Alpine time

Had a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in Alpine today.

Otherwise, boring. Going to the oasis in the morning with my husband's gas-powered weed-eater. He thinks I won't be able to manage it. I will, or die trying. Seriously, I don't think it'll be that difficult. Gotta cut down the weeds or I won't be able to breathe down there once the Goldeneye sunflowers start blooming.

And speaking of blooms, my sisters have been watching for a Giant Fishhook (Ferocactus hamatacanthus) to bloom for the last two years. One sister finally captured the action today. If it blooms again tomorrow, we'll all get to see it.

Twice this spring our Alpine ducks made nests in the tall grass near one of the ponds, only to have the nest predated. So I put up a temporary nesting tube. Soon I'm going to replace it with a more substantial one. It's too late now for them to start another nest this year anyway, but just in case...

I removed the old one because they kept having babies and then the adult ducks would kill them. But I'm hoping now that there are 2-3 less adults they might tolerate more. We'll find out next spring. Here's the first nest tube I made in 2011.

The grass doesn't hold up very well so I'm going to try to cover the next one with sotol. If I split the sotol it shouldn't be too heavy for me to put into place. We'll see. Then I'll cover one end so the hay will stay in place better. That's my plan, anyway.