Missing the fun

With everything blooming at the oasis my sisters are like kids in a candy store. They're sharing their photos with me, and it's awesome. I'm going down tomorrow, but I'll be lucky to even get through watering, much less climbing the mountain looking for flowers.

There are so many awesome blooms that I don't know where to begin,* so I'll just share this video they took of the Shortfruit Evening Primrose (Oenothera brachycarpa) opening up this evening. This is in real time, not time-lapse. Pretty cool!

* At the bottom of this page on the very far right corner there's a link to my plant photos.

Everything blooming

 

Big Bend Silverleaf

My camera didn't do justice to the vivid purple of the carpets of sage.

I went down yesterday to service feeders. Was feeling real puny so with the heat and lack of birds, I retreated back to town.

Feeling of decline

Recently, I killed myself pumping water all night, then killed myself removing the same water from the stucco tank due to it leaking 5" per day. Then I killed myself patching the tank. And then killed myself pumping the water back into the tank. Then again pumping all night after the most recent rain. Well, the tank is still leaking 2" per day. At some point I have to stop "tilting windmills." Even a cat only has 9 lives. I'm spent!

I didn't even bother to pump that last bit of runoff into the stucco tank. I figure that'll just increase the water pressure in the tank and cause it to leak faster. My vertigo never seems to get better and I have other minor health issues. Gotta slow down. So my plan is to maybe let the cottonwood tree die. 

Today was the last festival group. Again very few birds. But, I did find a nice butterfly, a rare Ornythion Swallowtail. Not new to the oasis, but I always love getting them. Unfortunately, I only saw it for a minute and did not get a good photo of it. I'm lucky, though, to get any photos. I had climbed a ladder to adjust the bird drip. Normally, when I do that I remove my camera from around my neck lest I fall and damage it. But this time I had absently left it there. From the ladder I saw and photographed the prize.

Thereafter, I spent several hours trying to relocate it with no luck. I even ventured down the arroyo into a patch of Cowpen Daisies, which I'm very allergic to. Lots of butterflies there, but no Orny.

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Black Swallowtail

Another day, another group

Can't believe the much anticipated festival ends tomorrow already. How time flies! During the night I manned the pumps. Between gas-ups, from 3-4 AM I went out Snake Road to pick up as many rocks and boulders as I could that had been swept into the road by last night's storm.

The festival this year has been distressingly birdless. Maybe too much forage out in the wild, or not cool enough weather to urge the birds south. Don't know. Time will tell.

There's enough water to fill my tanks. I haven't topped off the stucco tank yet. I want to wait and see how much it's leaking. Fingers crossed.

Still going

 I blogged early this morning before daylight, then around 8 AM the festival birders arrived.

Late this afternoon big rains descended on the Big Bend area. I probably got less than most people, but with all night pumping, my tanks will be full to capacity. Hopefully they won't leak too bad. My son is on his way down here to help. If I had gotten as much as my neighbors did, no pumping would be  necessary. Everything would be full. Such is life!

This rainbow was so bright and huge. I couldn't get it all in the frame. Then while I was looking the situation over, the sky to the north turned a brilliant red for a short time. I've never seen that before. It looked like I was in the midst of a forest fire. Eerie, for sure.

Banded Lucifers

 I've been encouraging visiting photographers to try for shots of the band numbers on banded Lucifers. Several have been successful. It has been determined that this female is at least eight years old. That's a record. Still working on a couple others. This photo by Gary Byerly.

Here's a shot of a banded male taken by Michele Champlin. Haven't found out any info on it yet. It may not be legible enough for Kelly to determine which individual it is.

Since I couldn't get an accurate measurement on the stucco tank before I left the oasis after dark the other evening, I don't have an accurate assessment of how much it's leaking, plus we had a little rain in the interim. I'm sure it's not leaking as bad as it had been though. What loss I observed in both tanks could be attributed to evaporation. (Cautiously optimistic here.)

When I arrived at the oasis yesterday afternoon, I stopped to clean up where the recent rain had caused a rockslide at the top of the big hill. 

I think it's safe. I could only remove the smaller stuff that was partially blocking the road.

The hummingbird festival is in progress, and birders will be visiting today, so I may post again later this evening.

Tank nightmare update

Yesterday morning I looked the tank situation over in a somewhat less exhausted state. The puddle of mud and water hadn't gone down a speck so I was sure there was no leak there. I decided to just use up all the cement, Drylok coating, and patching stuff I had on hand. So I worked around the inside wall of the tank patching some  really bad spots that had never leaked before and had no water trickling into the tank. Behind the peeling mess of old patching, old thin cement, etc. was just hard  mud, softened bedrock or whatever you call it. Kind of like caliche turned to rock and then softened. Anyway, I went about coating that hard mud with patching stuff as best I could, then covering it with a coating of Drylok, This was all happening in the opposite side of the tank from where I've ever had any leaks before. So when I was peeling back the spalling wall on one spot, there was a nickel-sized hole in the mud. Nothing but leakage could have caused that. Doing all that work and painting on 2 gallons of Drylok really wore me out, but by then all help was gone and I was on my own.

