A blah day

Had a mild headache all day. It's been so long since I've had a headache that it felt really strange to have one. Better be gone by tomorrow because I'm going to the Post Park in Marathon with a friend and my sister-in-law.

Today I mostly languished and made plans for projects at CMO next week. Gonna water the soapberry one time, I decided. And pour a small concrete pad in the viewing area, paint and install the steps in the guesthouse that Hugh and I built today. Always more stuff planned than I can ever get done. Such is my life.

My seven ducks are all grown up. They fly between the ponds like pros. Wonder if they'll leave ever. I doubt it.

Life goes on

Well, the leak still isn't fixed. When the tank is dry I'll fix it properly, meanwhile, it's not spraying mist, just running down the pipe. What I did yesterday must have patched the wrong spot and today I didn't have time to let it sit and dry. I had to water trees and come to town. In the top photo you can see a tiny jet of water squirting out just below the tape. I don't think that's where the leak was yesterday.

The highlight of my day was observing my first female Blue-eyed Darner ovipositing (laying eggs).

I thought it rather strange that the male was no where to be seen, then when she finally finished, she disappeared, and the male showed up and hovered in the area territorially for hours afterwards. He even chased away another male Blue-eyed Darner.

I'm worried that my cherished soapberry thicket in the arroyo is dying, not having had moisture since July 8th. Hope it's just shedding some leaves and will survive.

Female Common Whitetail

 The only thing blooming at the oasis is this Ruellia that I have sitting in a basin of water.

My day today

I discovered why I didn't find a Paiute Dancer at the Pecos River yesterday. It's too late in the season for them. Should have done my homework beforehand, not afterwards.

Got to CMO this morning to find a small leak in the line from the stucco tank pump. I wanted to patch it so didn't water today. Letting it set overnight. It was making a mist into the tank but mists evaporate most of their water. Will check it in the morning when I water. Note fine line of mist squirting out at top of wet area on line.

Everything here is old and wearing out. Without some proactive support, it's not going to get better, only worse. The leak was higher than I could reach in the tank, even though I was thigh-deep in water. I turned off the water so the pressure would go away and went to Lajitas to seek odes while it dried out. When I returned I cleaned and put Shoe-goo on the hole (as best I could on tip-toe), then wrapped it with duct tape. If it still leaks, it will just run down the line into the tank, not evaporate into the air. Hopefully, the tank will fill up soon and it won't be an issue. I've had less rain this year from July 9- Sept 9 (.12") than I did in 2011 during the same period (.20"). That's how bad it is. At least today was only 90° and not the normal 100°.

I was at Lajitas during the hot part of the day (over 100° there), which may be why I saw very few odes, or maybe it's getting too late in the season. Kind of felt like a big fat cattail zero day.

Actually, all the fire ants made it like a minus zero day. They're awfully small so you may not be able to seem them all over the grasses on this photo.

The kind of hummingbird feeders I use (Dr JBs) get faded from the sun real bad. That bothers me. I like them to look bright and new, so I'm experimenting with some plastic paint, hoping it won't wear off. It sure wouldn't if I wanted it off, I'm certain of that. Here's an unpainted one on the left and a freshly painted one on the right.

With this young male Anna's Hummingbird, CMO's week hummingbird species total is eight. When we banded here Sunday we had seven species, Black-chinned, Ruby-throated, Lucifer, Allen's, Rufous, Calliope, & Broad-tailed. That's not abnormal for the peak of migration, but nice, nevertheless.

Odessa / Pecos / Alpine

Turned out to be a good day, other than NO RAIN.

At Odessa the dentist said I had been abusing my implants, one in particular, but that no permanent damage happened. He adjusted my bite so that one won't get the full impact and I should be good to go if I don't treat my implants like natural teeth. I'm guilty of that. I even confessed to him that I had used my Dremel tool on a place that bothered me, which probably altered the psi negatively. All good now. I think I can tell the difference already.

Was eager to get to the Pecos River and odes. Husband very impatient in the car. I saw one Seaside Dragonlet but it disappeared before I could photograph it. I didn't mind too much because it was a male and I already have a photo of a male. A better one would always be better, and I wanted a female pic. Did not get any lifers, but there were lots of dragonflies. The river had flash-flooded recently, probably last night, so it was very muddy along the banks from the receding water. Almost all the dragonflies there were Variegated Meadowhawks, one of our regions most numerous species. But it was fun anyway.

Variegated Meadowhawk

Lots of Powdered Dancers and Blue-ringed Dancers, but no Paiute Dancer. That's OK. Gives me a good excuse to keep stopping there.

At Alpine I found several Praying Mantises on feeders. I removed them. I've seen video of them killing hummers and have no desire to observe it first hand.

Tomorrow CMO. Kelly had to cancel banding for this week due to jury duty.

Chance for rain this week

A chance is better than no chance. It is rainy season after all, not like I'm being unreasonable to expect rain during rainy season.

Got caught up on work in town so was going to go somewhere odeing but talked myself out of it. Decided to just ode my ponds here in town. Didn't photograph anything new but got some better pics of regular stuff. I didn't have any pics of Plateau Dragonlets from Alpine before and don't remember if I've seen them here before or not. Now I have photo documentation anyway.

There were lots of amberwings and I thought maybe some were Slough Amberwings. They looked different and seemed to be acting different, but turned out to all be Eastern Amberwings. 

This is the darkest Fatal Metalmark I've ever seen.

Tomorrow we're going to Odessa for my dentist appointment. My implant quit hurting since I started doing my chewing on the other side of my mouth but may as well get a checkup anyway. I'm going to stop at the Pecos River on the way back and try for better Seaside Dragonlet photos plus I hope to get a lifer Paiute Dancer, and anything else interesting that's there in the short time my husband is willing to linger there.

