Pinyons and stuff

The first trees I planted at the oasis were four Mexican Pinyons. At the time I understood Remote (Papershell) Pinyons would be the most suitable for my elevation and climate but I couldn't find any. I was told the surest way to kill Mex. Pinyons was to give them too much water. This was 20 years ago. So I watered them a little, and figured when they looked like they were dying that I was watering them too much. Only when it became obvious they were dying and I had nothing to lose, did I water them heavily. They perked up and all survived and now are doing good, although during the drought a couple looked really bad. They get the little pinyon nuts on them every year.

My favorite trees are always the evergreens, and since I originally set out to get only pinyons, I guess they were my favorite choice. I love palm trees but have had no luck with them.

About ten years ago I found some Remote Pinyons for sale and purchased four of them. I was surprised when they didn't seem to do as good as the less suitable Mexican Pinyons, but they are trucking along, slowly but surely. This winter is the first time I've had any pinyon nuts on any of them, so that's exciting for me.

My habitat is just as important to me as the wildlife it attracts. Lovely that I can have both, although water is a determining factor in both, and I'm not comfortable with the water situation right now. I'm rationing big time and hoping for the tanks to fill up sooner rather than later. I'll always have enough habitat for Lucifer Hummingbirds and dragonflies, etc., just maybe not as lush a habitat as I would want. And of course, I can always attract birds with seed feeders like this American Goldfinch from yesterday.

And I'll believe this when I see it....

Clues to spring

Heading to CMO from Alpine today the air had remnants of smoke from last week's Big Bend National Park grass fire. The fire is out but I noticed smoke settled in low areas.

I had hoped since we hadn't had much spring weather maybe things wouldn't leaf out too soon only to freeze in March (or even April). But no such luck. The Fantex Ash in the courtyard is a slow learner.

I've long ago stopped worrying about it. If it dies, I'm smarter now and will replace it with something more suitable. Half the tree is dead but not from frost. Drought. I wish I would have planted something else there 20 yrs ago. Now it's going to take longer than I have to get a good-sized tree there.

This seems to be the time of year the Arizona Cypress put on their golden blooms.

And House Finches are in their brightest breeding plumage.

My cholla patch is getting big. One of these days - years - maybe a Lucifer Hummingbird will build a nest in it. Here's a fruit, left over from last year, I guess.

A bird! A bird!

That Bullock's Oriole that I had visiting the feeders mid-December in Alpine is back!  Not great photos through a window, but documentary.

The oriole works very hard at getting sugar solution from the feeder.

Three days until February. And in February the hummingbirds will start arriving. How cool is that! Meanwhile, I'm having fun working on my ancestry tree. I was contacted by a distant relative, related through marriage. He had a couple hundred pages of letters written by my first cousin twice removed, per ancestry lingo. (Per my lingo she's the niece of my beloved great-grandmother.)  He shared those letters with me. I'm transcribing them and putting them onto my tree for posterity. Fun stuff!

Still hibernating

Hibernating in town

In case you're wondering what has become of me, I'm in town most of the time working on my ancestry tree and cleaning pecans. Spring is just around the corner.

We have about ten feed sacks full of pecans. Hugh cracks them and I clean them.

That project will take me well into spring.

Days are lengthening

Surviving as best I can. Today Kelly and I went to Lajitas to see what hummers we could band there. Saw three and caught two of them, one Rufous, and one Anna's.

Here's a juvenile Yellow-breasted Sapsucker that Kelly discovered and photographed. I hadn't taken my big camera along, so sure there would be nothing to photograph. That's how bleak it is these days.

Before leaving we checked out the pond by the golf shop. The most interesting bird there was this Eared Grebe which I managed to get a poor shot of with my little Lumix camera. (Coot on left)

In four weeks or so I can start watching for early arriving Lucifer Hummingbirds.

Trying to cheer myself up

I saw a couple of gorgeous male Mallards on our pond so decided to photograph them. Before I could get out there some woman walking her dogs down our alley between the house and ponds flushed them off. Grrrr!!!! I said something about it and she glibly stated they'd be right back. Of course, as I expected, they never returned.

So I kept searching for something to photograph, anything. Finally found an American Goldfinch. Better than nothing.

Since we have more pecans on the trees than we have the energy to deal with we are giving some away. One of the people my husband gave some to has been out flailing for hours. Wish I still had that kind of energy. Just glad the pecans aren't going to waste.

Hubby's at the river fishing. He's catching fish but it's cool there too. Since I assured him the next few days are going to be warmer he's going to hang in there. If he came home he'd just wish he was back there.

Headed toward normal

I actually saw my first two butterfly species for the year today. One was at a banding site about ten miles south of CMO, near Terlingua, and the other was at CMO. Reakirt's Blue (Terlingua) and Sleepy Orange (CMO), about the most common species. It's a start.

At that Terlingua banding site we waited patiently for this Anna's Hummingbird to enter the trap. It had been banded several weeks before we think, which may be why it never did go in.

Meanwhile, as we waited, a Pyrrhuloxia landed on my head. 

Photo by Kelly Bryan

Photo by Bonnie Wunderlich

I know I look dorky with my head all wrapped up, but by keeping my ears and throat warm I never get sore throats, earaches, or even colds or flu, so it's worth it. Plus it keeps me warm.

In keeping with the strangeness so far this year, my feeders have been bedeviled by bees. Here's one from under the roof where rainwater can't overflow the baffles. Either rain came in sideways or wind blew the feeder excessively. 

So I changed it out with a fresh one, and half an hour later it looked like this. All I can imagine is that when I rehung the fresh one some solution must have gotten sloshed during the process of flipping it over. That does happen occasionally. I'm going to leave it and see if by tomorrow the bees have gotten all they're able to reach. Whew!

Can I hibernate?

This year has started out so strange that I just want to hibernate until March 1st. Wish my water supply could hibernate, too, so none is lost to evaporation between now and then. I haven't even photographed anything yet this year.

We're banding at Lajitas tomorrow. Maybe something interesting, or worth photographing, will happen there.

New Year's resolutions

I didn't bother to make many resolutions since I never really heed any of them for long, but it's always nice to take a little inventory. A few of my usual health-related resolutions and one to go odeing and butterflying to the Lower Rio Grande Valley this year. I'm very serious about the few resolutions I've made.

Also I've noted that I'm not very consistent with keeping odonate and butterfly records at CMO. I do keep a daily lists of birds. I've tried a few flawed and inconsistent methods for odes and butterflies. This year I'm trying a new one and determined it'll at least be an improvement. By the new process, in my bird journal, I'll mark a species in every month that I see it. Better than what I had before anyway.

These pages are at the back of my bird journal for 2016 with tabs for easy access. I document bird species daily except for the year-round species, which are recorded on the first page. There are 21 year-round species. I know I'm not going to be consistent at documenting butterfly and ode species daily so I figure I'll try to do it monthly. I'm optimistic that I can accomplish that. I've kept my bird journals since around 1995 (ie. 20 yrs) but have only been into butterflies and odes the last several years.