Madrones and ramblings

I figured out a way to get the dirt behind the madrone tree without crawling under the bushes. I carry the bucket of dirt around to the other side of the tree, stepping on the edge of the water feature,  plus I propped a bush out of the way. Still slow going, but every bucket helps the tree a little more. I'm not sure if it's because of madrone's symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi, or just to keep the roots cooler. Anyway, I guess the fungi does better that way.

Here's the other madrone that has had the man-made (woman-made) south slope for over 15 years. This photo was taken from the opposite side from the one I posted yesterday. So you can see why I'm making a slope for the other madrone. Just hope it does the trick.

Even though I've had twice as much rain already this year as I had in 2011, it's still only a third of normal rainfall. But we're forecast for rain, so I'm ever hopeful.

It's hard to force myself to water the trees when rain is forecast, but if I don't, then I won't have time to water them before I have to go back to town if it doesn't rain. And it's also hard to water trees when I keep wanting to go to Lajitas and look for the Halloween Pennant. Plus someone photographed a Cruiser species of dragonfly that I've never seen. Well, sort of, never. I think I may have seen it yesterday, but it flew before I could get a photo. I am going back in the morning, but really had the urge to go today.

I think it's so awesome to be able to visit Lajitas and Gage Gardens (Marathon) that take way more resources to create than I could ever do. Millions of dollars. Even though the justification for creating them is probably to give their hotel guests something to do while they're visiting, or so more people come to their hotels, or golf course, it's still a treasure. 

While taking a short rest, I watched this ant carry a feather for a long ways. Over the pink rock (upper right in first photo) was just part of its journey, wherever, for whatever. I ran for my video camera but when I got back it was gone. Probably a gust of wind helped it along its way.

During another rest break I watched a Verdin building a nest. It was working at lightning speed, all over the nest. Since I finished my nest building in 1979, I can more readily identify with the ant these days than the Verdin.

The madrone project

I arrived at CMO shortly after sunrise this morning. It's always a treat to get my first glimpse as the oasis comes into view.

My plan was to fill feeders and then work on the madrone project. I made a good start, but then talked myself into postponing it until tomorrow. Here's the "before" picture taken after I dumped my first bucket of dirt.

Notice how puny the madrone on the left edge of the photo looks. I put rocks on its south side, but that's not enough. It needs more, so I'm going to pile up dirt on top of that little yucca until I get a slope going down to the rocks. Then I'll add more rocks. What makes the project a killer, besides my age, is that I have to crawl under there with each bucket to empty it. Not room enough for the wheel barrow. Here's another madrone planted at the same time, 18 years ago, that looks much better. I made a slope on the south side of it not long after I planted it. The bare limbs you see in front of it is a Goldenball Leadtree. It may not look like it, but it's nice and healthy. Then a Gray or Mexican Blue Oak is on the very right edge of the photo.

I'm hoping the puny madrone will perk up eventually. I've lost a lot of the madrones that I've planted. They're difficult, but since it's survived 18 years, I'm optimistic that I can make it look better than it does now.

So after postponing that project shortly after starting it, I went to Lajitas to see if I could photograph my nemesis Halloween Pennant dragonfly. I actually did see one, but alas, it would not land and I eventually lost sight of it. Here is some type of "walking stick."

Turning task into adventure

I was given a mid-banding season break because of the upcoming hummingbird festival with visiting banders to take my place trapping for Kelly. So my task today was to put up festival posters (see previous post). All went smoothly until I got to the Sul Ross campus. I went into the cafeteria and with the help of a "man-taller-than" I am, got one tacked to the bulletin board. Next, I headed to the library. There I was told I had to go to the office to get the poster stamped. Directions to office, not so good. Finally, after asking everyone I saw, I was headed to the right building. I hoped. Encountered previously-encountered "man-taller-than." He said I had already been in that building. But I was sure it was the building pointed out to me by a more recently encountered person. Once inside the building I asked directions a couple of times, wandered around some more, when I came across a bulletin board with the festival poster on it. I thought, "someone else is putting up posters. We need to get this operation coordinated better." Then I realized I was in the cafeteria. I had hung it, in case you lost track.

I finally found the "office." The lady there stamped the poster. We chatted briefly. She sure looked familiar. Finally, I had to know. "Are you Barbara?" I blurted out. She gave me a somewhat quizzical look, but replied, yes, she was. Well, Alpine isn't a big town, after all. So I told her who I was. Then we sort of recognized one another. She is a tenant in one of our rent houses across from our house. Has been for years. I explained that I had prosopagnosia, stumbling a bit over the pronunciation. You know, that's the inability to recognize faces. Then I asked her if she had it, too. Oops! "Apparently," she replied.

Always looking for an excuse to go to Gage Gardens in Marathon, I decided to put a poster in the Gage Hotel. Afterwards, like a child at Disneyland, I darted around the gardens snapping photos. Still no one there to help me up on the cow for a photo (see July 11 post). Maybe next time.

I'm so jealous of their Mexican Elder trees. Mine never get fruit on them. In fact, mine look half-dead all the time.

One of our Mexican Elder trees in Alpine today

Gage Gardens Mexican Elder tree today

When I got home I downloaded my photos. There were some really worn butterflies in the bunch. One that I figured Brian would just say was a worn Common Buckeye turned out to be a Tropical Buckeye, a lifer for me.

Upcoming hummingbird festival

Next weekend will be the annual hummingbird festival in Ft Davis. They always do field trips to CMO. I know you'll enjoy the festival, so be sure to attend, if possible. Kelly's presentations will be fascinating, as will his banding demonstrations.

