Trying to keep up

For some unknown reason I've been a little down lately. Hopefully I'll perk up soon. I guess so many visitors, so few birds, granddaughter's horrific tonsillectomy, pickup transmission going out, that lady falling and fracturing her elbow, my impaired vision, just sort of all caught up to me. Life comes at me so fast I don't know how to slow down. And it's impossible not to feel the bodily decline of aging.

Started pumping water from the big tank to the stucco tank, just in case it doesn't rain and I get a chance to clean it out. Will have to dry for a while first. And I'll have to have help cleaning it. I could do it if I had enough time, but we're getting too close to rainy season. Haven't got much pumped yet. It's a long slow process. That's a 2" pipe putting water into the stucco tank. This was shortly after I started the pump. It now has about 6 more inches in it. I felt confident enough that it doesn't leak that I didn't totally clean it out.

Saw a small fly today that I don't remember ever seeing before. Maybe I was just more observant today, but that white face patch was hard to miss seeing. Pictures not sharp. I might have done better with my little bridge camera, but had to use what was in my hand.

This Mexican Elder tree is the biggest and most lush I've ever seen it. It's even getting berries. Usually birds or insects eat the blooms before it can make berries, but this year the wildlife isn't at all desperate it seems.

That Bell's Vireo nest that was too close to the path, and the same one I accidentally exposed somewhat, has two nestlings. There's a third unhatched Brown-headed Cowbird egg inside that has a hole pecked in it. Interesting that the vireo did that. I forget now when they hatched, about a week ago maybe. This photo was taken holding my little bridge camera right above the nest pointed downward. I was hoping the egg would be visible too, but it wasn't. Maybe tomorrow I can get it in a photo. I rushed to take this in a millisecond, after waiting for hours for her to leave the nest.

UPDATE: I wonder if those are cowbird babies in the nest. When I peaked in before they hatched I saw 3 eggs and as I remember they all looked alike. Oh, dear!

Update, but no pictures

A party of visitors scheduled for Monday morning didn't show up. Now I know why. I've repeatedly told people that GPS and google maps won't get you here. But apparently, I forgot to send this poor guy directions. Here's the email I got from him today:

Hi Carolyn - 

Wow, we did try to make it out to your place on Monday morning on our way from the Park north to the Davis Mtns.  I had used eBird information to locate your lat/long coordinates and went on to Google Maps to get the route.  The map that I had access to noted that Snake Rd. did not go through to your place (from Terlingua) and so it routed us from Hwy 118 onto Comanche Prairie, through a great number of turns and then on to your house from the south side.  To make a long story short, we followed the directions that Google Maps gave us and we could not find the correct roads.  We ended up back on Terlingua Rd. after an hour or more and by then we didn't have the time to start over again from the highway.  I now have gone back to Google Earth (rather than Google Maps) again and see that indeed it looks like Snake Road does go through straight to your place from Terlingua and would have been much easier if we had used the Google Earth map rather than the printed directions that Google Maps provided.  I am disappointed and somewhat shame-faced that we didn't make it, and apologize sincerely if you were planning on us coming and then not showing up.  I really want to see your wonderful place at some point in the future, and now that I know how to get there it should not be a problem.  Again, I am sorry if this was an inconvenience for you.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I did send him directions and map today. And the inconvenience wasn't for me, but for him. I feel bad when someone gets lost out on these roads. I hate to give directions by phone because that usually fails too. Never have had a problem with anyone getting lost, not once, with the directions I email.

My granddaughter went to her son's school play one week post-tonsillectomy and ended up in the ER this morning. Part of the problem was that when pain gets out of control it's harder to control and she had been cutting down on the Percocet when they wouldn't give her a refill. Her Dr went on vacation right after the surgery and there are some new laws to keep people from abusing pain-killers that prevented anyone except him from prescribing more. The Drs hate it but nothing they can do about it.  I'm just glad she hasn't gotten an infection.....yet.  The ER sent her home with some Lidocaine to swish in her mouth. That helps some. 

We got a nice shower at the oasis last night. I suppose I should have watered today before coming to town but I figured I'd squeak by for a few days on that quarter-inch. I've cleaned enough out of the stucco tank to convince myself it's not leaking, so when I get back down there after my stint in town I'll set up a pump and start adding water from the big tank. If I get the big one cleaned out before rains fill everything up, fine. If not, fine. Can't ever complain if the tanks are full. 

