January cold front

It got down to 18° here in Alpine this morning. Having the water feature here is saving me from worse cabin fever than I already have, while reliving the recent fun of Balmorhea... in my mind. LOL

I don't care for pansies, but they're better than no flowers. It's all we could find that withstands the cold.

Meanwhile, my son, Lee (living part time at the house near the oasis), is working on conserving as much water as possible. He put a metal tank into the empty stucco tank that he plans to fill from the above ground 60,000 gallon reserve tank, and then pump out of it to water the trees. It's still a work in progress. The pump in it is the one plumbed into the stucco tank. This way we won't have to put water directly into the stucco tank where much of it evaporates. The main problem I see so far is monitoring the level in the metal tank, and what will happen if a deluge fills the stucco tank. I think that keeping the metal tank full will keep it from floating, etc. during a flooding rain. It's not if, but when, that happens.

As for monitoring the level in the metal tank, the plan is to have it full before watering (and then refill after watering), and not use more than 1000 gallons for each watering. It's a 1500 gallon tank. We'll see. It's just not acceptable to dump precious water into the stucco tank. Hopefully, we can get it cleaned out and patched soon. It'll be hard for me to confine watering to 1000 gallons. Getting down into the tank to check isn't an option for me. Of course, when the pump stops putting out water, I'll know, but that could ruin the pump. Not to worry, we'll win!

There's a good chance of some snow later in the week. I'll take moisture however I can get it!

Caracaras at last

I've lost track of how many times I went to Balmorhea hoping to add Crested Caracara to my Reeves County list. The species was seen and photographed at the lake there in December of 2023 and into January 2024. Then again this past December. I kept trying, but never did see them. I've seen many caracaras, so I don't know why it mattered to have one more species added to my county list, but, for whatever esoteric reason, I cared. A fun challenge of a species rare for the county, I guess.

Only photo I know of showing the pair together

By this morning, I'd almost forgotten my quest for them, as I enjoyed lovely weather birding at Balmorhea State Park. Last time I was birding Balmorhea I did the park last, so decided to start there today. Early mornings are the best time for birding.

After a couple of hours of fun, I decided to go to the lake and look for the caracaras once again. Plus something else exciting might show up. As I was driving out of the park, headed toward the town of Balmorhea, my daughter called. I slowed to a crawl and drove along the shoulder while we talked. Just as we were about through, I couldn't believe my eyes. There, perched about 100-150 or so feet from the highway, in a field, was a pair of caracaras. I don't know if I would have seen them had I been driving faster and paying more attention to traffic. They were the last thing on my mind, at the time.

I turned around and went back to the park. Didn't feel like going to the lake after that. I was so excited, I figured I'd just check out the park one more time, then head back to Alpine. 

Back at the park, I saw a few different species for the day, including this Hooded Merganser. Always a nice find! A great morning!