Can't get enough of the bluebonnets

By Tim McKenna - Big Bend National Park

Hugh and I finally found time to work on the broken limb on the peach tree. I think it'll recover.

Cardinals are common birds for most people but I rarely see one, so had to photograph this singing male here in town this morning.

A matter of math

Some birders at the oasis today were asking about the water situation and the new tank. So it's like this. The stucco tank holds 96 inches of water. If evaporation was ½" every day, the minimum it could possibly be, and no leakage, the water from monsoon season (Jul-Sep) would last 6 months. Of course, that's providing I never watered anything with it.That takes it, under best of circumstances, to March. Then it would be empty. But because I filled the new tank from it last fall, I now have 65,000 gallons of water I wouldn't have had. That's equivalent to 5 feet in the stucco tank. I plan to not touch that reserve unless we get a drought. And in a drought, without that reserve, the oasis would go away, because buying and hauling water is no longer an option for various reasons. Until rainy season I have water in the big tank that should get me through. I seriously doubt that you'll ever hear me whine about lack of water again.

Big Bend National Park by Gabrielle Rohr

I watered my trees today and had to come back to town. Planted some of the tomato plants, and am exhausted. Tomorrow I have to accompany my husband to Odessa to the eye doctor in case the dilation causes him not to be able to drive. He's close to cataract surgery.

Then I hope to address this peach tree. When we left the sprinkler on it for two consecutive nights the ice built up on it so thick that some limbs broke. I hope to be able to mend this one. The sprinkler needs to be turned off after everything is iced over, but neither of us could bring ourselves to go out there at 2 AM and do it. I would have been wide awake for the rest of the night. And I've been puny for weeks now. Plus, if you turn the sprinkler off in the night, then it freezes up and you can't turn it on the following night, if needed, which it obviously was. But this damage could have been prevented with more diligence on our part.

Spring again

More hummers keep showing up. Here's a female Lucifer. I love seeing them in their fresh breeding plumage. 

Exciting spring!

Heading south in the morning. Today is the last day of winter!

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Welcome to West Texas!

Mule Ears Peak, Big Bend National Park by Tim McKenna yesterday

Sprinkler on Alpine peach tree trying to save fruit today

Tomorrow - Not much of an exaggeration I'll bet

Winter's back!

Winter is doing its last gasp. We already lost our apricot crop and are now trying to save the peaches.

Here's an interesting oldie. Pecos River bridge in 1922.

Bluebonnets don't get better than this. The hills in Black Gap are covered with them, some 4' tall.

Big Bend National Park by Tanner Quigg

Feels like summer

Big Bend National Park on March 1st by Tim McKenna

At the oasis today I enjoyed seeing the blooming Desert Evening Primrose (Oenothera primiveris). Funny though that it only blooms in the morning.

The White-crowned Sparrow was still hanging today. I thought the shrike would have retrieved it by now. You know me, I hate to see anything go to waste.

The short month

I had hoped to get 20 butterfly species for the year by Mar 1st but missed it by two. If February had been a day longer I would have made it. I'm sure there are many species I don't get to count because I don't see them or get a decent look. Today the best butterfly was this Great Purple Hairstreak. I think it's only the second one I've seen at the oasis. Its larva feed on mistletoe and we've had a lot of that this winter.

It landed high in a pinyon tree so I had to take what I could get.

Trying to keep flower IDs from overwhelming me. I'm still hanging in there. Here's a lovely globemallow blooming. I just have the orange and lavender ones at the oasis.

Copper Globemallow - Sphaeralcea angustifolia

White-crowned Sparrows overwinter at the oasis, but this is the first time I've seen one that had been impaled by a Loggerhead Shrike. I can't imagine how the shrike got the bird skewered onto that flimsy twig.

All 18 of my Tree Tobacco plants are thriving. It's going to be awesome this August when they're blooming and swarming with hummers! An old lady can dream, can't she?

In all their splendor

Lucifers are back. It's wonderful. All gorgeous and hyper.

This  Kunth's Evening Primrose (Oenotherea kunthiana) bloomed at the oasis this morning.

Any day now

Lucifer Hummingbirds are due and I'm heading to CMO in the morning to watch for them. Meanwhile, I put my sign back up in the alley after the city did a severe pruning. They cut the top off a mesquite, ostensibly because it's under the utility line. It is, but there's never been a Western Honey Mesquite in all of Alpine tall enough to reach the line. They left the stump about 5' tall; I've no idea why. Before their savage pruning I had been hanging a sign for birders from a limb on the tree.

August 21, 2018

February 27, 2019

So today I bolted my sign to the stump. Doesn't quite qualify as making lemonade out of lemons.😐 Coincidentally, the inspectors for the pruning came by today while I was installing my sign. I let them know how I felt about the whole situation.

From now on, for the first time, the house at CMO won't have a well. The well service just wanted too much to make it happen. For starters, $5000 to case it, plus a couple thousand for the work they already did. I told them the poor seep well wasn't worth it, so they came and removed the wiring they put in (unauthorized) and that's it. On the bright side, I won't ever have well expenses again, and won't have to worry about the long line to the house freezing again. I'll just use rainwater in the house and get my drinking water from our well here in town.

Eventually, I'm hoping to get a good quality composting toilet. That'll help.

To put this year into perspective, last year by the end of February I had tallied only four species of butterflies at the oasis. This year I'm up to 18 already. Gonna get exciting!

As you probably know, I'm big into ancestry. A cousin in Iowa mailed me some photos from my late aunt's estate. I enjoyed adding a few of them to my tree. A couple that I had memories about, but hadn't seen in ages were among the trove. Not to bore you, but here are the two I had thought were gone forever. The first one is of my dad and us 3 oldest kids, taken when I was about five (circa 1945). I remember it because I was holding a little jar with my prized agate collection. Throughout my childhood I wandered the countryside looking for agates. I still have my collection. It won't fit into that little jar either.  A couple in it are probably quite valuable since agate is now considered a semi-precious gem. Mine are Lake Superior agate, but I didn't know that then.

This last one I remember because my grandfather used to go on annual fishing trips to Mexico and bring us back souvenirs. Even at my age of 4 or 5, I anticipated a Piñata or Mexican doll or something with Mexican flavor. Was so disappointed when he brought my sister and me matching American-style dresses. Never wore them except for this one photo for him.

me, mom, sister (Andrea)

I'll close today's post with couple of recent photos of Big Bend Bluebonnets (Lupinus havardii) taken along the scenic river road and in Big Bend National Park by my favorite local photographer, Tim McKenna.