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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Caught up for now

Being caught up doesn't mean I don't have plenty of projects that need doing. It just means I'm back on track again. Can catch my breath and reflect on the last few days. That rain was so unexpected and unpredicted. Actually, no where else got hardly any. Neighbors three miles to the south didn't get any. Once before I got a rogue cell of rain, a huge deluge, but it was in mid-June when rain is likely to occur anyway.

My water storage is at approximately 80% capacity, surely an April first. I increased the drip under the cottonwood tree. Really going to enjoy having plenty of water and not having to stress about the lack of it. The fact that the oasis got it and other places in the Big Bend didn't, might mean it'll attract lots of good birds and dragonflies, and butterflies. I won't be an oasis in the middle of oases this time like I was last spring. Unless it continues raining in the area, which is quite unlikely, I would think, but anything is possible.

I'm also looking forward to being able to add a little water to my wildlife pond. It accumulated about a foot, but that won't last long. It's a luxury I seldom have, to be able to add water to it. It attracts birds and odes with the reeds growing in it and all, but it doesn't hold water all that well. Here's an old photo taken January 2013 to refresh your memory. I forgot to take one today, but it has about the same amount of water in it now.




That Lucifer male challenging the other Lucifer's territory was the first time I'd witnessed that behavior. I've seen males do it at the feeders, but that's not quite the same as on their own staked out defended territory. The females nest elsewhere. It seems to me there's so much territory around that they wouldn't need to challenge one another. Perhaps they just enjoy doing it. No body contact was ever made. This is the closest they came.




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