bounce to them than the old ones did. The tank bounced going to the lodge empty. Got there and saw what happened so came back without water and put a spare fitting on, then removed a support board that was under the fitting that I thought had caused the break. Got to the lodge again to find the spare fitting broken. Guess the board wasn't the culprit. So this time I had a small faucet with me, just in case, and put that in the tank.

It took 2 hours to empty the tank when I got back to the oasis. Normally, it takes 5 minutes. So after 2 loads of that, I decided to go to town tonight and get new fittings first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, I strapped the tank down so it can't bounce. Whew! That comes to one hour of time spent per hundred gallons of water. But while it was draining I photographed birds and watered a few trees.
 
This "Oregon" race of Dark-eyed Junco showed up today, but the Fox Sparrow of yesterday was gone. Juncos have been scarce so far this fall.
 

Pine Siskin numbers seem normal for this time of year.

Also a normal number of White-crowned Sparrows.