A most frustrating day

Got up at dawn to see how much the stucco tank went down in an 8 hour period. One inch. That means it's losing 3" a day. On top of that misery, I went to pump the lower dirt tank into the stucco tank and the installed 3" pump wouldn't draw in the water. So I got my sister to come help me swap the pump for a different one, and it wouldn't either. So it seemed the problem is in the intake line. She went underwater to check it and it was clear. And once it did draw water for a few minutes, but the pump died and wouldn't download water again. It's the same pump I used for 12 hours yesterday in the upper dirt tank and it worked fine. Not a single glitch. So frustrating. By then I didn't have enough time left to move a 2" pump over there and pump it out. And for what? It'll all go away in a couple of weeks anyway. Really demoralizing. Hopefully, we'll get another monsoon and I'll have more time and be fresher. The last two days were hard and wore me down. Had things I needed to do in town and tomorrow have to go to Odessa with my husband to help drive when they dilate his eyes. Next week he'll get his cataract surgery. Sure hope he has a good outcome.

No time to look for odes. I hear Cassin's Sparrows skylarking outside the oasis a lot, but never see them. So I was surprised to see this one at the oasis today.

I'm concerned about the upper dirt tank. Every time it fills with water a sand bar encroaches farther toward my intake line. It's really close. So today I tried to elevate the line so when I go to pump next time, the intake won't be mired in mud. The oasis infrastructure is deteriorating, but I'm hanging in there. Not giving up yet. Today was just a temporary hiccup. Down but not out. I'll be back at it in a couple of days.

It's the first time to my memory that I gave up on my mission before it was accomplished. I tell myself if I hadn't got that fluke rain I wouldn't have had any water to pump. No one around the oasis got as much as I did. Still, I really let myself down. I hope it's not a harbinger of things to come.

My unsupportive husband never misses a chance to tell me that I'm too old to take care of the place and it's just going to get worse. He only makes me more determined, if that's possible. LOL

A plan coming together

Got the pump going at 8 AM just like I had hoped. Sometime late this afternoon the stucco tank should be full, and this dirt tank empty. It had gone down more than a foot since the rain but there'll still be enough water to fill the stucco tank, even if I have to take water out of the lower dirt tank that filled when this tank overflowed. The lower tank only loses about 3" a day, so I use that water last.

Upper dirt tank

Lower dirt tank

I'm ready for more rain now. It can fill the dirt tanks, settling ponds, and arroyo. Prefer not too big a rain that would damage the road more than it already is.

I knew our Rock Squirrels (or is it Ground Squirrels?) loved my seed feeder. Since I put up wire instead of the rope they chewed up, I haven't seen them on it. Maybe they've developed a taste for sotol seeds.

The dragonfly pond is getting exciting.

Here's a Twelve-spotted Skimmer in the same shot as a Common Green Darner. It would probably be harder to get a shot without a darner in it. LOL

Later: After 8 hours of pumping the stucco tank is only half full. I think those valves that we installed last fall impede the flow, but I have to have those valves. I'm too old and weak to be down in the lower dirt tank swapping out heavy 3" lines anymore. But it looks like I'll be pumping until midnight. Oh, well, I can nap in between gassing up the pump every two hours.

Looking in the arroyo by my soapberry thicket I saw this tiny black butterfly and thought it might be a Mexican Sootywing, but Brian says it's a Saltbush Sootywing. A Mexican Sootywing would be a lifer for me. But, hey, at least I saw a butterfly today. Kidding. I actually saw a couple other real common ones. And the dragonflies I'm seeing are common ones too, but there are sure a lot of them already. I thought I'd have to wait until mosquitoes returned. This late in the year mosquitoes shouldn't be much of an annoyance.

 6 PM: Still pumping and probably 4-6 hours to go. Whew!

8 PM: It took 12 hours of pumping to empty the upper dirt tank. The stucco tank lacks 2½' from being full. I'm exhausted and it's lightning and sprinkling outside, so I quit for the night. At 8 AM I'll measure and see how much the tank went down. Then I'll do my best to fix some bad leaks in the line and pump out the lower dirt tank. Normally I pump the upper dirt tank right after it fills. By waiting a day and a half, I didn't have enough water left in it to fill the stucco tank. But it was worth it. I'll end up water ahead if the stucco tank leaks less. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter anyway.

