Bearing up to migration

Birders witnessed a bear bathing in the stucco tank. First time anyone has seen that. Previously, the bears bathed in the big, now destroyed, tank. The birders were sitting in the viewing blind when they heard loud splashing in the nearby tank. A poor photo was snapped of the culprit as it fled the scene.

I spent three intense days at the oasis and didn't want to leave. Good birds and fun birders! Here's the Vent group from the 25th. I'm a couple days late in posting it. Had meant to post it in last blog post, but was really exhausted. I plan to go back in a couple of days. Spring migrations only happen for two weeks every year and I want to enjoy them as much, and for as many years, as possible.

The back water drip is a magnet to birds.

Green-tailed Towhee

Newly hatched Black-chinned Hummingbird

Tomorrow I plan to inventory the birds here at our ponds in Alpine. One of the mulberry trees has some ripening berries, enough to keep it busy with birds anyway. 

Western Tanager

I was given an award at the recent TOS Spring meeting. Here's a quote (by Crystal Ledezma) about it. 

"I am particularly excited about our new award, the Dennis Shepler Birding Ambassador Award, given to Carolyn Ohl for her generosity in sharing her oasis with us. I had the honor of going with Ron to film an interview with her. His finished video was amazing, I cried thru the whole thing. The Christmas Mountains Oasis is a special place, and Carolyn is a very special human, it was a great honor to be involved in this."

I'll get a link to the interview and post it here soon.