Toe woe!

For about a month or more I've had a strange blister on my toe. When it gets big and painful, I drain it, get temporary relief, then it gradually builds up again in a non-ending cycle. I finally went to the Nurse Practitioner with it. She injected my toe with three painful shots of Novocaine and proceeded to dig around in it. Nothing solved, but nothing harmed. Since then, it came back again, same as always.

Certain that I can't be the only person in the world with such a malady I dug online until I finally hit the right combination of search words and nailed it. It's a myxoid cyst. Usually occurring in older women, near fingernails and sometimes toenails. They're harmless. The best treatment is to keep them sterile, drain them, and eventually they should go away by themselves. Good to know. https://www.dermcoll.edu.au/atoz/digital-myxoid-cysts/

I had been concerned it might be a parasite from me walking in my dirty tank water, or somehow related to my chronic sinus infection. The only relationship is old age. But it beats the alternative. I'm basically in good health and good spirits. And those two conditions are certainly related.

Note: My toenails would be better manicured if I could see and reach them better. Getting old is not for the faint-hearted.

Practiced a bit with my new camera. It's stressful right now, but I'm sure it'll become second nature eventually. Here's the first Eastern Amberwing I've seen this year.

Maybe it's wishful thinking but I believe it's a tad sharper than had I used my Rebel.

Annual fish fry

My husband loves to hold an annual fish fry for all our friends and family. It used to be a way to use up all the fish he loved catching. But last year he didn't catch hardly any, so no fish fry. This year he bought fish so he could have the fish fry. I'm very glad that most of my birding friends were able to make it. A few couldn't. Left to right clockwise: Michael Gray, Cecilia Riley, Barbara House and Sam House, Mac Womack, Kelly and Donna Bryan.

I didn't have much chance to try my new camera. The few shots I did do were no better than with my old Rebel. Problem likely me and not the camera. I'm sure I have a lot of hard learning ahead of me.

Some interesting birds at the wetlands near Presidio. Several of us are planning to go Monday.

Tank work

Like everything else down here, cleaning the tank is a huge challenge. I worked all day pumping since only my little pump will fit in the water when the water level is this low. Had it pretty much all out and shortly thereafter came a nice rain of nearly half an inch. Put the water level back up to higher than before I started pumping this morning. Very discouraging.

And I'm so exhausted from setting up the pump and all the paraphernalia it takes, moving the hose from tree to tree, patching bad places in the tank, removing the pump and all the paraphernalia it takes to pump (hose, elect cord, boots, planks, basin to keep the pump out of mud, all my patching stuff, including a ladder), in and out of the tank endlessly. Then gathering all the paraphernalia up again and starting all over again.

Here's a photo of the guy I hired to help clean the tank. He's a great worker, but the task is overwhelming. The chances of getting the tank cleaned out this year are slim.  I can't start emptying it until I get a good rain so I have plenty of water in the stucco tank. That usually means rainy season is starting and it takes weeks for the tank to dry out. So it's probably an exercise in futility but I have to try.

During today's pumping.

The mud averages 4 to 6 inches deep, and none of it dry. That means it's heavy. To make matters worse, it's all a tangle of pondweed roots and stems. Terrible. Gonna have to get Hugh down here with his loader if it ever dries out enough.

After the first pumping, and after the rain when I started second pumping. 

Tomorrow I hope to be revived since I have to do more pumping, patching etc., then service feeders, then go to town to help my husband get ready for his annual fish fry. (He didn't have one last year because he didn't catch enough fish.) My new camera is awaiting me in town. When the tank gets either cleaned out or filled up, I should have time to enjoy the camera.

Aging gracelessly

I really really hate that I can't do the things I want to do, like go up the mountain, or work cleaning out the tank. I hired someone to start cleaning out the mud in that tank, just in case it rains before it dries out enough to where my husband can get his bobcat loader in there. Any that can be gotten out is better than none, but it's slow going, carrying it out in buckets. A very nice young man. I'll take a picture of him at work tomorrow. Today I was occupied watering the trees. CMO is always about water.

And I love looking at my tank half full.

Since the majority of water is now in the stucco tank, it seems the frogs (Leopard Frogs) have pretty much relocated. I don't understand why they clump together though. 

                        

Here's a Neon Skimmer that's been hanging out at the back water feature.

My CDRI mission

In April the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute opened a new bird blind. While it has a few challenges, all around it's a great addition there. Challenges are that when approaching the blind (lower right on photo) all the birds flush. The approach should ideally come from behind the blind. Also the blind faces west which is good for morning birding, but bad for afternoon birding. They'll find that out if they get a rare species there that hangs around all day and photographers arrive in the afternoon wanting to photograph it. My opinion is that the blind should face north.

Anyway, on May 30 some unknown birder entered a sighting of a rare Black-vented Oriole on the blind's daily log sheet.

That notation apparently went unnoticed by the birding community in general. Then on June 3rd a birder (Hannah Park) reported the same species to ebird. That got attention. So I went there on the 4th (yesterday) in the afternoon to check it out. It was Sunday and no one had filled any feeders or put out oranges. Seems the person that was in charge of doing it had a dog emergency. 