Aftermath

After the big monsoonal rain yesterday afternoon, it drizzled half the night. Today it's sprinkling off and on. We could very well get another deluge this afternoon. Meanwhile...

The settling pond above the upper dam went down nearly a foot overnight, so I'm pumping that water into the dragonfly pond, which had room for more water and only went down an inch or so in the night.

More importantly, I patched, then applied two coats of Drylok on the bad area of the stucco tank.

I'll let it dry overnight and if it doesn't rain and fill it up tonight, I'll pump it full tomorrow. I was amazed at how many dragonflies showed up this afternoon. Dozens of Common Green Darners are mating all over the place already. I'm going to OD on dragonflying.

Today was a hard day, but not a killer day. If the pumps behave tomorrow, it should be an easier day.

Dragonfly pond late afternoon

First summer monsoonal rain! YAY!

9 AM: Waiting in town for the oil to get changed in my pickup so I can head south to water my trees, I photographed a lovely female Two-tailed Swallowtail. It's the only butterfly I've seen in Alpine for many days.

1 PM: Got to the oasis about the same time as a visitor arrived that is into dragonflies. That's a rare occurrence so I couldn't bring myself to water trees. Hung out with him instead.

4:30 PM: Visitor left and I went up to the house. Too tired to work. Chasing odes isn't easy. Five minutes later it unexpectedly started to pour rain. I got .84." It worked out good because water backed up to the spillway of the stucco tank but didn't overrun the spillway. With the water behind the tank wall, it began going through the wall into the tank. This helped me see where the leaks were. So now I plan on patching them tomorrow, and filling the tank the next day. Hopefully, it won't leak too bad.

That'll be a killer two days for my back and shoulder, but it has to be done. A couple of hours after the rain stopped, it started drizzling, and hasn't let up yet at nearly 11 PM.

Thanks to my visitor, Todd Fitzgerald, I saw my first Autumn Meadowhawk of the year.

And even though I see oodles of Red Saddlebags, I like this shot of a female.

I really look forwarding to oding at my dragonfly pond for the next month or so. It caught a lot of water and tomorrow I'll pump out the settling pond into it. Mexican Amberwings should show up and who knows what else. (The tank filled after I snapped this photo.) 

Jerry Chen took this fascinating shot of the oasis with his drone. I've always known the oasis was the center of my world, so this illustrates my viewpoint nicely.

Prospects for rain

I've always maintained that I get my monsoons when there are hurricanes in the Pacific. Most of the time the Gulf of Mexico hurricanes seem to be blocked by mountains from affecting the oasis enough to cause the flash flooding that I need to fill my tanks. So I pay attention to Pacific hurricane activity.

This year, above normal activity and number of hurricanes were predicted based mainly on this being an El Niño year with warmer sea surface temperatures. When we got good rains in June, I was really optimistic about the summer monsoon season. So what happened?

Well, for the first time since records were being reliably kept (1971), this year is the latest-starting  Pacific hurricane season. Additionally, no hurricanes formed in August for the first time since 1973. However, the season doesn't end until November 30, so I'm still hopeful.

Gulf of Mexico activity has resulted in a few good rains all around me, but very scant rainfall at the oasis, which is what I've learned to expect. Now we have a decent chance of rain next week. Except the oasis is in the "rain shadow."

A rain shadow is a dry area on the leeward side of a mountainous area. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them.

This summer, we've endured record heat, and I've had to water twice a week all summer long.* I don't remember a time when there were so few butterflies at the oasis, but admittedly I haven't always paid as much attention to their numbers as I have the last several years.

I'm certainly grateful for that June rainfall that filled my tanks, so at least I don't have to worry about water for quite some time. And really grateful for the new tank that is full just in case the worst happens.

Speaking of the new tank, the big Lubber Grasshoppers have totally stripped the leaves off most of the Tree Tobacco around the tank. It'll seed itself and hopefully do better next year. If I was there all the time I could pick them off, but when I'm gone they prevail.

* I was amused by a visitor several days ago. I was complaining about the lack of summer rain and he said there must be some good sub-surface water for the oasis to be so lush looking. Don't I wish! The mechanics of the oasis seem to be hard for most visitors to comprehend. I guess that's what makes it special.

