Festival week

People are starting to arrive in the area in preparation for the festival. I hope it turns out to be a memorable one. I'll be giving a PowerPoint presentation on Thursday afternoon in Fort Davis before heading to the oasis to get ready for the tours on Friday and Saturday mornings.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck in town. Trying to find good odes or hummingbirds here, but no luck so far. The oasis has me spoiled.

I wish I had never cleaned out the big tank at the oasis several years ago. The pond-weed is really struggling to make a comeback. Here is the only patch of it at this time.

You can see by this close-up how the damselflies love it. Three pairs on this photo. Just need more of it.

Familiar Bluets laying eggs

I'm contemplating making some improvements to my dragonfly pond at the oasis. It's bowl-shaped and, when wet, very difficult for me to walk along the edges looking for odes. Especially since my knee injury.* I shuffle along like a little old lady now for fear of tripping over the least little thing. Like a rock, stick, gopher hole, grass runner, etc. At least I don't have to worry about getting snake-bitten anymore, like I worried about for the past 50 years. I keep my eyes focused on the ground when walking, not scanning the skies for odes, butterflies, or birds like before.

Anyway, I'd like to make a flat walking area on the south edge of the pond. Just don't know if I can make it happen. I'd have to find help and that's never easy. But I'm not going to do anything until the weather cools off. Some years ago I used a pick-ax (grubbing hoe) to flatten a few spots for putting a stool on, but they're not flat anymore.

This photo is looking east, so the south side would be on the right side of the photo. The walkway would have to be above the concreted area. I wish I could seal the tank, but no way can that happen. It would take equipment and that would mean destroying habitat to get it in there. Way too traumatic for me.

Here's the tank when it was full of water (and dragonflies) this June. Sad that it only holds water for a month. Hoping the monsoons will come soon!

Looking west

UPDATE: I just checked today's Pacific hurricane forecast and there's an 80% chance that red X will develop into a hurricane within 48 hours. If so we could get rain or monsoons from it.

Here's our forecast for the next week or so. I see hope. Of course, it's more likely to happen when the festival is in progress.

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* My knee is pretty much better now, but my knees were bad before the fall, which is why I fell. So now I have to respect that my knees are bad and treat them as such.