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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Migration began today at CMO

Dagnabit! I knew, absolutely knew, that the second night of a cold norther is always colder than the first night. I looked at all the forecasts for last night. Supposed to be no colder than 42° in Marfa. But still, I knew. So at 5 AM I got up and drove to the oasis to check. Night before last had gotten down to 37° at 5 AM and held there, but this AM, at 5 AM, it was 38°. Looked like the old rule was wrong. Must be this crazy global warming. I went back to bed.

When I got up at 8 AM, I checked the temperature in Marfa, which had gotten down to 35° the night before last (when I was 2° warmer). Guess what? It was 30° in Marfa. I went racing down to the oasis and started spraying water on the mulberry trees. The thermometer read 31°. I will never be tricked by the forecast again. At least there seems to be no damage to anything. They can take a little cold for a short while. But it could have been bad.























There are already dozens of mulberries ripe, but the birds don't seem to know it yet. Migrants are starting to trickle in. Was surprised to have a female McGillivray's Warbler today. Usually I get the males first. Birders will be coming in large numbers starting tomorrow, so all is right with the world. Close call though.

I wasn't able to get a good photo of the McGillivray's. She wouldn't come out of hiding. This distant shot is all I got.


This is the W Screech-Owl that I believe is the male. Hadn't seen him for a few days. This is a different box than I saw him in last time.

Not to worry, I'm getting tired of taking screech-owl photos.

2 comments:

  1. Amazing you drove down there and watered things down! Good thing nothing was damaged, esp with fruit...our mulberries are just leafing out.

    "absolutely knew, that the second night of a cold norther is always colder than the first night." - I'll have to remember that, as it seems to be true. Front through a day earlier up here, and my low was 33F Thurs but 26F Fri AM...glad today's low was 46F. If only it would rain each week...

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  2. I don't know if that holds true for other places but it sure does here. Warmer this morning. Keep in mind, it's only a block to drive. In summer after a big rain when I catch water in the dirt tanks, I get up every couple of hours to gas up the pumps while transferring the water into the concrete tanks. So often this place keeps me going night and day.

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