Bad day for water feature

I held my breathe arriving at the oasis this morning for fear of finding bear damage. Lucked out there, and the acorns are gone, so I think the oasis dodged the bears this year. I believe the acorns fell to the ground and were consumed by javelina. Those devils rearranged some of the rocks in the new water feature. Not bad enough that I'm going to resort to concrete  .......yet. Gonna try heavier rocks first.

The worst thing they did was uncover a section of the underground reservoir. With light getting to it, algae will grow and mess up the pump. I plan to put heavier rocks over that area. We shall see.

Also, I opened the faucet from the rain barrels to top off the underground reservoir and went off and forgot it (for the second time now) and lost most of the water in the rain barrels, about 300 gallons, more or less. Really upsets me. Last time it happened I vowed to open up only one barrel so that would be the most I could drain, but, I was so sure I'd remember, that I didn't bother to close one of the barrels. I've resolved that will never happen again. Any time I turn it on I'm going to immediately put  something on the hood or windshield of my pickup to remind me, and use from only one tank. The valves are underground and it's almost impossible, and very painful, for me to stoop over that far to turn one on and another off, then later reverse the action, that I tend to make mistakes. Duh!

Had a hummer I couldn't ID today so I sent a pic of it to Kelly Bryan, the expert. He said it was an juvenile Anna's. Here's a photo of it being harassed by a young male Lucifer.

There were at least three Lucifers still here today, but I expect once the wind dies down they'll head south.

I made one other regrettable mistake today. I spied an interesting looking darner (dragonfly) perch quite a ways away. I moved a bit closer to get a better photo without first taking a distant shot. My zoom lens would have at least made it IDable. But of course it disappeared before I got to take a photo of it. I knew better. It's getting hard to live with myself some days. I hope tomorrow will be more satisfying.

Lovely surprise shower

Sometime after 10 PM last night my sister called me* that we got nearly half an inch of rain at the oasis. I knew I wouldn't sleep wondering if there was runoff to harvest, so I went down, arriving around midnight. No runoff, but a great rain for the vegetation. The storm had put out internet and phone service so I hightailed it back to town this morning. Not before seeing what birds were around, of course.

On my way to town I saw the service men working at the tower, but I don't think it's the same tower that provides my wifi.

Most interesting birds at the oasis were quite a few hummers and a House Wren.

In Alpine I was happy that my husband let me remove an old fence that had been hampering birding activity. Been wanting to do it for years.

           2018 (The city cut down that lovely mesquite tree
     my sign hung on so I now hang it on the stump.)

Today

Also proud of my son's sign work. Here's one of his recent creations for the City of Alpine gas company. Old one first, then the new one he made. (The new one won't turn brown with age.)

_______________

* She tried calling earlier but couldn't get service until then, but the service was brief. By the time I got there it was out again.

Another good oasis day!

Been wanting to post before and after shots of the viewing blind. The first shot was taken by Tom McCoppin a little over a year ago, and I took the second shot recently, trying to get the same view and angle.

It's hard to believe that's the same spot. I'm really happy with the oasis these days, and especially relieved to get those patches on the road. That short steep section has been an albatross around my neck, and I feel certain that no one will have a problem ascending the hill now. I didn't realize how much that stressed me until the stress went away.

I watered the trees today while watching birds. Birding isn't bad at all thanks to that Chinese Pistachio tree that attracts them. The weather couldn't have been better. Mostly the same birds as yesterday, but I keep trying for better photos. I loved Mike's shot of one of the Red-naped Sapsuckers, so tried to take a better one than I had before. This is probably the best I can do.

Flickers are enjoying the berries too.

When I came to town this afternoon I had intended to leave the red chairs blocking the fresh concrete, but couldn't bring myself to. The only persons that would come up the hill are birders and better to risk cracking the concrete than them having trouble getting around the barriers. The concrete looked really good and set. Probably be even better by the time someone comes along. We put lots of steel and fiber in it. I have confidence in it.

Plan worked perfectly

My helpers showed up on schedule and the job went as planned. So excited to see if it makes the big hill less daunting for visitors. It probably won't change anything for me since I straddle the holes going up in my pickup, but low clearance cars hopefully will do better now. A huge round of applause for my awesome volunteers, Mike Gray, Cecilia Riley, and Deirdre Hisler! (Red chairs are to keep cars from driving on the uncured cement.)

It may not look like much but I think the little added traction where it's most needed will make a lot of difference.

