Drip, drip, drip...

I put in a long hard day but I love the drip. First thing this morning (7AM) I painted the stand. Now CMO has its own water tower, sort of.

Serendipitously, a visiting birder was able to help me get the temporary tank on top. Very grateful!

I like it so well that if it holds enough water, which I think it will (300 gallons) I may paint it and keep it there permanently. The weight concerns me. The tank started sagging after I put 100 gallons in it so I had to drain it and put a piece of plywood under it. I put less than 200 gallons in it afterwards and if 200 gallons will last for 3 or 4 days I don't need to fill it. Still an experiment, but I have a drip.

I actually got a photo of a Common Nighthawk flying at the oasis in the daytime. An uncommon event (I normally just have Lesser Nighthawk) and even rarer that I could get a photo. You know what they say, "give a monkey a typewriter....." LOL

Always about water

I'm determined to get a drip going for the birds. Made progress today. Tomorrow I'll have at least a temporary drip going until I either get a new tank or get this old one hoisted into place. That means four strong men, the way I see it. But if I buy a plastic tank I can do it myself. Gonna price one. Hate to spend much on one when I have one already. It's really got a lot of crud in it and was used for diesel fuel so would take a lot of cleaning.

I drug the tank and stand behind my pickup from where they were residing in the scrap yard. It didn't hurt the stand, but the tank got banged and dented a lot. I'll paint them, of course.

Once I got them to the oasis I was able to roll the tank, but couldn't budge the stand. Finally moved it into place with rollers. Inch by inch, I went along, curiously thinking about a Trojan horse.

Just have to have a drip for birds to bathe in.

Pretty spiffy!

Stucco tank

Here's a swanky active Bell's Vireo nest at the oasis. Has it's own address: 9 Dragonfly Pond Trail

Good oasis day

I'm still in awe that a month ago today the oasis got that miraculous rain. I can't complain about the difficulty of watering when I have all that wonderful water to water with. Today went better than it had been lately. By using two pumps that are both now working, I didn't have to drag as much hose and could water two trees at once.I can live with that. Can't live without a drip though. While the pump in the stucco tank is running the drip works, but I can only run it while I'm watering. So today birds came into the drip to bathe like crazy. I would never have seen this Yellow Warbler if not for the drip. First warbler I've ever had in July.

I'm going to put a 500 gallon tank on a stand and hook the drip up to it. That way I don't have to worry about freezing etc. Remember last winter I lost over 10,000 gallons of water when a faucet froze. The faucet was only on so the drip would work.

My sister has a weird (to me) aquatic species in her water hole (tinaja). Don't have an ID on it yet. There are two of them in the first photo.

I have a weird bat lately. It keeps going into the potty shed and can't seem to get out. So I open the door and it flies out. Soon it's back in there. And it flies all day. I'm afraid it's rabid or something. No idea what species.

The oasis is looking lush and lovely, but still needs a good rainy season after months of triple-digit heat. I'd hate to go into winter and next spring with no more rain. 

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UPDATE: Thanks to all who sent me an ID on the aquatic critter. It's a Long-tailed Tadpole Shrimp. A most fascinating, common, yet little known, crustacean that can be male and female, and hasn't evolved for 70 million years.

Officially 80

I've been telling people for quite a while that I'm 80 so it wouldn't come as a shock when I really am. So it's not a shock at all to be 80.

I thought this lovely monochrome by Mike Gray taken night before last at the oasis would be a nice tribute to the black and white photography that existed when I was born 80 years ago.

Here is probably the first photo ever taken of me. I was a month old on it, but was born a month early so that makes me kind of a newborn here.

And here I am around the time of my first birthday. Already very environmentally conscious. LOL

Here's how I look today in black and white.

And today in color.

My son and son-in-law hooked up new wiring to the stucco tank. The pump stays on now, so that problem is solved, but water still won't come out of the faucet farthest from the pump. We've determined that the line is plugged up with silt, maybe because the pressure without a pressure tank isn't good enough. So for now I'll water with two pumps. It's OK. Just so grateful to have water and wonderful kids.

Had a third July Lousiana Waterthrush land at the oasis today. I think it blew in with the east wind, compliments of Hurricane Hannah.

Town and country

Saw this gorgeous Horned Lizard today in Alpine at my son's house. He lives a block from us and says he doesn't poison fire ants like my husband does. Might be why he has the lizards and we don't.

Next is a Curve-billed Thrasher that's missing one leg. He hops around and seems to do just fine.

