Sapsucker time again

My poor oasis has to endure one woe after another. Right now there's a pair of sapsuckers doing their damage to the trees. Hopefully, they won't stick around as long as the sapsuckers did last fall. Here's one of them, maybe a Yellow-bellied. The other one is for sure a Red-naped.

My dear lepidopterist friend, Brian, wanted me to post this photo that I took yesterday, and had asked him to identify the species. It's a Chinati Checkerspot. I don't remember ever seeing that species before, but he's seen it here before. This is quite a worn individual, which is probably why I couldn't figure out what species it was.(That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) Big Bend Silverleaf (Leucophyllum minus) is their host plant.

I get such a kick out of these Curve-billed Thrashers. The fledgling sits and begs for food. The parent goes to the nearby cracked corn feeder, grabs a mouthful, and hops over and stuffs it in the juvenile's mouth. I wonder when the youngster will decide to skip the middleman and go straight to the feeder. As you can see, he's bigger than his parent (Junior is on the left.) My moving closer for a better shot made the adult wary and the feeding stopped. I didn't have time to wait it out until next trip. Always so much work to accomplish.

I pumped the last of the water from the dirt tank into the stucco tank. A year ago today I had a foot less water in the tank and barely made it through until the June rain. I plan on being very frugal with water this winter and spring since the tank is leaking worse. I'm determined to make it. The house well is not working again and that's going to be an expensive fix.