A little family time

I don't get enough family time so it's always a treat to get to spend time with them. Saturday morning early, chauffered by my son Lee, I departed to San Marcos to visit my daughter. She and her husband had recently had a new house built, and have just moved into it. It's a very impressive home on 33 wooded acres. I can't wait to see it once the yard gets landscaped. It's quite a mess yet, but she has bird feeders and bath out, which is a good start. Here's video of her trying to keep cattle away from her temporary water feature. They keep it drained. A contractor will be installing a fence in a couple of weeks. Then she'll be able to do some permanent stuff.

Cattle quickly drain the temporary water feature

Meanwhile, here we are looking at her birds in the late afternoon. It took several weeks before birds starting showing up to her feeders and water. Once landscaped, it'll keep getting better.

While there, I got to visit briefly with Lee's oldest daughter. She's graduating from Texas State Univerity next month with a degree in computer science. Already she's working for Motorola, and making an obscene salary.

Photo by Lee

Sapsucker saga

I arrived at the oasis shortly after daylight, rushed to the trail cam to see if anything interesting was around. To my surprise, yesterday, around 4 PM, the camera captured a gorgeous, very vocal, male Williamson's Sapsucker. It had shown up at the drip, drank for about 3 minutes, left, and returned 10 minutes later, and drank for another 3 minutes. I ended up with 15 repetitious-looking 15 second video clips. Above is one from the first visit, and below is one from the second visit.

So I rushed from my cabin/computer to the oasis to see if it was still around. As I watched, I also watered trees. Around 11:30 AM Tira Overstreet and Corey Rich showed up. I told them about the sapsucker, and how slow birding was. I bemoaned that the sapsucker was gone. Then I went back to my quarters to eat a quick brunch. I hadn't even eaten before Tira came rushing up to tell me they saw the bird and photographed it. I tore down there. Not even 5 minutes had elapsed, but I never did see a sign of it. I was just glad they saw it and got to document it. Here is Corey's photo of it. It's not a rare bird. I've had them at the oasis before, but it's a difficult species to get to see. They're so erratic and unpredictable!

Beebrush was in bloom, not only perfuming the air with a wonderful scent, but also attracting lots of butterflies. They let me get closer and hold still better than birds. 😀

Monarch

Common Buckeye

Snow geese!

The oasis got a flyover of [41] Snow Geese, which happened unexpectedly and quickly. Had me scrambling to document. It counts as a new oasis species, even though they only flew over.

I heard one of them call and looked up to see them. Had my camera on me, but couldn't get it to focus. It never focuses on dots in the sky.  Finally, after they were way far away one of my blind shots captured the above heavily-cropped photo. Better than nothing. I've learned that not zooming the camera in situations like that is better. That's probably what I did to end up with this one.

Other than that, birding has been rather boring, both in town, and at the oasis. The day I saw the geese (Nov 7), I also saw my last Lucifer of the year, I presume. It was a juvenile male that I hadn't seen before, so I think it was just migrating through. My breeding Lucifers have all gone.

I'm told that Monarchs migrated way farther east of here this year, so maybe we won't get any exciting winter birds this year. Perhaps they only winter here if they're desperate, and with lots of rain everywhere, there are better places to go. Don't know.

In town I got a couple of unusual butterfly species. Besides the Long-tailed Skipper that I saw on Oct 27 at the Plumbago (see previous post), I had a Dorantes Longtail also on the Plumbago (and Turk's Caps) on Nov 6.

I have lots of Turk's Cap, but only one Plumbago, so, naturally, that has inspired me to protect the Plumbago from a possible freeze tonight. Also going to plant a bunch more of it in the spring. Can't ever get too much of a good thing!

After the monsoon

That horrible hail-ridden monsoon happened a week ago today. I had gone to the oasis afterwards, looked for clips of it on my trail cam, and didn't find it. Today when I was checking the SD card to see what birds have been present since the storm, I found the hail clips. Sure wish I had been there to witness it in person. The first clip is near the beginning of the hail, and the last one is during the worst of it, as best I can tell.

The tanks are still all nearly full. The road is still horrible. I worked on it what little I could on my way back to town. Then when I got to the blacktop, I couldn't find my phone, so took the torturous road back to the oasis. Turned out it was in my pickup all along. I'm a mess. Just can't keep up with my phone and can't live without it.

I was surprised to see one remaining Lucifer (juvenile male). Surely my last sight of one until March. 

So far, no exciting over-wintering species has shown up. There has been a Robin, Hermit Thrush, and Gray Catbird at the oasis for a week or more. Since there are so many berries this year, they may stay the winter.

Alpine surprise!

While most women renovate their homes at some point, I'm more likely to renovate my water feature. After the main work, I study and tweak it for quite some time. As I sat in the sitting room studying it, I was surprised to see a Long-tailed Skipper on my Plumbago, which is part of the water feature. It's a species of east Texas, and the gulf coast. 

As for the water feature, I constructed it three years ago. Here's how it looked this April (a greener time of year) before renovation.

Here's how it looks today.

