Now that the broken tank has lost most of its water, the catastrophe is easier to see.
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Thankfully, the stucco tank is leaking very little. Some years my patching holds good and some years it doesn't, so I'm grateful for that. As I was looking at it today I noticed it is jam-packed with mosquito larva. Never saw a tenth that many ever before. By tomorrow I'd say the oasis is going to be swarming with mosquitoes. At least it's temporary, but will put a definite damper on migration birding. On the bright side, birds and dragonflies will be happy! Hopefully, birding will be awesome (with enough protection and DEET)!
Here's a recent photo by Kim Morse that I like. Male Lucifers challenging one another over feeding territory.
UPDATE: Ben Schwartz, Biology Professor at TSU in San Marcos TX, and Director of Edwards Aquifer Research, informed me that those are Fairy Shrimp, and not mosquito larvae. I'm ecstatic! Thank you, Ben! Never had a March monsoon before, so new territory for me! I thought it was strange to have mosquito larvae in such deep water! My son went and took a better photo:
6 comments:
Those look like fairy shrimp, to me, rather than mosquito larvae. Very exciting!
That would be totally awesome if they weren't mosquito larva. No wonder I've never seen larva in the stucco tank before. Never had a March monsoon before.
Wishing you a great birding season!!
Never heard of fairy shrimp. Wikipedia’s article about this animal is very interesting….. Once in diapause, these cysts can remain viable for centuries,[18] and the mixing of system sediment results in the hatching of different aged cysts in each generation.[21][19][22] This inbreeding slows the rate of selection by resisting gene flow and minimizing phenotypic variation, in turn promoting the stability of the existing, successful phenotype.[19]
Wow, so cool! Thanks for the info!
I had seen a few once before, after a rain, in my sister's tinaja. These looked different, apparently in a different stage of development. (See blog post of Aug 13, 2020)
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