The gang's all here!

I arrived at the oasis at daylight so as to water before it got too hot. Everything was parched. No water in the tanks, and the solar water feature hadn't yet had enough light for the pump to function. Only water available to wildlife was the drip in the back. The hummingbird feeders were all empty too, except one that was filled with ants. Yuck! That was a mess to clean up.

Soon I was running water from the storage tank into the stucco tank where I keep the level just high enough to cover the pump. Birds and deer flocked to it. 

 As I slogged away, I remembered my mantra of nearly 50 years ago when I was building my house, against all odds. On my refrigerator it had said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!" Today my mantra was more like, "stay strong, stay strong, stay strong....  breathe!" 

There were lots of distractions. First distraction was I had to clean four frogs from the water line before water would come out (two survived). Next, I rushed to turn on another faucet and as I turned it on I realized my one foot was 6" from a rattlesnake, and my hand on the faucet (I measured later) was 20" from the snake's head. Whew!

Luckily, it was the least aggressive species of rattler we have, a Black-tailed.

In short order, I had sprinklers going, and for a few hours the place was a bustling oasis. Javelina showed up too, once the solar pump began circulating water in the main water feature.

Of course, birds are the main distraction. I saw a few that I was determined to get at least diagnostic photos of. One was this Gray Catbird. It skulked back in the shade near a watering hose, so not a very good shot, but diagnostic.

As I was rushing between hoses while scanning for birds, I thought I saw an interesting little bird flitting around high in some foliage. When I got my binos on it, it turned out to be a lizard. That was a first!

Honey bees were all over the water drip and main water feature. The only thing missing was a bear. Thank goodness for that! I have to put out extra sugar water due to the Ladder-backed Woodpeckers. Yummy!

In spite of everything, and more that I haven't mentioned,  I got the watering done and back to town in good time.