Alpine duck frustration

From inside the house this morning I checked to see if the Northern Pintail was still present. Didn't get a good look, but I saw a duck with a lot of white on the breast that I knew wasn't one of our resident ducks, so I contacted a birder who wanted to come see the pintail, if it was still here today. By the time I went outside to confirm, the birder was already on his way and the duck I had seen turned out to be a Northern Shoveler, not the Pintail. Oh well.

There were actually two shovelers present. Ducks may be on the move. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Surprise duck today

Always keeping an eye on the ponds and yard out the window from beside a warm fire. I get excited to see an ordinary bird on days like today... one more species for my day list. So was amazed to see what looked like a Northern Pintail. To be sure, I braved the cold and crept closer to the ponds, hoping I wouldn't flush it. Finally got close enough for a diagnostic photo, and sure enough, that's what it was. I think that's the first one I've had in Alpine, although I have that species on my Brewster County list.

I snapped three photos of it before dashing back indoors, but now wish I would have taken more. One is sharper, one is at a better angle, and one shows the eye best, but I should have gotten one that was good in all three areas. Hopefully lesson learned. Above is the sharpest one, but I don't like the angle. The angle is better on the next one but I cropped it so a branch wouldn't be in the photo.

Such is life!

Wintry weather

I'm mostly staying indoors by the fire. Nothing going on here, bird-wise or otherwise. Before an Arctic blast hit, my son "dried in" his new building. That's about it.

 

Yes, that's snow on the ground.

Son's project

My son, Leonardo, is building a workshop for his sign business next to our house in town. It's a lot of work. My husband sold him the land it's on. It'll be great having him nearby as we continue aging.

Time gets away

Since my son had filled the seed feeder at the oasis a couple of days ago, I didn't feel a big need to go down there today. However, with cold weather due tomorrow, I decided to go enjoy the afternoon there, and take bird photos even if it was just the regular common birds I always have. Couldn't stand another day of napping and TV, waiting, almost in a state of torpor, for spring.

When I got there I spent a couple of hours doing odds and ends at my cabin before heading to the oasis. Hadn't really planned on watering. But upon checking my journal,  I realized I hadn't been there in nearly two weeks, so needed to water. By then it was mid-afternoon, so I rushed around watering what I could before dark. Now that I'm not pumping from the stucco tank (trying to dry it up for cleaning and patching), I have to water with only one hose at a time with a smaller pump. Takes forever.  I gave most things a small drink. Hopefully, that'll last until I get back there in a week or so.

As for the birds, same old ones. I know there are at least 20 species there, but I only actually saw or heard 14 species. Back in town now, bracing for the nasty weather tomorrow.

Scaled Quail

Black-throated Sparrow

Pyrrhuloxia

Bleak blogging

 Haven't been inspired to blog lately, but only five weeks until my spring begins. For me it begins when the Lucifer Hummingbirds return. I'm sort of hibernating in the meantime. Just want to say we're all well and it won't be long now.  In two days I'm going to the oasis. I'll take pictures and blog more then.

Time to blog

Can't believe I haven't blogged yet this year. 

Here's a new sign my son made and installed at the oasis. Just extra insurance against any liability. Can't hurt, and makes me feel better.

For countless years, when stuck in town, I'm chomping at the bit to get back to the oasis. But these past months I've dreaded it. No birds and more work than I can do. Today I dragged myself down here to water, knowing it would be especially onerous with the stucco tank almost empty. 

My intention was to put a smaller pump into the tank to get all the water out so it would dry up to where I can clean and patch it. In and out of the tank with hoses, pump, extension cord, etc., only to discover two hours later, there wasn't enough water in the tank to cover the pump. So I had to haul everything back out, by then exhausted, and set up the pump in the other tank. I managed to water for a couple of hours before I couldn't go anymore. Tomorrow I'll finish. 

While watering, I do other tasks in between moving the hose. The drip to the water feature was plugged up.  Had to take the line apart and clean it, and of course, service feeders.

I noticed myself getting really discouraged, so I tried focusing on gratitude. Enumerating all that I'm grateful for, starting with even being alive and able to come here. I generally don't take anything for pain, but today I took an Ibuprofen before I started work. It really helps, maybe because I take something so seldom.

But so grateful that all my loved ones are past covid; my camera, phone, and internet worked. Winter is nearly half over. Lucifers will return in six weeks. So I'm back at my happy place.

A Great Blue Heron has been hanging around gorging on the gambusias in the stucco tank. With very little water left in the tank, pickin's are easy. He waits patiently for me to leave the tank.

I saw what I thought was a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher (they nest at the oasis). Looking into the late afternoon sun, and at quite a distance away, I snapped a few photos. Now I'm pretty certain it's a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. At least one (maybe two) has been overwintering here.

2021 in Review

 January

The oasis started the year under the weight of a record 18" of snowfall. Many branches and limbs snapped off.

We started work on the new viewing blind and water feature. I moved from the house into the guesthouse, while my son and his wife took over the house. Transitioning. We got vaccinated against covid.

