Trying to keep up

For some unknown reason I've been a little down lately. Hopefully I'll perk up soon. I guess so many visitors, so few birds, granddaughter's horrific tonsillectomy, pickup transmission going out, that lady falling and fracturing her elbow, my impaired vision, just sort of all caught up to me. Life comes at me so fast I don't know how to slow down. And it's impossible not to feel the bodily decline of aging.

Started pumping water from the big tank to the stucco tank, just in case it doesn't rain and I get a chance to clean it out. Will have to dry for a while first. And I'll have to have help cleaning it. I could do it if I had enough time, but we're getting too close to rainy season. Haven't got much pumped yet. It's a long slow process. That's a 2" pipe putting water into the stucco tank. This was shortly after I started the pump. It now has about 6 more inches in it. I felt confident enough that it doesn't leak that I didn't totally clean it out.

Saw a small fly today that I don't remember ever seeing before. Maybe I was just more observant today, but that white face patch was hard to miss seeing. Pictures not sharp. I might have done better with my little bridge camera, but had to use what was in my hand.

This Mexican Elder tree is the biggest and most lush I've ever seen it. It's even getting berries. Usually birds or insects eat the blooms before it can make berries, but this year the wildlife isn't at all desperate it seems.

That Bell's Vireo nest that was too close to the path, and the same one I accidentally exposed somewhat, has two nestlings. There's a third unhatched Brown-headed Cowbird egg inside that has a hole pecked in it. Interesting that the vireo did that. I forget now when they hatched, about a week ago maybe. This photo was taken holding my little bridge camera right above the nest pointed downward. I was hoping the egg would be visible too, but it wasn't. Maybe tomorrow I can get it in a photo. I rushed to take this in a millisecond, after waiting for hours for her to leave the nest.

UPDATE: I wonder if those are cowbird babies in the nest. When I peaked in before they hatched I saw 3 eggs and as I remember they all looked alike. Oh, dear!