Water feature seen from inside the blind

The personnel at the center told me Josh Burns had come looking for the Black-vented Oriole on either May 31 or June 1. I haven't talked to him but I feel certain he would have reported it had he seen it. Ebird will need to check further with Hannah. She claimed the bird wasn't a Scott's Oriole because it had no white on the wings like a Scott's does. And whoever reported it on May 30th also reported a Scott's, so it seems they were knowledgeable enough to know the difference (with the help of an onsite Sibley bird guide, at least).

Luckily, I had a Halo orange in the car among my snacks, so I shared some of it with the birds. I put a couple of segments of it inside a dry empty orange rind.

Scott's Oriole

This morning I decided that to be absolutely certain there was no Black-vented Oriole there I should spend the morning there. I arrived way before 8 AM to discover they don't open until 9 AM. So I passed time until then. Best birding is always early morning, like from 7-9 AM. Oh, well. At 9 AM I put out an orange. I had stopped at the store in Alpine to get one before leaving town. It cost $1.35 so I thought I should at least have a photo of it to show for the expenditure.😀 Cheaper than spending $5 for a bag of Halos.

Shortly after I put out the orange someone came with a bag of them as well as sugar water for the hummingbird feeders. But patience was never my virtue. 😔

While I waited for the prized oriole I passed time listening to Montezuma Quail. The oriole never showed up so if one ever was there, I declare it no longer is.

Update from yesterday

Here's a photo of the stucco tank that Mac took for me this morning.

Now if the rains will hold off until I can get the big tank cleaned out.

Remember the Big Sit at CMO on April 23rd? In the West Texas category, CMO tied with the Davis Mountains Resort. We could have led if that roadrunner that was nesting outside our count circle had made an appearance or sound. It has been every day since, but didn't that day. It was a lot of fun anyway. I hope to do it again next year. (We were beat by the Nature Conservancy sit and the Midland sit.)

A little more rain; a little more Mac

Naturally, now that I'm trying to dry out the big tank so we can clean it out it rained again today. But just a quarter inch, so should still be able to start cleaning it out midweek. I don't mind if I don't get it all cleaned. Nature needs a little mud in the bottom. A few miles away they got 3." If the oasis had gotten that much I could forget about cleaning out the tank.

I love having Mac at the oasis, especially when I'm stuck in town. He's my eyes down there. And he takes really spectacular photos. Incredible shot of the storm, from the oasis, that didn't bring any rain last night.

He's going back to his home in a week and will be missed. When I was pumping water yesterday he was a lifesaver. The 3" line kept blowing apart when I started the gas pump. Finally figured out it was totally blocked with impacted rodent nests. I couldn't have gotten that heavy stiff pipe back together without his help. Now that I know the rodents will do that, I'll take measures to be sure it can't happen again. There was no reason I left an end of the pipe open in the first place. Just didn't know it mattered. I do now.

When I came to town today I forgot to take a photo of my stucco tank water. It's 39" below the elbow, so about 2/3 full. Mac will take me a photo in the morning so I can enjoy looking at all my water, even when I can't be there.

And the rains came!

Looking north from the oasis last night by Mac

When Mac texted me in Alpine early this morning to say the oasis got .7" of rain and there was water in the upper dirt tank, it didn't take any more convincing for me to come tearing down to the oasis.

By the time I finally got the pump going and the lines staying together, I spent the rest of the day pumping water into the stucco tank. I'm even pumping out of the big concrete tank so that if it doesn't rain before long, we can clean that one out. It has so much silt, debris, and  pond weed in it that I don't see how it can hold much water.

Water going in

Water going out

I saw Spot-winged Gliders cruising around all day. I don't think they ever perch. 

For those of you that have had the displeasure of using my Potty Shed, which I installed over 2 years ago, you'll be happy to know that I've replaced it with a state-of-the-art potty, thanks to a lucky dumpster find. Here's the old one...

And here's the new one... 

And of course, for the squeamish, there's always a real bathroom in the bunkhouse.

CMO waiting for rain

There's a chance of rain showers this week. Alpine is getting some rain this afternoon. Tomatoes and other things looking good. We've been eating a few tomatoes already.

I love this shot that Mac took of a pair of Scaled Quail at CMO a couple of days ago.

Lucifers at their best

Yesterday Mac took this picture of a juvenile male Lucifer Hummingbird practicing his courtship skills. Way to go!

Today we were talking about cameras and I was seriously thinking about buying a 5D Mark II. Turns out Mac had one in his vehicle so we decided I would try it out before buying. We put my 100-400 lens on it. As he was showing me how to use it, I took a couple of practice shots of a female waiting for her Prince Charming to show up. She turned first one way, then the other. Waiting... and waiting.. She looked very appealing; healthy and well-groomed. At her very finest!

Suddenly Prince Charming appeared and I was on my own with the camera, desperately trying to focus on the action after my two minute lesson. Mac was pretty much doing the same with his gigantic Canon, except he knew what he was doing. He was rewarded with some excellent shots. For me, I got better than I had ever before. Here are some of mine. That male really displayed for a long time (stamina good). Vim, vigor, and vitality... check. Contortions first class! And it did the trick! Sold me on the camera too! 

They mated, but we couldn't capture it. This last capture shows her dropping down to mate with him in the air, out of the cameras' frames before either of our hearts could take another beat.