I ate brunch, took a nap, and tackled the pump to put the water back into the tank. Where Rance and Russ had hooked up the designated pump for the job, the connections blew out as soon as I started the pump. So I put a screw in one side of the rubber connector. Put rockpiles under the line so that it wouldn't sag under the weight of the water (all this on a slippery steep slope on the edge of the dirt tank), then added a different fitting to the other end that blew out so it would be harder to blow out. Eventually, by 5 pm I got the water moving. It was dark when I finished. And since I had promised my husband I'd go to town, I headed for town promptly.

Driving at 70 MPH on the "flats" before getting into the mountainous area, I had the highway all to myself. Not a vehicle anywhere in sight, coming or going. After a time a vehicle far behind me slowly gained on me until it was right behind me, then lights flashed. I immediately pulled over and got out of the car, asking why I was being stopped. I couldn't imagine a reason. The officer told me I'm supposed to stay inside my vehicle (I didn't know that), so I jumped back inside, declaring, "I'm in, I'm in."

Next he informed me I had crossed the center line, apparently once or twice, he was never clear on that. Well, I worry about deer jumping out in front of me in the middle of the night, so yeah, I probably didn't stay 100% inside the line when having the road to myself, no curves or anything. So he gave me a warning ticket. Here it is. So funny that my beat up old pickup is listed as a 2021. It's actually a 2011. It shows on the very bottom of this photo, "Failed to Drive in Single Lane." (I didn't show the officer's name.)

All the drugs, illegals, and who knows what else crossing the borders here, and he zeroed in on me. I wonder if it's an adrenalin rush to pull someone over on a deserted highway in the middle of the night.

 

On a much more exciting note. There are a couple of old banded female Lucifers at the oasis. May be record-old if we can figure out which they are. I've encouraged photographers to try to get photos of the bands. Here's one taken yesterday by Kathy Clark. I'll let you know what, if anything, we can learn from it as soon as I hear back from the bander, Kelly Bryan.

And if that isn't enough excitement for one day, my sisters came upon  two fledgling Lucifers just out of the nest, way up our mountain where we know they nest. I call it the "nursery." It appears, from what I was told, that they were practicing short flights. (Photo taken with their little bridge camera from a distance.) They'll be visiting the feeders soon.

Things like that make it all worthwhile. I won't know about the tank leakage until I get back down there. Part of the water I removed from the stucco tank I put into the big concrete tank. It has started leaking at the top, but not farther down. So by topping it off day before yesterday, it leaked an inch per day. Since the surface area of it is twice that of the stucco tank, that equals about 2" per day if it had been in the stucco tank. I'll put it back into the stucco tank when I get back there, assuming the stucco tank is no longer leaking. Whew!

My second worst nightmare!

 My worst nightmare is not getting summer rain. My second worst nightmare is getting summer rain and losing it in a leaky tank. Last night around 8 PM  the stucco tank level was 29" from being full. I double-checked to be sure. Yup, 29". At around 8 AM I checked to see if it lost any in the night and was horrified to find it was 31½" down. And you could see a 2½" line around the tank where it had gone down that much, no mistake. That would equal 5" per day of water loss. The tank would be empty in no time. So I decided, since I had two willing strong men there to help (brothers Russ and Rance Rogers), I'd pump it into the dirt tank, patch the tank, and put it back in.

I think everything that could go wrong, went wrong. All day long we struggled with various gas pumps and hose configurations to make it happen. I lost count of how many times they moved a heavy gas pump. First one wouldn't pump, so we replaced it with another. It pumped for awhile, then lost its prime when the tank got low. Couldn't get it primed, so switched to all new hose configuration and an electric pump. We added a second smaller gas pump to speed things up. They came to photograph birds. That didn't happen. The only reason I survived working for 12 hours is because they did the heavy lifting. They are my angels.

Tomorrow they're going to return to work hours to hook up a third 3" gas pump so I can pump the water back into the stucco tank once its patched. 

But wait, that isn't all! We finally got the tank empty, and I cannot find a leak. The only other place to look is under the mud in the middle of the tank. I'm quite sure it doesn't leak there, but tomorrow I'm going to crawl around in 4 inches of mud, covered with an inch or two of water (pumps can't get it all), and feel around for a hole in an area about 12' X 12'. Most likely, a non-existent hole.