More information here:

http://www.fortdavis.com/HummingbirdFest2014.html

Catching my breath

I'm always rushing around to keep up. This morning after banding hummingbirds at CMO I watered the trees generously, as if my tanks are going to get topped off in September like they did last year. Serviced my dozen or more hummingbird feeders. Filled the seed feeder. As I rushed around, I noticed how lovely things looked with the sun filtering through the trees. Too bad mosquitoes were eating me up. Kind of spoiled the ambiance.

Overlooking wildlife pond

And I really can't explain why there are mosquitoes, what with gambusias in everything. Somehow the mosquitoes got ahead of the gambusias after that last rain that filled the wildlife pond. I'm sure they'll be gone in a few days.

Now that I've caught up after taking off two days to go to my step-granddaughter's graduation, it feels good to be back to my normal pace. I'm going to start hauling buckets of dirt to build a slope on the side of one madrone tree. For some reason madrones do better on the north side of a slope. The area is too tight to use a wheelbarrow, so I'm just going to do it bit by bit. I'll post photos when I get going on it. Right now I'm in Alpine for my obligatory three days.

Lajitas Day

Hadn't been to Lajitas for a long time so really looked forward to going there and "golf-cart-dragonflying" with Kelly.

 The weather was lovely and it was fun. Just wish we had gotten an earlier start. The golf cart had to be returned by 4 PM, and we didn't have a chance to even set out until after lunch. Also wish I had gotten a photo of a Halloween Pennant I saw. (We saw one last August too, but couldn't get photos. It seems never to land.) I refuse to count it as a lifer until I photograph one. Here are a couple of my better photos of a species I did get shots at. It's Eastern Ringtail, not a lifer, but I think better photos than I got last August.

Male E Ringtail

Female E Ringtail

And I only shot this heron and turtle because they looked so posed (or should I say poised?). Posed or poised, that is the poser. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Earlier in the day, at one of our banding sites, I watched this spider snare and dispatch a grasshopper in short order.

And hours before that I watched this sunrise as I drove to meet Kelly for our Lajitas Day.

Tree cutting day

Hugh and I went to the oasis to cut the dead cottonwood tree out of the pathway. The deed is done. Next time I'm down there I'll haul the wood away. Some will be stools around the oasis, and some will be firewood.

Here's a photo of mating Black-fronted Forktails damselflies taken in Alpine today. ID courtesy Kelly Bryan. I get too overwhelmed trying to identify those variable damsels.

I attempt to get shots of them mating, thinking they will be easier to ID if I have both sexes, but apparently not for me. Here are two shots of mating Plateau Spreadwings that I couldn't ID because the females look different, although I did think the males were both Plateaus. You see what I'm up against!

Lifer butterfly today

It's always so much fun to see a new butterfly species, even knowing it will just reduce the odds of seeing another new one. There are only so many species in the country, after all.

Today we banded hummingbirds in the Davis Mountains where I spotted this Canyonland Satyr.

I wish I could have gotten a better photo of it, but this was the best one I got. Based on the photo, I didn't know what it was. Consulted my iphone butterfly app, but the only satyr I could find in it was a Carolina Satyr. (Since I got home I found the other satyrs on the app. Don't know why I couldn't find them earlier. Frustrating. Maybe because we were driving on a bumpy road.)

Anyway, after a while I called Brian Banker, my butterfly guru, and tried to describe it to him. I'm a novice and don't know the right terminology, so told him it looked like a cloudywing would look if it was red or orange. He was greatly amused by my amateur description, and said I should henceforth call it a Red Cloudywing. Here's the cloudywing I was alluding to. (I didn't see the spots in the "cloud" on the satyr until I downloaded the photo later.)

It's really hard to describe a butterfly to someone without knowing the names of the body parts. I guess the "cloud" on the satyr would be considered to be on the upper underside of the hindwing, or something like that. Enough of that.

I saw several interesting flowers today too. I don't know what this one from the Davis Mountains is.

Nor this one being enjoyed by a worn Common Buckeye near our ponds in Alpine.

Alpine today

Saw a few butterflies today, although I didn't look all that hard. The best one was a Two-tailed Swallowtail, but it wafted through, giving me not even a slight chance of getting a photo. This is the best one I photographed today, an Elada Checkerspot.

I found it in the flower patch that I put signs up for the city not to mow (See post of July 11). They came around mowing today and bypassed my patch, so that's good.

Here's a patch of lantana I check frequently, but I must have checked too early today because I only saw one butterfly there. This is just about half of the whole patch. But flowers are blooming all over Alpine.

Pain-free

I woke up this morning without a pain anywhere. That's almost unheard of, so I determined to get a lot done. Of course, I ran out of time and energy before I got all done that I would have liked, but I'm satisfied with what I did get done. Such as cleaning and mouse-proofing the guesthouse (always a work in progress), watering lavishly, and many other small tasks, too numerous and mundane to mention. One thing I didn't do is photograph odes and butterflies. I can always do that, even if I don't feel well. Here's the only photo I took today. It's a Band-winged Dragonlet. I think I've posted that species here before, but never at this angle.

Kelly banded hummingbirds at CMO this morning, and in the process caught a Black-chinned Hummingbird that was newly fledged with something stuck on its leg. Kelly determined that the "something" was the head of an ant. Apparently, an ant clamped down on the leg and the hummer tried to rub it off, leaving just the head firmly fastened. Kelly decided not to intervene due to the likelihood that the leg would hemorrhage. The ant head appeared deeply embedded.  To quote Kelly, "The [ant's] pinchers were actually around the leg bone. I personally think the head will eventually fall off. There is obviously blood flow to the foot at present." Of course, we can't know what will happen in the future. The bird was slightly underweight, but not disturbingly so.

Photo courtesy Kelly Bryan