Different obsessions

My husband seems as obsessed with firewood as I am with the oasis. For quite a few weeks now he spends a couple of hours most days cutting firewood. He got my son to load the logs onto the trailer for him.

Looks to me like he can't live long enough to use it all up. He may live long enough, but in ten years will he be physically able to bring it inside and build a fire? I doubt it. Oh, well. It makes him happy, I guess. And keeps him more active.

Hot and exhausting

We worked on the new water feature today but it was extremely hot and everyone needed to take lots of breaks, including myself. It's still a work in progress but I think the hardest part is over. I'm pretty concerned that javelina will find a way to destroy it, or even bears. Time will tell. Here's how it looks for now. Hopefully we'll finish before long. It was very stressful for me to see birds not coming to the feeder next to where the work was happening. And without the birds, visiting birders couldn't have been having a very good time.

Too tired to blog more. Tomorrow's another day!

A mother's devotion

When the mother Black-chinned Hummingbird is bringing food to the nest she'll flush if a person gets within about 15-20 feet away and not return for a minute or two. 

In contrast, today when the temperature reached 100° or more, she wouldn't flush from the nest unless I got within 3 feet of it, and then in a few short seconds she was right back on the nest, shielding the babies from the sun. I can only imagine what she'd risk if a predator was taking one of the babies.

And speaking of contrasts, here's a comparison between two subspecies of White-crowned Sparrows. The one with the plain lores is a Z. gambelii, and the one with the black lores is a Z. leucophrys oriantha. The former winter at the oasis and the latter only show up during migration.

Here are a few, of many, bird photos I snapped yesterday and today.

Bullock's Oriole

Lazuli Bunting

Lesser Goldfinch

Wilson's Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Tomorrow a crew is coming to install the new water feature. It'll really disrupt birders, but I'll be glad to get it over with. 

Languishing in town

Probably needed a day of rest but I worked hard all morning enlarging my brush pile. Years ago I had to fight my husband to have a small brush pile. He was afraid the city would complain. There are endless brush piles and worse all over town, of course. So after years and years of no complaints from the city, he let me expand it today. I know the birds are going to love it.

Deer enjoy the town habitat too.

You know someone is an awesome photographer when they take a photo like this of a bird in flight. A Black-crowned Night-Heron at the oasis yesterday by Lee Hoy.

And my son works on his roof when time and wind allow. I'll be really glad when that's done so he can do other things with his spare time.

Oasis tomorrow!!! Yay!!!

A strenuous walk in the park

Last night a good birder emailed me regarding his recent visit to the oasis and mentioned he had seen a rare Gray Silky-Flycatcher at Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park yesterday late afternoon. So I was determined to chase it. In my anticipation, I woke up at 3:30 AM, and couldn't get back to sleep, so left for the two hour drive at 5 AM. Got there at daylight and walked and birded for the next four hours. No success, but better to look for it and fail, than not look for it, and later learn it was there for others to see, and I missed it.

There were lots of silky flycatchers (Phainopeplas) eating what I think are Condalia berries. Here's a Cedar Waxwing eating them too. Bushes everywhere were loaded with them.

I was really annoyed with the park service. They had half the campground (where the silky flycatcher was reported) closed due to covid, although it wasn't closed two weeks ago. Makes no sense. Then after cramming the allotted number of campers into half the space, they blocked the closed part to vehicles. Like why on earth can't people drive there? Now half of the bathrooms are too far away to use, so more traffic in the open ones. I don't see why the arbitrarily allotted number of campers couldn't be spread out across the whole campground.

So people were supposed to park a mile away and walk in. Too much walking for me, so I parked in a gravel parking spot along the road next to the road block. When I went back to my car a couple of hours later I was greeted with this bright orange notice on my windshield.

The person who put it there circled "Parking is allowed in designated area only. Do not drive or park on grass." There was no campground host so I went to the RGV store to see what I could do. The cashier there barely spoke English, but after a while a man showed up. I waited in line to talk to him. He told me the "designated" parking was at the amphitheater a mile away from the nature trail. I explained I was birding and 80 years old and couldn't walk that far, which I could have but couldn't have birded too, so it would have been pointless. I inquired if I could park somewhere closer. So he got on the phone to a manager since there was no host at the campground. The manager told me to ask the host. I explained there wasn't one, so the manager put me on hold for a long time while she contacted someone else. That person said I could park at the [busy] bathroom in the open part of the campground. 

