Roadwork update

It's hard to tell, because these photos were taken in different lights, and the "after" photo was taken with my cell phone, but the area we worked on looks better to me. The hill is still rough going up; it always has been. The whole road is rough for that matter.

Before (July 27)

After (July 29)

Next time I'm there I'll take a photo with my regular camera. Here's the burner torch at work. My son heated the rock with the torch, then used a sledgehammer and pickaxe to whittle the rock down so it isn't so much like steps.

Next project is to pour some concrete in two spots. Mike Dory said he'd come back soon and help with that. 

Thanks so much to Deirdre Hisler who loaned me her burner torch. I would long ago have given up if it wasn't for wonderful people along the way. Mike and Deirdre are just the latest in a long list of hundreds who have donated their money or work to keep the oasis going. Words can't express my gratitude for what that journey has meant to me, as well as to the visitors who enjoy it.

I found out who the creep was who sent me the lewd emails. I feel certain he's not a danger to me. He hasn't tried to contact me again, so hopefully, that case is closed.

Unwelcome attention

I received several rather lewd emails from a stranger, mentioning among other things, my being alone at the oasis. The world isn't the safe place I've known all my life. I considered making my blog private, but, even with the help of AI, I couldn't make it to where my mailing list could see it, other than the limit of 100 recipients, so I've done nothing for now. 

Here is the patch of cement Mike Dory and I did last week, on the side of the slab at the steepest part. . We patched where water was undermining the slab.

You can see that bad rough area on the lower part of the hill. I'm thinking perhaps a sledgehammer would pulverize that jagged mudrock, maybe with the aid of a burner torch. I can no longer swing a sledgehammer.  Gotta protect what little joints I have left.

There's enough traction to make it up without a problem, but it's terribly rough.

The oasis is very lush these days. 

Got some much needed help

It seems whenever I'm ready to quit, the universe provides a boost. Mike and Kitta Dory heard my pain, and Mike drove from San Angelo yesterday, arriving at noon, and went right to work. First task was to weed-eat so we (and future visitors) could maneuver around.

Then, he spread the dozen or so bags of mulch I had piled up, waiting and hoping for help. And did pruning. We loaded sand from the arroyo for using in our concrete project this morning. It was killer work to pour a long concrete patch on the steepest part of the big hill. Monsoonal rains have been undermining the slab I had poured there several years ago and I didn't want to chance losing it. The road is still terribly rough, but hopefully not as scary going up the slab since you don't have to straddle a big trench now. So disgusted with myself that I didn't take before and during photos. I just get too overwhelmed with the task at hand. It's so steep; I'm so puny; I must not take a fall. That takes all my focus. Falls are the biggest danger for us oldsters. 

After we finished that, around noon today, intrepid Mike pruned along the road where vegetation was determined to take over. Everything is looking awesome! Hope it stays that way at least through fall migration so people can enjoy it. And I hope migration brings lots of wonderful birds to marvel at. We can't change the past, nor control the future, but for today, it's good!

State of the oasis

We've had seemingly endless rain lately and the oasis is miserable. Mosquitoes terrible, and the weeds I'm allergic to (Cowpen Daisies) are shoulder high. The road going in is deteriorating badly. Can barely make it in. And I'm helpless to do anything about anything, except servicing the feeders. I also snip along the main pathways, trying to, at least, keep them open.

I came across some bags of free mulch in Alpine and took it to the oasis, but haven't spread it yet. Need to do weedeating first, and wait until mosquitoes subside. Not to mention, a monsoon could come along any day and wash it all away.

The water feature and viewing station are back there somewhere.

And realistically, although the last couple years have been wet, a drought is just around the corner. I'm sure I won't be able to do the work required to harvest rainwater, and keep the trees alive. So, I'm trying to adjust my thinking to the new reality, and let go. There are no words to express how difficult that is.

The other day, I saw what I think was a Mexican Amberwing or hybrid, but not able to endure conditions long enough to get good photos.

I need to just be grateful to be in as good of health as I am. Nothing is forever. Visitors need to either have good clearance or park when they become uncomfortable with the road, and walk the last mile or less. There is a back entrance that should be driveable, but I'd need to send directions to anyone who is unable to do the walk in.

Never again!

