Son took my place today

Lee wanted to go in my place to water and service feeders today. He found the deer, providing nourishment for vultures, and dragged it farther from the oasis.

The cycle of life! While one birth failed, another made it. My sister captured this video on her game cam on July 27th.

Back in Alpine, there's an interesting flower given to me by a birder friend (Cecilia Riley) from the Ft. Davis area. It a Darcy Sage (Salvia darcyi), native to the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, and only discovered in 1991, growing at an elevation of 9,000 feet. It is thriving at Cecilia's, and seems like it'll do good here in Alpine too. It's also available from nurseries now. Here's my specimen.

It's purported to be quite evergreen and deer resistant. We'll see. I planted it inside our fence this spring just to be sure nothing eats it. Since planting it, it's grown a lot and now blooming.