Where rainbows wait for rain

Maybe the wait is nearly over. Yesterday I saw a rainbow to the east of the oasis.

And today we got a nice shower in Alpine. This afternoon my sister took this next photo from her place looking south toward the oasis. She's a mile north of the oasis. If you look carefully, you can see the concrete strip ascending the "big hill" (north of the oasis) in the center of the photo and the tip of Williams Mountain to the south of the oasis just peeking over the big hill..

Almost nothing but sprinkles for the last two months during record breaking heat. Fortunately, rain in May enabled me to keep the oasis watered. Not real lush, but a sufficient haven for birds. Berries are ripening, so I'm hoping for a great fall migration.

Texas Persimmon

Chinese Pistachio

A few days ago I had a Calliope Hummingbird in Alpine, then later I saw one with a damaged eye. Maybe the same one. The hordes of Black-chinneds are vicious. Maybe not the same bird. This time of year Calliopes migrate through.

July 27

July 29

When my sister read that I put one of the square potholders she made into my hat, she immediately made me a round one. Pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself!  I'm sure there's not another like it in the world. (The edges were wearing thin after I washed it in the machine (won't do that again), so I covered it with a strip of material.) I try buying new hats but haven't found one I like yet.

Persevering

I arrived at the oasis at daylight, determined to water the trees and enjoy the wildlife. Can't just sit in town all the time. My plan is to spread it out over two days, so I won't run myself down too much, but it's been difficult. My head isn't all better, plus I have an inflamed, swollen, painful lymph node in my arm. Then after hours of watering and dragging hoses my foot started to hurt real bad. Otherwise, it was a lovely day. Saw lots of birds and odes. Nothing rare, but good, nevertheless.

Here's an ordinary year-round Curve-billed Thrasher feasting on a Flame Skimmer.

Persimmons are ripening and attracting birds, plus the triple-digit heat draws them to the drip, so lots of activity. Here's a gorgeous Painted Bunting bathing.

Here's one of my better ode pics today. Not sure what it is. I'm bad at IDing odes.

I took well over a hundred photos and need to get help IDing some of the odes and other insects, such as this robber fly.

I figured out that by tacking a thick cotton potholder my sister crocheted inside my hat, it keeps my head cool all day when I soak the potholder with water. When it got up to 107° this afternoon I had to sprinkle water on my shirt too, but not as much as usual. Gonna finish watering in the morning and head back to town.

I'm hanging in there. One of my eyes is black and the other is a little bit. I'm determined to get all this dental and other stuff behind me this year and have a great year next year. My foot should be all better by then too. But, as I say, life is what happens when you're making other plans. And, as I've discovered, it happens fast!

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"Perseverance is not a long race. It is many short races, one after another." --- Walter Elliot

Double dang!

I had just posted last night that life is what happens when you're making other plans. Well, at barely daylight this morning I was packing my pickup to go water at the oasis. My back tires were low so I took the portable air compressor and aired them up. As I was carrying the compressor back into the carport I tripped over a stupid stake that I had tripped over before and knew to watch out for.

Whenever I pull my pickup to the carport behind the car, it's right next to that pole, so the only way to get into the carport is over or around that offensive stake. Avoiding tripping over it was on my mind as I made repeated trips over it. So stupid that the fall happened at all. Very disappointed with myself.

After the fact, it took my son a minute to remove the stake. I had tried several times throughout the last 20 years since I've lived there/here, but couldn't budge it.

Meanwhile, it happened too fast to even think, like "drop the compressor and catch your fall" type thoughts. My head crashed into the house harder than I've ever hit my head. It was horrible. Sounded like a watermelon being dropped is the only way I can describe it. I didn't pass out, so that was good. I got into the house, bleeding all over, and got my husband to take me to the ER. There, they did a Cat-scan and adorned my head with three stitches. After a while they sent me home and told me I could go water. (My knees are swollen and bruised too but that's minor.)

