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| Second day group |
Every single afternoon of the festival the oasis got a big rain. The groups came to the oasis in the mornings, so the rain didn't affect the first day's group, but the roads were a mess for the second and third day groups.
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| Third day group |
Then this afternoon, after the third and final group left, I was packed and ready to head to town. It started to sprinkle, so I decided to cover the bear-proof ground feeder with plastic since rain fills the ports and clogs them up with wet seed. I did it successfully as yesterday's rain started, so rushed to do it again today. Like yesterday, the deluge came quick and hard as I was covering the feeder. Yesterday, I made a dash for the cover of the viewing blind. Same today, only this time I accidentally stepped on the bear unwelcome mat in my haste. Normally, that wouldn't be so bad, but today I was just wearing thin crocs because my broken navicular bone seemed to hurt less in them than regular shoes. It hurt bad and my sock got bloody. Soon my feet were soaked with water and I focused on setting up a pump in the broken tank. Water was gushing into it and I knew it wouldn't hold water for long.
I waded out into the tank and hooked up the pump and began pumping. Before long, my punctured toe swelled and was unbearably painful. Walking was an ordeal, between the injured toe and the broken bone that had already had me limping. I started worrying that going into the tank mud and all might have been a stupid thing to do with an open wound. We shall see. Meanwhile, I unpacked my pickup and prepared to spend another night. I estimated the stucco tank will be topped off around midnight.
Everyone watched a pair of Curve-billed Thrashers relentlessly carrying food to this nest. The bottom of the box has fallen out and I worry the nest will fall before the nestlings can fledge. I simply am not able to climb a ladder to fix it.
A nice species during the festival was this Common Ground Dove.
1 comment:
Oh, Carolyn! I hope your foot is healing okay!
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