I'm not sure it's any more asthetically pleasing, ie. I'm happy with either of them. The reasons I redid it was:

1. It needed to be taken apart to cut a hole in the metal grate for eventual pump replacement. I wanted to deconstruct it while I was still physically able to reconstruct it. 

2. When I originally built it, I didn't have the proper fabric liner for the grate, so wanted to update that.

3. After the original basin rock was in place, my sister and niece lugged a prettier, more suitable rock down the mountain that I wanted to use. It has a slightly better water basin and I thought it would look better. However, in hindsight, I think the original rock basin worked just as well.

4. The line connecting to the pump was clear plastic and accumulated algae in it, I wanted to replace it with black plastic so that wouldn't happen.

5. The pump has a volume control on it that I had positioned to half volume and was very happy with it. However, full volume (200 GPH) was fine too and I figured it would be easier on the pump, and maybe attract birds better, so wanted to try that.

So I'm all set. So far the birds seem to sense the change and are rather skittish, but I'm sure they'll be fine in a couple of days. Hoping for some great overwintering species. I'll find out soon, because there's a good chance of our first freeze in the next couple of days.

Another record deluge!

Another direct hit

I wasn't present yesterday, but first came a humongous hail storm, followed by torrential rains. The hail pounded most of the leaves from many of the trees, then the torrent swept everything (hail, leaves, and mulch) into big drifts, or the tanks. Some of the drifts were over two feet deep. By the time I left this afternoon, most of the hail had melted. 

This first photo shows how deep everything was covered with hail prior to the deluge washing through. I'd estimate at least 3" of hail fell for there to be 2" left today. (The rain gauge contained 1.34" of water.)

The path in the hummingbird garden was the lowest part of the garden, so the rushing water turned the path into a streambed.

The hail stones were up to half an inch in diameter this morning. I don't know how large they were when they fell. I had laboriously replaced all the mulch lost in the summer monsoons, only to have it swept away again. A lot of it could be retrieved after the tanks dry up, but it's too much work for me to do anymore.

This year has been really unbelievable with rains. Since my tanks were mostly all empty, yesterday's monsoon didn't do as much damage as the July 3rd one when everything was already full, but the oasis is looking very unkempt. And the road is really rough. My big concern on the road is a gully is beginning on the side of the culvert at the bottom of the big hill. (I forgot to take a photo.) If it isn't blocked up, it'll wash a 10-20' deep ravine there. That's how much fill was put in to make the big hill less steep. If I was physically able, I would put in a rock and concrete berm there. Hopefully, it'll be a long while before we get another such fierce monsoon.

Big broken tank

Dragonfly pond

In some places the water looked like it had icebergs floating in it. In all the years I've lived there, I've never seen anything like it. Crazy!

 There are still at least 3 Lucifers hanging around.

Juvenile male

Lucky to be alive!

I went to the oasis last night so I could get an early start on watering this morning. Once there, I took down and washed the dirty hummingbird feeders. 

This morning, as soon as there was enough light to where I felt I could see to hook up the hoses, I loaded up the clean feeders and carried them in two trips into the potty shed where I store them on shelves. While in there, I decided to use the potty. From it, I headed to the door. A round spot beside my foot looked out of place, when suddenly I realized it was a rattler (Black-tailed), not 2" from my foot. Luckily, it was a cool morning and the snake was cold, or if I had actually stepped on it, I surely would have been bitten, . Yikes! I was overcome with gratefulness!

Matt Walter took this photo of the Green Heron that's been hanging out at our ponds here in Alpine. Thanks for sharing, Matt!

This next photo, sent to me by Melody Lytle, was taken at the oasis, and appears in the Oct issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. Thanks, Melody!

A few migrants kept me entertained while watering trees this morning, including a couple of Dickcissels. This one was bathing in the sprinkler.

Fun birding day with a fun birder!

I would love to bird with Kym Morse even if she didn't take awesome photos of the birds we see, but that's a super bonus. Today, I couldn't resist the long drive to the far corner of Big Bend National Park where a juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker had been being seen. Especially as Kym agreed to go with me and help me find it. I have seen plenty of them while growing up in Iowa, but didn't have one on my Brewster Co (or even Texas) list.

Here's my best photo of it.

I hadn't been to the park since 2021 and was shocked to see how it had changed... and not for the better. I believe all the cottonwoods are dead, at least at Rio Grande Village where we went. And if that isn't bad enough, the area is overrun with cattle and burros.

Bear time!

While watering at the oasis today, I encountered the biggest bear I've ever seen. I'd guess on all fours he was at least 3-4' feet tall. Had I been close enough, he would've come well up to my chest. He was very skittish, so I couldn't get a good photo. When I first came upon him he was at the edge of the broken (now dry) tank. He dashed into the trees before I could get a photo. I followed him to the water drip, heard him drinking, but when I tried for a photo, he dashed into the brush, turned to look at me for a second, then noisily crashed away.

I think he just stopped by for a drink. With all the rains this year, wildlife isn't dependent on the food at CMO, but the water is inviting. I'm thinking when we get our first real cold weather that some interesting birds will arrive, and maybe overwinter.