Part of my "town work" included dumpster diving. Kelly's banding chair wasn't working for him at CMO so I finally found one by a dumpster that I fixed and think will work great. 

Then the cushions at CMO on my viewing benches had the coverings worn out. I cut fabric from the back of sofas I find by dumpsters and cover stuff with that. I did one last week and this one yesterday. That white material from a sofa is a really good quality denim. When I finish projects like that I put them in my pickup so I don't forget to take them with me next time I go. I'm pretty much always packed and ready.

Haven't deserted yet

My computer at the oasis is so slow that I can't bring myself to blog when I'm dead tired, it's late at night, and have to get up before daylight to help band. I'm in the process of getting a new fast laptop, so that glitch should be resolved as soon as I get it and learn how to use it. I'm technologically challenged, you see. My neurons were set in concrete before television was invented. (I sure can make good concrete though.)

I came to town and accidentally left my pictures from yesterday on a thumb drive at CMO but I have some great photos by Kelly that he said I could post. His are better than mine so you lucked out.

First is the Mexican Violetear he found at his place in the Davis Mountains several days ago. He saw it again today. This photo taken Sept 5th. (All photos by Kelly)

And next is a female Eastern Amberwings he photographed at CMO yesterday.

Until he photographed this male Mexican Amberwings I had the only photos of that species in Texas. I'm really happy to have corroborative documentation. And especially better photos than mine.

Dental problems

For a couple of weeks now I've had bad implant pain. I imagine one of my implants is failing and will have to be removed. Always something. I know I abuse them, what with eating lots of chewy dried fruit. And working my body long hard hours every day is bound to cause bone loss at my age. Something has to give and it seems my teeth are my weak spots.

I did get new tires and new jack today. I wanted 10-ply but the shop told me that they don't make 10-ply for 15 inch wheels. I'd have to order bigger wheels, etc. So I settled for 6-ply and a new jack. I think it'll be fine.

Other than that, nothing exciting. Caught up housework.  The closest thing to fun was when I thought I saw a Mexican Sootywings butterfly, which would have been a lifer. But it disappeared before I could get a photo. All efforts to relocate it were futile. This is the only sootywings I got a photo of today. It's just a Common Sootywings.

I'll search again tomorrow for the Mexican Sootywings. There's a chance I was mistaken. The difference between the two species is quite subtle and I didn't get but a quick look.

Here's a lifer butterfly from Shafter two days ago. Sheep Skipper.

Here's a sentiment I can really, really relate to.

Bad tires

After a long hard day I was heading to town shortly before dark when I had a flat tire a couple of miles from the oasis. I had known better than to drive on the 4-ply tires that my pickup came with when we bought it, but I had heretofore managed to eke by with fix-a-flat and my little portable air compressor. But today nothing would inflate the flat tire and it was a nightmare. I couldn't even get the lug cap off. Finally, a neighbor came by. He had recently had surgery but struggled mightily to get the lug nuts loose and change the tire. My little previously unused car jack didn't work; his Jeep jack was too big to fit under my pickup. Using his satellite phone I called my sister and she came with a decent jack. Finally got the dang tire changed. Tomorrow all new 10-ply tires for my pickup. Never going to have a flat again. That was at least the fourth flat I'd had since getting the new pickup. Never had flats with my old pickup's 10-ply tires. Gonna buy a jack like my sister's too. I can hear my husband bellowing already, but some battles just have to be fought.

While I was watering at the oasis this afternoon I saw a lovely Two-tailed Swallowtail. Even though I've got lots of great photos of that species I cannot resist photographing something so gorgeous.

Here's a torn and tattered Black Saddlebags I discovered perching along the pathway. Otherwise, the oasis was really dead.

The flat not only caused me to get to town late, but I'm covered with dirt. There's a section of road that's a dust bowl and that's right where I had the flat. Gonna bathe and go to bed. Really tired and dirty. At least it had cooled off by the time I had the flat. Earlier, while watering, it was 99°. Just another day in paradise.

Revisited Shafter

Wore myself out taking over 500 photos today. A record pixel day for me, if nothing else.

I haven't gotten everything identified yet so if there are any lifers in the bunch they'll have to wait until tomorrow. At least I can ID the birds I saw there. It was cool having this Zone-tailed Hawk screaming off and on the whole three hrs I was there. Photographing distant birds in flight isn't my strong point, but at least it's an IDable shot.

Some of the odes wouldn't land and I wasn't fast enough to get any IDable flight shots of them. I'll spare you those. Here's an American Rubyspot devouring what I think is a moth.

Next is a pair of mating Gray Sanddragons.

If there are any lifers I'll post them tomorrow.

I really worry that the wonderful habitat at Shafter will be lost to the pipeline project. Such a travesty, but the construction will pull the water table down so much that I don't think the springs can continue running. The spring at Big Spring, TX was thought to be forever but is now only a distant memory. So I want to cram in all the fun at Shafter that I can, while I can.

Hummingbird banding day

This is the middle of hummingbird fall migration so the banding schedule is weekly during this time. Today we got the usual numbers and diversity we've been getting for the past several weeks plus an interesting hybrid at CMO. Kelly thinks, based on measurements and appearance, that it's a Calliope/Broad-tailed hybrid.

At our next banding location, things were also normal for this time of year. As we were getting ready to leave, Kelly spied a near-invisible Round-tailed Horned Lizard. Here is Kelly photographing it with his cell phone.

And here are my zoomed in Canon shots of it.

So adorable!