Rushing around

Seems I must overload myself, because I'm constantly running. Doing some much needed cleaning at the oasis storage buildings. Getting rid of stuff that hopefully won't be needed anymore. Then watering, trying to inventory the oasis birds, then to town to catch up here. It's exhausting! I'm just grateful that I'm able to do all this. Remember when I broke my foot's navicular bone (my diagnosis) earlier this year? Well, it's 90% better now, in spite of my never slowing down. Took longer than it should have, of course.

So, while at the oasis, I was reviewing the trail cam captures and was surprised to get this footage of a bobcat.

Today, while rushing around, I managed to get my first photos of a Tree Swallow. Don't know why I never got any before. It's not a new oasis species.

Migrants trickle in, as is normal for this time of year.  I love when the male juvenile Lucifer Hummingbirds show off their new gorget feathers.

OK, gotta run. Want to finish with supper so I can go visit a birder friend in the Alpine hospital.

Fun oasis watering day

I do believe more migrants drop by the oasis when I'm running a sprinkler and a couple of hoses. Friday, I tallied 53 species for the day and I'm sure I missed a bunch. They don't stay long and I'm busy moving hoses, etc. But it spoils me. Then when I water without seeing birds, especially in winter, it's a drag. All worth it though!

Young Bullock's Oriole

Birders have been wanting oasis T-shirts, so I got another batch in. Can be purchased when visiting, if I'm there at the time. Probably not going to order more, but I thought since Dennis Shepler designed them and he passed away not long ago, it'd be a nice tribute to him.

Here's a cool photo that Mike Gray took yesterday of a new yard bird for his place in the Fort Davis area. Sure wish I could take photos like that, but I know my limitations. Not to mention, I can't spend the gazillion dollars on equipment that he does. Such complicated equipment too. 

Cape May Warbler.

I was thrilled to get a Cape May Warbler at the oasis this spring. Fall migration has been good too. Lots of Dickcissels, which is unusual. No summer monsoon at the oasis. Maybe we'll get a fall monsoon. It could happen.

Here and there

I've been enjoying fall migration and weather that's a tad cooler. No rain though. If the oasis doesn't get rain soon, it will be bleak water-rationing to make it through to next summer's rainy season. I really should let a few water-needy trees go. So hard for me to part with them. Mostly referring to the half-dead cottonwood tree. Birds love it so much. But at least the oasis will always have it's specialty species, like Elf Owl, Varied Bunting, Lucifer Hummingbird, etc.

Couldn't resist doing a little birding in Marathon and lots of birding at my ponds here in Alpine too. Here are a few photos I like. Finally getting better with the camera. This Swainson's Thrush here in Alpine doesn't have a tail. It hung around for 2 or 3 days.

Next is a Blue-headed Vireo captured on the game camera at the oasis. Alas, I didn't see it, so can't count it on ebird, or as a lifer, but it is a new oasis species.

Got lucky on this Nashville Warbler shot in Alpine. They're hard for me to photograph, especially considering I was so far away from the bird. Too far away to see what it was until I looked through the camera lens.

On the other hand, this Black-and-White Warbler was much less evasive. Even saw one in Marathon, the oasis, and in Alpine.

The nice thing about fall migration is that it drags on for a month or two, unlike spring migration that only lasts two weeks. So it's not over yet, and maybe, just maybe, we'll have another awesome winter of birding like we had last winter.

One month from today I'm scheduled to get my new implants put in. I surely hope nothing prevents that from happening.

 

Not enough time

This morning I was to meet with the phone company about the mess they left on the road. I told my husband after that, I'd bird a bit and when it got hot, I'd come back to town, around 2 PM. 

I spent more time with the road situation than planned, plus had to service and wash feeders. So when I finally sat down to enjoy birds, time flew. At 2 PM I called my husband and told him I was running late and would be back by 4 PM. That only left me 30 more minutes to watch birds. And wouldn't you know, it was very birdy. I snapped as many photos as I could before reluctantly heading back to town. Wish I had just planned to spend the day. Usually, birding slows down around noon, but with it being migration, triple digit heat, and a tree loaded with pistachio berries, it was crazy!  I enjoyed what time I could and took a few nice photos. Finally getting the hang of my new-again camera.

I'll go back Sunday and spend the day watering and leisurely birding. As leisurely as possible while rushing around moving hoses, of course. It'll still be sweltering weather, so the running water should bring in birds.

