A few more oasis pics from yesterday

And here's some of the cholla patch. Cactus Wrens fill it with nests.

Lovely oasis day

Temperatures are perfect in the mornings. Every day a few migrants trickle in. Today I had a Cassin's Vireo. It was way high in the cottonwood tree so my photos aren't good, but it definitely had some yellow in the flanks, etc.

Hardly any hummers. I felt lucky to even see one Lucifer, although I was busy watering trees and not watching very closely. Had a couple of Dickcissels today.

Still hardly any butterflies, and no interesting odes. I think the rains came too late in the year. Maybe next year.

On the way to town today I stopped off at Calamity Creek. It was running nicely, but I couldn't locate one single dragonfly.

Allergies alive and well

Started weed-eating at the oasis this morning and had to take several meds in order to continue breathing. It's that time of year.

A couple of visitors from Austin had an unexpected adventure today. First, they had a flat tire from a sharp rock on Snake Road before even arriving at my road. Then when they got here, I asked him to help me move a heavy pump. They got two life birds here. The only adventure they probably expected was the Lucifer Hummingbird lifer.

I saw several darners that could either be Blue-eyed Darner, or rare Arroyo Darner, which would be a lifer for me. The only way for me to tell for sure is to get a photo of the cerci (tip of the abdomen). Luckily, I did get one diagnostic shot. Just a Blue-eyed. But one of these days.

Here's a comparison between the two species.

Arroyo Darner

Blue-eyed Darner

And here's an enlargement of my photo from today. Obviously a Blue-eyed.

Almost rain

Got to the oasis this afternoon to dark clouds and thunder, even a rainbow, but no rain. Maybe tomorrow. It's been a week since it rained. Hoping I won't have to water.

The oasis doesn't get Cardinals very often so it's always a treat.

The Golden-fronted Woodpecker is still around and a few hummers. Also some flycatchers. Tomorrow morning I hope to get more photos. Got here pretty late this afternoon.

Slow days

Stuck in town for a few days but heading back to the oasis after accompanying my husband to his eye doctor appointment in Odessa tomorrow morning. I love Trans-Pecos Morning Glories. I planted these some years back here in Alpine and love how they've come back every year since. This year they overtook some sunflowers growing nearby.

The price of water

Seems whenever we get our rains I spend all my time wrestling with stiff hoses and cantankerous pumps. But so worth it as long as my body can hang in there.

It was rainy and overcast the last two days and very little flying. Lucky to get these two common species.

Red Admiral

Great Spreadwing

Finally Pacific moisture

The oasis got a big rain during the night last night and we're under a flash flood watch tonight. Only two more days left of summer monsoon season, but Pacific hurricane season lasts another two months. We're good. The oasis is secure for at least another year. And hopefully for many more now that I have that new tank.

Pumping from the upper settling pond to the stucco tank

Things are looking nice and lush. It's hard to enjoy when I've been fighting pumps and hoses all day. Wet and muddy, too. I didn't see any interesting odes today but photographed a couple common ones.

Male Blue Dasher

Male Eastern Amberwing

Also saw a splendid Black-tailed Rattlesnake. I didn't notice his tail wasn't on my photos until he was gone, or I would at least have tried to coax him to show it. (It was showing when I reached for my camera.)

Doin' my thing

Got up early this morning and headed to the oasis to start watering. For days I'd been hearing a Golden-fronted Woodpecker and was frustrated I couldn't locate it. Today while watering, with camera hanging on my shoulder, I got lucky. For one minute it landed in a nearby Netleaf Hackberry tree and gobbled up berries.

 

I have one Chinkapin Oak tree that has never had acorns on it so I figured it was a male tree. The bears have left it alone. Well, it's loaded with acorns this year. I hope the bears don't destroy it too bad. Maybe the Golden-fronted Woodpecker will beat the bears to the acorns. That would be lovely.

Odessa in the rear view mirror

So glad yesterday's and today's Odessa trips are behind us, and my husband is happy with his cataract surgery.

I hastened to the oasis hoping to satiate myself in odes for a few days. Coming from Alpine I saw where rains had been spotty. Sunshine through the clouds was spotty too.

Terlingua Ranch road had obviously had a recent deluge, but by the time I neared the oasis, not a drop anywhere. Figures.

I arrived before 8 PM and it was already getting dark out. But I'll get a full day tomorrow. Have to water too. Nothing at the oasis has had any precipitation for 10 days. Can't procrastinate any longer. Luckily, I can water and hunt odes at the same time. Just means the inconvenience of carrying binoculars and camera on me while I drag hoses around, etc.

Beebrush is blooming everywhere. Maybe some interesting butterflies will show up too.

Charging my batteries

I needed to fortify myself for the next two days of two trips to Odessa for my husband's cataract surgery, so I went to the oasis to watch dragonflies. The mosquitoes were bad, and I only saw the same odes as I saw two days prior. But still feel more ready to face the next two days.

The highlight for me was seeing the Chalky Spreadwing still hanging around the dragonfly pond. I took a bunch of photos of him, hoping to get a better shot than last time.

And also a bunch of photos of an Olive-sided Flycatcher, hoping to catch the white rump patch. No luck there, unless this white flank patch counts.

Lovely day!

The weather was perfect, no mosquitoes yet, so I spent a couple of hours just sitting by the dragonfly pond.

