Duck's life

Our ducks have a safe place to live here as far as humans are concerned, but I worry about things like snakes, hawks, and owls. Today the ducks were foraging under the big pecan tree while a Great Horned Owl was perched directly above them. And of course baby duck goes right along with the adults.

Baby on left

The habitat today.

As covid cases are rising precipitously (22 as of now) in Alpine, I'm wearing my shield religiously.

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7:30 PM. Here's a shot of the radar at the oasis right now. Maybe we'll get a little shower out of this.

9 PM - My sister called and said we jut got a few drops but good rain in the distance. Maybe tomorrow. I have to go water tomorrow. Can't take a chance.

Alpine shower

Even though no rain at the oasis, at least when we get a nice shower in town it doesn't feel as hopeless.

After the shower a Great Horned Owl came out of the pecan trees and preened.

All bathed and beautiful again

There's only one duckling left. This is one of the adults. I can't tell them apart. Not sure what mix they are but look good for Mexican Duck in my opinion.

Covid closing in

As of today Brewster County has 11 confirmed cases of Corona virus. I need to be more diligent here.

Common Raven

The electrician showed up this morning just like he said he would. He says the pump in the stucco tank is bad. And it probably is, since it hasn't worked properly for years, but replacing the pump won't solve the problem. Been there, done that. Even had the well service check one that didn't work in my tank and it checked out fine.

So I've decided to do something radically different. I'm going to install a trash pump in the tank, 115V instead of the 220v, and bypass the pressure tank. For several years now I've had to turn on both faucets to keep the pump from building up pressure and cutting off, so it won't be different by controlling when it comes on and off, instead of waiting for it to come on. The problem will be how to keep my drips going. Can't do that if I only have pressure when the pump is running. Thinking about running a drip from the new above ground tank. It's that or no drips. I don't want to use a trash pump to build up pressure, cutting on and off all the time. I need to keep things simple.

And I don't know how much pressure will build up in my water lines. The trash pump has a 2" discharge @ 10 GPM. But when it's reduced down to 1 or 1½" to accommodate my pipe system, and is pumped up 15 feet from the tank bottom, I have no idea how much pressure I'll end up with. Guess we'll find out.  I'm through with 220v well pumps, that I know.

Less gloomy today

I hooked up my little pump and tried it on the outlet and it worked so didn't use the generator. I accidentally discovered that when I turn off the breaker to the pump (that isn't working) in the stucco tank then the outlet at the big tank works with my little pump. Crazy! Electrician assures me he'll be here early in the morning. So I watered. It's an ordeal, but preferable to the stress of not watering. The deer hang out at the tank a lot these days.

Last year on this date I listed my 57th butterfly species for the year at the oasis. Today I logged my 35th species, so you can see how far behind this year is.

Mexican Yellow

Also saw an amberwing that didn't look right for an Eastern, but doubt it could be anything else. First Eastern Amberwing I've ever seen without the chevron pattern on the abdomen.

Must get rain or else

The pressure is getting too much here. Came down this afternoon with a borrowed generator in hopes that I can operate it and pump some of what little water I have left to save the trees. I'm getting older and weaker. It seems weather is getting hotter and drier, and the oasis infrastructure is worn out. I don't think when my late husband and I built the place 25 years ago we were thinking it would last this long. I don't know what we were thinking. I don't think we were thinking. Just playing. Building the oasis was our play. And now it's my burden.

I do nothing but slave away at it when I'm not taking care of my husband in town. A few days ago I treated myself to a couple of visits to the Post Park in Marathon to see a rare bird. It was so much fun. I had forgotten what fun was. And I think, "is this how I want to spend the remainder of my life? Fighting a losing battle?"

Here's my beleaguered cottonwood tree. When the drip stopped working for several days before I discovered it, it dropped at least half its leaves. That means it has less ability to cool itself from the scorching heat.

At this point, if it cooled off and rained the tree would survive. But that's not going to happen. It's a bad idea to try to grow a cottonwood where it doesn't belong. I'm trying to come to terms with losing it. I can accept it if it dies in spite of my best efforts.  But I can't bring myself to stop watering it and assure its death, even though the water would be better spent on things with more chance of surviving.

I don't even know how I got into this dire situation. I thought having the new tank would ensure plenty of water to make it through, so I didn't ration. And I guess the bigger the trees get the more they need. Then last winter I left a drip on that froze and I lost about 10,000 gallons. Then this year no rain, and heat like we had in 2011 when I bought and hauled water for a year. That's not an option now. So this is where I'm at. If we get summer rains some things should survive. And I'll always have my seed feeders and hummingbird feeders for the birds. And I should always have enough water for the wildlife to drink. At least most of the time anyway. May have to settle for that. And like a friend reminded me, if I don't do this, what would I do?

When I was younger I saw life, and the oasis, as getting better and better. I never faced the cold hard reality that I would not live forever and when I went downhill, the oasis would go downhill. I guess ignorance was bliss. We all end up the same, of course. And nothing is gained by dwelling on it. But I am having to make some paradigm shifts here.

Almost every May and June are dire here. I think realistically, the worst that will happen is I'll lose the cottonwood. And that would probably be for the best as far as reducing my stress. I hope the electrician comes Monday and fixes the electrical problem.

UPDATE: My husband didn't get a covid test but he went to the doctor and was put on antibiotics for a testicular infection. The antibiotics are helping, so that takes some of the burden off me. Three more cases of covid in Brewster County. It's coming. We need to keep our guard up.