Warbling Vireo

Empidonax flycatcher

Townsend's Warbler

As for the road mess, I'm satisfied they'll do everything they can to make it right. We'll see...

Out of curiosity, I asked if anyone else complained about their roads. They must have buried cable throughout about a thousand miles of Terlingua Ranch roads. They said, "no," all the other roads had "windrows" along them before they did their project. Well, mine didn't. I hate those ugly rows of rocks and dirt a grader leaves, so I never tolerated them. If I was 20 years younger, I would just rake them away and pick up the rocks, but I'm no longer able to. Once it rains on that stuff it's not rake-able. And rain is forecast for later next week. (I imagine none of the other property owners on Terlingua Ranch get nearly daily emails saying how lovely their place is either.) Maybe I'm being too picky. I've made up my mind that after they do their re-manicuring, I'll just accept however it turns out. At least it's not on roads that birders traverse. Unless they get turned around and head out the wrong way. I hardly use that road anymore myself. I guess it's just knowing there's ugliness on my land. To be sure, there are a couple of ugly places* on my land that nothing can be done about it. I have to accept what I can't change.

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* In 1979, a couple of years after I bought my property, a pair of miners told me they had mineral rights on the mountain to the south of CMO (Williams Mountain), and brought in equipment across my land, then cut roads across the pristine face of the mountain. I protested and demanded a survey. Ultimately, they packed up in the night and left. The surveyor told me I now owned a fluorspar mine. So that ugly scar is there forever. I removed as much of their debris as possible and had my late husband dig a pit and bury some of it, including a bus they had their workers stay in. In hindsight, I should never have let them enter my land. I didn't know any better in those days. And back then it was really difficult being a woman in a man's world. For me, anyway.

Then when I was building a road to my property at the end of Snake Road, I had it flagged where I wanted it to go. While I was busy building my house and getting supplies etc., my dad decided he knew better where the road should go so he dug  part of a switchback across the top of the big hill. I stopped it as soon as I saw it, but that's another blight on the landscape. 

And the huge boulders we dynamited from the top of the hill so the road wouldn't be so steep are still an eyesore. Getting the concrete on the big hill took priority to getting those gone, but I still have hopes that an opportunity to fix that situation will happen. Originally, we removed the big boulders, but through the years more have eroded off the edge of the cut into the hill we made. Not giving up on that. Just so much work piling up all the time, that it gets moved to the far back burner. 

These rocks were removed in 2017, but more have fallen in their place.

Beauty and ugliness

I've spent over 45 years protecting and beautifying my land. It's an endlessly wearying battle. Went down today to discover the crew that buried the new fiber optics cable had left an ugly mess. Of course I complained and will be meeting with them Thursday. Not sure how fixable it even is.

Here's where they destroyed my lovely rock and concrete low water crossing. Wish I had a before photo. It never occurred to me that I might need one, unfortunately. Makes me really sad.

I've always kept my roads as manicured as possible and never would have tolerated ugliness like this alongside them.* I cleaned up a bunch of rocks and brush near the guesthouse this morning, then raked as best I could, but I'm physically no longer able to clean up such messes. Maddening.

They came in my east gate, not via Snake Road, so it's not an area birders normally see, but to have that ugliness on my property is distressing.

On a brighter side, the rain two weeks ago has left blooms and beauty everywhere else. (Big Bend Silverleaf, Senna wizleni, and beebrush)

The oasis is almost overwhelmingly fragrant. I water this Texas Sage all the time, but it refuses to bloom until it rains.

My Trifoliate Orange at the oasis bloomed for the first time ever. (Some of you may remember way back when I planted my little "citruseria" in March of 2016.)

Summer rainy season is almost over, without the oasis tanks being filled. Just gotta hope we get some fall rains.

Fall migration is underway. Here are a couple of oasis migrants.

Rufous Hummingbird by Amy Boyd

Plumbeous Vireo, I think. (photo by me)

I've noticed I haven't been getting comments on this blog since I set it to moderation. Is it not allowing comments?

UPDATE: Thanks all for your patience! I found the problem and fixed it. It was as simple as going into settings and clicking on "email comment approval requests." I won't miss them now. So sorry.

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*There are some ugly gigantic boulders near the road at the top of the big hill. I've done the best I can with them through the years, but it is an ugly spot. Dynamiting into the hill to make a road that wasn't impossibly steep is the cause. It was the only way to have a road through there. Even so, the steepness required me to have concrete put on it so cars could make it up. The price we have to pay. The ugliness on the other road is not a necessary evil.