Taking a break

I came to town this morning. Just needed a rest and if I was at the oasis I know I'd be dragging pumps and hoses all over the place trying to save all the water I could. At some point I have to slow myself down, as much as I hate to.

The cottonwood looks like it'll be happy for awhile with its roots into the dragonfly pond.

Here's a better look at the soapberry thicket. Happy trees, happy me!

My pumping situation isn't optimal yet. I had plumbed my 2" trash pump to the faucets but don't have the wiring to it done yet. The electrician should come do that in about a week. So I can't pump out the settling pond without that pump. It's sitting in the stucco tank under 12' of water, not wired yet.

I ordered a new one today, which should arrive in a few days. I could use a 2" gas pump but not physically able to get it to the settling pond. I also have a 3" electric trash pump, but I can no longer lift it either. I could use the little pump I had been watering trees with but that would take a really long time, like 2 days or more. Right now it's not critical if I lose some water. It'll give the arroyos a good soaking. When I get back down there I'll use the 3" gas pumps that are installed at the dirt tanks to pump them into the stucco tank. Since the latter won't hold much water at this time, there's no hurry. Rest comes first today. 

Usually when I'm in town I rest up before going back to slave away at the oasis. But this past week I went to Post Park everyday and wore myself out there. Then the monsoon came unexpectedly, and I rushed to the oasis. The oasis was the epicenter of the monsoon. Surrounding areas didn't get nearly as much. My road was spared damage.

With monsoons come all kinds of things that have to be taken care of. Plus the power outage messed up my answering machine, a breaker, and other things. Had to rake up debris. All my mulch went away. Had to redo every single hummingbird feeder. That much rain overflows the internal baffles. They get nasty quick. A big job scouring 14 feeders. Not complaining, just explaining why I need to rest for a couple of days. 

When I get back down there I'm going to spend time looking for dragonflies, maybe while water is pumping. The stucco tank didn't go down overnight, but since water was on the outside of it, it wasn't a fair test. I'll have to test it again when there's a place for the leakage to go.

A big surprise

When I finally got the gas pump pumping into the new tank I climbed the ladder to see how good it was coming in, etc. To my shock, the tank was already over half full!

Water going into the tank

That means I hadn't squandered all that water like I had thought I had. I had been frugal with it. But how could I have been so wrong? The water was crystal clear (before I added dirty water to it) and somehow it had tricked me. Also, I had regularly felt the sides of the tank, hot in the sun, to where the cool water would make the sides cool and that had been about a foot from the bottom. I'm mystified. But at least now I know that tank holds a far better supply of water than I had thought. With being careful with water I shouldn't have to worry about water ever again.

But that poses another dilemma. I had planned on putting the water from the stucco tank into the new tank and doing it fast enough that leaks would show up as trickles back into the stucco tank. Now that can't happen. After filling the new tank the stucco tank was only 15" down. So famine, then feast. My dirt tanks are full, settling pond full, arroyo full, and no place to pump the water to. I'm going to see how much the stucco tank goes down overnight and maybe top it off in the morning. I hate seeing all that precious water just soak into the ground, but at least it didn't run to the ocean.

I still can't get into the arroyo to show the soapberry thicket but you can see some of it in the center of this photo.

And lots of dragonflies are already appearing. Especially gliders. Both Wandering and Spot-winged Gliders. Here are a couple of Spot-wingeds.

Dragonfly pond

I have a couple of amazing sisters living next to me down here. One is working on a unique carport. It's not finished yet but I couldn't resist sharing a photo of it in the meantime. Made out of rock, sotol, and discarded trampoline framing. If it was plastered it would make an interesting "wattle and daub" house.

More and more these days my life is a comedy of errors. Today was no exception. First I gassed up the pump only to discover that when I drained the carburetor last winter I hadn't replaced the drain screw. So that was a mess. And then when the electric company showed up I hurried to the house to show him where the breaker boxes were. Then rushed back down to check the tank and it was running out the overflow big time. Another mess to fix.

Tomorrow's another day! Grateful to be alive and have water though. The electricity to the house is now temporarily fixed until I buy a new breaker. Otherwise, the same thing will happen when we have another power outage.

A miraculous monsoonal rain

Earlier today my sister sent me a screen shot of 80% chance for rain here at 5:30 PM today. I watched the radar and didn't see any activity in S Brewster Co, so around 5:30 I sent her a text, jokingly saying it must just be pouring at the oasis by now. She said it looked promising. Shortly later she said it was raining. I checked the radar and sure enough, a storm was there. An hour or so later communications got murky. First her internet went down, then the electricity. She said she got .8" and the creek was running. That pretty much meant my tanks were full and running over down the creek. I hated to come down with no electricity or internet, but couldn't resist.

