More rain

 I came to town last night thinking whenever I'm there it doesn't rain, but as soon as I leave, it does. True to form, it rained after I left. My sister one mile to the north got one-tenth inch, and my neighbors three miles to the south got over 1½." So now I don't know what the oasis got. I'm going to see if my sister will go check.

Some of you have asked how the Tree Tobacco is doing. I think it's doing well. Three of the dozen or so I planted are thriving. My hope has always been that they'll go to seed and start a colony there. So far, hasn't happened. They freeze back every winter, of course.

Some rain

Got to the oasis this morning to find .63" rain in the rain gauge from last night and the night before. The only runoff was in the upper settling pond. It lacked about a foot of filling up. And since I wasn't here when it happened, a foot of that was lost. Still a nice bit of water, but I decided not to haul my heavy 2" pump and heavy hoses to extract it quickly. I reasoned that it wasn't enough to save the oasis if we don't get a monsoon this summer, and if we do get one, the water will be a drop in the bucket.

Instead, I set about pumping it out with my little pump and garden hoses. I hooked it up to my watering system so it goes into the stucco tank* where I can use it if I need it. I had been putting water in there from my new above ground tank. Glad to not have to do that, for a while anyway. Never, would be good.

Since my watering system has two hoses, I could close the one not hooked to the pump, but decided to give the trees a good soaking instead. They've endured a lot and deserve the boost. Notice the soapberry thicket in the background of the above photo. They're getting a good soaking too. The thicket below the dam is only getting what entered there during the rain... for now. More rain forecast.

Coming from town this morning the ditches were brimming with runoff until I got about 20 miles from the oasis.

Things are looking much better with the moisture, cooler temps, and no recent bear visits.

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* Normally, the pump installed in the stucco tank feeds my two hoses. I put a little portable pump into the settling pond and attached it to one of my two watering hoses. So now the water is going backwards through the pump in the stucco tank and also out the second hose. If the pump had a check valve in it, that wouldn't be possible.

New unwelcome mat

Texas Parks & Wildlife made a new unwelcome mat for my seed feeder. It'll be interesting to see how it does. Actually, I haven't had a bear tear down the feeder since I put my old one back down, but it keeps flattening the nails on it. I have to keep straightening them out. The new mat is tougher (tire rubber) and should last forever. The nails are stronger, but shorter and closer together, so we'll just have to see how it goes. The new one passed the first hurdle -- birds are fine with it.

Weird weather

I went to the oasis at daylight to get started watering before it got too hot. It was already 80° there. So good snake weather. I was carefully watching for snakes, rushing to get a sprinkler set up under the big oak tree when, in fact, I was rushing toward a bear. That scared the bear and it disappeared. Looking for damage, I found more chewed bark on an Arizona Cypress tree.

While he departed before I could get a photo, he did leave behind a huge pile of poop. It looks suspiciously like birdseed. But he didn't get into my seed feeder, so I'm guessing a neighbor's feeders got raided.

I think this young Bell's Vireo caught its first moth. It took forever to consume it.

 At around 3 PM today the thermometer read 116° and the skies were so hazy I couldn't see Nine Point Mesa. Strange stuff.

Here's what one soapberry thicket looks like. My other one doesn't even have leaves. Bleak!

Clinging to shade

This first day of summer brought with it temperatures of 111.°  In desperation I turned on a sprinkler. I couldn't stand watching the birds and trees suffer another minute longer.

The back water drip that is usually cool and shady only has a few leaves above it. It's brutal!

During the heat of the afternoon I accidentally flushed a pair of quail with some newly hatched chicks. They scattered and I think one got left behind and lost forever. At first I tried to shoo it toward the others, but it fled in the opposite direction so I left the area and hoped for the best. Here's the only shot I got of it, if you can even find it in the picture.

The sprinkler brought in everything that's around I think, including this Rufous-crowned Sparrow, which I rarely see.

Lucifer Hummingbirds hanging out in what shade they can find, as well as the Bell's Vireos.

Watering day

In spite of the oppressive heat (106°) I watered and serviced the feeders today. Rather uneventful bird-wise, but I saw a good dragonfly... first oasis Five-striped Leaftail. I figure if I can get that in this miserable drought time, anything is possible.

Also saw a lovely Questionmark butterfly. There have been hardly any odes and butterflies this year, so every one is a treat.

It was nice to just enjoy the quietude and water trees with no pressing projects to do, or damage to repair. I enjoyed listening to a Yellow-breasted Chat but didn't get a photo. With so few birds, I didn't hassle with carrying my camera around.  