OK, one photo. This was taken last Sunday morning early with my new pickup making it's first trip to the oasis.

If I were to anthropomorphize (who, me?), I would say this poor innocent hadn't a clue what a hard life it was in for. I will try my best to keep it in good shape in every way. I will love, honor, and cherish.......

Different perspectives

All the hummers banded at CMO this morning hadn't been previously banded, which means they were new arrivals. So far no fledged hummers. Maybe it's been too cold for the nests to succeed yet. They'll keep trying. Possibly the new arrivals came to escape the impending summer heat at lower elevations. Anyway, a friend of Kelly's, also a licensed bander, got the honors of banding the hummers today, during which he mentioned that he was the only person in the world to band 3 Lucifer Hummingbirds today. Yup, sure is. Of course, they couldn't pay me enough to band a hummer. It's all in the perspective.

I usually photograph my patches of Woolly Paintbrush from the arroyo as I walk down it. Today I climbed up out of the arroyo and photographed this patch from the perspective of above looking down.

This female Rose-breasted Grosbeak showed up today. Eating mulberries transformed her into a rose-beaked grosbeak.

I was really craving to photograph an ode today, so zeroed in on this one. I haven't looked it up but I guess it's a Powdered Dancer. So far I haven't bothered with trying to catch one and scan it. Will one of these days. Just so busy.

I worked a while in the tank in spite of strong winds. Down in the tank it's not so windy.

Moving right along

Well, I notice the transmisison on my new pickup whines in low gear. I might be overly sensitive. Gonna have the mechanic check it when I get to town. Not going to tell hubby. (He told me that was the pickup I was getting and he didn't want to hear a word of complaint.)

Lucifer Hummingbirds surprised me by showing up at the feeders this morning and evening. None too soon either because Kelly's coming to band tomorrow. Good timing. They did some courtship displaying so I'm wondering if this is a different bunch arriving or nesting round two. We should be closer to the answer to that after banding tomorrow.

The javelina are getting on my last nerve. And by the looks of this one, there'll be lots more of them soon.

I'm having to get serious about cleaning out the stucco tank and patching a few spots. However much I get done before a huge rain, the better. It doesn't need much patching but I want to do it as I go along just in case the tank fills up. If I get it all done, then I'm going to pump the water from the other tank into it and clean "at" the other one until it fills up. That's the plan anyway.

I'd like to coat everything above the high water line gray, but that's way too much work just for it to look prettier.

Wild Rose Pass not so rosy

My husband had heard there were awesome roses blooming between Ft Davis and Balmorhea at Wild Rose Pass. He was determined to go see. I got enthused to photograph the splendor. When we got there the only roses we saw were paper ones that someone had tied to a bush. I wish I had thought to take a photo of that, but my husband is always rushing me and I don't think fast enough. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.) I guess we got there too late. Don't know.

So to salvage the trip I suggested we got to the Davis Mountain State Park and photograph a Cassin's Finch that I thought had been reported there, but I didn't find it in the few minutes allotted to me.

The highlight of the trip was a paper towel dispenser at a restaurant in Ft Davis that you don't have to touch. You just hold you hand under a sensor and a towel pops out. Hadn't seen one of those before. I did get to photograph some white flowers near Ft Davis that might be roses?? I don't know what they are. I don't think they're Mexican Poppies.

And the ducklings are just too cute! They're little dabbling machines. I've confirmed that there are only 5 ducklings left. I think the reason is that this winter I took away the nest box that was out over the water because it had lost most of the grass lining and my husband said he didn't want any more ducks. So now the mother doesn't have a safe place to take them at night. I have no idea where she incubated them.

My granddaughter has had a really rough time of her tonsillectomy. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

UPDATE: Be sure to read the excellent comment to this post. Also Brian said those white flowers are some kind of Evening Primrose. Makes sense. Thanks Marlin and Brian.

Ducks seemingly unlimited!

Still 8 babies when I got to town this morning. When they're clustered it's hard to count all 8 at one time and when they're not, they're all over the pond. Not a perfect photo, but I should have lots of time to practice. I believe the ducklings are 3/4 Mexican and 1/4 domestic.

While out counting ducks I was delighted to see this gorgeous Tansy Aster. 

