Another exhausting day

I hurried and finished my work so I could ride along with Teresa to the L E Woods Picnic Area. She took the hiking trail to bird and I puttered around the creek. Neither of us found much of interest. The creek only had occasional puddles of water in it. I tallied 5 odonate species for the day and a few more butterfly species but all the same ones as on previous visits there.

I did see this pretty flower that I don't remember seeing before and did get a welcome break from work. I was told it looks like a dark Mexican Evening Primrose.

I photographed a Desert Cloudywing that I tried to make into something else until Brian set me straight.

But I can't complain after scoring that Erichson's White-Skipper yesterday in Marathon. Just wish I had gotten better photos of it. So many butterflies covering the Button Bushes that I lost track. Here's another of my poor shots of it.

Marathon excursion

My friend, Teresa Keck, and I decided to run over to Marathon. She's more into birds but it worked out great. First off, I asked her to take a photo of me on that cow. I've mentioned before I wanted to do that. Well, there is now a sign there saying not to get on the cow. Before we saw the sign we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to get me on the cow anyway, so just as well.

There were lots of lantana blooming at Gage Gardens and lots of Button Bush at Post Park. All covered with butterflies. I had tried to grow a Button Bush from seeds last year and they didn't germinate so gonna buy a potted one if I can find one.

I don't have all the following butterflies ID'd yet but will add the IDs as I get them. I know one is a Queen and one is an Orange Skipperling. Hoping the one on the left in the first photo is an Erichson's White-Skipper. That species would be a lifer for me. Wish I could have gotten a better photo.

Here is another bad shot I got of the potential Erichson's White-Skipper. It's an uncommon species in S TX.

This next picture is of a big disappointment. My favorite place at Gage Gardens was the reed-filled pond that was here. It's gone. Boo-hoo!

Here's a photo of the pond taken one year ago, same week in August. It's the only one I have, but it wasn't taken at quite the same angle.   About the only reference point is that wall on the right side.

And finally, here's the epitomy of beauty, a Two-tailed Swallowtail on Bird of Paradise. A photo can't do it justice.

UPDATE: The ID has been confirmed as an Erichson's, so that's another lifer for me. And the one in the second butterfly photo with the Queen is an Acacia Skipper.

Poor Lucifer hit window

I didn't blog for the last 3 days because I was so busy working on the guesthouse. Some much needed maintenance. One wall was eaten by termites real bad and not sure it ever was mouse-proof.  It was thrown together in 1978 to be a temporary home while my house was being built. Ended up being a guesthouse. Since it's rock and underground, only the part that isn't underground became a problem. Dirt from atop the underground part keeps sliding in front of one wall. So I took off a panel of cedar siding that had been partly rotted away and put up a piece of concrete board in its place. Where the bases of everything was gone I just packed cement in there. I'm a rock and concrete person. Of course I forgot to take a before picture. This picture was taken after I concreted the window ledges but before I concreted the base of the wall where it joins a rock wall beneath it.

I would have loved to remove that faucet that I had to dig out of the ground, but the valve that turns off the water to the tank is broke so I've no way to turn the water off without draining the tank. So I had to leave the faucet.

I realize this isn't a professional renovation, but hopefully I now have it mouse-proofed. And it should last most or all of my lifetime. Here's the inside view. I'm going to put a sheet of plywood on top of that old planter box and a mattress on it for extra sleeping places. Have to get hubby to haul the plywood down from town. He's going to make me some steps to get up there too, eventually.

Looking east (all paintings by me)

Looking west (early morning light reflecting on the wall)

I did all I could do to the guesthouse yesterday so had to water today before heading to town. While watering I heard a bird hit my pickup window real hard. Hated to even go look, but when I did I saw a Lucifer Hummingbird lying on the ground. I watched it for a few minutes to see if it would fly off. It didn't, so I tried to feed it. It wouldn't feed. I set it on a chair to see if it would recover (or die).

I kept checking on it and after about 10 minutes I went and nudged it a little and it flew off. Whew! That was stressful for a while. (It wasn't banded and appeared to me to be a very recent fledgling.)

With the temperatures still around 100° every day, and no rain since July 8th, there are very few butterflies, and ode numbers are dwindling. The wildlife pond that attracts them is almost dry. Birds are starting to migrate through some, though I haven't had time to watch. With things dry, the oasis probably is more popular than it would be if everywhere was an oasis. Fortunately I have plenty of water in my tanks from that July rain that I can go another 6 months without rain, but I need the tanks to fill up in order to make it through until next rainy season.