Vinegaroon

When Mac was visiting he wanted to photograph a vinegaroon so bad and we couldn't find one. Today after I watered at the oasis and did some patching in the stucco tank, I came to town. I was just sitting in a chair, watching TV, minding my own business, when I spotted a huge vinegaroon 2" from my foot.

Such is life!

My inquiring mind

Had I been in school today instead of in the 1940s-50s I wouldn't have annoyed my teachers with endless questions as much. I would have just googled.

For several years now I've wondered why the Pecos River was saline enough to attract Seaside Dragonlets and Marl Pennants. Today I found an online post by Mikael Behrens, who got this information from a geologist specializing in Texas groundwater consulting (Allan Standen).

"He told me that back in the 1940s, just north of Iraan was an important area for oil production during World War II. Deep salty ground water was pumped up to flush oil reservoirs, and probably made the surface water brackish in that area to this day."

However, that explanation doesn't satisfy me. I can't fathom that saline water dumped many miles downstream would affect the water upstream for over 70 years. Doing a little online research, I now believe that floodplains above the headwaters of the Pecos River are more responsible. And I wonder if agriculture in those floodplains plays a role in the salinity too. "Some may involve dissolution of geological salts present above Girvin" also, per my research.

Here's a female Seaside Dragonlet photo that I took along the Pecos River on FM 1776 three years ago. (See post from Aug 5, 2016)

Back at the oasis today not much going on. I photographed these two common species because I had never had them together in the same frame before, so it was a chance for comparisons. 

Neon Skimmer left, Flame Skimmer right

I was amazed to discover something blooming. Can't explain why it's blooming. I've seen three butterflies so far this month.

Senna lindheimeriana

And my sister found this little Southwestern Blackhead (Tantilla hobartsmithi) snake at her place a mile from the oasis.

It feels like fall. A little cooler than it had been. The swarms of archilochus (Black-chinned & Ruby-throated) hummers have moved through now. Just mostly Lucifers left, plus a few stragglers. If we get another rain this year it'll help my storage, but will probably be too late to help the vegetation get lush.

Live hummer cam is back

Check it out!

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/50/West_Texas_Hummingbirds/

A less laborious Labor Day

Basically, I just watered and serviced feeders today. My knees were still swollen from yesterday, but ibuprofen did the trick. Sad that when the pump was down for a week, and I couldn't run the cottonwood drip, it lost half its leaves. I watered it good whenever I was there, but I guess it was addicted to that drip.

Not much of interest to photograph at the oasis today. Believe it or not, I've only seen two butterflies so far this month. One Pipevine Swallowtail yesterday, and one Empress Leilia today. I don't remember it ever being that bad. Decent numbers of odes due to the water in the tanks. And this katydid. Maybe a Slender Meadow Katydid? (On the hood of my pickup)

As hard as it gets

Today was a very hard day for me at the oasis, helping my son get the pump running. I was in and out of the water numerous times besides running all over the place for tools and such. So now the pump is running intermittently, like it was before this recent breakdown.

I was too hot and exhausted after we finished to do any watering. Hopefully, I'll be recovered by tomorrow morning. Both my husband and this son think I'm crazy to keep fighting the adversities. But sitting all day in a rocker reading, like my husband does, isn't for me.

My son thinks the problem is a bad control box, even though it's the second or third new one we put in. I have 3 more new ones but he was eager to get back to town and wouldn't replace it. If it's not that, then it's the underground line. The recent electrician ran a temporary line above ground, but my son was so sure the problem was the control box that he didn't test the temporary line well enough, in my opinion.

Since it wasn't good to leave the line strung across the viewing area for who knows how long, he removed it before he hastened away. It was a big job to hook up in the first place so we really should have run the pump with it to be sure it was staying on.

The story is more complicated than that of course. The electrician hooked up the temporary line and bypassed the pressure pump. So after my son got the pump installed and turned on the switch, pressure built up too high and blew the pump off the water line. We had to start all over, with me wading into the water to retrieve the pump I had just installed, etc.

Anyway, enough of that misery. A waterthrush was enjoying the gravity drip I put up temporarily today.

I'm going to remove it tomorrow. Too much trouble to have to add water to the tank all the time. I've decided to go back to using the pump for the drip. I've got the pump up out of the mud higher now, so it shouldn't get clogged up.

