Final 2019 challenge

I challenged myself to see how many species I could photograph at the oasis today. Of the 22 species I observed, I got photos of 16 species. I won't bore you with them. They're just common species basically. Here's my favorite bird photo of the day, Green-tailed Towhee. That species overwinters at the oasis every year.

There was a cold north breeze today which made the air uncomfortable for me, but I persevered.

The gopher remained hard at work most of the day.

And it was a treat to see a butterfly (Dainty Sulphur) on blooming verbena (Glandularia wrightii).

A visitor got his lifer Allen's Hummingbird today. My promised help for road work canceled at the last minute. Tomorrow starts another year. I'm ready. Happy New Year!

Last oasis sunset for 2019. Actually, last one of the decade.

Year's end

Came to the oasis today to see the old year out and the new year in. Also to avoid being kept awake by fireworks on New Year's Eve. It's chilly here, but tolerable. Didn't make it up to 60° today though.

Visitors have commented on gophers at the oasis. Someone said maybe a Pocket Gopher. I don't know, but it looks good for one to me.

I'm better at identifying birds, or even butterflies and dragonflies. Here's a for sure Anna's Hummingbird, and pretty positive it's a female.

The Allen's Hummingbird is still at the house feeder but since I got a decent spread tail shot I haven't been motivated to sit out in the crispy air trying for another photo. This is all I snapped of it today. Just documentation. I expect it to leave some time in January.

A Golden-fronted Woodpecker has been hanging around for several months now. Never before has one wintered here, or even hung around longer than a day or two. Coincidentally, never before has a Ladder-backed Woodpecker hole been enlarged like this. I'm thinking the Golden-fronted did it. Sometime before spring I'm definitely going to bring in more agave stalks. Those I have are about used up and worn out. At some point, something will likely avail itself of the enlarged hole. Eager to see what. Maybe an owl of some kind (other than Elf Owl).

Golden-fronted top; Ladder-backed bottom

Last but not least, a female Ring-necked Duck resided on the big tank today. Always love having ducks around.

2019 in review

Having had good moisture in fall and winter, January treated me to 3 flower species that I had never seen before (Erodium cicutarium, Packera millelobata, and Selenia dissecta).

Left: Texas Selenia           Center: Uinta Ragweed                Right: Filaree

In spite of February being more wintry, things continued to bloom. It was exciting to see verbena (Glandularia wrightii) coming up everywhere.

I planted Tree Tobacco all around the perimeter of the new tank. When I had potted them in December, some were so tiny I had to use tweezers on them.

 By March things were blooming literally everywhere, including verbena.

I identified a few more common plant species in March. Doing pretty good in that department, but still have trouble remembering all the Latin and English names. The digital guide I spent most of the winter making has been really helpful with species that I was able to find online photos for.

April started getting really busy with visitors. I uncovered the Tree Tobacco finally, excitedly anticipating when they mature.

Had a novel flower, Red-horned Poppy (Glaucium corniculatum) come up at the oasis. It's a rather invasive European species that farmers don't like, but won't be invasive in the desert, and has a beautiful bloom. Probably came in with bird seed. Dr. Powell had never seen it in the Big Bend before. So it's kind of an infamous record.

An award winning film crew started filming Lucifer Hummingbird displays and Elf Owls at the oasis for a documentary featuring Big Bend wildlife. It'll air on PBS in late 2020 or early 2021. As luck would have it, neither species cooperated.

In May I went up my mountain to the summit to photograph a Poling's Hairstreak. I had photographed one years ago in the park, but none at CMO. Got that species, but not the Ursine Giant-Skipper that I had hoped to get a better photo of. 

The Lucifers stayed foraging in the wild on ocotillo longer than they ever had, and the Elf Owl changed nesting cavities. A very frustrating time for the film crew.

Also in May I got a lifer damselfly, Tezpi Dancer, near Balmorhea.

June started off with a bang, literally. Followed by hail, then three daily rainstorms. The hail smashed the big lovely Tree Tobaccos, but they soon recovered. Tanks filled with the help of some pumping. The plumbing Dr. Williamson helped install last December was a life-saver for me.

With all the tanks full, odes started showing up in decent numbers. Late in June, I photographed several California Spreadwings. Only a handful have ever been documented in Texas. The first one was from the oasis in 2012.

The Tree Tobacco looked great and one bloomed already in June. It was a good month.

Rainy weather continued into July. All tanks were full and no need to water. I had been frustrated by how hard it is to interact with blog followers so I started a Christmas Mountains Oasis Facebook group. Visitors can share their photos as well as see others' photos. And I can keep people updated at what's going on at the oasis. Next best thing to being there.

After a rainy start to July, the weather turned hot and dry. It was exciting to document a couple of odonates new to the oasis.

Citrine Forktail                                         Halloween Pennanat

Tree Tobacco

July was declared the hottest ever recorded on earth.

August started out even hotter and drier. Had to water twice weekly in triple-digit heat. And so many hummers that I went through nearly a gallon of sugar water a day. With a knee injury, it was a real struggle to keep up. In spite of that, one of the highlights of the year for me was two unexpected lifer odes at the oasis, Tawny Pennant, and Chalky Spreadwing. 

Places not far from the oasis got decent rainfall, but missed the oasis. Since I couldn't be there 24 /7, I couldn't prevent these awful Lubber insects from ravaging the Tree Tobacco leaves. Most of the plants were totally stripped of leaves.

Photo on Tree Tobacco by Sid Ehlert

Finally, nearing mid-September, the oasis got a good monsoonal rain. Dragonflies descended in serious numbers. I was really delighted to find a female Great Blue Skimmer not long thereafter. It was another lifer for me!