On my way to the oasis I had to stop and photograph this cloudburst just north of Santiago Peak. So far this  year rain has been spotty. I feel so lucky to have been one of the few spots to get it, even if I didn't get to witness the event.

At the oasis I laid out the wire in preparation for my son and son-in-law wiring it to the pump in the stucco tank tomorrow. Sure hope that solves the problem. Getting the line buried is going to be the hard part. Hopefully, I'll have some help. Saw my first Filigree Skimmer for this year today.

And while I was servicing hummingbird feeders I spotted this Black-chinned Hummingbird hanging upside down from a twig. He was still alive. Just overcome from the heat and dryness while migrating I guess.

Doing the math

As I was watering today with my little pump stuck into the big tank with its weak stream of water by the time it goes through 50 to 100 feet of hose, I was thinking that each tree needs to have the hose to it for about 30 minutes. So there are approximately 40-50 trees. That's about 24 hours. If I watered 8 hours a day it would take 3 days to finish. By then it would be time to start over again when it's this hot. Today it only got up to 97° so things are looking up. And I think my son is going to rewire the stucco tank Sunday. Hopefully, that'll do the trick.

While waiting for each tree to get watered I made myself a shady spot under a scrubby mesquite to sit and photograph spreadwings. The only place I can find them is in that vegetation hanging into the water.

 I'm convinced that one is a California Spreadwing and my ID problems are due to the distance and lighting. I lightened this one via camera settings and not photoshop.

The dragonfly pond doesn't have much activity in it since the mosquitoes are gone. And it probably doesn't help that when I got that monsoon gambusias escaped from the big tank and got into the other tanks. They're voracious eaters of mosquito larva

I believe this is the loveliest Band-winged Dragonlet I've seen. I'm thinking maybe a juvenile male. I came upon it out in the trees as I was watering.

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So much to do

I dried peaches yesterday, during the night, and into this morning, then came to the oasis. Feeders empty so had to fill clean ones and wash the dirty ones, then take the heavy pump out of the lower dirt tank lest it rains. Then clean out the intake in that tank and other stuff. Tomorrow I have to water all day but it's a slow process so I can look for odes while I'm watering.

You probably think I feel real bad that these Tree Tobaccos have died, but I don't. I expected it. That's the way they are. They grow 4-6' in a year but with too much heat and water a fungus seems to take them out. What survives, survives. Hopefully, new sprouts will come up everywhere and do better than transplants. It'll become more natural looking.

 I tried for comet photos this evening but deleted them all. I could see the tail just fine but it barely showed up on my photos. I'll leave it to the experts. Orlando Fonseca took this nice shot of it over the oasis a few days ago. That's better than I could ever take.

Here is the only other comet that I've ever photographed at the oasis. It's a film camera snapshot. I have no idea the date Anyone know what comet it could be? Seems to be to the north east. Maybe Halley's comet?

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UPDATE: Someone told me that last photo is of a comet called IRAS from 1983. So unless I learn different, I'll go with that.

Alpine peach day

I spent all day picking and drying peaches. The kitchen was covered with them.

I triaged the ripest ones and put them into dryers. Those that could wait are in the refrigerators. Even so, I'll be up all night tending dryers. So I took a nap this afternoon to help me make it through. My hope is to finish drying in the morning and head to the oasis in the afternoon.

I noticed some selasphorus hummingbirds fighting for the feeders here in town this afternoon. Hummingbird migration is officially underway here. Probably juvenile male Rufous, if I had to guess.

Alpine day

I so wish I was at the oasis photographing spreadwings and the comet, but maybe a day or two of rest won't hurt me. Along with the fun stuff I do at the oasis I do mostly grueling labor.

The only thing I photographed today was this Cattle Egret that flushed when I went out to the ponds.

Was surprised when ebird flagged it as rare here.

Spreadwing ID problems

Some comet aficionados are calling Neowise the Covid comet because to ancient cultures comets were messages from the gods, with significance for good or bad. Here is a photo of the comet taken last night by a professional, James Lowrey, beside me on the big hill when I took mine that I posted previously. (Shared here with his generous permission.)

If you click on his photo you can make out the faint bluish, more vertical tail. That tail is caused by the sun's radiation that ionizes gasses, mainly carbon monoxide, as it vents from the comet. The resulting plasma is more susceptible to the sun's magnetic field, therefore creates a tail that streams more directly away from the sun.

