Son to the rescue ... AGAIN!

Lee and I went to the oasis today to install the cup-trays onto the bear-proof ground feeder. I'm confident that now it's even more bearproof than it was! Love it!

Here are the new trays after he made them.

Here he is in the process of welding them on.

And here's the finished product.

When we arrived early this morning the feeder was empty, so the birds were quite frantic during the welding. When we finally got the feeder reinstalled, and the paint touched up, birds swarmed in. Here are a few photos. (There are so many doves and White-crowned Sparrows that the seed hadn't lasted long enough.) We filled the tank with 80 lbs. of seed, and now with the efficient tray-cups below the ports, that should make an appreciable difference.

As for the broken sprinkler, Lee fixed it. He thinks the breaks were caused by water inside freezing. From now on, we'll drain it after use during the winter. 

A week ago the oasis got a nice soaking .3" of rain. It came at a good time because I had just spread the new mulch. The rain helped to settle it down, and now to keep the ground from drying out as fast.

As for my health update, I feel fine except for the sores in my mouth. Blood pressure wouldn't go down so my doctor started me on BP meds (Amlopidine), which is the same thing my sister, brother, and husband all take. I'm confident that will do the trick. My foot isn't hurting as bad, so hopefully, it'll be better soon. I'm thinking that climbing in and out of my husband's high pickup on the days I got the mulch and then went to the oasis with Lee to spread it, even though I tried to do it very carefully, may have stressed the navicular bone in my left foot. Although only the right one was previously broken (my conclusion), the left one hurt pretty bad too. So now that left one may have gotten re-stressed somehow.  But I'm optimistic this year will be a good year.

A bleak week!

In a recent visit to the oasis I discovered something, surely a bear, had demolished my wonderful custom made (by Russ Rogers) water sprinkler. My son is going to rebuild it at some point.

Right now he's working on welding cups to the bear-proof seed feeder ports. Birds are shoveling seed out onto the ground, plus bears can get some out of it. This improvement should save on seed and reduce on unwanted partakers of it. In the next blog I'll post photos of the process. (He's just making the cups now.) Everything is always a work in progress, it seems.

I've been having a rough month between wintry weather and dental stuff. Surely, I'll get teeth next month. Meanwhile, my blood pressure is way too high. I attribute that to not eating apples. All my life I've eaten lots of apples and had low blood pressure until I was around 50. Thereafter, it's been normal until just recently. Now it's like 160 over 100. I'm forcing myself to put apples in the food processor and eating them, even though it makes them brown (think bruised) and yucky. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for Thursday, Feb 1st. I'm sure I'll get put on BP meds. Also, yesterday I woke up with my foot hurting so bad that I can only limp around painfully. No idea why. (It's not the same foot I had a cracked navicular bone in last year.) No other symptoms. Maybe a pinched nerve in my back or somewhere.

And I have painful sores in my mouth. Last Wednesday was another agonizing dentist visit, as all have been. He made impressions, but they don't just lift off the implants straight up, as the implants are slightly angled. He ended up having to drill through the mold into the implant abutments and unscrew them to get the casting off, only after I could no longer endure the pain. Really injured my mouth, which bled freely as I thought my jaw was being broken. But the dentist assured me it wasn't, and he was right. This too shall pass. At the moment, even eating my diet of mush is painful. So January isn't a great month. Just as well there are no good birds to see. I wouldn't be up to chasing them anyway.

Here's a podcast that talks about birding the oasis last May. I'm really looking forward to spring migration. And teeth. And warm weather. It'll seem like a new lease on life! Time flies by, so it'll be soon!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0iCLdLwPbUd5w8YuhArKmX

Spring is getting closer

Thanks to one of my wonderful blog followers who lives here in Alpine, my husband's big pickup is filled with pine mulch. Thanks Mike!

Lee will take it to the oasis in a few days and unload it. Pine needles make such good mulch. They don't blow away like leaves do.

My sister had a couple of mountain lions visit her water feature near the oasis two nights ago.