However, it seemed that the rains came too late for dragonflies to make a meaningful resurgence. Butterfly numbers never did amount to much all year.

By October, I pretty much resigned myself to the rains, as well as good dragonfly sightings, being pretty much over. Despite the record heat and half of normal rainfall, I managed to keep the oasis healthy looking.

Had a couple of bear visits which forced me to reconstruct a more bear-proof feeder. I even built and installed an "unwelcome mat" (board of nails)  below it.

A Golden-fronted Woodpecker helped eat the acorns as they ripened.  I hoped that would make the oasis less appealing to bears.

By the first week of November the oasis still hadn't had a hard freeze so things continued looking lovely. Even got a couple of decent rain showers. Two Allen's Hummingbirds hung around, so birding wasn't a total bust.

Left, juvenile male/ Right, adult male

No more bear visits so I lowered the feeder and replaced the chewed up base late in November.

A virus I caught over Thanksgiving pretty much consumed most of December. I thought it was a cold, but later discovered it's actually Flu type B. I had it on Thanksgiving two years ago too, even though I always get flu shots. So I spent a lot of time in Alpine watching my hummingbird feeder out the window.

Male Anna's

December weather was on the mild side so that should make winter seem shorter. And the adult male Allen's Hummingbirds stayed at the house near the oasis. That goes a long way toward making winter less miserable. 

Not being well enough to do anything strenuous made me less anxious for spring. I just focused on getting well. Unfortunately, while sick, I became remiss in diligence and didn't turn off the pump when I left the oasis to go to town. As a result a hose coupling froze and I lost a foot of water (about 10,000 gallons) from the stucco tank. So devastating for me. Since I have my new above ground tank it won't jeopardize the survival of the oasis, but it would sure have been nice to have plenty of water in the spring without having to ration for a change.

Next year my focus is going to be on improving the road. All things considered, 2019 was a good year.

Christmas Mountains Christmas Eve

My son and I went to the oasis to do a concrete patch on the road. Every little bit helps. As usual I forgot to take a "before" photo but here's when we were halfway done.

And here's when we were done. I have to think that every patch makes it safer for low clearance vehicles.

Afterwards we fixed us a nice steak lunch. No steak tastes better than one cooked on sotol.

Then he went to the guesthouse to play drums. He's so talented. I'm continually amazed.

Feeling incompetent

Got to the oasis today to a broken connector on my water drip. So for at least 24 hours water was pouring out. I had meant to turn the main faucet that it was connected to, to a drip, just in case, but forgot.

The break took a foot of water from the stucco tank. That's at least 10,000 gallons. So careless of me! I feel like my brain isn't working efficiently anymore, but I think part of that was being sick for 3 weeks. Gotta do better! Thanks to my new tank, I'll make it through to rainy season, assuming rainy season happens next summer, but it was going to be so nice to not have to skimp on watering in the spring.

On a brighter note, since early October I've been trying to get a decent spread-tail shot of the male Allen's at the house. I was always telling myself to just give up, but couldn't help myself. Today as I sat there waiting for it to show up, there was a bee on the feeder, causing the hummer to pause long enough for me to get a spread-tail shot. I know it's not a great shot, but I also know it's the best I can expect of myself unless I get a better camera or a more cooperative bird. So I'll take it.

Also had two female Anna's around today. One is an older one that has some gorget color on top of the head.

The other was competing with the Allen's at the courtyard feeder. I suspect one of them won't be around long. The Allen's refuses to share.

Planning ahead

When I die my youngest son (Leonardo) plans to continue running the oasis and keeping it open to birders. Toward that goal he is starting to relocate to Alpine from Austin. Today, he and my older son (Eric, who owns the Triangle Market here) are building a storage shed on property Leonardo bought recently. Bit by bit, he'll relocate his life and business here. Today felt like a ground-breaking day.

It's going to be a slow process since he has a thriving business in Austin. 

Flu season

I read that this is a really bad flu season and well over a thousand Americans have died from it already. Still a couple more months to go too. It surprised me to learn that what I have, that I called a cold culminating in bronchitis, is actually Type B influenza. I had this same thing Thanksgiving two years ago. And I get the flu shot religiously every year. Go figure! I am almost well though.

So these days I spend a lot of time sitting watching my hummingbird feeder out the window. It's really strange. Normally, I get an Allen's, Rufous, or Anna's that hangs around most of the winter and that's it. But this year it seems a different hummer visits every day, hangs around for about an hour, and then the next day it's a different one. Today I had two. A Rufous female stayed about an hour this morning, and an Anna's juvenile hung around about an hour mid-afternoon. Hardly ever the same bird two days in a row.

Female Rufous

As far as I know, the two Allen's are still at the oasis.

The oasis has arrived!

I got my Lucifer Hummingbird license plates today. Something I should have done a long time ago. Can't be the Lucifer capital of the world without them. Now I want to wash my pickup to match but gonna wait until tomorrow. Yesterday I had to take medicine to continue breathing, so I assume I have bronchitis from my cold. I'm feeling really good today though. Apparently, I can keep these same plates forever. If I get a different vehicle they can be assigned over via the county tax office.

This Anna's Hummingbird stops by the feeders in Alpine once or twice every afternoon as far as I can tell. Per Kelly Bryan, it "has an adult tail but still is HY until January 1 when it turns to SY," meaning it was hatched early this year and next year will begin its second year. Since it comes in so seldom I can't leave a window open. This is the best I can do through glass.