Dead at the oasis

There is nothing interesting going on at the oasis even though the weather is lovely. I walked around outside the oasis looking for flowers. There's huge potential but hardly anything blooming yet. The Texas Desert-rue is on the verge of blooming.

You can see all the wildflowers that are sprouting on the background of this photo of a Painted Lady. Unusual to see one in the middle of winter.

As if identifying flowers isn't hard enough, some of the flowers hide inside other vegetation so that if one didn't know better one would think the leaves belonged to the flower. Here's an example of what I mean. This Bicolor Fanmustard (Nerisyrenia camporum) bloom has grown up through a bush, and no leaves in sight. If I hadn't known what it was, I would have thought the bush was blooming.

This weekend is supposed to get wintry again so it's just as well that flowers and butterflies aren't doing much yet.

Another project completed

I was supposed to meet someone in Alpine this morning at 8 AM and bring him to the oasis to work for me and then take him back to town later. But when he hadn't shown up by 8:30 AM I just came to the oasis without him. Glad I did. Not only saved me money but a friend, Jennifer, that lives on Terlingua Ranch came and helped. She and I worked great together and got done what I wanted to get done.

The project was to mix cement and put it on top of some of that black pipe in the lower dirt tank to hold it in place. I also put bolts through the white PVC where it joins the black pipe, so I finally feel my struggles with them coming apart is over. Hopefully leakage will be minimal. It's impossible to seal the black 3" fast line to the PVC pipe, but I try. I'm still concerned how it'll do when the dirt tank is brimful and this pipe complex is submerged under about a foot of water. If it tries to float that'll stress the joints. Will just have to wait and see. More cement weight would be better, of course, but I don't see that happening. Before all this plumbing, the pipes were more open and water could fill them as it filled the tank. But that meant I had to wade out and connect them together while they were submerged. Hoping this will be the solution. Jennifer suggested I pile sandbags on the pipe. That seems doable to me. Maybe I'll order sandbags online.

Even though the project just involved mixing 3 wheelbarrow loads of concrete, and even though Jennifer did at least half the work, I still ended up wiped out. This old age is really annoying.

There's very little bird activity at the oasis lately. Coincides with a Sharp-shinned Hawk hanging around I think. At least one Rufous Hummingbird is still around. It'll probably leave about the time the Lucifers and Black-chinneds return. No Anna's seem to be here anymore.

Tomorrow I hope to walk around a lot looking to see what wildflowers are blooming. And hoping to get good photos of them. I need all the practice I can get.

Love the new shade

I finished the shade this morning. Already can't imagine not having it. Weather is warm and lovely. Our week of winter is but a dim memory. LOL

 

Took me a long time to get from the oasis to the highway headed for town today. Kept stopping to photograph wildflowers. Here are a few.

Verbena (Glandularia wrightii) blooming along blacktop (lower elevation than CMO)

Bicolor Fanmustard (Nerisyrenia camporum)

Texas Selenia (Selenia dissecta) I hope we can find this species at CMO

Nice oasis rain

The oasis enjoyed nearly half an inch of rain today. Some flowers just can't restrain themselves from blooming in the middle of winter. Here I practiced photographing a Slimleaf Plains Mustard (Hesperidanthus linearifolius) in between slaving away on a project.

The project was using some old fence boards to add some shade in the courtyard. Here are the boards I found by an Alpine dumpster. (You know how I hate waste.)

Here is where I intended to put them.

Because of the rain I got a late start, but eventually got most of them installed. Will finish in the morning. The courtyard can't ever get too much shade.

When I work up on a ladder, I climb and move very slowly. Safety is more important than speed.

Continuation from yesterday

There were lots of these Stemmy Fournerved Daisies around but I was unable to ID them without help.

I painted a few things on the tank to match the tank. I think it looks better now.

I love Phainopeplas so much that I seem unable to stop photographing them. This is a female.

The Torrey Yuccas have been blooming for several weeks now.

Spring at CMO

In my eagerness to get to CMO, I left Alpine way before dawn.

Arrived at the oasis just at daylight, as planned. First thing I did was check the feeders. Not because I thought any would be empty, I knew none would be, but because I knew a visitor had taken upon herself to supplement one or more. She didn't say how many. Her email began, "Of course I saw the sign but the feeders were low..."

