CMO stuff

I came down to the oasis for a few days to catch up on things here. The weather was pretty decent for a change, but I think I read somewhere that another "polar vortex" is bearing down on us, or whatever.

There were 3 Green-winged Teal that preferred foraging in the stucco tank since it's almost out of water and the gambusia ratio to water is high, making catching them easier. But every time the ducks saw me they fled to the big tank and hid among the dead, or dormant pondweed.

Other than the teal, the only other interesting birds that I observed were 3 sparrows, the Lincoln's, Swamp, and Song. Admittedly, I didn't look very hard, or I could probably have found more species, besides the overwintering or year round Black-throated, White-crowned, Rufous-crowned, etc. Gobs of Chipping Sparrows. I stayed away from the tanks, where sparrows like to drink and bathe, so I wouldn't flush the ducks. Maybe tomorrow I'll tally more sparrow species. Yawn......

And the Lekka-yukka* is just a plain yucky-yucca now. Wind toppled it. Henceforth, it'll be harder to photograph Lucifer Hummingbirds doing their courtship displays, with the yucca they prefer much closer to the ground. Oh, well, something exciting is bound to happen, sooner or later.

It's hard to tell much from these photos. The Lekka-yukka had two trunks. Now one trunk is leaning at a 45° angle and the other is almost prone. The top photo shows where they were sort of joined together at the bases. It looks like termites or something just rotted the trunks away. But they probably won't die. They'll grow more roots, and continue to survive, while hummers continue to use them.

At least my big dead cottonwood tree is still standing. I dread the day that topples. I should make a concerted effort to get a guy wire on it. But I'll be lucky if I can get the stucco tank sealed before next rainy season. That has priority.
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*Lekka-Yukka is what I called the yucca that the Lucifers most often do their courtship displays at. I built upon the word Lek, which is normally used to denote a place where males gather to display to the females.
Male Lucifers don't gather there, it's more a case of females perching there between trips to the feeders and one male often displays to one female perched there.(see post of 3-26-11) I've never seen multiple males display to multiple females there at the same time. Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me to see more than one male displayed to more than one female simultaneously in a real good year, where there's an abundance of Lucifers.