I think this is a Northern Waterthrush, but I do get Louisianas too. And a Blue-eyed Darner hung up under the canopy, so not a good photo op. 

Still at breakneck speed

Birders started arriving early and the electrician arrived at 9 AM, so it was a bit chaotic. The electrical problem involved the viewing area, but I made the electrician walk all the way around through the parking area so as not to disturb birding. Didn't get the problem fixed though. He thinks it's in the pump, so I brought the pump to town, hoping to get it fixed.

I need to be at the oasis every day these days. Not only to keep the feeders serviced, but otherwise I can't have the drip going,* or keep the big lubber grasshoppers from gobbling up my Tree Tobacco. But I had commitments in town, unfortunately.

Photo on Tree Tobacco by Sid Ehlert

An interesting bird was photographed at the oasis on August 26th by Deborah Whiting. We couldn't ID it, so I sent it to Kelly Bryan, the expert who co-wrote a paper on hybrid Colima/Virginia Warblers. He believes Deborah's photos are of just such a hybrid.

https://avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/newly-discovered-hybrid-zone-between-colima-and-virginias-warbler-in-texas/

I'm not qualified to say, but I will say I saw a for sure Virginia's at the oasis these past few days and it wasn't this bird, although they may have been traveling together.

Deborah also photographed a Lucifer band. I asked Kelly to check his banding records to see if he could determine which bird this is. He reported back that it had to be one of two males. One would be over 9 years old, and the other over 10 years old. That's pretty exciting. (Note: This bird is growing a new tail, probably molting.)

Thank you, Deborah, for your excellent documentation on both birds. And thank you, Kelly, for researching your banding records to estimate this bird's age.

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* I was so determined to have the birdbath drip working that I rigged up a pump that recirculates water with two long hoses going, one to the drip. But I can't go off and leave it running. It doesn't build up pressure and turn off like the one I brought to town. Just keeps pumping nonstop and it's not designed for that kind of use. But I'm thinking about putting a tank up high on something and using gravity to keep the drip going. Thinking about it. Funny I went all these years without a birdbath drip and now I can't stand to be without it. Like all the years without internet and now I can't survive without it.

A pretty good day

The day started out at 65,° too cold for rattlers to be active, or so I thought. Minutes after thinking that I had an encounter with a Diamond-backed. And he had already fed. Now, I'm told, they can become active at 60.°  Good to know.

The electrician called that he'll be here tomorrow morning. Yay! there is hope. Meanwhile, I decided to remove a bunch of water from the stucco tank so if he has to get to the pump, it'll be easier. I left 3' of water in the deep end for the pump to operate on. Then as I need more for watering in the future, I'll put more back in. This way cuts way down on surface area, thus evaporation.

And here's that water going into the tank that doesn't leak.

I saw a first fall male Townsend's Warbler but it was moving too fast for me to have time to focus as good as I wanted. Had to take what I could get.

And a juvenile male Calliope Hummingbird...

Still fighting adversity

My rain dance didn't impress the sky gods. Three miles to the south of the oasis got over an inch last night and the oasis only got a quarter-inch. So I dragged hoses around watering all day today. Using my little pump since the one installed in the stucco tank wouldn't come on at all. For a year or two it's been intermittent, but if I keep the pressure from building up and cutting off the switch by running two hoses, I can water fairly efficiently. But now something else is wrong. So an electrician is supposed to come by tomorrow afternoon or the next day.

While watering, I carry my camera and snap photos. Keeps watering from being onerous. Here are a couple of female pondhawks.

Common Pondhawk, formerly Eastern

Great Pondhawk

An interesting unknown bug...

I'll try to do better tomorrow. At least I'm not short on water. It could be worse. 

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Update: Brian says the bug is a carrion beetle (silphidae) larva. Thanks, Brian.

Missing Lucifer-land

Stuck in Alpine again. Tomorrow I have to accompany my husband to Odessa to his eye appointment. Just another day subtracted from my life. But as soon as we get back I'll head to Lucifer-land.

Here's a photo I love that Mac took back in June when we got our only real rain of the year so far. Enough to fill my tanks, but not enough to make it through until next year's rainy season. Hope monsoons come soon. Can this photo count as my rain dance?

Trying to endure town, I birded our ponds here. They're looking good. A few migrants coming through and the year-round species. Some of the nesting species are still around too. Nothing exciting.