I was surprised to even see this Tropical Buckeye today.

About 12 years ago, give or take a few years, I planted four Papershell Pinyons (Pinus remota). At the time ten years prior to planting them I couldn't find a source for them so planted Mexican Pinyons (Pinus cembroides) instead. Both species are doing well, though the Papershells seem to be growing slow. Today I discovered the first pinyon nuts on one of the Papershells. 

And my little pecan tree that got started with a pecan nut has only made any pecans once before, so all the winter and spring rains paid off. Still waiting for the summer rain.

Godzilla is coming

The weatherman said the El Niño pattern for the next three months will be the Godzilla of El Niños. We should get some awesome rains. I'm ready.

This morning I went up to Kelly's place in the Davis Mountains to help band hummingbirds. I hadn't been up there in a year so it was enjoyable. It's migration so I had expected to trap one hundred birds, but we only got 80. Then back at Alpine I had tomatoes to pick and process. Can't keep up. Here's what I picked this afternoon.

What I didn't give away I processed and froze. After making a pie with the last of this year's apples, I checked out the ponds for odes and butterflies. Nothing interesting, but I photographed an Eastern Amberwing because the diagnostic pattern on the abdomen seemed so faint. All the diversity within a species is confusing to me. Someday I'll probably reread this (or not) and think what a novice I was.

Gate in Alpine

Our back yard has a deer-proof fence, and my husband is always reminding me to keep the gate shut. I didn't really see the necessity of such diligence, but I went along with his wishes. I assumed it was to keep out rabbits, dogs, etc.

Today I made one of my regular pilgrimages to check the ponds for odes and butterflies. There's an alley between the ponds and house, with gates on both sides, although the fence is lower on the habitat/ponds side of the alley.

I usually leave the gates open, then shut them when I come back a few minutes later. I don't know why that didn't happen today, have no memory of it. I think I was moving the water hose from tree to tree and planned on going right back out and moving it. Then my husband said he wanted us to go out for a hamburger. I forgot all about the gate one way or other.

When we arrived back at the house less than an hour later I spied a deer nibbling on our new little apricot tree. I could easily have taken a great photo of it, but instead chose to run the deer off before it consumed any more of our precious tree. Luckily, it only ate one twig and part of another. Could have been much worse.

Bottom line: I will never leave the gate open again. Here's a different deer I saw lounging in the alley later when I went out to move the hose. Gate shut behind me, for sure.

My husband said when he put up the fence forty years ago he did it to keep out horses. There were no deer around then. Since then the town has expanded, people feed the deer, and they're rampant on the streets and yards all over town. Our ponds are accessible to deer, but the habitat we planted has each individual tree caged until it gets big enough to be out of reach of the deer. About half of them are still caged.

Really exhausted and hoarse

Got up at 4 AM and started my day. Watered the courtyard in the dark to reserve daylight hours for other things. Kelly banded 42 hummingbirds at the oasis early this morning. In the mix was the first juvenile Calliope Hummingbird of the year.

Juvenile male Calliope

Today he also banded a speckle-throated juvenile male Lucifer Hummingird. It's that time of year.

Kelly took this series of photos of a Western Black-necked Garter Snake consuming a Leopard Frog. See how much better his photos are than mine? (Posted with his permission)

Today at CMO there were several Blue-winged Teal on my big tank. As you can see, I have my ducks in a row.

And finally, here's a shot of a male Black Setwing that I snapped while watering and lugging my Canon with me. Going to all that trouble I had to find something to photograph.

Hotter and funner

Lajitas did not disappoint today. Just as hot as we expected (around 106° I think someone said), but far funner.

For several years Kelly and I have looked for Halloween Pennant dragonflies at Lajitas. One time we got a glimpse of one but it didn't land and no photos. The rule is- no photo, it didn't happen. Today we got lucky. We found one perched and got lots of photos of it. Kelly's were perfect, his always are, but mine are equal to what I usually do, so I'm satisfied. Here's one of my favorites. Glad it was a gorgeous male, to boot!

That's the first time that species had been documented in Brewster County, but it's common in East Texas. Even though I had that quick glimpse of one previously, I didn't count it as a lifer until today.

Other than that day's highlight, we saw a female Hooded Oriole feeding a newly fledged chick. So cute!

I liked this picture I snapped of Widow Skimmers trying to escape the heat like everything else.