Next subject: Spreadwing damselflies. Feel free to skip this part if it doesn't interest you. I'm hoping this will be a reference for me down the road in sorting them out. It, or they, are hanging out in the stucco tank where the vegetation extends into the water (see photo of tank posted July 15)

On July 15, I took this photo of what I was sure was a California Spreadwing. Now, I don't know why I thought that.  I had left my camera at the oasis so didn't post this photo until July 17th.

Then on the 18th, I thought I had relocated the "California Spreadwing" and took this next photo. Keep in mind it/they are way out across the tank so I can't take sharp photos, but a couple of pros with obscenely big lenses, did. When I see theirs it'll help with the ID(s).

Then today (July 19), I took two photos of what I again thought was the California Spreadwing. However, the last photo grabbed my attention. It's obviously a Chalky Spreadwing. So now I'm questioning what's going on here. All one spreadwing in different lighting? I don't think so.

I never saw two spreadwings at one time in the tank and each one was in the same area of the tank as the other sightings. I can't even see them with the naked eye. I have to scan the vegetation that hangs into the water with binoculars.

The question is, are any of my photos of a California? The one of the 18th looks the most promising. Sure glad that's the one the pros took photos of. The last photo is of a Chalky. (Note the bicolored pterostigma.) The other two with so much blue on them must be the Chalky. It doesn't look as light as that last photo, but could be the sun was just hitting it on the last one. But that brings up the problem of the pterostigma. Even in the shade the white patch on it would show and there's no evidence of that on any of my previous photos. To be continued.....

Long busy day

Had birders here all day and then into this evening to photograph the comet Neowise. Thanks to Mike Gray who set my camera so I could take photos of it, I got some that I'm satisfied with. Never could've happened without his expertise. Here's one I took from the big hill on my road where the guys were set up. (The pics look better if you click on them.)

A while later I took this one from the oasis.

Even though my photos aren't of the quality of theirs, I'm just thrilled that I was actually able to photograph the comet at all.

Other than that, not much interesting going on at the oasis. Lots of hummers, including juveniles. The birders called in an Elf Owl and got photos of it. I took a picture of this Yellow-breasted Chat, just because I love them.

Also tried for a better photo of the California Spreadwing, but failed. However, I showed the spreadwing to a couple of photographers with super cameras and they got good photos of it. I haven't seen theirs yet, but eventually I will. Took this wasp photo because I don't remember ever seeing one like it before.

Watered a little but probably should water more before going back to town. With it being so hot and me having the water, all I lack is the energy.

July 17

A birder I know from Alpine went to the oasis this morning so I had him bring back my camera that I had accidentally left there. Not sure what spreadwing this photo on it is. I don't think it's a California Spreadwing like I thought.

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Also came down to the oasis late this evening and saw the Neowise comet with my sister. I tried my darnedest to take a photo of it but my cameras all only showed a black screen. Nothing. Oh well, it was awesome to witness anyway.

And worse...

Today the pump wouldn't put out any water even though I could hear it running. I'm convinced the underground wiring has an issue that keeps ruining pumps, in spite of the electricians saying it's fine. I am not putting another pump into the stucco tank until my sons put in new wiring. Thousands of dollars spent (counting new pumps) and nothing. So today I transferred water from the stucco tank with a gas pump into the big concrete tank. From there I use my little pump that uses a different electric line.

I worked all day until about 3 PM, pumping water and looking for odes and butterflies as I did. Found some nice stuff but half my pictures were still on the camera when I came to town and forgot my camera at the oasis. So maddening!

I'm almost positive I had a California Spreadwing damselfly today but need to see my photos of it to confirm. And other good stuff. Meanwhile, I have my Lumix camera if I see something I want to take a photo of.

Here's a Louisiana Waterthrush from today. Best shots still in the camera, of course.

And a Loggerhead Shrike in the process of shrieking.* He really belts it out!

This young buck was curious but eventually decided it would be prudent to depart in haste.

Getting a few migrants every day.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

I may be slaving away a lot in the heat but it beats being in the hospital or being out of water. I topped off my tanks today from the last of the water in the lower dirt tank. So lucky!

Oh, almost forgot to mention, Yellow-breasted Chats have arrived. They carry on loudly all day. I love them and missed not having them. So glad they're back.

The oasis is a demanding taskmaster, but generous with rewards! I anthropomorphize everything else, so why not the oasis? 😁

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* The word "shrike" originated from an older English word "shriken" which meant "to shriek." And loggerhead means a disproportionately large head.