Then, back to all day pumping water back into the tank, hole or no hole. If the pump won't draw water, then I'll have to do it in 2 days with an electric pump. I can't imagine a worse nightmare than today!

Nighttime pumping

 During this year's rainy season the oasis has gotten four rains that each created a little runoff. That's unusual. Normally, I get only one rain and it fills the tanks, like last happened in June 2020. So since the rains almost always occur late in the afternoon, that means nighttime pumping.

My son was already down here when it rained again last night. He tried to handle things by himself, but since a person never knows ahead of time what will need pumping and to where, it's impossible to be prepared in advance. So in the middle of the night AGAIN, I came rushing down. I know what needs to go where, and where what is (cords, gas, hoses, anchor, pumps, priming bucket etc.).

 One nice thing about getting the rains piecemeal is that it doesn't damage the roads and stuff. Also vegetation does better with frequent rain.

This last rain helped enough that I feel confident the oasis will make it until next rainy season. Whew!

This afternoon Mike Gray came down and laid some pavers in the new viewing area. It's a start. The plan is to eventually do it all.

A little more rain

Every little bit helps. Two days after I got back to town after watering, I had recovered enough to go birding at Balmorhea. Of course, I overdid myself there and arrived in Alpine totally spent. Shortly thereafter, my sister called and told me I had gotten nearly half an inch of rain at the oasis, and there was some runoff. So I went tearing down there in the middle of the night and started pumping out the settling pond. It loses its water the fastest.

I tried to get the gas pump going in the upper dirt tank but needed light to mess with it when it wouldn't pick up the water. So at daylight I began an hours-long struggle to get it going, in and out of the muddy water countless times. Immediately, a connection in the line blew out, so I turned off the pump to fix it. Then didn't have the stamina to repair the line, after birding and no sleep the night before. Hey, rain wasn't forecast so I didn't see a need to save my energy. Finally, my sisters came and helped me get the pump going again, but it stopped shortly thereafter, so I just gave up.

I think I had estimated from the previous rain that my storage capacity was around 70% full. So with what I got out of the settling pond, I'd say now around 72%. But 72% is better in August than in June, when it's farther from the next year's rainy season. (I estimate my storage capacity to be around 300,000 gallons. I lose half to leakage and evaporation, which leaves me about 150,00 gallons per year. I do fine with that much. All estimates very rough!)

Anyway, the day I watered, a photographer was there. He's an awesome photographer and said I could share some of his photos here. Thank you Russ Rogers!

Juvenile male Lucifer Hummingbird

I just love juvenile Lucifers. It makes me happy to know that I've helped their nesting success.

Varied Bunting (male)

Bear photo taken in Big Bend National Park by Russ after leaving the oasis. Thankfully, it wasn't at the oasis.

 

Today my son was able to go to the oasis and fix the broken water line. He was in Colorado when the rain event happened so couldn't go sooner. Somehow he managed to get the pump going. There wasn't much water left in the tank by then. He probably got out less than 5,000 gallons. Every little bit helps.

Exhausting, but good day

I watered from 8 AM until 2 PM. Totally exhausting. The 100° temperature by then sure made me glad I was finished before I totally collapsed. While watering I saw a White-patched Skipper butterfly. It's a Mexican species that usually only occurs in the Rio Grande Valley and SE Arizona in the US. I had several in 2013, but at that time I didn't know that was unusual, so didn't fully appreciate them.

Also I was surprised at how heavily streaked this juvenile Black-throated Sparrow is. The juveniles are so cute. For days after fledging they stand right beside the adults as the adults pick up seeds and poke them into the fledgling's beak. Finally, the fledglings figure it out and feed themselves. 

And this Varied Bunting was entertaining as it took repeated baths in the new water feature. I hope it's still doing that in two weeks during the hummingbird festival tours.

I think this is the best this Senna (S. wizlizeni) has ever looked.

Just so glad I don't have to water again for 4 or 5 days, and even longer if it rains. We are in the middle of monsoon season, after all.

First fall migrant

Got to the oasis on August 1st to see a gorgeous Rufous Hummingbird at the feeders.

Basically, I spent all that day and the next, servicing feeders, pumping water from one tank to another where I needed it to be, and watering trees. I'm getting too old for all that work. It left me exhausted. Those pumps and hoses are heavy. So when I got to town last night I just collapsed into bed. But I'm fine today!

Here are a couple of photos I took while there. I just love the juvenile male Lucifers with their mottled gorgets.

Dragonfly numbers are improving but I didn't have much time to sit and watch. Here's a Band-winged Dragonlet. Brewster County is about as far west as their range goes.

I haven't gotten this bug ID'd yet, so I'll call it a Yellow Velvet Ant. It was moving so fast I had to take about twenty shots of it just to get it in the frame.