February

Record cold February did a lot of freeze damage. Blind work slow.

March

Lots of wind. Blind work went slow and extended into disruption of spring migration birding, to my dismay. Because of the drought, the oasis was really popular with birds. Birders were all getting vaccinated, and life was getting back to normal. Bird tours resumed and I would consider it to be a normal spring migration.

April

Good spring migration using the new blind.

Work on the new water feature was delayed while repairing liner damaged by bear.

May

Great migration fun! Birders happy to be vaccinated and back to enjoying birds.

June

Water feature operational.

Vegetation struggling what with winter snow damage, then record freeze damage, followed by bear damage. Thanks to the new water tank the oasis lurched along.

July

Work completed on blind, although I still had plans to cover the space between them with shade.

August

I was able to collect water from several small monsoonal rains to where I felt I could make it through until next rainy season. Probably have to ration water.

September

I covered the space between the blinds. Very slow fall migration, especially noticeable on hummingbirds. Usually, in August and September it's hard to keep the feeders filled. I even bought some extra big feeders, but the influx never came and the feeders sat unused.

October

Before and after pics of the blind and water feature.

The old water feature didn't have an underground reservoir so I couldn't use a pump in it. Algae kept ruining pumps. This solar powered system is the cat's meow! And gets birds up higher for optimal photography.

What few birds there were, seemed to stop by because of all the berries on the Chinese Pistachio tree.

Here's my favorite photo of a visitor to the tree, taken by Mike Gray on the day he, Cecilia, and Deirdre came to help put concrete patches on the steepest part of the big hill. I really believe that'll make the hill  50% easier to ascend. Very exciting for me!

Red-naped Sapsucker

November

Surprised to get a new oasis species, a Lewis's Woodpecker. Alas, it only hung around for a few hours, and no one but me got to see it.

Fall was the worst birding at the oasis ever! Not one single hummer around. That's a first. I sure hope things pick up in March. 

December

Still no birds at the oasis so I roamed farther afield searching for birds. Looking forward to a hopefully good spring. Just have to get through winter first. At least December was lovely weather. In fact, the year began with record cold, and ended with record heat! Just so grateful we're all alive and healthy.

Family time

Since my grandson's visit is nearing its end, I took him to the oasis yesterday morning. He immediately went to climb my mountain (his first time), indicating he'd probably be gone a couple of hours. He refused to take water. Didn't want to carry the weight and sure he wouldn't get thirsty in that amount of time.

When he hadn't returned in four hours I began to worry and fear the worst. I shared my concerns with birders that were there at the time. After I went to my cabin to see if he had tried to call me (there is cell service on top of the mountain) a birder came rushing up to tell me she saw him wandering around on a slope. It took binoculars to spot him.

I immediately drove to the trailhead, which was the nearest I could get to where he was. When we got within talking distance of one another he told me he had lost his Go-Pro camera somewhere around there. Seems he had walked all over the top of the mountain, and after starting back down, had inadvertently lost my trail. (A person doesn't realize how important it is to stay on the trail until they lose it.) Soon he found himself descending a steep slope, so he swung his camera strap around to his back to keep it safer. Apparently in the process, it unknowingly came out of its pouch. By the time he had gotten down and realized it, he not only didn't know where it had happened, he didn't know where he had been, so he spent two hours scouring the steep slope about where he thought he had shifted the pouch.

Well, of course, I whisked him off to the cabin and loaded him with food and water (he hadn't eaten all day). Then he got the idea to go back with my binoculars and try again. He told me he'd be back before dark, but otherwise wouldn't stop looking.

After leaving him, once again, at the trailhead, I hadn't been back at the cabin long when he comes in triumphantly carrying his camera. Seems he had just barely started up the trail, decided to look through the binoculars, make sure they were adjusted to his vision, and start scouring the slope. Without his glasses or contact lenses, which he hadn't brought along, his distance vision isn't good. The camera, the size of a cell phone, was in a bright orange case just to make it easy to locate. As soon as he scoped the slope he glimpsed a speck of orange, and made haste straightaway (no trail or switchbacks) to it. He ended up with blisters and scratches, but happy.

This morning while I was watering trees I had him do a little project that I'd been wanted done for quite some time. An old concrete feeder base, not being used since bears destroyed the feeder, was an eyesore and I wanted more concrete flooring in the new blind. So I had him install it there.

On the way back to Alpine we stopped by my sister's house, where we snapped a few photos.

Then, in Alpine, a few more.

Ongoing mystery

I do a lot of birding along Highway 118 north of Alpine. It never fails that a caravan of mobile homes comes down the highway toward Alpine while I'm birding. So, since my birding lasts an average of an hour each visit, that means every hour mobile homes come through Alpine and head east from there. Where they go is a big mystery to me. This has been going on for years. That's thousands of mobile homes. During today's hour of birding the caravan consisted of 8.

I used a series of still images so I wouldn't have to deal with trying YouTube. My grandson is a computer technician. He says my computer is worn out and I need a new one. Going to do it.