I liked to never got the pump out of the tank yesterday afternoon. After moving it into deeper water at 7 AM, I watered trees until noon or so. By afternoon, it was extremely hot (at least 100°) and I was exhausted.  The sides were slick, thick mud and the pump was 35 lbs. I couldn't drag it up because mud would've gotten into the pump impellers. I put a ladder for a type of railing to hang onto. Tried other things too, but nothing helped. Somehow, I managed to get it to drier mud. Had to go change into unmuddy shoes to stand on it without sliding back down into the tank. This photo is looking down so you can't see how steep it is. Anyway, I can't ever attempt that by myself again! I did end up nearly topping off the stucco tank. Lacked a mere 4".

Matt Walter visited for an hour in the morning. He would've helped with the pump, but I wanted to pump as long as I could. He couldn't hang around that long. He took this great photo of a juvenile male Lucifer. Now that the nestlings have fledged, a lot of courtship is going on in preparation for the next batch. Alway gratifying to see they've had a successful nesting.

All by myself

I tried unsuccessfully to get help at the oasis, so I determined to do the work myself. Started out early this morning weed-eating and servicing feeders, then set up a pump in the dirt tank. It still had a lot of water in it from the rain two weeks ago, plus I wanted the water out in case a deluge comes. The more that it holds, the less there is to spill over and wash out the road.

That entailed carrying heavy hoses and a 35 lb. pump into the water.  It'll pump all afternoon (didn't get it running until noon), then this evening before dark, I'll get back into the tank and lower it further and let it pump all night. A gas pump is already set up at the tank, but I'm not strong enough to start it. It would pump the water out in about three hours... unless the intake is bogged down in mud. That makes it really hard to get primed.

Looking east

Looking west

Stucco tank

I'm putting the water into the stucco tank. It's down about 21" through evaporation and leakage since the monsoon topped it off. 

The hardest part is making my way down the steep slippery bank into the muddy tank floor. I just take my time and go an inch at a time with a walking stick. I could have gone deeper and not have to do it again later today, but having so much trouble with UTIs lately, I didn't want to get too deep into the water.

I had been despondent thinking how I live in pain and can't do the things I want to do, so I feel better now, even though my back hurts worse and my left foot was numb for a while. It makes me nostalgic to look back on the good ole days of boundless energy and enthusiasm.

LATER: Been weed-eating and sitting indoors in the AC all afternoon. Now I'm too tired to get into the tank, so I'll turn the pump off at dark and reset it in the morning. Raised the level in the stucco tank by 8."  Should be able to add another 8" tomorrow, leaving the tank about 6" from being full. It loses about an inch a day, so not a real big deal. And surely we'll get more rain this summer, our official rainy season.

Went up to arroyo to check on the Dark Star Milkvine. Most of the pods are ripe and dispersing seeds.

Along with rain

All the recent rains have not only caused the misery of mosquitoes, but also a sea of weeds. This morning I went down to service feeders. The electricity was off due to a storm in the area last night, not at the oasis. The water feature was becoming hidden by grass and weeds, so I cut what I could before the battery on my weedeater died. By the time the electricity was restored I was too tired to do more.

Before weedeater

After weedeater

I did it a couple of weeks ago, so it won't stay done for long, but, even though everywhere is an oasis right now, and birds aren't needing a drink or bath, it seems like it should be visible to birders, nonetheless.

The seedpods on the rare Dark Star Milkvines are beginning to ripen.

   

Monsoons

Last year, you may recall, the oasis had three major monsoons that did lots of damage, including destroying my big non-leaking tank. This year we had a good rain in April that I was able to harvest water from, then in May a big monsoon filled everything, and now already in June we've had another huge monsoon.

I went down this morning, fearing the worst, like that the dike was washed out, which would eventually lead to the oasis practically washing away. The dike was bad, but still holding. It was built nearly 30 years ago and surely a foot higher than it is now after so many years of wind, rain, and compaction. It would be a major job to build it up, and not worth doing for the few years the oasis and I have left. Also it's so overgrown with vegetation that getting equipment in to work on it would be major uglification. This photo is of what I think is going to be where it gets breached first. Covered with brush so you can't really see the big pit in it on the right half of this photo.

                              

Here's another photo of the dike where it nearly washed out last year. I filled that hole with rocks, although I'm sure that won't prevent a flood from breaching it.