When I got to the bathroom, there was a maintenance worker there. I explained to him and had him show me exactly where I could park. He put me on a spot that had grass on it. (OMG). The spot I had chosen for myself had not one blade of grass on it. Seeing my situation, some arriving birders moved their vehicle from where they had put it, and onto the grass beside my car. By then the maintenance worker was gone, and most of the camping sites had been vacated, or had been vacant to start with (who knows?), so it seemed logical to park in one of them. That's what I would have done had I to do it over again. And of course, those sites have grass on them that campers park on. Oh well...

The good news is that there were no campers where I searched for the bird. Had it all to myself for hours. So I had a good time. Normally, I wouldn't have seen roosting Lesser Nighthawks there. And I think it was much birdier without campers there.

On my way back to Alpine I spent about five minutes at the Study Butte water treatment pond and got a new species for my Brewster County list. An American Golden-Plover was county bird number 334. (Far off across the pond so not a great photo.)

A little serendipity

When I'm at the right place at the right time it makes me wonder what all I miss out on when I'm not. I felt sorry for the little frazzled mama hummingbird this morning. She was making endless trips between the feeder and the nest, satisfying her hungry nestlings. Apparently, the nestlings were being hard on the nest so she decided to do a little repair work. But with babies calling out for food, is it any wonder she got confused? She couldn't figure out how to take cotton and nectar to the nest at the same time. Finally, she dropped the cotton in favor of food. I suspect nests made with cobwebs stretch better (not to mention that recent inch of slow soaking rain) and don't require maintenance. Hmm...

Then a short while later, as I was heading out my road to go to Alpine, I flushed a large looking raptor from the road. I watched where it landed farther down the road and managed to get the closest I've ever been to a Peregrine Falcon. Having been accustomed to seeing them far off, maybe as far as a mile away, I was amazed at how large it looked. Camera zoomed to about 600mm.

 

Good day at the oasis

As planned, I didn't have to water anything today, even though it already looks dry. Lots of birders showed up. Nice birds but nothing exciting.

I took a video of the Black-chinned Hummingbird feeding the nestlings. I'll try to post it here and see how that works.

A little recovery time

So much going on that I just spent the last couple days in recovery mode. Now I'm ready to get back to work at the oasis, but can't go down from town for another day yet. My husband has a fit if I go back and forth too often (and of course he wants me in town taking care of his needs) so I try to stick it out in town for 3 consecutive days. It's really difficult because yesterday the oasis got nearly an inch of slow soaking rain and I'd love to enjoy the oasis when it's not powder dry. At least when I do get back there I can watch birds and do other work besides watering.

Several days ago the VENT (Victor Emanuel Nature Tours) group visited. I always enjoy them. Then that same evening I had a ZOOM presentation for the annual Texas Ornithological Society's meeting that was very stressful for me. I felt it was a disaster. So things have been busier than usual, but normal for this time of year.

It seems that people are very interested in the history and such of the oasis so I'm thinking, as much as I don't really want to, I should make a video similar to my ZOOM Power Point presentation that my son could help me with and edit. Then I could post it on YouTube and post links to it. Thinking about it. Maybe a project for next winter. But because of the interest something should be documented for posterity.

Both in Alpine and the oasis nice birds are showing up. Nothing rare. In town the mulberry trees are the big attraction so rarities are a good possibility. That makes town a bit more tolerable.

Oasis activity

The Black-chinned Hummingbird eggs hatched today.

And I observed a pair of Ash-throated Flycatchers evicting Ladder-backed Woodpeckers from their nesting cavity. Last year the Ash-throateds evicted the Elf Owls, who subsequently had to change nesting holes. Luckily, the Ladder-backeds make enough cavities to go around.

Migration frenzy

 A seemingly endless procession of migrants stopped by for a drink and/or snack. But they didn't hang around, and I can't be everywhere at once. I missed seeing an Indigo Bunting and Hermit Warbler that other birders saw. I did see some colorful birds though.

And of course, many not so colorful. Can't wait to see what shows up tomorrow.