HOWEVER, my family was adamant that I not do that, so I'm sitting at home, not a happy camper. My daughter regaled me with horror stories, like that of Natalie Richardson, half my age, who bumped her head while skiing, thought she was fine, and died a couple days later of intracranial bleeding. And then there's Bob Saget, and apparently a myriad others. So I'm basically grounded. My son is going to water some later this afternoon. But he's not real good at knowing how much to give which plants. He'll service the feeders, too, and of course, get farther behind on his work here in town. I hate that.

This too shall pass!

My sister Andrea

Ann left, me, right

I'm the oldest of eight children, all still living. Andrea "Ann" is a year younger than me. We were raised like twins. When I moved to the Big Bend area, in the 70s, she visited me often. In the early 1990s, I sold her a piece of my land where she spent the next 20 or more years building her lovely and unique home. It took that long because she worked as an archaeologist and couldn't build full time. She was determined to build it herself, by hand, unlike me who hired my work done, starting with dynamiting a pad for my earth-sheltered home. Mine was done in less than 3 years.

Ann's house, still not finished when this photo was taken

By the time Covid came along Ann had been working parttime. She retired completely then. She wrote two books on Big Bend archaeology. After many delays, the second one is in the process of being published. Here's a link to an article that includes her.

https://bigbendsentinel.com/2023/07/12/they-were-us-an-oral-history-of-the-big-bend-national-park-archaeological-survey/?fbclid=IwAR0e2z1_JkkW0SMgiEgZHtaoxAjptqncFvOKn9qZMlmmlWyjKt82GQXhFHM

Here's an excerpt from the article.

 ANDREA OHL: When the park project started up, I started begging for a position. At the time they really didn’t hire women. I kept asking Bob [Mallouf], and he invited me to come out; I was trying to prove myself. 

I was going to meet him [at the site]; he told me how to get there. I had a little two-wheel-drive pickup. I was about halfway there when I got hung up in an arroyo. I was just mortified.

So I hiked about two-and-a-half miles to camp, and I left a note on the Jeep saying, ‘Help!’ Then I walked two-and-a-half miles back to my vehicle and waited. Two young guys who were on the crew came, and they dug me out. 

By the time Bob was there, I was already at the site like nothing had ever happened. I went around hiking with them and had a great time. 

It turned out we had an April blizzard. I didn’t want to quit. Joe, whose crew I was assigned to, and I were the last ones to quit after we couldn’t see the ground anymore. 

When we got back to camp Bob asked Joe if he thought I could do the job, and Joe said, absolutely, hire her. Then Bob asked me when I could start. 

That was thrilling. I love the park — I’ve always loved the park and being paid to hike around it was my wildest dream.

Here's Ann above her home on her 80th birthday. Neither of us can climb to the top of our mountain anymore.

She has a passion for the wildflowers growing on her land and has contributed hundreds of specimens to Sul Ross's extensive collection. (Here's a link to the plants on our lands.  https://christmasmountainsplants.blogspot.com/)

New oasis dragonfly species

Two days ago, while I was at the oasis watering trees and servicing feeders, I photographed a dragonfly that I suspected was a Flag-tailed Spinyleg. Unwilling to be audacious, I submitted it to Odonata Central as an Eastern Ringtail, figuring if it really was a Spinyleg, they'd change it to that. I was excited to check the site today and see it had been changed! (Note the spiny legs in the second photo.) 

My sister brought me this book from a thrift shop. Pretty hot and birdless in town today, so I started reading it. It really resonates with me the essence of birding.

As a child, or adult, I never fit in until I got hooked up with the birding community-- not coincidentally, when I got my first computer. The book expresses me better than I can express myself. For example, one of the authors, Jeffrey Gordon, states, "I had found a community in which I could make a positive and valued contribution. I could do things that surprised and delighted people---that made them feel happy and grateful." (pgxiii) "Most birders get a deep sense of satisfaction from helping others see and enjoy birds." (pgxiv) He further speaks of "finding one's place in the world.... I've found my home." (pgxvii)

Could've been written by me. Another author, Noah Strycker, proclaims, "Showing someone a lifer is as good as finding one yourself." (pg70) Sound familiar? If I remember correctly, Noah once visited the oasis, as did many other of the book's thirty-seven essay writers.