The settling pond at the upper dam used to look like this after a monsoon:

2023

Today it looked like this after yesterday's monsoon:

That's because we no longer clean it out of the silt and sand that builds up in it, which purpose was to keep it from going into the big, now broken tank. Eventually, that tank will fill up with this and look like this too. For now it only has about a foot of sediment and 8'  of water, because the above pond caught it before it could go into the tank. Obviously, it won't any longer. But of course, it no longer holds water for more than a few weeks now so doesn't much matter. On the above photos, the small soapberry tree has grown along the inside of the dam, but you probably couldn't detect the dam if you didn't know it was there.

While I was there inspecting everything, I saw this Olive-sided Flycatcher. It had a a bright yellow belly, which I thought was unusual.

A visitor last month, Roy Freese, took this cool photo of a pair of Black-tailed Gnatcatchers doing some serious nesting material gathering.

Horned lizards

Through the years, I've posted photos of horned lizards on this blog. Never thought more about it. But I read where someone is doing a horned lizard study in Texas and wanted sightings reported. About that time a visitor to the oasis captured one, not knowing what it was. I told him it was a Horned Lizard and to release it. Luckily, I thought to snap a cell phone shot of it first.

I posted it on iNaturalist as "Horned Lizard," not knowing there were different species of horned lizards. Soon it got ID'd as a Round-tailed Horned Lizard. That made we wonder what other species of them we had in the Big Bend. Seems there are three, but only two in Alpine or the Christmas Mountains that I'm likely to encounter. (The third, Greater Short-horned Lizard, is restricted to the higher elevations of the Davis and Guadalupe Mountains.)

Now I'm inspired to post my other horned lizard photos to iNat. I have photos of the Round-tailed and Texas Horned Lizard. I've posted both previously to this blog as simply "Horned Lizard." I've now edited those posts to be more specific.

Here's the one that started my journey into two horned lizard species. Always so much to learn, and so fun learning it, that I had to share it here.

The other species I've photograghed, Texas Horned Lizard, was from Alpine in July of 2020.

Now you probably know everything, or more than, I know about horned lizards in west Texas. I'm still on a learning adventure!

Latest bear story

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.

Enigmatic Lucifers

When Kelly Bryan did his Lucifer banding project between 2007-2019, he speculated that some Lucifers arrived, and began nesting in March, while another larger group arrived in May. Everything I've observed since then seems to confirm that hypothesis.

Kelly wrote that "May definitely marked the time frame that breeding activity in Lucifers kicked into high gear...." This came to mind today when I noticed a greater number of Lucifers at the feeders, as well as May gathering of nesting material. There are no fleglings yet, so that can't account for the increased activity. (Fledglings should start to show up from the March nesters any day though.)

Photo by Danny Salinas

While Kelly noted other possible explanations to do with food resources, etc, for whatever reason, there are more arrivals this month. Maybe someday they'll put trackers on these tiny jewels and we can learn more about what's going on with them.

I was very curious to see how the Scaled Quail would handle the new feeder spikes. They seem to not mind at all. And wonderful to note is the absence of bears.

Yesterday the oasis got its first monsoon of the year. Everything is brimful. For a while there won't be mosquitoes, so it's quite heavenly.

Hoping for rain

Stuck in town, watching storm radar, and it looks like the oasis may have gotten a nice rain this afternoon. Going down tomorrow with my son, hoping I won't have to water. Rather hard to see the landmarks on this cell shot of the computer screen. (I would've done a screenshot if I had thought I might post it.) Hindsight. 

It says "Nine Point Mesa" at the top of the screen, and just right of the big storm cell it says  "West Corazon Peak" so that gives you an idea of why I think we got rain, at least the edge of the cell. Highway 118 got the middle of it. The oasis is a mile west of W Corazon Peak, and 5 miles east of Hwy. 118..

Meanwhile, in town, I've had a Yellow-throated Vireo. Been trying to get decent photos, but my good camera is broken, maybe forever, so I'm doing what I can with my backup camera (Nikon Coolpix) First photo taken on the 18th and second taken today. Not sure they're of the same individual since I didn't hear or see one yesterday.

It sings all day long, but I seldom can locate it deep in the pecan trees, and when I do, it doesn't sit still long enough for me to get a photo. But, I eventually got the above. It's not a new species for me, or the place, and I've taken decent photos of it before, but always striving for something better. It's a fun undertaking when stuck in town!

UPDATE: Oasis got .2" and we didn't water the trees. Lots of birders present and I hadn't slept good last night in anticipation. Plus it sprinkled a little so I'm hoping for rain yet! Story of my life, it seems.