When I got to the Terlingua Ranch area things didn't look like they'd gotten much rain. Very few puddles anywhere and no arroyos running or showing evidence of having run. I figured my sister exaggerated, and was preparing myself for disappointment. Probably only a trickle down our arroyo for a short time. As I rounded a curve and spied the arroyo, it was raging. I barely made it through. Wow! All the rain fell on us and south of us I guess. I had come from the north.

At my place I got a whopping 1.6" Two hours after the rain and tanks were still running over. It was 9 PM, getting dark but my camera gathered enough light for these photos.

Stucco tank

Big concrete tank

Dragonfly pond

Arroyo leading to soapberry thicket. I couldn't get down it to
photograph the thicket. Have to wait until the water subsides.

 Tomorrow I'll take better photos. I'll have to slave away for days to get the new tank filled, then the stucco tank patched, then refilled, but it'll be worth it to have the oasis secure for the foreseeable future. I'm going to be more frugal with water and gradually let some things go to get things more sustainable, so hopefully, I won't ever have a water shortage again like this year.

The storm caused an electrical outage. When the electricity came back on part of my house doesn't have electricity. Maybe a bad breaker. But minor price to pay for all this wonderful water.

Soon great dragonflies will show up. And no damage was done to the road at all. Doesn't get much better than that!

Really run down

Haven't slowed down like I usually do in between watering days at the oasis. Went to the Post Park again today for the sixth time, partly to see if I could get a better photo of a dragonfly I shot yesterday. An expert said it looked like it could be a Flag-tailed Spinyleg, which might be a county record. But I didn't see it today, nor did I see the Streak-backed Oriole today. And if that's not bad enough, I now have to go to the oasis to start watering, without rest time in between (unless it rains tonight). I had to take ibuprofen this morning to even walk. It didn't make walking easier, just less painful.

Here's the potential spinyleg. And the only photo I'm going to have of it. I saw it off behind a chain-link fence so couldn't get close, or at a better angle.

While looking for it today I saw this Sulphur-tipped Clubtail. That's a pretty common one at the Post. 

Back in Alpine there were 3 baby raccoons in the big Pecan tree. Two disappeared before I could take this photo.

UPDATE: The potential Flag-tailed Spinyleg turned out to be a Sulphur-tipped Clubtail.

Tried my best

Had fun at the Post Park this morning even though I didn't get a photo of the oriole, and not positive I even saw it. Not sure I'll be going back any time soon either. Maybe if someone else gets photos I'll be inspired to try again.

Arrived there at 7 AM, and of the nearly five hours I was there, I had the place pretty much to myself for the first 3 hours. Someone had moved a picnic table to a good oriole watching spot since I was last there so I was able to sit in the shade of it at a good vantage site. I thought I saw quick glimpses of the oriole a couple of times, but no photos. Until the sun came out, I moved the table out from under the roof so I could stand on it and get a better look at the mesquite thickets just outside the fence there.

I think this was my 5th trip for the oriole. In all those trips I was so focused on finding the oriole that I didn't take time to photograph the Yellow-green Vireo there, but today I did.

Barn Swallow

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UPDATE: 7 PM: Just got an email from a friend who stopped by the Post this morning, probably about the time I left, and got a good look at the oriole. No photo. Dang! Wish I had stayed longer. Guess I'll be going back again!

Alpine catch-up

I wanted to go to Marathon today but decided to slow myself down and catch up with work here in town. I plan to go to look for the oriole at Post Park early tomorrow morning. Today I took time to go out back to our ponds to look for the fledgling Western Kingbird that I saw on the 23rd. Luckily caught it being fed by an adult. I had feared the Great Horned Owl may have gotten it.

Bronzed Cowbird

Young Great-tailed Grackle

No blog yesterday

I was at the oasis watering yesterday and it was real windy. Guess the wind made me think it wasn't as hot as it was. I got dehydrated (heat exhaustion?) and just collapsed into bed about 6 PM. Didn't brush my teeth or anything. Got up every hour in the night to drink water. Finally recovered. Today I finished watering and came to town.

Took photos at the oasis while watering. My current system is real slow. The new one will be slow (but sure) too, but hopefully not this slow. Nothing forecast except more triple-digit heat. Made me do a lot of thinking.