Time flies

I'm going to the oasis tonight so I can get an early start at watering in the morning, before it gets scalding hot. Seems endless these days. It feels like I just watered yesterday. Actually, it was Sunday. Tomorrow will be day 4 and in this heat things need watering twice weekly.

Meanwhile, making the best of being in town. I've been checking out our ponds and also a small lake north of town on Musquiz Creek.

Today I photographed a pair of Double-crested Cormorants there, although they were so far away that it's not a good photo. That's a rather rare sighting for there, so that was fun.

Back at our ponds a pair of Vermillion Flycatchers was busy feeding two just-fledged babies. Also poor photos as they were back in vegetation and all moving fast.

A pair of Curve-billed Thrashers were busily carrying food to nestlings but I didn't want to disturb them so I didn't seek out the nest inside a pine tree.

Yesterday I finally succeeded in photographing a Bell's Vireo here that I think is the Eastern subspecies, as it's got more yellow underneath than our local Bell's do, in my opinion.

Updates

The new water feature is pretty much done. May do a little tweaking here and there, but nothing substantial. I'm not real pleased with my rock work on it. The reason is that it doesn't look natural enough to me. I think if I had used colored cement that would have helped. In nature, sedimentary rocks are tighter together, often cemented with caliche or something. But I'm not going to dismantle it and start over, so it is what it is. 

View from left blind

View from right blind

View of back side of water feature

Here's a little rock planter box I cemented 40 yrs ago and it's still in good shape. I didn't use colored cement in those days, but it gives you an idea.

As for the Black-chinned Hummingbirds, you remember a while back the first nest I found fledged 2. Thereafter, I think the same female built a second nest. She laid two 2 eggs in it, but before they hatched something got the eggs. I don't know what. Just egg shell chips left in the nest.

Today I found a third nest high in a different Arizona Cypress tree. I haven't gotten a ladder to look in it. I don't plan on doing that. Maybe later if eggs hatch, but I don't want to chance it failing on my account.

Every day the high temperature is between 105° and 110.° Brutal!

Damsel in distress

 I shamelessly got two visitors to wheelbarrow dirt and gravel to me where I was eager to work on the water feature (before temps reached 109°). Photos by Emma Mathis.

While we were thus engaged, we were distracted by a shriek from the viewing blind and a young lady flying out of it. Yup, on Emma's first visit (she's a new birder) she had a close encounter with a Diamond-backed rattler. Here's the only photo we got of it, her cell phone shot after the guys rushed to her aid. Luckily, she just happened to look down and see it. I shudder to think of what would have happened if she had stepped on it. (I need to be extra careful when I go back to working with the rocks on the water feature.)

The new water feature uses about 2" of water per week, which is acceptable considering how hot it is. That comes to less than 20 gallons per week, I think. I took my first photos of a bird at it today... adult Black-throated Sparrow, followed by juvenile.

New operational water feature

It was a hard, grueling day but the new water feature is now working. I love it! The sound of it is so great too. Between that, and watching baby quail, it's really hard to get work done. This photo is by Michael Gray. He and Cecilia slaved away on the viewing blind and water feature for countless hours. Without them, neither improvement would exist. (Of course, I did the rock work.)

I wanted to finish the rock work today, but just couldn't. I need to scrounge up some more of those Boquillas Flagstone rocks to make it suit me. The part not finished is in the back so doesn't show on the photo. I'll eventually get it done. I watered trees and did a little pruning this morning. By the time I got to the rock work (after Mike installed the solar pump, etc.) it was 96° and I was tired.

Now I'm in town trying to catch up things there.

Perpetual bear dismay

This morning I went to transfer water from the new tank. I need to do that until a monsoon fills my below ground level tanks. I turned on the valve which is connected to a temporary 2" [expensive] hose.  When no water came out the other end I went and checked to discover the bear had chewed up that hose. It reminds me of the dismay from feral hogs ruining everything, which thankfully haven't found the oasis yet. Even though the bear hasn't been around for a few days, I live in fear of it what it'll destroy next.

I contacted TP&W hoping they'll come and trap the bear. And hopefully while there's still something left to salvage. Very discouraging.

My two sisters and I went up the mountain this morning hoping to find interesting flowers. We got one new species for our places. I'm quite positive we'll never go up again. Ann and I (in long pants) turned back at the saddle. The other sister and her daughter went on without us. But we think we did good for almost 80 and 81.

Here's the new species, Narrowleaf Moonpod.