Today at the oasis

Since today seemed like the weather might be the least bad day for a while (past and future), I went early to water and service feeders. I've been experimenting with a feeder heater.  The terrible recent winds seem to have left what should have been a nearly full feeder empty, so today I put up a bigger, heavier feeder. If it's empty when I get there next time, I'll just abandon the project. Another problem I'm having with it is I can't hang it without tilting it, which causes the solution to gurgle. That makes it accessible to bees. Not being there to monitor it, I can't say for sure whether wind or bees or both were the problem, but I tried again. We'll see.

While I was watering I checked the water level in the reservoir of the water feature. Looking into the access hole, I saw at least two dead mice floating in the reservoir. When fishing them out with a stick didn't work, I crammed my hand through the opening, reached way down into the water and pulled the stinky slimy things out. YUCK! I have no idea how they got in there, but knowing mice, I shouldn't be surprised.

Almost had a camera catastrophe today, too. I carry my binos and camera around while I water, but took them off from around my neck to get down on hands and knees while fishing for mice. Afterwards, when I went to put them back on (I have to do the binos first so I can use either rapidly if need be), I grabbed the binos from the viewing counter, but the dangling strap yanked the camera off the counter as I did it. Somehow, I managed to catch the camera mid-air without it hitting the ground. That would have been devastating. More so because I'm still stressing over my phone deciding to factory reset itself all out of the blue. Must be a glitch in some system, somewhere. Had to download all my apps, and still haven't gotten my email accounts to where I can check them online. Or ebird, and who knows what all else. It's a nightmare for me. If it happens again I'm going to get a new phone.

Here are a few photos from today. First is the small oak thicket beneath the biggest Live Oak tree. It's a little thicket that has attracted several rare warblers in the past (Worm-eating, Cerulean, Grace's, etc.). Well, no warblers at the oasis yet this year, but the thicket made a bunch of acorns this winter. I wonder what will find them this time of year.

Next is a weird thing I saw happen. As a Hermit Thrush seemed to be posing for me, I rapidly shot photos of it, always hoping for a good sharp one. All within a moment in time, it regurgitated a berry (probably mistletoe) and swallowed it again. Here's the action I caught. Didn't get the split-second regurgitation. Never saw anything like that before! (Photos are in chronological order, seconds apart.)

Several Ruby-crowned Kinglets must have been having territorial disputes. At least one had its red crown showing every time I looked.

The potential hybrid Anna's x Costa's Hummingbird is still present, but I imagine it won't be for long.

I got back to town before dark, exhausted.

Crazy January

Never would've thought dalea would be blooming in January at the oasis. This photo by my son.

Wright's Dalea (Dalea wrightii)

Not to mention all the other great flowers my niece has been photographing lately, such as this Yellow Trumpetflower (Tecoma stans), bleached around the edges, from frost perhaps.

 

 And yesterday she photographed a spring form of Checkered White butterfly. Days are getting longer.

In Alpine I saw the juvenile Allen's Hummingbird again yesterday after not having seen it since mid-December. (First seen mid-November) 

Sure never know what to expect in this part of the country!

Exciting new oasis flower species

My indefatigable sister and niece constantly seek out blooms on our properties. New Year's Eve this energetic and knowledgeable niece discovered a  Spearleaf (Matelea parvifolia) blooming. Who would have thought it would bloom so late in the year!

Also, a hummingbird expert, Sheri Williamson, suggested that the possible hybrid Costa's that's been at the oasis for at least six weeks might be an offspring of a hybrid. Quote:

"Though I don't put much stock in wing/tail ratios, her pale cheeks, thinnish bill, and slightly more concave lower gorget margin all look "off" for a 100% Anna's. Comparing her greater secondary coverts to photos of Anna's, Costa's, and hybrids, they're subtly narrower and more rounded but still closer in shape to Anna's, possibly indicating that her parents were a hybrid and an Anna's."

Fascinating stuff. I wish they would take DNA from it before it's too late. Here's my photo of it taken on Dec. 23rd.

Today, I saw it again and this time clearly saw a bright red throat patch. 

Also today I walked with the girls to see the Spearleaf. It's a teensy plant with microscopic blooms. It's incredible that my niece even spotted it.