I saw two species that had been documented at the oasis only once before. One was this female Great Blue Skimmer. Years ago Kelly Bryan had photographed that species at the oasis, but I didn't get a photo of it. Not sure I even saw it. So this is a new species for me.

Last month I discovered the first Chalky Spreadwing at the oasis, but it wasn't a mature male like the one I found today, so that was exciting too.

I can only imagine what great species I'd discover if I spent more time looking. I found another interesting species at the back water feature but it disappeared before I could identify or photograph it.

Only saw one Lucifer Hummingbird today, a juvenile male. Either something they love is blooming elsewhere or they're migrating early.

Just couldn't help myself

I felt compelled to pump the remaining water out of the lower dirt tank, so I hauled my 2" electric pump over to it, along with hose and cords.

Out of this tank

Into this tank

Since both tanks leak about the same, by combining the water into the stucco tank it'll cut the loss in half. I figure that'll make the stucco tank's water last another week longer than it would have.

Lots of Thornbush and Blue Dashers around. Here's a photo of a Thornbush Dasher. 

Sometimes I tend to take the common species of the oasis for granted and don't photograph them. I see I have never posted a Loggerhead Shrike photo on this blog before, so here it is.

A most frustrating day

Got up at dawn to see how much the stucco tank went down in an 8 hour period. One inch. That means it's losing 3" a day. On top of that misery, I went to pump the lower dirt tank into the stucco tank and the installed 3" pump wouldn't draw in the water. So I got my sister to come help me swap the pump for a different one, and it wouldn't either. So it seemed the problem is in the intake line. She went underwater to check it and it was clear. And once it did draw water for a few minutes, but the pump died and wouldn't download water again. It's the same pump I used for 12 hours yesterday in the upper dirt tank and it worked fine. Not a single glitch. So frustrating. By then I didn't have enough time left to move a 2" pump over there and pump it out. And for what? It'll all go away in a couple of weeks anyway. Really demoralizing. Hopefully, we'll get another monsoon and I'll have more time and be fresher. The last two days were hard and wore me down. Had things I needed to do in town and tomorrow have to go to Odessa with my husband to help drive when they dilate his eyes. Next week he'll get his cataract surgery. Sure hope he has a good outcome.

No time to look for odes. I hear Cassin's Sparrows skylarking outside the oasis a lot, but never see them. So I was surprised to see this one at the oasis today.

I'm concerned about the upper dirt tank. Every time it fills with water a sand bar encroaches farther toward my intake line. It's really close. So today I tried to elevate the line so when I go to pump next time, the intake won't be mired in mud. The oasis infrastructure is deteriorating, but I'm hanging in there. Not giving up yet. Today was just a temporary hiccup. Down but not out. I'll be back at it in a couple of days.

It's the first time to my memory that I gave up on my mission before it was accomplished. I tell myself if I hadn't got that fluke rain I wouldn't have had any water to pump. No one around the oasis got as much as I did. Still, I really let myself down. I hope it's not a harbinger of things to come.

My unsupportive husband never misses a chance to tell me that I'm too old to take care of the place and it's just going to get worse. He only makes me more determined, if that's possible. LOL

A plan coming together

Got the pump going at 8 AM just like I had hoped. Sometime late this afternoon the stucco tank should be full, and this dirt tank empty. It had gone down more than a foot since the rain but there'll still be enough water to fill the stucco tank, even if I have to take water out of the lower dirt tank that filled when this tank overflowed. The lower tank only loses about 3" a day, so I use that water last.

Upper dirt tank

Lower dirt tank

I'm ready for more rain now. It can fill the dirt tanks, settling ponds, and arroyo. Prefer not too big a rain that would damage the road more than it already is.

I knew our Rock Squirrels (or is it Ground Squirrels?) loved my seed feeder. Since I put up wire instead of the rope they chewed up, I haven't seen them on it. Maybe they've developed a taste for sotol seeds.

The dragonfly pond is getting exciting.

Here's a Twelve-spotted Skimmer in the same shot as a Common Green Darner. It would probably be harder to get a shot without a darner in it. LOL

Later: After 8 hours of pumping the stucco tank is only half full. I think those valves that we installed last fall impede the flow, but I have to have those valves. I'm too old and weak to be down in the lower dirt tank swapping out heavy 3" lines anymore. But it looks like I'll be pumping until midnight. Oh, well, I can nap in between gassing up the pump every two hours.

Looking in the arroyo by my soapberry thicket I saw this tiny black butterfly and thought it might be a Mexican Sootywing, but Brian says it's a Saltbush Sootywing. A Mexican Sootywing would be a lifer for me. But, hey, at least I saw a butterfly today. Kidding. I actually saw a couple other real common ones. And the dragonflies I'm seeing are common ones too, but there are sure a lot of them already. I thought I'd have to wait until mosquitoes returned. This late in the year mosquitoes shouldn't be much of an annoyance.

 6 PM: Still pumping and probably 4-6 hours to go. Whew!

8 PM: It took 12 hours of pumping to empty the upper dirt tank. The stucco tank lacks 2½' from being full. I'm exhausted and it's lightning and sprinkling outside, so I quit for the night. At 8 AM I'll measure and see how much the tank went down. Then I'll do my best to fix some bad leaks in the line and pump out the lower dirt tank. Normally I pump the upper dirt tank right after it fills. By waiting a day and a half, I didn't have enough water left in it to fill the stucco tank. But it was worth it. I'll end up water ahead if the stucco tank leaks less. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter anyway.