And I've always wondered why I could never get into meditation. I've long suspected birding gave me the same benefit. At 83, I'm happy and not on any medications for blood pressure, etc. David Puma (pg165) called birding, "a type of focused meditation." It's true for me, too. I get lost in birding so that the rest of the world ceases to exist. One thing I love about birding is there's so much to learn. Once I learn everything there is to know about a subject, I get bored with it. Can't ever get bored birding!

Adaptability and gratitude

Adapting to the world's record heat, and to eight months of a soft diet, are my main focuses lately. Today I watered again in 110° heat. And the dentist took my old denture that had been fastened to implants and relined it for a temporary denture. It was never made for that, and is too painful to wear. I get the implants installed in October. Then it'll be another four months before the new teeth can be attached to them. So I'm doing my best to adapt. 

I feel so much gratitude for so much. That the dental technology even exists for me to eventually eat normally. And having water to keep the oasis lush and green. It's doing just fine as long as I keep watering. Today I discovered there are two Crissal Thrashers hanging around. I heard them calling back and forth to one another. So cool! I got my best photos ever of the species.

It was dismaying to see a tiny bird stuffing food into the mouth of a huge fledgling cowbird. I believe the small bird is a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.

Lots of dragonflies around to keep me entertained while watering. I think this one is an Eastern Ringtail.

Here's a shot I got of a Scissortail Flycatcher north of Alpine a couple of days ago that I rather like.

I have so much to be grateful for. I think my foot is getting better. It still hurts, and almost daily I do something to make it hurt worse, but I think I'm walking without limping. That means something is improving. I'm really grateful for my good life and health. I wouldn't trade lives with anyone.

Routine oasis day

Another watering day in triple digit heat. I've got watering down to a routine lately. Takes about six hours. While watering I asked myself what drives me, but I already knew. As I water each tree, I remember which lifer or rare bird I once saw in that tree. And equally, was able to share with others. That keeps me charged for what treats the future holds. I enjoy watering. Forces me to watch birds, butterflies, and dragonflies. Otherwise, I wouldn't be out in the heat doing that. 

For quite a while I watched a Fatal Metalmark dance around a Leopard Frog. Any second I expected a "fatal" outcome for the butterfly. Never did happen. I guess the frog was stuffed, or doesn't like butterflies.

All that May rain seems to have enabled a bumper crop of babies. Last week's quail chicks have grown some. Here's a trail cam screenshot from yesterday.

I think this is a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.

And fledgling Mockingbirds are everywhere, begging to the adults. There are seven mockingbirds in this screenshot from a video clip. One is really hard to see, but it's there. (Its tail crosses the log on the lower right half of photo.) It was easier to see in the video.

The Crissal Thrasher is still frequenting the water drip during the heat of the day. I heard it come in today, but didn't see it. Busy watering elsewhere. Here's a video clip of it from yesterday.

Life's little surprises

I hadn't paid any attention to the hummingbird feeders here in Alpine, assuming nothing but swarms of Black-chinneds were here. When a friend said she had a Costa's at her place, I thought, gee, I could have one and not even know it. So I decided to start monitoring the feeders, even though it's a couple weeks early for migrants. No sooner did I look out the window, than I saw a Broad-billed trying to get to a feeder. He was unsuccessful, thanks to the efforts of Black-chinneds.

The last time I had a Broad-billed here in town was in 2017. I desperately wanted a photo, in which case, I take what I can get as fast as I can, then later try for a better in-focus shot. As it was, I'm lucky to even have gotten a bad out-of-focus shot. If I had taken a second more to focus better, I'd have nothing. Been there, done that too many times.

I watched for it until nearly dark, but didn't see it again. Maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday, I got to the oasis to water and found all the hummingbird feeders dry after only three days. So, I added a couple more larger feeders. Things are still lovely there, even though no recent rain and exceptionally hot temps. Watering is the key. Luckily, I have plenty of water from the May rains... for now.

Saw a couple of  butterflies today that I don't see very often. Always a nice surprise! (Unfortunately, I didn't get a dorsal shot of the latter.)

Hackberry Emperor

Tawny Emperor

Wonder what surprises tomorrow will bring. 

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