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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Busy day

After yesterday's road work I thought I'd be crippled for life, but today my energy lasted all day long. Maybe my sinus infection has finally been bested by my immune system.

The water line coming out of the stucco tank was leaking bad and spraying water across the tank. So I had to fix that before I could water my trees. Connie and Marlin Andrus visited and obligingly snapped this photo. I had to hang over the edge of the tank to reach the leak. It still leaks but I've managed to stifle it so it leaks into the tank only.


Then I spent until after 2 PM watering. While I was watering I noticed that one of my 3 mulberry trees was doing a good job at growing new leaves. It's a volunteer and may be a native Canyon Mulberry, unlike the other 2 that I planted. I also noticed that it was covered with worms again. Those darn worms are everywhere, on sumac, hackberry, and other stuff. So I got my ladder and picked off as many of them as I could reach on the mulberry tree.


Also while I was watering (I left a sprinkler going) I shoveled 3 tubs of dirt and put it in a hole in the road. The work yesterday was all about extending my curb to keep water from washing across the road and didn't improve the road, so I felt compelled to see some road improvement. Out of the 100 holes, there are now only 99.

By the time I got the feeders serviced and the work done, I still wasn't tired so I went to Lajitas to look for amberwings. Only saw one since I got there rather late and being able to see the water with all the cattails along the edge is almost impossible.


I found a place where beavers downed a tree into the water. It's all grown over with cattails and mesquite, but I managed to make a path along the log out to the edge of the water where I could see a little. I was sure I saw  a Persephone Darner, but couldn't get a photo.

Beginning of my path

I risked life on limb trying. I've never seen so many mosaic darners as at Lajitas today. If you look carefully at this next photo you can see the log and my path above it and the water peaking through in the background.


I made the path without my camera and then went back for it. Had to crawl only of course. Still got bloodied on those nasty mesquite thorns. At this location I only saw darners, but at a tiny opening somewhere else I saw that one amberwing. No idea if it's a Mexican Amberwing or not. I'm really confused on those.


From Lajitas I drove to Alpine. And now I feel dead, so I'm off to bed....

UPDATE: ID later confirmed as Mexican Amberwing.

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