And here's my new-to-me pickup. Probably the cleanest photos you'll ever see of it.  I haven't driven it yet but it sure looks new for having 103,000 miles on it. As long as I have dependable transportation I don't care what I drive. I'm the kind that eats to live, not live to eat.

Late yesterday afternoon I took this photo of this Goldball Leadtree at the oasis.

Canyon Wrens ready to fledge

And I'll miss it just like I missed the duck eggs hatching in town. The wren nest is so impossible to see inside that I don't know how many nestlings there are, but I see lots of flapping going on inside the nest. At least two babies. The nest isn't above the kitchen door where I thought it was, it's in the far corner of the courtyard above a bat box that bats have never used.

It was dark in the nest and I didn't want to bother to set up a tripod and try for a sharper photo. You can see the head of one nestling and the beak of a second. I think there's at least one more in there.

The adults made food deliveries every few minutes to a lot of squawking every time. One of them would arrive at the patio floor with food, then fly straight up to the nest with it. They were so fast, and I couldn't get into that corner to take photos. But here is one with a spider just before it became baby food. 

Up to the hatches, and down the hatches all day long.

Just because there are millions of Prickly Pear blooms everywhere doesn't mean they're not awesomely beautiful. Some are real yellow like this one.....

And some are a little orange-ish.

Here's a Black-headed Grosbeak... just because. Just because many of the recent visitors really wanted to see one, and the best looks were when no one was here.

Here's a rather unattractive dragonfly nymph shell. ID per my guru Brian.

And I won't mind going to town so much tomorrow. Here duckie, duckie, here duckie, duckie.....

I need two of me, at least

My husband called from Alpine and said one of the two surviving ducks from last spring just hatched out 8 new ducklings. I so badly want to photograph them, but it'll have to wait until Thursday (be prepared). I can't even imagine how it'll look with 8 ducklings. I thought four was a lot last year.

And my granddaughter, in her 30s, had her tonsils out today and no way could I be there to help her. All she had was her mother-in-law. Her husband couldn't get off work, so the mother-in-law was at the surgery center with her while taking care of my two great-grandsons (her grandsons). But all are alive at the end of the day.

I didn't see much to inspire me to take photographs today. I'm pleased with my rue plant (Ruta graveolens).

I took some people down to see the male Lucifer Hummingbird on his territory today and he looked so bronze-colored that it seemed like a good excuse to photograph him (no, I haven't run out of excuses yet). To me it seems that Lucifers are more prone to color variations caused by the lighting conditions than other species are. 

Not only was he way far away, but I had to use manual focus because the camera wouldn't focus on such a small distant dot. And my eyesight isn't good enough to focus manually, but I was mainly trying to capture the color. It was fairly early in the morning when I took this.

Photos from today

Seems the transmission on my pickup was bad and it had lots of other issues too. This morning my husband took me as far as the dirt road in our town car and my sister picked me up there. Then he went back to town and bought me a 2011 Ford Ranger with over 100,000 miles on it, but whatever. As long as he pays the mechanic bills to keep it running, I can't complain. I just need wheels. I thought he'd buy the pickup before bringing me down here, but he said that would make him feel pressured. Whatever.

I had to water trees so didn't get hardly any birding done, but will have birders here all day tomorrow so we should find some good stuff. I found a White-throated Sparrow but could not manage a photo until it plopped into the water and got all wet. I don't like photos of wet birds. But ebird flagged the sighting so I had to take what I could get. I'm hoping to see it again tomorrow. I had one overwinter here either last year or the year before.

Lots of butterflies, but nothing new or interesting.

The acacias are now ready for warblers, but I didn't see a one today. Surely tomorrow.

Fragrant Mimosa

Berlander Acacia

Catclaw Acacia

Goldenball Leadtree

Black Mulberries

Western Tanager eating mulberry

From feast to famine

After my great day yesterday I had to come to town today as much as I didn't want to. I noticed lately my transmission didn't seem to be shifting right so we took it to the shop. They told us the transmission is going out. Meanwhile, I can't drive it and birders are going to CMO daily and things need watering there every few days. Don't know what we're going to do. Depends on what my husband is willing to do. In the interim, I may have to catch a ride to CMO. I can't stay stuck in town.

I stopped along Highway 118 and took pictures of some gorgeous Indian Paintbrush (rigida, I believe).