Hanging in here

I really wanted to go odeing today but had too much work to do in town. Still sickly too. Picked and dried peaches yesterday and today. Tomorrow I should be finished with them. Then Monday I have to water at CMO. Maybe Tuesday I can go odeing to Lajitas. Wednesday is banding.

Here's an insect, maybe a locust or cicada?

That's about it. Pretty bleak, but better days ahead. At least I don't have to deal with that tree full of apples. We gave them all away.

Resting as best I can

Came to town last night. Had so much fun chasing odes at Lajitas the other day and hadn't recovered before I went chasing the thrush. As a result, I got run down and have a terrible case of cold sores, on my lips, and inside my mouth (besides my usual aches and pains). Just eating mush right now. But started taking zinc. I think I have a tendency to be deficient in zinc. Meanwhile, I only did housework, errands, picked and dried some peaches, etc.

Chasing the Clay-colored Thrush

I left at 6 AM stoked to go find the thrush that had been discovered by a group of birders led by Bill Rowe on the 12th, two days ago. I just found out about it yesterday from Kelly. While I intended to take the dirt road shortcut (the old Maverick Road) inside the park to Cottonwood Campground, I decided not to as the area appeared to have gotten quite a bit of flooding (must be nice). So it took me a little longer to get there. For nearly an hour upon arriving, I looked where I was told it had been seen. When I didn't find it, I started looking elsewhere and located it just inside the campground entrance around this irrigated area.

It was aggressive toward other birds, and at one time I heard the thrush calling from two different locations so I'm pretty sure there are two of them. It's unbelievable all the human activity there. The bird was secretive anyway and constantly got flushed into hiding by vehicles going past. I despaired of ever getting good photos. One time I walked a ways away from my little red stool and a park employee picked it up and threw it into the back of his pickup, thinking it had been left behind by campers. I had to track him down to retrieve my stool. There didn't used to be any people camping there in July to my memory. It was a surprise. Here are a couple of the best shots I was able to get. If I chased birds a lot I'd have to get an extender or bigger lens. But at least I documented it for today. Not as good as the group did two days ago.

I was amused by a Golden-fronted Woodpecker that tried to cram a seed pod into a crevice unsuccessfully. So it set the pod down and pecked the hole bigger

Ah, success! I have lots of shots of the whole process, but you get the idea.

Back at CMO I was happy to discover there's nearly two feet of water in the big tank. I'm pumping it out now. Scary, because what if the stucco tank springs a leak like it's prone to do? But I have no other way to get the water to the trees except through the stucco tank.

CMO historically gets monsoons when there's good hurricane activity in the Pacific. This year is the first year since 2011 that there have been no Pacific hurricanes in May or June. Nevertheless, the prediction is for a near normal hurricane season. Guess it's just late. 

UPDATE: I went out to check my pump and chickened out and turned it off. Too afraid of losing the water. It's a lot less work to set up the pump once than repeatedly like I've been doing. And less evaporation if it's all in one tank, but the risk.....   I have a couple weeks supply in the stucco tank for now. It was 108° when I went out there. Crazy!

Down to the wire

I sparsely watered some things at the oasis today. Tomorrow I'm going to transfer the last foot of water in the big tank to the stucco tank where there's a pump hooked up to the watering system. That's it. The survival of the oasis depends on whether it rains in the next 4 weeks or so. Meanwhile, I'll water only what I hope is enough to keep the most important things alive. It's been a great experience for the last 20 yrs and nothing is forever. If I can no longer water, I'll see what is still alive when it does rain and focus on those things. Also maybe spend more time traveling and photographing odes and butterflies. Trying to stay positive here. And of course the Lucifer Hummingbirds will still be here.

I took this photo late this afternoon. There was a deer drinking when I approached but he bolted before my autofocus would focus. I'm going to start just using manual focus. My new faster focus lens doesn't seem to do well. Maybe it's my old camera body. Definitely going to get a new one.

A pair of Filigree Skimmers were out too. Too dark and far away for good photos, but I tried.

A Clay-colored Thrush was seen yesterday at Cottonwood Campground in Big Bend NP. I'm thinking I may try to locate it in the morning before it gets hot out. I can pump the water when it's too hot to do anything else. I've seen that species before but don't have photos of it.

Hot Lajitas odeing today

I took over 300 photos and don't feel I scratched the surface. Didn't even make it to the golf shop pond, the big lake, back stream, or the Rio Grande River. Having so much fun that I lasted a record 2½ hrs. Got a lifer Bronzed River Cruiser, which was the highlight of the day for me. I would have enjoyed it more if I had ID'd it by myself, but had to post it to the Texas ode group.

Where but Lajitas would you see a palm growing in the crotch of a cottonwood tree?

Seems I'm getting addicted to photographing robberflies, too. Here's another one.

This next insect Brian says is some kind of cicada. My first cicada pic posted.

Back in Alpine I made a quick check of the habitat out back and discovered this juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. 