The crew arrived around 9 AM when the oasis was good for birding. It took an hour before we could tear ourselves away and go to work. There were at least 3 Red-naped Sapsuckers, and 2 Hermit Thrushes, among many other birds, enjoying the Chinese Pistachio berries. Lots of butterflies too. Here's Mike's shot of one of the Red-naped Sapsuckers. He's a beauty! Great shot Mike!

 The beige-ish edges on the feathers indicate that this is a juvenile Lucifer.

Big day tomorrow

Friends are coming to help put a couple of concrete patches on the steepest part of the big hill. I think it'll make a world of difference. Should have done it years ago. I was waiting for all the soil to wash off, I guess, but I'm excited to get it done now. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so that'll make the trip to the oasis much easier. I'll take photos and post them tomorrow. What really impelled me to do it was when an elderly couple couldn't make it up the hill in their rental car recently. Backing down they went into the ditch and got stuck. Sat there two hours or more until my sister happened to notice their vehicle on the big hill that hadn't moved since the last time she looked an hour earlier. Could have been really bad. So I knew something had to be done. It doesn't matter that people shouldn't come if they're unable to walk out. They do come, and it needs to be safer.

Meanwhile, a Varied Bunting has been hanging around the feeder for four or five days at least. Really unusual to have one in mid-October.

Otherwise, not much of interest, although admittedly, I've been too busy to watch much.

Fun oasis day

Yesterday was windy, blowing in the remnants of Hurricane Pamela from the Pacific. Today was deadly calm and quite birdy. I guess the south wind brought them in as they tired of flying against it. Also the wind seemed to have blown in lots of butterfly species that I seldom get. Like many Dorantes Longtails and Tailed Oranges.

Tailed Orange

Dorantes Longtail

Mexican Yellow

The sky was overcast all morning, then light showers in the afternoon. Temperature perfect. Air perfumed with beebrush. Yesterday's winds brought down lots of ripe acorns, but there are still as many left on the trees, so not safe from bear damage yet.

The Chinese Pistachio tree is still loaded with berries, which attracts lots of birds. I had to water trees, so not able to watch like I would have liked. Among those feasting were Red-naped Sapsuckers and a Hermit Thrush.

Damselfly success!

When I learned that the original finder of that Fiery-eyed Dancer saw two again yesterday after spending only fifteen minutes there, I couldn't stand it! I had to try again! 

I arrived at the location shortly before 11:00 AM. Immediately, I placed a chair in the water at the location they had been seen twice previously and sat patiently waiting. Here's my view from the chair. I was so still that a damselfly perched repeatedly on my shoe. You can see the tip of my shoe (to the right of my ever-present shadow), complete with dragonfly, at the bottom edge of this first photo. (The yellow sign is at the side of the road.)

Springwater Dancer on my shoe

After twenty minutes or so when I was certain the ode of my quest was not there, I started looking farther downstream. To my amazement, I had gone no more than 10-20 feet farther than I spied one coming and going to a perch on a twig just above the water. I immediately knew what it was. It was real!

I'm positive I hadn't overlooked it two days ago. I just hadn't been at the right spot at the right time.

No luck on odes

Yesterday I spent well over four hours searching for the reported Fiery-eyed Dancers (damselflies) near Balmorhea, with no luck. They were seen there again today, so I'm going to try one more time tomorrow.

Here are a few photos of the interesting stuff I saw yesterday.

Lavender Dancer

Unknown fly

Maybe White-lined Bird Grasshopper

Painted Damsel

American Rubyspot

Serpent Ringtail

Saying farewell to Lucifers

There are still five or six Lucifers hanging around, including a couple juveniles. October is the month I see the last of them until next March. I will miss them, as usual.

Very few migrants, and overwintering species haven't arrived yet. Yesterday there were three Red-naped Sapsuckers fighting over Chinese Pistachio berries, but better that than hammering the sap out of my trees.

Nashville Warbler

On that last photo you can see how the water isn't dripping properly. The spout Mac Womack made a couple of years ago came off, so I made a new one. 

It should turn black with algae soon enough. The way I looped it over the rim of the rock, I'm hoping it won't fall off. But if it does in a few years, I can replace it, and knowing what I learned doing this one, the next one will be better. At least now it's dripping into the basin below and not running down the side of the rocks.

A pair of Tropical Leafwings are enjoying a stale feeder, so I didn't refill it with fresh sugar water.

A couple of rare dragonflies were seen near Balmorhea two days ago. I'm going to try to find them tomorrow. They'd be lifers for me. Stay tuned....