I went to the oasis late yesterday afternoon, and all was well. Tanks holding water reasonably well, everything lush. Soapberries are everywhere, and starting to bloom. Covered with butterflies, mostly Queens.
Still enjoying the cool weather and lack of mosquitoes.
This morning I was a bit dismayed to discover a bear had visited during the night, and moved the seed feeder's rock perches that the quail use to enjoy their treats. While the feeder is bearproof, and no evidence of the bear getting seed from it, I'm hoping it's a different individual than the previous one that left the rock perches alone after learning it didn't help get seed out of the feeder. Today, I put the rocks back, but can't when I'm not there.
Maybe next, I'll try building up a dirt ramp to the feeder ports and see what happens. Seeds fall into the cracks between the rocks, so might have been the reason for moving them. Which is another reason I need to try some kind of ramp, maybe even concrete.
The evidence that the bear didn't get any seed is that the only scat he left at the oasis was near the feeder, and didn't contain any seed. And the feeder hadn't been rotated at all. No tree damage or anything either.
As far as I can determine, the bear had been feeding on new sotol hearts. That would explain the bright yellow. There are countless acres of sotol so that doesn't impact the environment.
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