I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't ID the night-heron or river cruiser without help. Very senile of me. On the ode, I looked through my Texas ode guide before I downloaded the photos and didn't see any that had the two-toned blue thorax that I recalled. I think if I had scrutinized the book after I downloaded, I might have nailed it. Like to think so anyway. Then on the night-heron, I grabbed my trusted Sibley guide and looked at both the Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned and failed to tell which of the two it was. It's more obvious in the National Geographic guide, but I should have easily told from the Sibley. I hope I've learned a lesson here. I need a nap.

It bothers me that I may have seen several other lifers today but didn't recognize them. So many unusual ones look like common ones to me. Hopefully my skills will improve. I'm going to try to go to Lajitas more often this summer. That should help.

What I'm doing

Had to come to CMO today and do a token watering. A neighbor on Terlingua Ranch posted this to a local Facebook group. Describes me perfectly.

No rain in over 3 months. Record hot June. Now my precious soapberry thicket is turning yellow. I hope that doesn't mean it's dying.

Why do you think I'm painting my faded hummingbird feeders?

1. Is it because the Lucifer Hummingbirds don't like to use faded feeders?

2. Is it because I like to keep all my stuff new looking?

3. Is it because Kelly remarked on how faded they were getting last time he banded here?

Answer is at end of post..

I have 3 dozen feeders. Right now only one dozen are in use but in a month or two the number may double as migration gets into full swing. Above is how I store those not in use.

Cornell's West Texas hummer cam is up and running. Live! Check it out.

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

Only thing I could find to photograph today was this robber fly.

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Answer:  Last year I painted a bunch of the feeders and they still look like new. I love them to look like new. And last time Kelly banded he did remark that some of the feeders were looking faded. So that might have influenced me to paint them sooner rather than later. But it was on my mind to do anyway. The Lucifers don't care.

More of the same

I've been having a lot of hip pain lately. Hoping now that major projects are done it will subside. Meanwhile, not much fun. June was the hottest month on record, and no monsoons at CMO yet. Just trying to stay optimistic and hang in there.

Here's a nice fresh Pearl Crescent from Alpine today.

Serendipitous lifer

The other day a friend posted a butterfly photo on a facebook group that would have been a lifer for me. She saw it at Gage Gardens in Marathon. I hadn't been there all year, so resolved to go check it out first chance I got, which was today. After I left the gardens, I went to the Post Park since it's sometimes good, and is close to Marathon. Approaching the entrance I saw someone photographing something near the entrance, and lo and behold, it was that friend. She was the reason I had gone to Marathon in the first place. And had she not been stopped there I never would have even glanced around there for butterflies. She was photographing a Viceroy, a lifer for me, as well as for her and her husband.

Nothing else I found all day was a lifer, but great butterflies, nonetheless. Here is my second ever Meridian Duskywing.

And a lovely Question Mark.

This resident duck has a tuft of feathers apparently growing from his head. Doesn't seem to deter his popularity. A couple of females were hanging around.

And this is a very common butterfly, a Queen, on a Buttonbush. I just love how his spots coordinated with the bloom.

I'll end with some of the incredible blooms at Gage Gardens. There are flowers everywhere. It's awesome!

Roses

Roses

Columbine

Columbine

Columbine

Bird of Paradise

Too hot to handle

105° all afternoon. Yesterday evening, driving down to CMO it rained all the way, sometimes torrentially. Until I got to my turnoff at Terlingua Ranch Road. Bone dry. That sure gets old. Three months since any rain of any significance here. Now it looks like rain all around again today, so I thought I'd start blogging. The least little storm makes the electricity go out, so if I go to town later, I'll have this online in draft form nearly ready to go. But I won't publish it until I find out if it rains here. All week there's a chance. Can't miss me forever. This is monsoon season.

I didn't water everything. Seems like an exercise in futility. Here's a nice paintbrush (Castilleja rigida) still blooming out away from the oasis.

The only thing blooming at the oasis are the acanthus. Nothing goes to them, which probably means they're depleted of nectar. Need rain. I've seen a Cassin's Kingbird here occasionally during the past several weeks. Maybe they're nesting here. That might be a first.

If these Arizona Powdered-Skippers were trying to look like that leaf, they didn't fool me.

Kelly Bryan and Charles Floyd came early this morning to band hummingbirds. Of the 15 Lucifers they caught only one was a juvenile. But hummers are starting their second nesting now. That should be more productive.

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UPDATE: No rain. Came to town.

Alpine today

You'd think when someone goes out looking for odonates and butterflies they'd be expecting to find interesting ones, but it seems I'm always taken by surprise. Today I was sitting in the shade by the pond looking for interesting dragonflies when a butterfly lit on a tree trunk near me. Of course, I forgot about dragonflies for the moment and fixated on the butterfly. I'm flexible like that. Turns out it's a lifer for me.... Tawny Emperor. Not too shabby.

Quite a few lotuses are beginning to bloom. I'll take photos when it looks more gorgeous. Meanwhile, this bud's for you.

Today I saw my first Western Pondhawk for this year. I've seen several Easterns, but I guess it makes no difference since the powers that be have lumped them both together as Common Pondhawk. This is a female.