Bittersweet!

I went to the oasis this morning to make sure everything was winterized. All was green and lovely, 65°, no wind, with lots of birds. Hard to enjoy, knowing in a few hours it would all disappear, not to be so lovely again until spring.

 

I was aware there was a bear in the thicket near the back water drip this morning. I heard it in there, but couldn't see it. It's hidden in the upper left corner of the above photo. Not visible, way back in there. I looked hard from different angles. 

When I got back to town I read online that an injured bear had been seen outside the back gate from the oasis, less than a half mile away. I'm sure that's the one. I have a camera set up on the seed feeder. We'll see what happens.

Back in Alpine, I realized I hadn't ever posted a photo of the offending grape arbor, so here it is. I aspire to remove the other two horizontal side pipes, but holding off for now. My husband prunes the vines severely after they leaf out. I'm sure that's not the proper way to do it. I'm going to try to persuade him to at least not prune around the water feature. Birds like cover near water. And we don't use the grapes anyway. Just give them away.

I brought the hummingbird feeders inside tonight. Will rehang at daylight.

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UPDATE: Texas Parks and Wildlife said the bear is probably going to spend the upcoming storm semi-hibernating in the thicket, and may stay there for weeks. The neighbors that saw it said it seemed to have an injured paw. Never a dull moment at CMO. Who would ever dream it would be hosting a hibernating bear?