The only prohibiting sign on my property

My first urge upon reading the message was to jump into my pickup and head down to fix it. But I talked myself into waiting until my regular scheduled trip. After all, how bad could it be this time of year when I have a maximum of two hummers?

It was worse than I expected. She had put sugar water into the hummers' favorite feeder, not screwed the reservoir on correctly, and all the solution leaked out onto the table. It was too cold for bees when I arrived, but as it warmed up they started swarming where the feeder had been. Of course I had already taken it down.

Screwed on at an angle

I scrubbed the mess off the table as best I could. And even if she had screwed the base on correctly, I'm confident the feeder wouldn't have been hung the proper way and the result would have been the same. My kind of feeders (DrJB) are bee-proof, but only if hung correctly.

Before cleaning but too cold for bees

Hours after cleaning and 75°

When bees can access one feeder, they think all feeders are accessible and swarm them all. In the process of taking down the bee-covered feeders I got stung in the face. I didn't even know bees would sting in the winter.

I keep the feeders low this time of year. No need wasting sugar. The bases hold enough for about two weeks supply in the winter. Since I come down every 3 or 4 days, there's no need filling them. For the record, I am a responsible feeder provider. (I'm the only person in the world who adjusts the feeding ports to accommodate the Lucifer's curved bills.) But I'm sure the person meant well and was trying to be helpful. I'm not upset, just venting. Birders are always welcome to visit anytime, whether I'm here or not.

Since our week of winter seems to be over, I thought I'd conduct myself as if it was spring. I walked up my trail a ways taking photos of every flower I saw. After my self-taught crash course in plant identification, I thought I'd test myself before it gets overwhelming in a month or two. So here are some of what I saw. What I hope are the correct IDs in captions.

Fendler's Bladderpod (physaria fendleri)

Fleabane (Erigeron modestus tracyi)

Bicolor Fanmustard (Nerisyrenia camporum)

Desert Zinnia (Zinnia acerosa)

Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium  leucanthum)

PS: I heard one hummer at the house courtyard where no bees were, but didn't see or hear any hummers at the oasis today. Still Phainopeplas around because of all the mistletoe berries.

To be continued tomorrow......

Lovely weather day

This morning I finished my plant projects that were supposed to keep me busy all winter. But I'm sure I'll find something else to occupy me. The weather is supposed to be lovely for the next several days so I'm eager to go see what's at CMO in the morning.

Today Hugh and I have been married 15 years. I told him "Happy Anniversary." He's never once (in 15 yrs.) told me "Happy Anniversary," but that's OK. (Luckily, I take responsibility for my own happiness.😀)

Since the weather was nice I decided to see how many bird species I could tally here at our place in town. Only made it up to about 11, but some of them were interesting. I heard a Great Horned Owl calling from up in the pine tree but couldn't locate it. A gorgeous male Anna's Hummingbird made a few quick feeder visits. I was barely able to get this bad shot of it.

Was surprised to see an American Goldfinch. Usually, I just get the Lesser's.

And this next bird is probably just an Eurasian Collared-Dove, but it looks so white that I guess it's possible it's an African Collared-Dove. I need better photos of the legs and undertail.

Tallied a Yellow-rumped Warbler too. I'm thinking it's an Audubon's even though it has a white throat. I'd think a Mytle's would show more of an eye-line.

Forty year battle

For over 40 years I've been trying to protect my land adjacent to Terlingua Ranch. The latter is plagued by cactus collectors, poachers, feral burros, aoudads, off-road vehicles and such. Occasionally I've had livestock (cows, horses, and goats) encroach. Many years ago I even took someone to court over their cattle grazing my land. Now I see there are cattle on Terlingua Ranch again. Since so many more people live there than used to, I expect they'll get removed at some point. One can only hope.

My mountain is on left side

The aoudad are the worst problem my land has right now. But I live in fear of feral hogs.

Of course Big Bend National Park and Black Gap Wildlife MA to my south and east have the same problems. 

A friend who lives on Terlingua Ranch is seeing Sagebrush and other good sparrows.

These elk and feral hog photos were taken just south of Elephant Mountain, which is 30 north of CMO.

(None of these photos were taken by me, just encountered on Facebook.)

It's still winter

Today warmed up some but I haven't gone outside for a couple of days. Here's how Alpine looked yesterday. Pics I saw posted on Facebook.

I'm thinking I'll venture outdoors tomorrow.

No words needed!