Yesterday, I enjoyed this Gray Catbird, but didn't see it today.

Fall migration fun!

Both the oasis and the ponds in Alpine are getting wonderful birds lately. I can't be two places at once, so trying to keep abreast of what I can, and see (and document) as much as I can. My feet hurt a lot so it's painful doing all the walking I'm doing.

There's been a Broad-tailed Hummingbird hanging out near the feeders in Alpine, which is very exciting. This photo is by Tim Handren. He's doing a Texas Big Year and was very happy to be able to add this bird to his tally.

A week or so ago, I found a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher at my ponds in Alpine, but didn't figure out what it was until the second day when I got better photos. It didn't hang around, so only one other person got to see it. Here's Kym Morse's photo of it. My photos aren't as good as other people's. Can't carry my heavy Canon anymore.

The last two days there was a Magnolia Warbler seen at the oasis. Here's my lucky shot of it.

My son is for sure no longer interested in taking over the oasis after I'm gone, so I'm just going to enjoy it for as long as I can. It's getting pretty unkempt, but I'm sure the birds don't mind. Nothing is forever!

A few life adjustments

For awhile now I've been weighing shoulder replacement surgery. My left shoulder is painful (at best) when I use it, and often won't move at all. But I can't bring myself to go through surgery for it (or for my knees), so I'm making some adjustments. I cut my long hair about a year ago because I can't raise my left hand to brush it and pin it up. 

Now, I had my son install a knob on my steering wheel so I can turn it with one hand. Before, I had to turn it a ways with my right arm (which is now getting painful too), then stabilize the wheel with my left hand, then reposition my right arm, turn it more, etc.

I also got rid of half my T-shirts, since it's too painful to get in and out of them, and now I'm wearing button up shirts. Also have resolved to quit working online crossword puzzles (my favorite pasttime), and cut down on online scrabble to no more than two games per day. I had been trying to edit and organize my thousands of digital photos, but going to let that go. And going to use a monopod to hold my camera up to my eye. I need to stay as mobile as I can for as long as I can.

I was pleased to learn that my grand-niece, Sudi Green, won an Emmy for her work on SNL. We're very proud of her!

Fall migration is usually so slow as to be almost unnoticeable, and even more so with everywhere being an oasis these days. Hopefully, winter birding will be good here for the same reason.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds only migrate through our area in the fall. Sometimes in quite large numbers, but this year not so many at my feeders. (Photo from Alpine yard)

This Olive-sided Flycatcher has hung around our town ponds for at least a week now.

Never know what might show up any time though, so a fun time of year!

Torture in paradise!

I keep pushing myself to keep the trees alive a little longer. Just water one more time. Pump one more time. Realistically, I know I'm beyond my limit. And the trees will start dying. Today, I came to the oasis to service feeders, pump, and water. Again, carrying the 35 lb. pump down the muddy slope into the broken tank. Hoping I won't fall, or my back won't just give way under the weight, like my foot seems to have done.

This trip the mosquitoes were a nightmare! I'm watering with no relief, limping on my either broken, or arthritic, foot. Doesn't matter how much insecticide I cover myself with, or the head net I wear. They're voracious! I quit after 3 miserable hours. And the cowpen daisies, that I'm allergic to, are thriving. I doubled my dose of  allergy meds, but that didn't stop my nose from running like a faucet. Kept me breathing though.

Enjoying birds while I watered wasn't an option. Couldn't see through the net anyway. On the bright side, the mosquitos weren't bad during last month's festival tours. And I didn't get bitten by a rattlesnake. 😅 I did get bitten by a black ant. So painful that I wasn't able to nap after watering and lunch. 

Taking the pump out of the tank is the hardest. There's no way to wrestle the heavy, unwieldy 2" hose out without getting it covered in mud, which transfers to me, and I'm covered with mud. But, once again I topped off the stucco tank, which holds pretty well.

The only bird activity I was able to witness were three female/ juvenile Summer Tanagers feasting at a wasp's nest. I think they were eating the larva.

Interesting weather

The oasis got another big monsoon last night, and more rain is in the forecast. This one wasn't as bad as the one on July 3rd, but bad enough. During that July devasting monsoon everything was full and no place for water to go. At least this time, the broken tank was empty, as was the dragonfly pond. You can see where the water level was after yesterday's rain on the broken tank. 

Broken tank water level  going down fast

Dragonfly pond

While no catastropic damage this time, still a mess. What little mulch I had been able to retrieve from before, went away. Bit by bit, I had been trying to restore watering basins under some trees. All gone. Not to mention, I had just finished watering the oasis, which turned out to be a grueling labor for naught. Yesterday's deluge totaled 1.2". Everything brimful.

Lower dirt tank

Lower dam

Road is iffy. Bottom line, until monsoon season is over, and the road is repaired, be sure to have decent clearance if you visit. Other than that, migrants are trickling in, tons of butterflies, and lush vegetation. Quite a paradise!

Here are a few of the migrants I saw today.

Broad-tailed Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

This Spotted Sandpiper is enjoying the fresh mud created as the water in the broken tank leaks out.