Feeder watch

Making the best out of being stuck in Alpine, I sat at the window watching the feeders. Counted 5 species. If the selasphorus is an Allen's, then I can tally 6 species for today, because there was a definite male Rufous, too.

Broad-tailed

Rufous or Allen's

Black-chinned

Calliope

 I hope hummer numbers are this good during the upcoming festival in ten days.

We got over an inch of rain here in Alpine. Down by Black Gap Bonnie McKinney got over 4" recently. CMO very little. One of these days I'll just give up. Probably won't have a choice in the matter.

I'm disappointed in the water quality in the big tank at CMO. When we cleaned out the tank last year it decimated the pond-weed. It was starting to come back but I think all the horribly hot weather stifled it. The surface has that red scum on it. That has happened before. When the weather cools it should help. Hoping the pond-weed will surface. It helps keep the water cooler too. Kind of a vicious circle. Need it cooler so the pond-weed will keep it cool. But it'll eventually balance out and I won't clean the tank out anymore. 

I'm hoping to find a way to get some covered leak-proof storage tanks one of these days. Might have to start a go-fund-me page. Only problem is to get enough storage space above ground would probably cost about $100,000. The oasis isn't worth it, considering it still needs constant pumping and watering and other maintenance. When I'm gone, I'm afraid it'll go too. But meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy it all I can.

I was shocked when I added up all the water I bought to keep the oasis alive in 2011. It totaled over 90,000 gallons. And none of that was lost to leakage or evaporation, so I'd need a lot of storage to be sure to survive another drought. I'm gradually getting things more drought-proof. It's difficult, because without watering nothing would be there except creosote bushes and an occasional yucca. So I have to water some. A person just has to get a feel for how much, and what trees to keep. Bit by bit I'm cutting down on watering some things.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my wart checked, then Wednesday back to CMO to service feeders. I have to fix that guesthouse window too before I can play. Maybe Thursday I'll be up to going to Lajitas.