If I had it to do over I wouldn't plant anything that didn't already grow on my property along the arroyo. That way the trees would be better able to survive with less water, and with more water they'd get big and lush. That list would include Junipers, Soapberries, Hackberries, Desert Willows, Persimmons, Mexican Buckeyes, and Mesquites. I could probably get away with adding some of the native oaks that grow up on the mountain. Currently, these species are all scrubby, but with lots of watering they could make a lovely habitat. They normally grow along the arroyo, then die,or die back, in drought. Therefore they never get very tall. Most of these species have volunteered or been planted at the oasis, but not as tall as they'd be if I had focused on planting and watering them years ago.

But, since I don't get a redo, I'm just going to lean towards not trying too hard to keep the non-native stuff happy. At some point, as they die, one by one, I'll lavish extra water on the native stuff that volunteers to grow in the oasis. I'd also like to clean out lots of the beebrush that comes up everywhere that I water. These are the things I contemplate while watering. And these are the pictures I take while watering.

Varied Bunting on feeder

Brown-headed Cowbird

San Luis House Finch (H. mexicanus potosinus)

Juvenile Blue Grosbeak

Cactus Wren (first year I've seen one at the feeder)

Lucifer Hummingbird adult male (seeing juveniles around lately)

Scaled Quail

Final Post Park play day

Tomorrow I have to bite the bullet and go water at the oasis. Today was around 110° there. I'm really not looking forward to it. I hope the cottonwood still has some leaves on it.

Meanwhile, at Marathon, once again I glimpsed the Streak-backed Oriole but didn't get a photo. It was fun sharing the quest with some enthusiastic birders though.  Among the many birds I photographed, here's a juvenile Golden-fronted Woodpecker. Taken at a great distance, so a bit grainy.

Back in Alpine I snapped a couple of pics of the Great Horned Owl that lives in the big pecan tree...

A recently fledged Western Kingbird.

And our one remaining duckling, almost full-grown now....

Lotuses blooming

Post Park post

I can't seem to resist going to the Post Park lately. It's fun to be there with other birders and I do want a better photo of the Streak-backed Oriole. I didn't make up my mind about going until about 8:30 AM. By the time I got there, there were a couple of noisy parties with dogs. They left after a little while, but no birders showed up. Having the place to myself, I soon spied a raccoon entering a trash can. I guess he thought he was alone too.

Before long, picnickers arrived. Around 11:30 I saw the oriole fly into the foliage of the cottonwood tree that I've seen it frequent most. Only this time it didn't pause in the open for photos. I walked around the tree a bit trying to get a better look at it with no luck. Soon it flew off to the north across the pond and I lost sight of it.

Enjoyed seeing a Zone-tailed Hawk being harassed by kingbirds (I think). I would've just thought it was a Turkey Vulture if not for the harassers. They knew it wasn't.

Shortly after noon I decided to head back to Alpine when a couple of parties of birders showed up. I read their ebird checklists later and they did see and photograph the oriole. I'm getting so behind on work in town, but if I do go tomorrow, I'll plan to get there earlier.

Yesterday

When I was coming to town yesterday I saw a huge fire flare up just east of Nine Point Mesa (maybe at Cedar Springs). It died down quicker than if it had been a lightning fire. So I'm sure someone ignored the county wide burn ban. Scary! This photo taken from my gate.

I got to town mid-afternoon after being out in the heat watering all morning. Did my usual things. Catch up on housework, fill feeders, etc here in town. Went to bed at my normal time. Woke up at 4 AM this morning with a bad headache. I knew that meant I was dehydrated. Couldn't find my water bottle that I carry everywhere with me. It was still in my pickup! That meant I hadn't drunk a drop for over 12 hours. (I don't drink anything except water.) Shocking! I went out to my pickup and retrieved it and drank as much as I could. Finally got back to sleep. Should not be doing that. I hardly ever feel thirsty, so have to make an effort to remember to drink water.

I had promised myself a birding trip to Post Park in Marathon and did not want to get up at the early hour I had planned. But I knew I'd be OK once I got moving. At the park I didn't see the birds I hoped to, but enjoyed the company of other birders there. Didn't take any good photos. A pair of Scissortail Flycatchers was a treat. I seldom get one at the oasis.

Another watering over

It took a long time to water the last couple of days but got it done and back in town. I bought a reducer for my 2" pump so may be able to speed up watering in the future. Poor oasis is suffering but at least I still have water to dole out to it. Except the native stuff. Sure hope my hackberry thicket recovers.

The mesquites don't seem to mind. They're sagging under the weight of beans.

Saw my first Neon Skimmer for the year. They always like the back water feature with the drip. Except with my pump issues, no more drip or water there. But while watering today I put some water in the little horsetail pond back there and in no time at all a Neon Skimmer showed up.

A worn Black Witch moth hung out on the horsetails too.