Alpine sunset

Since I must be stuck in Alpine a lot it helps that we got some rain here this afternoon and a beautiful sunset.

I'd still rather be at the oasis.

Looking good!

Green and looking the best since 2010 when I had my last rain for 18 months.

And here are the luscious native grasses that so attracted me to the property when I bought it pre-oasis.

Hardly any bird activity. I didn't help Kelly band today since there were so few hummers. I watered the trees instead. The normal rains are the reason birds are out foraging and not confined to the oasis. That's good.

Greening up nicely

Things are looking greener every day. An early explorer across the region said the grasses up in the Christmas Mountains were the best he'd seen on his travels. I don't remember where I read that (somewhere in the stacks at the University of Texas library). I've looked and looked for that quote and never refound it. But the area below is near where I built my house just because of those grasses.

And seeing purple sage blooming everywhere is music for my eyes.

Here is an article I scanned from the Fort Davis newspaper. They're holding the hummingbird festival there next weekend. Tours will visit my oasis and I've even committed to doing a Power Point presentation on the creating of my oasis. Maybe if you click on it the words will be large enough to read.

Tank is leaking again

I was so sure it couldn't possibly leak after all the meticulous patching I did last winter. But it's leaking 3" per day. Must have sprung a new leak. I just can't drain it and go through all that again. I'll wait until it's empty and try to find the leak. The other tank isn't leaking a drop. One of these years I'm going to have to spend big bucks to get an acrylic liner sprayed on the tank I think. I'm trying to not get too depressed over it.

Everything is green and blooming and lovely. If the weather will stay cool and rainy, things might start to look nearly as good as they did pre-drought.

Here are a couple of photos. The first one is a Cape Honeysuckle that my friend, Bonnie, gave me last year. This is the first time it's bloomed since I planted it in the ground.

And this other photo is some plant that I don't know if is normal looking, or if the leaves have been attacked by some kind of mite or something. Does anyone know?

Never too much rain

I helped band hummers in Ft Davis today and arrived at CMO just barely ahead of a rain storm. When I arrived at 3 PM it was 97°. Within 30 minutes it rained nearly an inch and cooled down to 67°. And if that wasn't weird enough, my sister a mile away didn't even get a tenth of an inch. So all my tanks are full and I've no place to pump the water to that's in the dirt tanks. Tomorrow I'm going to have to catch a bunch of gambusias to put in the dirt tanks so I won't have unbearable mosquitoes in a couple of weeks, coincidentally when there'll be several big tour groups here to watch hummingbirds.

With careful management I should be able to make it through to next year's rainy season now. That's always a relief. Yes sir, yes sir, three tanks full!

More rain for the tanks

It rained hard early this morning and put water in the upper dirt tank and filled the settling pond going into the big tank. I was able to pump it brimful. Usually, it rains late afternoon and I end up spending all night pumping so it was great to do it in the day time. I finished a little after 9 PM just as it was getting dark.

Hummingbird migration in progress

Lots of hummers. I didn't get very inspired for photos because it sprinkled all day long and without sun my photos aren't that good. Here are a couple of migrating hummers.

Rufous

Calliope

A couple of shorebirds showed up. Here's a juvenile Great Blue Heron.

The high temperature here today was 65°. I had a little water to pump into a tank today from yesterday's rain. Still need to get the tanks full before the end of rainy season though. But this cool and well-watered ground is wonderful. Maybe the oasis will finally start getting back to its pre-drought lushness.

CMO stuff

We were forecast for rain practically all week and haven't gotten any yet, but at least it's nice and cool. Kelly Bryan came for his scheduled hummingbird banding yesterday, but due to flooding in central Texas our electricity went out for over 8 hours and I couldn't post anything.

He got a new trap because lots of the hummers know the wire cage traps and won't go in. Therefore, we miss out on recapture data that is valuable. The new "bonnet" trap is open on all sides so catches them easier. It's a bit harder to set up and operate, but I really like it.

Above is a photo of our 3 trap types. The one on the left is a trainer trap to get them used to going fearlessly into a trap. We never actually trap with it. The blue covers will be removed when we finish our banding session. The trap in the center is the new bonnet trap, open on all sides, and the trap on the right is one we've used during the last 5 years of the project. It works well, but after being trapped repeatedly some of the hummers avoid it.

New butterfly species at CMO

I arrived here at 7 AM, anxious to water my trees after having been gone for 4 days. I finally gave up on the watering for now because I kept getting distracted by odonates and butterflies. I knew immediately I had never seen this one before. I photographed it and looked it up. It's a Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus). Cool!

It has obviously lived a very hard life up until now. Here it is as seen from below.

Also, I photographed a W Checkered Garter Snake, totally unaware that it had a frog in its mouth. Yuck!

Too tired to post more photos from today, but I had 3 species of damselflies today; Kiowa Dancer, Blue-fronted Dancer, and Powdered Dancer. There's always tomorrow. An oasis in the desert is a fascinating place!

Oasis today

Got as much work done by 11:00 AM as I plan to do today. Rain is in the forecast for this week. Hope it happens before I have to go back to Alpine. Everyone loves the blooming anisacanthus, including me.