Oasis looking lovely!

I pushed myself to go water and service feeders yesterday, even though I end up getting sick when I do it. At daylight, when I stopped by the bear-proof shed to retrieve the watering hoses, I smelled something dead. I sniffed inside the shed and was relieved to not smell it inside. Put the hoses inside the bed of my pickup and headed to water. Just before dark as I was putting the hoses back into the shed, I was watching for snakes and noticed a dead and very smelly carcass four feet from the shed door. Turned out to be a bobcat. (I suspect it died giving birth.) Don't know how I missed it earlier. I guess in the cool morning twilight, snakes weren't on my mind. 

Thankfully, that freeze on March 15th didn't do much damage. A few persimmon trees had frozen leaves on them, and some new growth on live oaks got zapped, but, surprisingly, the Huisache trees were fine. And they were what I thought would be damaged first. Sorry, no photos. Too exhausted to carry a camera around while watering in the 96° heat.

I think this spring migration is going to be great! We're going into a wetter El Niño pattern also. It won't arrive until summer, but I have plenty of water until then, and a dry spring concentrates migrants to the oasis. I just have to hang tough!

In town recovering. Habitat here is greening up nicely, and the Black Locust trees are in bloom.