Hectic and HOT

Arrived at CMO with hubby and loader around daylight. We worked on the road until around 11 AM, then ate lunch and headed back to town. There I got in my pickup and came back to rake the road. So it was 105° this afternoon when I was doing that. But after it's worked up with the loader it has to be done. I've learned that after it rains it's too hard to rake. It packs in. Not that it's ever going to rain again, but still....

Gotta go meet Kelly for banding early in the morning so I'm drinking lots of lemonade and heading for bed.

I watered a few very needy plants while looking for odes and other interesting stuff. I've learned to stop thinking that I know what I'm photographing because I'm usually wrong. The other day I thought I was photographing a Blue-eyed Darner female and it turned out to be a Turquoise-tipped Darner male (see previous post). So I turned on the water feature in the same spot today and soon a darner appeared that I thought was the Turquoise-tipped. Figured I'd try different camera settings  because of the shadiness. Ended up taking over 50 shots of it. Turned out it was a Blue-eyed Darner male. But at least now I know it's a Blue-eyed for sure and not an Arroyo Darner. That individual anyway. No telling what will show up next.

Tomorrow afternoon Kelly and I will surely spend some time looking for odes. I always see more with his help so I should have some more interesting pics tomorrow. Here's one I took of a snake catching and eating a little frog. The big frogs can take half an hour or more to consume but this one was gone in less than a minute. I think the snake is a Western or Checkered Garter Snake. Something like that, anyway.

A day of records

Whew! Where to begin. I rushed down to the oasis with the intention of watering and servicing feeders, then heading back to town. Sunday my husband is planning to take the bobcat loader down there and work on the road and I'll ride down with him then, so I'm "serving" extra time in town. That meant instead of watering half the oasis one day while lugging my camera, and the other half the next day, lugging the camera, I'd be using two hoses at the same time and running back and forth. Couldn't carry the camera.

Well, for starters, the heat was a record 104.° Then while I was watering near the back water feature that I had just filled, I observed what I thought was a female Blue-eyed Darner. Since I had been agonizing over whether my male Blue-eyed was actually an Arroyo Darner, I had it in my head that if I photographed the female (I'd never seen one before) it would be easier to separate the two species.

I ran to my pickup for the camera and relocated the darner. It was in deep shade and my camera doesn't take its best photos in the shade. When I got back to town and downloaded the photos I was unable to identify it. Posted it to my ode group on facebook and immediately got an ID of Turquoise-tipped Darner. That's a lifer for me and a first Brewster County record, I believe. What a surprise!

But before I knew it was a lifer, I parked in the carport at the oasis due to the excessive heat. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, when I got out of the pickup the door must have bumped the water trailer parked there. Suddenly, I was being stung by two wasps simultaneously. Never been stung by more than one wasp at a time before. It really hurt! I got my vengeance though. Located the hive beneath the water trailer and zapped it with Raid. YUCK!

The place is overrun with wasps these days. A few days ago a visitor got stung. I really hate that.

Other than that, I managed to get a few more ode shots. Here's an immature male Common Whitetail.

And here is a female Plateau Dragonlet.

Escape to the Davis Mountains

I just had to do it. Quiet cool running stream. Couldn't resist. It's so hot and dry at the oasis. Tomorrow I'll go there and water. But today I enjoyed the cooler, wetter area of the Big Bend.

I got one lifer butterfly today, an Orange-headed Roadside-Skipper. I had seen that species before but mistakenly thought only the Golden-headed Scallopwing had a yellow or orange head. (I had all the pictures of that species I wanted.) When I discovered otherwise, I was determined to photograph every butterfly I saw with a yellow head. It worked. 

There were lovely flowers blooming since the Davis Mountains have gotten lots of rain. Also huge patches of Cowpen Daisies, which I'm allergic to. Even though I took an allergy pill, which wasn't working very well, I was concerned that I had left my inhaler in the car. So, after two hours I quit my adventure, but that's about as long as I ever last anyway.

These next flowers are more to my liking, but I forgot what they're called. I remember Kelly told me once.

The only odonate I photographed today was this Springwater Dancer. It was too cooperative to resist. I'll have you know, I identified it all by myself. It wasn't easy even though I've seen quite a few of them.

I photographed neat butterflies that were lifers a few days ago, but still interesting to me. Here's a Mead's Wood-Nymph hiding in wood that was a life species for me a week ago.

Brian is so indispensable with IDs that I'm posting the one he most wanted me to post, though I can't imagine why. It's a Slaty Roadside Skipper, another that was a lifer for me last week. Definitely not one of my better pics from today.

Lots more wonderful butterflies but I'll just post this one last species. American Ladies love horsemint and there's plenty of it.