Skunk

My husband traps feral cats and calls animal control to pick them up. Sometimes he catches skunks. Last night he caught a young skunk that doesn't have its bushy tail yet. Either that or it's an old one that is going bald.

Oasis in distress

It goes without saying that when the oasis is in distress I'm in distress. I went down last night so I could do the watering early today but the (220v) pump wouldn't come on. I hooked up a little portable (120v) pump and it came on and off, on and off. So I plugged in a light bulb to the outlets and they did the same thing. Called an electrician. He's going to come out Monday. So I came back to town without watering. Meanwhile, things are looking bad. I had left a drip on the cottonwood tree but it wasn't functioning when I got to the oasis last night. That was my first indication of a problem.

The plan is for me to take a borrowed generator down there and water Sunday, then see what the electrician says. Here's my pitiful soapberry thicket in the arroyo. It doesn't get watered but this shows you how dry things are.

Good Marathon day

I headed to Marathon by 8:00 AM. Several birders were already there looking for the Steak-backed Oriole (Bill Sain, Dennis Cooke, & David Stekoll). Shortly before 10:00 AM Bill and Dennis had to leave. Dennis had seen it way off in the mesquites yesterday evening but hadn't gotten a photo, so he had wanted one. After they left we were joined by Beth McBroom. It's my belief that the more eyes spread out the better the chances, so I moved a ways away from David and Beth. Soon I spotted the bird perch high in a cottonwood tree near me. I feared it would disappear into the mesquites before I could get them over and onto the bird, but luckily they made it and got good looks. Beth took photos so I hope hers are better than mine showing the back. I only got one partial blurry one of the back. My hands aren't steady and with the zoom all the way out, it's difficult to focus and stay on the bird in a big rush, while expecting the bird to disappear any millisecond. But I'm satisfied with my photos enough that I'm not going to go back again.

I heard Beth saw it again after I left. Also, apparently, the bird is for sure a Streak-backed Oriole, just not sure where it came from. The fact that it returned again this year makes it less likely to be an escaped bird, so I'm hoping the record committee will accept it this year.

While waiting for the Streak-backed to show up I photographed this juvenile Bullock's Oriole .

My husband is not feeling well so he's got me waiting on him hand and foot. I scheduled him for a covid test tomorrow. Doubt that's what's wrong with him but better to be positive. He occasionally gets sick. If he has the virus, I'm sure to get it too. He coughed on me last night.

Chasing a rare oriole in Marathon

A Streak-backed Oriole was sighted yesterday at Post Park south of Marathon so I couldn't resist trying for it. I'm almost positive I saw it but my photos are atrocious. It was in a tree near me and instead of studying it to be sure of what it was, I tried for documentation. I'm slow with a camera and it flew way off outside the park fence into a mesquite tree. I did what I could, but not sure it'll be accepted so I'm going to try again tomorrow. I'll take a stool to sit on. Got tired of standing in the sun. Here are some of my pitiful photos of what I believe to be the oriole.

While I was at the Post Park I photographed a more cooperative Sulphur-tipped Clubtail dragonfly.

My son is heading back to Austin tonight. 😢 Here's a little of his most recent efforts. 

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UPDATE: I was doing a little research on that oriole. I had heard it was reported from there last year and not accepted by the record committee.  I found this comment regarding both sightings. 

Eric Carpenter For what it is worth, this looks to be the same individual that was documented on 2 days last year at the same location. The TBRC rejected that record as the closest match would appear to be some variation of the Central American subspecies of Streak-backed Oriole which might bring up provenance issues. Provenance concerns become less of an issue with a returning bird perhaps though I think the ID is certainly less straight-forward than it appears. It certainly looks different than the "expected" Streak-backed Orioles in northern/western Mexico. I am including one of Mark Lockwood's photos from last year to show the underside of the tail that has large terminal white/pale spots. The combination of the heavy back streaking, overall deep orange coloring, the extensive white in the wings (particularly the coverts/shoulder), and the undertail with the terminal pale spots are a hard combo to reproduce with photos of another individual Streak-backed Oriole. Some subspecies might have some of those traits and others might look similar for a different trait but not as easy as it would seem to find a bird that matches the details of this one. eBird has a few thousand photos of this species that you can certainly peruse if you are interested. I realize that TBRC acceptance/rejection is imperfect and may not even be something that any of you are interested in but I felt compelled to share this in case it affects your decision to chase this bird.

The person that first found and photographed the bird this year was Charlie Trapani. Here's his June 8th photo.

A real fixer-upper

When I had my car accident a while back I was on my way to a junky trailer my son had bought. He's fixing it up to live in in Alpine as he moves here from Austin. Eventually, he'll take over the oasis.

I can't seem to find a photo of the outside for a "before" photo but I'll get one. Meanwhile, he's been working a week in Austin, then a week on his trailer, then Austin a week, etc. He said he won't buy such a derelict trailer again, but he's into this one now, so he'll see it through. He's living in it with his wife. Someone had totally stripped it, even the walls, with plans to do something that never materialized.

The next couple of photos are from a few weeks ago.

So every little bit of progress is something to celebrate. He's now got a stove and refrigerator in it, plus a bathroom toilet and sink. He's in the process of putting in a shower/tub. He had to rewire a lot and replumb everything. Here he's under the trailer working on the plumbing.

At some point this will be a rental. He loves the neighborhood and the property came with the lot next to it that he plans to put another mobile home on, just not such a fixer-upper as this one. I'll update his progress from time to time.

As for my car accident, we got our car back from the body shop today. Looks as good as new. The insurance company determined I wasn't at fault so we'll get our deductible back.